Flight Psychology/Philosophy (and THEORY....) 101 (L2)

[SlingShot]

Lesson No. 2

To be clear, this really is a purely touchy feely subject. We're concerned here with the mental aspect of our flying and our approaches to it.

With that thought in mind, how do you approach a particular flying session? Do you have a certain skill or skills that you are actively working on? Any developing pattern or 3D pilots? Or do you just like to freestyle and bore holes in the sky like I frequently like to do? How many approach at least some of their flying as a serious practice session?

For myself I should probably mention that prior to my Calypso back in Sept. 2016 (and 30 year layoff) I had completed maybe twenty 4 channel flights in my entire RC career. In the 70's I was a very good rudder and elevator pilot with mostly gliders. I'm currently doing a lot of hole boring but I have started to focus in on my slow roll (and knife edge) as well as a 4 pt roll. How about you?

 

[makattack]

I like your series! When I fly a new plane or at a new location, I try to practice "visualizing" everything before I even turn on the transmitter/plug in my battery. I'll stand at the flight line. See what the wind is doing for a few minutes. Visualize the different phases:

launch/takeoff (including any taxiing, rollout, hand launch methods, etc)
climb out
first turn
pattern
downwind approach, turn towards upwind, landing approach.
Landing target

I do this so that I'm not left wondering "hmmm, what should I do next?"

I find it helps me to have a standard by which to judge how my next flights should go, and to know what's going right/well, vs when something's off. It also gives me confidence about the new field or maiden in that I know I've done all I can to ensure a success.

 

[Craftydan]

Really good question . . . I'm curious to hear other responses too . . .


Depends on the day, but I tend to mentally rack-n-stack goals for practically everything (of which many I drop from the list before done) so I generally hit the field with a few specific things since the last session -- maiden, trim, test an idea, or practice something -- but I set a limit on the airframes that I can put in the car. On the way out the door I'll generally grab an airframe or two I haven't flown in a while.

When I hit the field, I'll start with an item on the list, run it to satisfaction (complete or I'm bored with it) then decide if I want to fly something random or hit another item. Sometimes I leave completing all my goals and flying a few packs on the random airframe . . . sometimes I spend more time Kibitzing than flying . . . sometimes nothing works and nothing gets done.


Lately I've taken a couple of hand launch gliders, a whatever I've been working on, and either an arrow or Calypso. Days have been getting short, so most of the time is spend practicing launches and quick-turns (good exercise, after all).

 

[PsyBorg]

I usually go out with several main things to accomplish. First I like to spend some time practicing a maneuver I am not so smooth on. Since I want to get better at both racing and freestyle there are times I will just do hard flips and rolls to test a new tweak to my tuning to see if I remedied something I saw last time I flew. Other times I practice doing smoother tighter turns for racing. These two strategies are dependent on who happens to be out and about when I go to fly. If kids are out I fly over the field to work on freestyle. If no one is around Ill throw up a quick course to practice on. There is always a warm up battery where I do some LOS to make sure my craft still behaves as expected before ever putting it up FPV.

 

[SlingShot]

I like your series! When I fly a new plane or at a new location, I try to practice "visualizing" everything before I even turn on the transmitter/plug in my battery. I'll stand at the flight line. See what the wind is doing for a few minutes. Visualize the different phases:

Thanks for liking! And for sharing.

Visualizing. Yes! Unless you are a savant of some sort (like Rain Man), or Doug Masters (Iron Eagle) who's high performance flying brain magically engages only when crappy high volume heavy metal is pumped directly into his headset, you are probably going to benefit from visualizing your performance ahead of time.

In all sorts of activities particularly of a physical sort like sports, you can see evidence of the benefits of visualizing. The benefits are well known, they can be substantial, and they are frequently sought after. Doing a little pre-flight mental run through is a great idea before you fly. It gets your flying brain warmed up a little and thinking about flying. But what about before you go to the field?

I don't yet have one, but I really want a simulator. I don't yet KNOW it to to be true, but I am feeling that this is probably the best tool for helping train your visualizing. How about good old hanger flying?

Close your eyes and move your thumbs:

UP --- roll right/left rudder --- stop --- roll right --- stop --- roll right/right rudder --- stop --- roll right wings level -- egress.

Or something like that and you have a 4 point roll.

 

[SlingShot]

When I hit the field, I'll start with an item on the list, run it to satisfaction (complete or I'm bored with it) then decide if I want to fly something random or hit another item. Sometimes I leave completing all my goals and flying a few packs on the random airframe . . . sometimes I spend more time Kibitzing than flying . . . sometimes nothing works and nothing gets done.

Sometimes you work hard and sometimes you just wanna have fun. Sounds about like me. But you have more discipline.

 

[SlingShot]

I usually go out with several main things to accomplish. First I like to spend some time practicing a maneuver I am not so smooth on. Since I want to get better at both racing and freestyle there are times I will just do hard flips and rolls to test a new tweak to my tuning to see if I remedied something I saw last time I flew. Other times I practice doing smoother tighter turns for racing. These two strategies are dependent on who happens to be out and about when I go to fly. If kids are out I fly over the field to work on freestyle. If no one is around Ill throw up a quick course to practice on. There is always a warm up battery where I do some LOS to make sure my craft still behaves as expected before ever putting it up FPV.

This sounds like considerable discipline. This is multi-rotor? I can only imagine at this point but the FPV wing racing has got my attention. I don't think practicing laps would hurt my feelings too much

 

[PsyBorg]

Thinking out your flight is always a good thing but to be honest that rarely works how it did in your head. The more practice you get the more automatic things become. THEN is when you do things at will. Its not like a video game where a sequence can be repeated to do a maneuver as there are too many outside factors.

Flight simulator will be your best friend for sure. Specially once you are familiar with "Tuning" them. You can really get close to the performance of real craft after a time. It will also give you an idea of what a good setup can be so you know what to shoot for and how it should "Feel"

I fly mainly quads and I really love how I have FPV freerider set up now. I think it has helped me grow a lot. We shall see come spring and I get back in the air for real.

 

[nhk750]

Flight plan

Like in real world flying, I try to have a flight plan consisting of maneuvers I want to practice and the general direction I am going to fly in the area. I also stand there and inspect the flight area for wind, obstacles, people, dogs, etc, as I fly in open parks and other areas and not in a closed club yet.

I am a total beginner, just flying FT airplanes since Sept or so, but am practicing hovering on the simulator and actually hovered the other day with my Trainer for a few seconds. I find that practicing hovering on the simulator really helps me with learning the controls and getting my muscle memory stronger. I am still struggling a bit with the change of direction and confusion with controls sometimes, it is not automatic yet.

It's also hard to fly much outside because the weather is bad this time of year, so when I do get out I try to plan and make the most of it.

 

[SlingShot]

Like in real world flying, I try to have a flight plan consisting of maneuvers I want to practice and the general direction I am going to fly in the area. I also stand there and inspect the flight area for wind, obstacles, people, dogs, etc, as I fly in open parks and other areas and not in a closed club yet.

Very good to have a plan. I like to include a safe landing in my plan. Hopefully most of the takeoffs you make are paired up with a safe landing.

I am a total beginner, just flying FT airplanes since Sept or so, but am practicing hovering on the simulator and actually hovered the other day with my Trainer for a few seconds.

3D type hovering? Cool! 3D is an experience which continues to await.

 

[Hai-Lee]

My flying day is normally full of trepidation. I build. repair and test flight almost full time with a few experiments thrown in for good measure.

I do also throw in a few special, (Enjoyable), models just for some fun airtime between test flights. I get great enjoyment when the new creations fly properly or when the fix to a problem has been incorporated in the new design and it flies beautifully. I also enjoy seeing others fly my designs or when I have helped them overcome a problem.

Yes the majority of my RC model flying is high stress and full of problems at times but then extreme lows are more than balanced out by the Extreme feelings of accomplishment when it all goes well.

 

[Hai-Lee]

My flying day is normally full of trepidation. I build. repair and test flight almost full time with a few experiments thrown in for good measure.

I do also throw in a few special, (Enjoyable), models just for some fun airtime between test flights. I get great enjoyment when the new creations fly properly or when the fix to a problem has been incorporated in the new design and it flies beautifully. I also enjoy seeing others fly my designs or when I have helped them overcome a problem.

Yes the majority of my RC model flying is high stress and full of problems at times but then extreme lows are more than balanced out by the Extreme feelings of accomplishment when it all goes well.

 

[Craftydan]

Sometimes you work hard and sometimes you just wanna have fun. Sounds about like me. But you have more discipline.

Bwahahahahahah!

I've fooled someone! <check>

As far as the sim goes, yeah, it helps, particularly in orientation and muscle memory -- it gets you off trying to use the higher brain to decipher what you see and what you need to do right now and pushes that down to background processing so you can contemplate where you want to go next.

Visualization is a pretty effectively as a memory-sim, and not a bad thing to do . . . but the PC will keep the sim honest. Like a claw hammer and a ball peen hammer, different tools useful for the the same kinds of things, just in different settings.

 

[SlingShot]

My flying day is normally full of trepidation. I build. repair and test flight almost full time with a few experiments thrown in for good measure.

Trepidation? What exactly is it that is troubling you?

 

[Hai-Lee]

Simple! 2 separate issues, firstly is the old "Back to the Drawing board". The second is repairing other peoples constructions and destructions. There are many persons building that take short cuts, forget build steps, and substitute materials when they shouldn't.

Preflights, no matter how thorough cannot pick up every hidden issue. Sometimes a plane requires to almost be completely stripped down to repair. One example was removing 50% of the weight from a model which had been repaired many times, (almost filled up with CF and hotmelt), until finally it just wouldn't fly properly.

The only real good aspect I suppose is that, to others in my flying group, it appears that i can make almost anything fly.

Should you read my posts on other threads, I do get rather involved in trying to explain the Aerodynamic and setup issues involved when someone might have a problem. If this offends others then I apologize but seeing a beautiful model with many hours, to many months, of construction input become a lawn dart because of one minor design mistake or miscalculation is terrible.

The aircraft I design and build for others are repaired free so the designs need to be trouble free and all designs are under constant development. So far I have managed to have a very low rate of crashes, (touch wood).

I do admire the stated goals of FT. We do similar but in our different ways. There is too much selling a unit and not supporting the purchaser to where he can fly what he has purchased.

Maybe I do need a break! Unfortunately there is so much to build and fly and so little time and cash!

 

[N4RF]

For the first summer and a half I just went out and made sure I came back with flyable airplanes. After about half-way through my second summer I started focusing on the technicalities of getting specific moves correct, usually focusing on a specific one all day.

 

[rockyboy]

I spend a lot more time in the workshop than on the flying field - it's a 45 minute drive to the closest place I can legally fly in the DC metro area. So for me, every flying session is primarily about the maiden (or remaiden) of whatever I've built or repaired since the last trip. I also tend to separate flying sessions between multi-rotor days and plank days.

I usually start the flying session with a battery of a proven and relaxing airframe to warm up my thumbs and get a feel for air conditions - my Das Little Stick or Eluminator Wing are current favorites for this, or my trusty Electro-hub tricopter on multi-rotor days.

Then it's maiden time. First goal is get whatever to fly, learn about it's characteristics, trim for stability as much as possible, and get it back down in one piece. If that all happens, and it's a solid enough flyer to go up for another battery or two, I'm still usually testing airframe capabilities and responsiveness. Once I have enough notes on what to either repair (if I've crashed) or change (if I didn't crash but something about the model still isn't right) I'll move on to some fun/skill flying.

This is where I'm pulling the other planes out of the car that are proven flyers and I'm looking to expand my skills - focusing on specific maneuvers or smoothing out rough spots. Hopefully not creating too many new repair jobs at this time too

Then it's time to put the remains into a trash bag I always carry to the flying field and head back home to continue the 'honey do' list.

 

[SlingShot]

Simple! 2 separate issues, firstly is the old "Back to the Drawing board". The second is repairing other peoples constructions and destructions. There are many persons building that take short cuts, forget build steps, and substitute materials when they shouldn't.

Should you read my posts on other threads, I do get rather involved in trying to explain the Aerodynamic and setup issues involved when someone might have a problem.

Confidence. So very important. I understand now that you are "suffering" from a lack of confidence (in others). And understandably so.

It wasn't until about my fourth FT build that I developed a decent understanding of all the interplay between the physical hardware setup and the setup functions on the computerized radio. Taking the time to do a thorough and competent setup in the shop, is probably the one thing you can do to give yourself the best chance at success in the air. Assuming of course that you've built a square and true airplane. Knowing you've done well in advance can surely help breed confidence within.

 

[SlingShot]

I spend a lot more time in the workshop than on the flying field - it's a 45 minute drive to the closest place I can legally fly in the DC metro area.

Having constraints on your time is a great reason to have a serious plan of action. Without a plan of some sort you might not make as good a use of your limited time at the flying field. A plan will also help you to keep your focus if you have things to work on.



FYI: My flying season is year round round and the "field" is about 5 minutes away. But the building season is only 6 weeks long. Go figure.

 

[Maingear]

Lesson No. 2

To be clear, this really is a purely touchy feely subject. We're concerned here with the mental aspect of our flying and our approaches to it.....

Here's what I struggle with:

My mental approach to flying has been maximum control, max flight time, and minimum risk. I want every electron out of that battery just short of damaging it. I HATE repairing/building planes. I see this as time away from my family, I saw my kids resent the time I spent flying & tweaking.

Seeing simple materials perform in unison to develop such control, it's a hit for this flight junky. After a year of ignoring quads, I finally built a 550 size only to realize they are not as fun for me to fly as fixed wing due to the flight time. Flights don't count for me if it's less than 20 min.

To compound the situation, I'm using Dave Ramsey's steps (FPU) to get out of debt. I'm debt free except the house, and it will be paid off in two year if all goes well. That equals one to two airframes a year, that's it!

When I put a pencil to the impact to my budget my brain registers it as physical pain. When I crash a plane I get excited because I love these airframes and like to see how they take an impact, however my pain is delayed and felt looking at the repair costs.

I realized when I added up all my monthly costs of an airframe a month, I realized I'd be better off flying a rented full scale glider or airplane. Yet I still fly RC.

Justin