Flight Psychology/Philosophy (and THEORY....) 101 (L3)

[SlingShot]

Lesson No. 3

Building on a comment by Rockyboy:

"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."

Yes. a "relaxing airframe to warm up..."

What is your go to ship when you need some success, or you are struggling or just want to have fun and feel good about yourself?

For me I would have to say it's the F-22. It used to be a glider but now I think the F-22 is fulfilling that purpose.

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

I absolutely love flying the FB flite stick (I don't have one built right now, but I will probably get one put together for FF this year) because it's just so predictable. It's slow, but with the power setup I run it's what I would describe as torque-y and it's plenty stable due to the large size and thick symmetrical airfoil. From there, I usually just jump straight into my aerobatic/3D planes. At the end of the day/evening I also like to throw the whipit around to unwind.

 

[makattack]

I love flying my flying wings. Be it the FT Blunt Nose Versa Wing I have with a full APM setup, or the minimalistic FT Arrow. That said, there's just something super nice and relaxing about my versatile BluBaby. This was actually a big surprise for me. I built it as prep to help out with a "Introduction to RC Airplane Building and Flying" that my RC club and a local hobby store were running together. I figured I needed to get some experience with putting it together so I can help the students, especially since I had never heard of it before volunteering to help. I only had time to cut out the foam from the "Model Airplane Foam" that had the outlines drawn in. I didn't even put the plane together with glue, just pieced them together like a jigsaw so I knew how they fit. Left the electronics out for simplicity.

Well after the class was done, and I had helped some of the new pilots with buddy boxing their designs, and enjoying the flight characteristics, I got tired of those foam pieces sitting in a forlorn pile, and glued them together into a plane, and installed electronics using spare bits I had lying around. I got it finished in time for FliteFest2016 and brought it with me as a buddy box candidate if the need should arise. I was last at FliteFest in 2014, and in that case, found a buddy box trainer would have come in very handy -- I ended up using my UMX Radian without a buddy box setup as the trainer for those cases back then because it was such a gentle flyer.

Anyhow, it turned out this past FF, I didn't really have an opportunity to fly much outside of a few test flights with the BluBaby and flying my Baby Baron for the Gotha Gaggle. Nevertheless, when I asked Joel Cannon to help me test the buddy box setup with him on the trainer box, we experienced a couple of DSM2 lost links and was I glad to see that plane shutdown the motor and just self land!

Anyway, with the rugged landing gear (I've taken off and landed on some very rough grass) and proven durability and resilience to tech failures, it's now my go to plane for a relaxing no-stress flight. I might want to replace the lemonrx 6ch DSM2 receiver on it and replace it with something a bit more reliable for the future.

 

[SlingShot]

I absolutely love flying the FB flite stick (I don't have one built right now, but I will probably get one put together for FF this year) because it's just so predictable. It's slow, but with the power setup I run it's what I would describe as torque-y and it's plenty stable due to the large size and thick symmetrical airfoil. From there, I usually just jump straight into my aerobatic/3D planes. At the end of the day/evening I also like to throw the whipit around to unwind.

The last plane I had before the long layoff was a old glow Middle Stick. It was great.....until an aileron hinge pulled out.

Are you doing much 3D?

 

[SlingShot]

I love flying my flying wings. Be it the FT Blunt Nose Versa Wing I have with a full APM setup, or the minimalistic FT Arrow.

Are you flying the wings line of sight? I've only flown my Mini Arrow twice.

 

[makattack]

Are you flying the wings line of sight? I've only flown my Mini Arrow twice.

I guess both. My initial flights with the Arrow were all line of sight to check balance, trim, etc. I try to fly FPV with it as much as I can. I tend to fly it at a local park a few minutes walk from home, so it's a close walk with this perfect sized wing for hand carrying.

Because this park is popular with strollers, joggers, and dog walkers, I have on occasion been asked questions -- last few have asked if I was doing some virtual reality thing -- which seems to fit the timing for the popularity of those goggles. I work near a shopping mall with a Microsoft store and it seems when I walk by, there's always someone playing a VR game on the Xbox. Anyhow, to those curious enough, I've handed them my goggles (fairly beefy, ugly looking Quanum DIY V2 goggles) and flown line of sight while they FPV spectate.

Here's the first FPV maiden flight of my arrow made in this same park (I slightly modified the camera placement by pushing it more forward so the foam is now not in sight but don't have a current video of those flights uploaded):

 

[SlingShot]

I guess both. My initial flights with the Arrow were all line of sight to check balance, trim, etc. I try to fly FPV with it as much as I can. I tend to fly it at a local park a few minutes walk from home, so it's a close walk with this perfect sized wing for hand carrying.

Because this park is popular with strollers, joggers, and dog walkers, I have on occasion been asked questions -- last few have asked if I was doing some virtual reality thing -- which seems to fit the timing for the popularity of those goggles. I work near a shopping mall with a Microsoft store and it seems when I walk by, there's always someone playing a VR game on the Xbox. Anyhow, to those curious enough, I've handed them my goggles (fairly beefy, ugly looking Quanum DIY V2 goggles) and flown line of sight while they FPV spectate.

Here's the first FPV maiden flight of my arrow made in this same park (I slightly modified the camera placement by pushing it more forward so the foam is now not in sight but don't have a current video of those flights uploaded):

Very nice. I can see it being very cool FPV style and I am dying to try it. If I haven't worked it out on my own by then, I'm hoping for a FPV lesson or two at Flite Fest.

The Arrow is cool and all and I dig the kinda "Silver Surfer" gliding through the sky at speed vibe. It just doesn't really fit my "loitering in the vertical plane style". The only reason I haven't flown it more. I'd be all over it FPV style.

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

Are you doing much 3D?

I've been doing it as much as possible. I'm not great at it yet. Harriers, hovers, snaps, pop tops and other high energy stuff I'm fine with, it's the low speed coordination (rolling harriers and torque rolls) that I'm having problems with. It's a mental block thing that I'm sure I'll get over eventually. Just takes practice.

 

[SlingShot]

I've been doing it as much as possible. I'm not great at it yet. Harriers, hovers, snaps, pop tops and other high energy stuff I'm fine with, it's the low speed coordination (rolling harriers and torque rolls) that I'm having problems with. It's a mental block thing that I'm sure I'll get over eventually. Just takes practice.

Great! I'm gonna give it a go soon myself with the FT 3D. I recall picking up a magazine in the airport 8 or 9 years ago and getting a glimpse of 3D. I remember being amazed.

 

[SlingShot]

I've been doing it as much as possible. I'm not great at it yet. Harriers, hovers, snaps, pop tops and other high energy stuff I'm fine with, it's the low speed coordination (rolling harriers and torque rolls) that I'm having problems with. It's a mental block thing that I'm sure I'll get over eventually. Just takes practice.

AkimboGlueGuns, would you have a recommendation for getting started trying some 3D things? I have watched a few good instructional videos and it looks like the what is pretty straight forward. It seems as though it's pretty much up to execution. Would that be wrong? Would the simulator be the way to go here?

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

AkimboGlueGuns, would you have a recommendation for getting started trying some 3D things? I have watched a few good instructional videos and it looks like the what is pretty straight forward. It seems as though it's pretty much up to execution. Would that be wrong? Would the simulator be the way to go here?

That sound about right. In theory, 3D is relatively simple. All you are doing is vectoring thrust and flying behind the pitch power curve (flying the prop, not the wing.)

My personal recommendation is to save the high energy maneuvers (rifle rollers, pop tops, blenders, etc...) until you are confident with the FT3D. Practice low to the ground, high up is good for recovering an airplane, but it won't let you see everything it's doing which you need to for success in 3D. Once you've mastered hovers (along with the basic aerobatics (loops, rolls, snaps, hammer heads) you can start looking into more high performance 3D planes. The Ft3D is great for working out the basics of 3D and will do far more than just be a hover trainer and a good pilot can wring it out, but it becomes a pilot limitation after a while. Look at used 3DHS, Precision Aerobatics, or Extreme Flight models. They're all proven and reputable brands which haven't ever really made a "bad" plane. Look at some of the smaller planes first. While it may be cool to have an 80" edge 540, the size of the aircraft and the nerves of wrecking something so big and likely expensive becomes another pilot limitation. Once you've gotten a capable airplane you can start working on high energy maneuvers. Once you've got those down it's the precision game. It becomes about how good do I want to get and how much time do I have to practice.

 

[SlingShot]

Thanks AkimboGlueGuns. Nice to know a little of what you know

To tie up the importance and value of this concept of the "relaxing airframe" I would like to share a personal anecdote.

It was mentioned elsewhere what a hard time my Dad had learning to fly. Lots of balsa build crashes until one day he was introduced to slope soaring. Everything changed for him after that.

Slope soaring is great for many reasons. It is a wonderful teaching tool because it's slow, it's just rudder and elevator and you get to fly for a good long while. Typical outings with Dad were 45-60 minutes of trading the transmitter back and forth with the "trauma" of only ONE takeoff and landing. In between the takeoff and landing were consecutive loops (40+), goofy inverted flight with full down elevator, and spin downs from high altitude. All the while learning energy management and having a great time. Dad got so relaxed and cocky, that he invented this dumb maneuver called the "thing-a-ma-jig". Basically you just stir the stick like you are stirring a pot and make the glider jump around a little all the while maintaining good control.

It's good to push yourself to learn new things, but it's also good to have something that you can "fly the wings off" of and really rock. At whichever level works for you.

For the next lesson, I think we might segue into the vertical but we can also tackle anything that is of interest.

 

[SlingShot]

Slope soaring is great for many reasons. It is a wonderful teaching tool because it's slow, it's just rudder and elevator and you get to fly for a good long while. Typical outings with Dad were 45-60 minutes of trading the transmitter back and forth with the "trauma" of only ONE takeoff and landing. In between the takeoff and landing were consecutive loops (40+), goofy inverted flight with full down elevator, and spin downs from high altitude. All the while learning energy management and having a great time.

Another advantage of slope soaring is having virtually unlimited altitude. That is the nature of the sensation when you launch into space. You have space above you (obviously), but you also have space below where you are located. It is very cool.

I just got back with my new RF-X Sim. I highly recommend spending some time on the slope. It's a great way for newbies to get some stick time, and if you're already competent you are likely to enjoy the energy. FYI, the slope in the simulator is very high energy. It will fly really well with only 10 mph wind to start.