Experiencing RC Flight for the First Time

[PHugger]

My son got me interested in what was going on over at this site he discovered called Flite Test. I've always had a hankering to learn how to fly gliders and the first time I saw DLG I knew that what what I wanted to do. I tried to be smart about it and started on the RF7 simulator. I thought I'd build a few of these inexpensive foam board plane and learn how to fly before I spent any real money on a glider. My first build was a scratch Spitfire. I spent a lot of time on it and never got to fly it for more than a few seconds. It was a bit windy the first time out and it did a perfect 270 degree loop and planted itself in the dirt. After repairs, I tried again - it would only do a left wing over and smash into the ground. It's now beyond repair. The wing is still good, but the fuselage is trash. In retrospect the Spitter was a horrible first choice. We have a soccer field nearby and this is way too small for that plane. The plane is likely too fast and my skill is so low poor that it was a waste. It I had spent a lot of money on it I know I would have felt even worse than I did.

Next I tried a speed-build FT Flyer. I spent much less time building it knowing that it's life expectancy is short. We had a beautiful day here today with light wind and it was perfect to maiden the FT Flyer. I got it in the air for a brief flight, but landed it quickly and started adjusting the Rates and Expos. I even moved the control wire out to the least sensitive hole on the Control Horn on the Elevator. I still needed a lot of trim adjustment to get it to fly straight and level with no control input. I did a lot of short flights to test each adjustment. It's now dialed in near perfectly. I used my finger to check the CG on the Spitter (not too accurate and the likely cause of it's problems), but for the FT Flyer I used two skewers and it was dead on. The plane flies great. I can hand launch it without any issues.

My depth perception on the field is as bad as it is in RF7 and I landed my plane on top of a 25' tree on my first battery. I yelled to my son - Get the Schtick.

There is a Home Depot within a few minutes of this field and I was able to get a 20' telescoping aluminum pole to extract the plane from the Charlie Brown tree. It was caught safely on the way down and never touched the ground.

I burned 5 battery on two trips out today. The plane is still flyable with insignificant damage (mostly grass stains). I would like to offer a few words of advice to others who may be as new to this as I am -

• Build something small, cheap and easy (it won't last long)
• Add the wire landing gear (saves props)
• CG is VERY important if you want it to fly
• Take baby steps until it's trimmed out properly
• Buy some extra O-rings for your Prop Saver (Home Depot #13 work great)
• Getting a real plane (that you built) to fly is more fun than RF7
• Keep a long Schtick handy

I'm going to keep building more DTF planes and develop my budding piloting skills. We'll need to move to a bigger field soon and we may join a nearby club. Maybe we'll get some help and advice. My son is really into Tricopters and has been learning some FPV.

I see this as a long term hobby and I will eventually advance to my dream of flying DLGs. I don't want to spent money on store bought planes until there is a good chance that they will survive for a while. It's going to be fun!

Best regards,
PCH

 

[stay-fun]

Nice post man, I'm glad you're getting into this! One advice that I can give, is to let an experienced pilot fly and trim out your plane first, and then fly it yourself. I've noticed that it's really difficult to trim a plane (or in my case, I started with helicopters) if you don't know how to fly. Well, since you've burned 5 packs and it's still flying, maybe this advice is too late .

My guess your next build will be a simple soarer?

 

[Ron B]

If you don't have some one with experience to help you get started it is hard but it looks like you are doing a great job on your own. A sim does help.

 

[Christopher14]

The Simple Soarer is a phenomenal glider in my inexperienced opinion. If you bring it to a parking lot you can keep it up pretty easy. But beware, it goes up pretty quick.

Here are some tips on thermal flying:
If the breeze stops blowing and the air feels warmer there is a thermal upwind of you.
If the wind starts and stops and starts there is usually a thermal above you.
Thermal above trees moving in different directions.
Dust devils.

Reading the plane:

The wings flexing is a sign of lift. (the simple soarer has very stiff wings so you are not going to see this sign)
If a wingtip bumps up you just brushed a thermal. Action: If the left wingtip bumps up circle to the left, if the right wingtip bumps up circle to the right.
If the tail bumps up you are in a thermal. Action: Pull back on the stick so the nose of the plane is pointing 1 or 2 degrees up then circle. As you are circling the plane will most likely rise more in at certain point in the circle pattern, if the plane rises more on the left of the circle let the plane drift to the left. and so on for all other points of the circle.

Oh and go across the wind, not with or against the wind.

I hope this helps, if you have any questions ask away.

 

[makattack]

Great tips Christopher14! I'm also new to the hobby, and haven't tried thermal gliding yet, but would love to eventually. I read your list with interest and immediately realized that thermal soaring is a bit like sailing. At least, with your comment about not flying with or against the wind. Unless you had a sail/wing that you can change the pitch on (like on a boat with a main sheet), I wondered how people maintained lift AND apparent speed / make headway, when flying in thermals, or for that matter, slope soaring, etc.

 

[Craftydan]

Thermals and slope soaring are sllightly diffferent beasts -- one's like hunting in a well stocked forest while the other is more like gunfighting in a shooting gallery.

In slope soaring, the lifts and sinks are pretty constant with the wind -- lift right along the ridge lip, sink a little furter out. in this respect you're rapid-fire shooting at a gallery with fixed targets. the pilots ride the ridge lift in a descent attitude, so gravity is making them "fall" and gain speed . . . except the mass of air around them is rising faster than they're descending, so they steal energy from the wind to gain both speed and altitude. becasue you know where lift lives and can have a good gauge on strength and consistancy, the slope soarers tend to be a bit heavier (it works in their favor) and MUCH faster. *MUCH* faster.

Thermal soaring is the same basic concept -- get into air rising faster than the glider is falling . . . except the game has cover, and you have *no* idea where they are except the cryptic trailsigns the beasts leave behind. Some pepole can read the field and know when and where a thermal moves through, some manually hunt with the glider hoping to flush the game out of the bush by proxemity . . . and some pepole cheat using bubbles, cattail fluff or smoke to find the updrafts moving through the flying area. The goal is, of course, to find the thermal moving across the field in the river of air, while avoiding sinks, but once you find it, the trick then is to slow and circle around inside it for as long as possible milking it for all the lift the pilot can muster. Any time the glider isn't in lift, it's falling back to the ground.

All that said . . . I'm no good at it myself. I enjoy the hunt, and I'm trying to learn the signs . . . but my glider has been down with a damaged tail for the last few months . . . I need to fix it . . . or better yet, build a better soaring ship

 

[Christopher14]

Awesome enology Craftydan!

For those who are wondering, the setup on my Simple Soarer is as follows:
Turnigy 1500mah lipo battery
HKU3 UBEC
HK15178 10 gram analog servo (2x)

A rather heavy setup I grant you but it works well.