My Tiny Trainer Build

[mayan]

I like @Hai-Lee recommend to have at least a few spare parts for the parts you break often on crashes. This will help you continue flying while you are at the field. Ain’t anything more annoying then having batteries charged and nothing to fly .

Airtime and practice are key to success here and you need to get more of those under your belt. Hold the TT go crazy challenge and get some proper maneuvers under your belt that way when you go crazy at least you’ll be able to pull out of a crash.

Flying in hard weather is something everyone has to do. Like hai-lee said you can’t wait on the prefect day to fly otherwise you’ll be sitting on the bench waiting. Weather can’t be changed otherwise I’d make it sunny side up here all the time .

Go to the field take a deep breath and go fly a TT. If it’s too windy fly 4 channels makes it easier to control at least that’s my thought.

 

[kilroy07]

Flying in hard weather is something everyone has to do. Like hai-lee said you can’t wait on the prefect day to fly otherwise you’ll be sitting on the bench waiting. Weather can’t be changed otherwise I’d make it sunny side up here all the time .

Pretty much what my flight instructor always said. If you fly, you have to learn how to fly in wind. Ay my home airport (SPI) we have 3 runways, he’d always make me request one with a little crosswind to “make it interesting “ 🙄

Earlier in the morning is usually the calmest time to fly. Before the sun adds thermal activity to the mix.
Some better weather sites will show forecasted winds throughout the day, look for one of those as well. If the low pressure zone goes right over you there might be a time where the winds are “light and variable” as the center (eye) passes.

FT has a video about winds and the most important take away is fly with the plane ahead of you into the wind.. that way if you start to loose power the wind will bring it back.

You should fly with the same throttle position. The plane (wing) doesn’t care what the wind speed is over the ground, just what’s going over it. And that’s how you see planes (RC and otherwise) flying just fine while their ground speed is zero (I’ve even seen real cubs fly backwards!).

Also keep in the back of your mind when you turn down wind things will have to speed up pretty fast as you go from a headwind to a tail wind. Say your plane flies at 10knots, and there’s a 10knot wind. It’ll fly into the wind and basically hover, turn downwind and now your ground speed needs to be 20 (double your normal speed) just to stay in the air. I lost one of my cubs on a downwind turn because of that.

Not trying to talk you out of it, because you need to learn how to do this... and getting your plane to hover is just crazy fun. Just don’t over do it on throttle and fly into the wind as much as possible. The first couple of downwind turns keep her in the turn (like you are circling) the wind will push her back for you. Just until you get a feel for the wind and the planes behavior with a tail wind.

And ALWAYS land INTO the wind!

Good luck, have fun and get video! 😂👍👍

 

[FDS]

I can hover inverted on a good day. I need to be at least 80ft up to try it tho...
Remembering your stall speed is dependant on the speed of air over the wing not plane over the ground is an important lesson. Turning down wind in gusty weather is always nerve wracking. Flying in wind is a good learning excercise though, just not in your first few flights.

 

[mayan]

One thing to remember. Flying into the wind throttle up, when going with it throttle down, unless you want to fly super fast. Super fast for me many times means a harder crash , harder crash more to repair .

@FDS I never managed to fly inverted with the TT any tips on that?

@buzzbomb I went to fly today in winds stronger than what I like for the TT, so that makes two of us . I had no one to film me so tried filming off the hood of the car not much plane in the frame but will edit what I have later and post about it on my hobby learning diary thread.

 

[FDS]

To fly inverted on the TT, go to high rates, turn into the wind, lift the nose about 15-20 degrees then aileron roll to upside down, then push the elevator stick UP to counter the dihedral in the wing, with everything else centred. You want to make the elevator application part of the aileron roll, so it starts as the wing passes 90 degrees off the horizontal, the smoother you do it the better. To come out use a flick roll on the aileron NOT the elevator. If you push down on the elevator stick at all it will outside reverse loop, which will lead to a crash if you are not good and high. Keep airspeed moderate and don’t try flying inverted in winds greater than 15mph or so as your wing will fold. A wing with about half the stock dihedral will make inverted flight easier.
If you want to be flash and fly around inverted, keep about 10-15 degrees down aileron (stick up) and then steer with the rudder, which will be reversed. If you touch the aileron it will either self right and dive or get in a mess so watch out for that.
TLDR inverted is really hard, Bixler makes it look too easy!

 

[kilroy07]

Flying into the wind throttle up, when going with it throttle down, unless you want to fly super fast.

You "might" get away with that with the tiny trainer (as it glides so nice) but that thinking will get you in trouble with designs with a higher wing loading (like my Elmer's FB Cub...) downwind your relative airspeed MUST be maintained so your ground speed will increase.
Make a downwind turn underpowered and you are just asking for trouble....

 

[kilroy07]

I can hover inverted on a good day.

Video or it didn't happen!

Seriously though, I'm impressed...
I can fly inverted on the sim, but I haven't been brave (or disliked a plane enough) to try it for real...
I think it might be easier FPV.... and I might try that route.

 

[FDS]

It’s like driving fast in reverse, you don’t think about where the hands are going, just where you point the car. Video will be part of my hooligan TT flying video as soon as I am well enough to fly and it stops blowing a gale!

 

[mayan]

@kilroy07 you asked for it. I dare you to fly inverted with a TT for @buzzbomb’s challenge. I promise to try it too if it helps .

EDIT: and I’ll do it with my favorite black TT so the risk here is high .

 

[kilroy07]

@kilroy07 you asked for it. I dare you to fly inverted with a TT for @buzzbomb’s challenge. I promise to try it too if it helps .

Well, finally a challenge that DOESN'T add to my build list!

<Checking weather>
You know, Saturday looks pretty good... Yea, let's do it!

I'll be flying mine with the green tail, Going to have to build a 4 channel wing I think.... (Don't think I have one for the tt...)
I might ALSO have a crazy TT build I've been sketching out here at the conference.... Also related to @buzzbomb TT craziness...
Hey, isn't he sposta be flying today?! He better check in later!

 

[mayan]

Hey, isn't he sposta be flying today?! He better check in later!

He is. And he better have something interesting to share otherwise I will be disappointed.

 

[mayan]

You know, Saturday looks pretty good... Yea, let's do it!

Saturday is the day I am hitting the field again too. So it’s a date just hope I can get someone to come film it all.

 

[Hai-Lee]

Flying inverted with the TT is relatively easy. At the beginning of my FB journey I had a TT with the polyhedral wing, (3 channel). I wanted to see how the polyhedral would cause the plane to self-right without any input from the pilot from inverted flight.

Anyway I looped it inverted and applied the down elevator to hold it, (well almost). The plane settled into a shallow glide and I waited for the plane to self-right, (roll to the normal way up). I waited and waited but it did not roll. I was thinking as to why the polyhedral was not righting the plane when I suddenly realized that the plane was too low for another half loop and so I applied more power with full down elevator. This made the glide almost perfectly flat but not enough elevator/power to climb.

So a landing was going to happen! I held the inverted flight as any attempt to change position would definitely result in a nose down impact. to cut the story short the plane landed upside down on the tail fin and the two wing tips, (without damage)!

After talking with some of the other club members I flew it again and did the same inverted flight attempt! To the amazement of all it ended in yet another perfect inverted three point landing!

Now when someone does an inverted landing, invariably with severe to extreme damage, the club members recommend that the pilot of the downed plane get some tips from me on how to land your plane inverted successfully!

Those two flights were the ONLY times I have landed inverted and I ensure that I do not test the theory of polyhedral stability whilst inverted!

Just a memory!

have fun!

 

[FDS]

I think an inverted landing from a semi hover might get me the win in the extreme TT challenge...

 

[CarolineTyler]

I think an inverted landing from a semi hover might get me the win in the extreme TT challenge...

Gets you big points!!

 

[mayan]

Flying inverted with the TT is relatively easy. At the beginning of my FB journey I had a TT with the polyhedral wing, (3 channel). I wanted to see how the polyhedral would cause the plane to self-right without any input from the pilot from inverted flight.

Anyway I looped it inverted and applied the down elevator to hold it, (well almost). The plane settled into a shallow glide and I waited for the plane to self-right, (roll to the normal way up). I waited and waited but it did not roll. I was thinking as to why the polyhedral was not righting the plane when I suddenly realized that the plane was too low for another half loop and so I applied more power with full down elevator. This made the glide almost perfectly flat but not enough elevator/power to climb.

So a landing was going to happen! I held the inverted flight as any attempt to change position would definitely result in a nose down impact. to cut the story short the plane landed upside down on the tail fin and the two wing tips, (without damage)!

After talking with some of the other club members I flew it again and did the same inverted flight attempt! To the amazement of all it ended in yet another perfect inverted three point landing!

Now when someone does an inverted landing, invariably with severe to extreme damage, the club members recommend that the pilot of the downed plane get some tips from me on how to land your plane inverted successfully!

Those two flights were the ONLY times I have landed inverted and I ensure that I do not test the theory of polyhedral stability whilst inverted!

Just a memory!

have fun!

Beautiful story .

 

[mayan]

I think an inverted landing from a semi hover might get me the win in the extreme TT challenge...

I think it get you the title of "You didn't just pull out of that" like @buzzbomb put it.

 

[FDS]

I think I wouldn’t pull out of that. My TT would be going home in a plastic bag!

 

[mayan]

I think I wouldn’t pull out of that. My TT would be going home in a plastic bag!

Lol, still going to try?!

 

[FDS]

Not the landing part. I have enough trouble landing the right way up.