Radio Control: Aerobatics
LAST MONTH, I briefly touched on the subject of Pattern prop selection, and I promised a little more on propeller theory at a later date. I've written on this subject before, so a lot of the material will be familiar to the "veterans" out there. Much of the information is both vintage and basic. Nonetheless, the ground bears covering again for several reasons: First, providing new faces with old data is a basic function of this magazine. Second, a lot of the old faces (judging from some of the questions I'm asked) are still fully equipped with a blank spot where their propeller knowledge should be.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
POP CULTURE IS loaded with sayings that illustrate the cyclical nature of change: "There is nothing new under the sun"; "The more things change, the more they stay the same"; and "There is nothing as new as an old idea" are just a few of these aphorisms. The regular resurrection of bygone clothing styles foisted on us by the fashion industry stands as a more-concrete example. Pattern is far from immune to this circle game, regardless of the fact that the "modern" era (dating from the advent of proportional radio equipment) of RC Aerobatics spans only a few decades. Old Pattern ideas are constantly being recycled and re-combined with the occasional new insight in an attempt to make the new sum add up to more than its familiar parts.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
WE PICK UP where we left off on our discussion of basic flight maneuvers. Having previously chewed our way through Stall Turns and Loops, this month's discussion will consider Immelmanns, Cuban Eights, and the rolling maneuvers. At the start of the last column, I mentioned that as one progressed up the Pattern skill ladder, these basic maneuvers would constantly reappear as the elements that compose the more-complex maneuvers found in the higher-skill classes. Pondering that for more than just a few seconds leads straight to the conclusion that it is a good idea to spend the time and effort necessary to master the simple fundamentals, because the simple fundamentals are not going to go away. If you can't do a decent Stall Turn, a Figure M with 1/4 rolls is going to be a struggle to learn, don't you think?
Radio Control: Aerobatics
LAST MONTH we left our discussion of practice techniques for the squareness "sight picture" just as it was time to start putting the pieces of the pattern together by bringing center maneuvers into the fold. Center maneuvers differ in several very important ways from the various turnarounds, which you should already have a pretty decent handle on, if you've been following along for the last several months. First, and most important, they are done in the center, which is why we call them center maneuvers!
Radio Control: Aerobatics
LAST MONTH I made reference to something I called the "sight picture," or seeing in perspective. I promised a full discussion of the concept very soon, and that time is now. I wrote that this ability to judge perspective was what enabled an artist to realistically render a three-dimensional scene on a two-dimensional canvas, or let a carpenter look at a structure from an oblique angle and tell that it was out of plumb. For our purposes, I stated that it was being able to look at a flying model as a stationary pilot/observer and tell when it was tracking square to the line of flight. I stated that it was a natural gift to some.
