Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
DO YOU LIKE to trim out a new airplane? I don't. Rather than have the kind of airplane about which the designer reports, "It flew right off the drawing board," I mostly seem to have the other kind. As I sat trying to puzzle out what to do to sort out all the idiosyncrasies of my newest airplane, I decided to make all the hassles partly pay for themselves by writing about them in this column. This will not be a complete "how to trim your new airplane" article, but rather an explanation of some things to try in order to get out of your miseries a bit easier. The first thing I noticed about this airplane was that it was nose-heavy. I had to use enormous elevator deflections to loop it, so I was ready when I landed it. Sure enough, I ran out of Up elevator just before touchdown. This is typical of a nose-heavy airplane. Fortunately the small amount of vertical sink didn't hurt anything.
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
PERIODICALLY I read in aircraft design articles about how to "prevent" control surface flutter. In most cases the suggestions are good ideas to use in delaying the onset of the phenomenon, but few actually work in preventing flutter. Before I get into the subject further, there are a few things which need to be clarified. First, in the classical sense, what modelers usually call control surface flutter isn't flutter at all but control surface buzz. Flutter engineers reserve the word "flutter" to describe oscillatory, self-sustaining motion of aircraft components which involves the interaction of two or more modes of component motion. Control surface buzz involves only one mode of aircraft component motion. Big deal, right?
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
WHILE I was competing in the Nats, another contestants asked how I was able to perform such square corners on the Square Loop and the Top Hat without having jerky straight portions, so I told him my "secret:" I use exponential on elevator. The adjustment isn't difficult, but takes a little time, usually about three to four flights. Obviously, getting the square corner isn't tough since all it takes is a lot of elevator throw. The trick is achieving a soft neutral so that the vertical and horizontal pieces of the maneuver are straight and smooth. After adjusting the total throw and the exponential to get nice sharp corners with straight, smooth sides, I decided to try it out on a complete flight and was surprised that it made a lot of maneuvers better, didn't seem to affect most of the rest, and caused a problem with only one-Three Outside Loops.
AMA Nats: RC Aerobatics
WAS IT WINDY in Lincoln at the Nats? Does a bear sleep in the woods? I'd been warned about wind in Lincoln, but nothing prepared me for what we experienced. I don't know what the winds were like in 1979 and 1982, the other two times the Nats were held in Lincoln, but this time was unbelievable. More about it later. RC Pattern was flown at what is called Lincoln Air Park. It is an active field for both commercial and military flying. The military flying is largely by an Air Force Reserve unit which uses F4 fighters. If you haven't heard an F4 take off, I don't recommend that your first time be during a Nats RC Pattern flight, but that's what many experienced.
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
SEVERAL years back, the FAI rules group deleted the scoring of takeoff and landing. Since then the quality of takeoffs and landings by most FAI pilots has been uniformly poor. I seldom missed the chance to harass FAI pilots, suggesting that they should attend remedial takeoff and landing school. It was with considerable glee that I greeted the announcement that FAI pilots would again be judged for takeoff and landing in 1988. They were about to get their comeuppances. Then I got hold of a notice that Ron Chidgey (who is chairman of the FAI's CIAM F3A Subcommittee) sent to all U.S. clubs. The subject was F3A rules clarifications which were to be effective January 1, 1988.
