Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

I've finally got the hang of flying my aerobird, and I love it:D! Flying in the mornings before the wind comes, I have learnt to controll it completely and fly properly. But, when there is any wind it makes things more complicated. When I am flying into the wind i seem to be ok but as soon as I fly with the wind I totally loose conrtroll. This recently resulted in a high altitude tree accident with a lucky, wheels down first, when it hit the ground. Any advice about flying in wind is what i'm looking for so all is welcome.
Thanks.

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

The Aero bird with it's long wing will have issues in a lot of wind. Remember when flying down wind you will need a lot of speed to maintain control as your wing will be stalled. Fly down wind fast and thing ahead of the plane about 2 turns.

I really suggest you get yourself something else to fly in the wind. The Foam wings like a Zagi and Ele bee are great and I sell a lot of them to first time pilots. Almost indestructible and will handle the wind with ease.

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

Thanks for that, ill try to keep up wind while I'm flying.
I have a Zagi SI, but i haven't got the hang of slope gliding, all I've really managed to do is find a nice long hill and glide all the way down. I no your probably referring to the motor type though. Any advice on the basic techniques of slop soaring?
Any wind flyin tips are also still welcome.

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

Make all turns away from the hill, Imagine a big figure 8 if you were looking down on the top of the hill. The wind needs to be straight in or only up to about 15 degrees cross. The hill should be steeper if the wind has less speed. Fly along the top of the ridge no more than 20 degrees out from the top. If it is blowing harder the lift band will extend further out and you can venture further out. Above all you need to be smooth on the sticks in light air ;-)

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

I have been flying my Aerobird since march. I have about 100+ flights on it. I regularly fly in 10-15 MPH winds with no problems.

You need to understand air speed as opposed to ground speed and how it effects how a plane, any plane flies..

Your plane is supported on the wing based on how fast it is moving through the air. That is air speed which is different from ground speed.

For example, the air is moving at 5 MPH and you are flying into it at 10 MPH ground speed, then your air speed it 15 mph. Why? If you held the plane in your hand and the wind blew across it at 5 MPH, its air speed would be 5 MPH even though its ground speed is zero. Understand? The wing is generating lift even though the plane is not moving because air is moving across it.

If the wind is blowing 5 MPH and you are flying WITH the wind at 10 MPH ground speed, then your air speed is 5 MPH. Big difference in how much lift your wing generates.

The Aerobird uses an undercambered wing design as do many park flyers. An undercambered wing, like the one on on the Aerbird, generates a lot of lift, so in the example above, for the same throttle setting, if you are flying into the wind, you plane might be climbing. At the same throttle setting, if you are flying with the wind, you plane might be level, or might actually be losing altitued. The amount of lift generated by the wing is the result of air speed, not ground speed and not throttle setting. That is how a plane flies.

By the way, this is true for ALL airplanes, not just the Aerobird.

Likewise, your tail surfaces work by defelcting air. The more air, the more force the tail can generate. So when you are flying into the wind, your air speed it higher and the tail will move the plane very quicly.

When you flying with the wind, and your air speed is much less, your tail can not move the plane as fast.

This is not just for the Aerobird, this is true for ALL airplanes. It is true for glo planes, electrics, giders, 747s and F15 fighters.

You just need to lean a little about how a plane flys so that you will understand what behavior to expect from your plane.

I am not even going to go into cross winds. You will learn that with time too.

Good luck and happy flying.

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

Yeah, I've got all that stuff about airspeed not groundspeed, but thanks anyway.
Now that I've been flyin more and got used to it more I worked out my prob. I cut the throttle. Back then I didn't know throttle made tight turns. I saw my plane heading towards trees and thought cut throttle, to slow down. I'm assuming that tail wind also contributed. Always learning from mistakes, some lessons cost more than others.

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

One fella on the boards has a comment on his sig block that says something like " the ground is my greatest teacher, but not my favoriate teacher". Truly, if we don't learn from our mistakes our planes will suffer for us.

Happy flying!

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

Also, the other day when I came in for landing, cut the throttle, came in for final approach, I couldn't get it on the ground! It just cruised along at head height! When it flew past me I could see that the prop was still spinning. I managed to get it to cut when it went past me, and fell to the ground. This has happened again since then and has ended in much wors situations - short landing space to start with get all the way to one end without touching ground, at the end of landing space: house, power lines, tree. It ended up clipping the powe line and hitting the tree. but it's OK. Has this happened to anyone before? If so what did you do about it?

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

Since there is no break on the motor of the Aerobird, even if the motor is off, you will often get spin on the prop as you fly, like a pinwheel in the breeze. In this case it is the moving air that is turning the prop, not the motor.

This is called windmilling. It is actually working as a break. When you finally come in for a landing, if the prop has actually stopped, then you are windmilling. The prop is not providing any thrust in this situation.

On gliders that are launched with electric motors, they either use folding props or a break on the motor to prevent this and reduce drag. I have considered trying to fit a folding prop to the Aerobird since I sometimes like to thermal soar with it. It would do so much better if I could stop this effect.

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

No, I'm pretty sure that the motor was running. And it was giving it speed for lift.

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

I bought an aerobird a few days ago and returned it because of that problem. The 3rd channel slider for the engine control doesnt change the speeds smoothly. You'll try cutting the speed, and it'll go full blast. Either the fader is dirty and needs a cleaning (Cailube MCL) or there's some bad electronics in there somewhere...

I returned the plane and got another, and the new one worked fine. Also, the old plane's peak charger was burnt out. I opened it up, and noticed that the control circuit had a thick coating of ash on it. Oh well... thats what you get when you try to push 1.2 amps through micro circuitry. The new plane's charger worked fine, but got really hot.

Ralph

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

Sounds like the first plane package you had was a return or something that should have gone back to the MFG.

The charger will get warm as will the battery as it approaches peak.

The throttle should be pretty smooth all the way up and down. I have 150+ flights on mine and it is smooth.

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

now that I've looked more closeley at it maybe it is windmilling. Now that I'm more experience I' haven't had a crash in ages.

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

That is wonderful news. No crashes! Congratulations pilot! [8D]

RE: Aerobird - Flying for a beginner
 

Does the computer calibrate the throttle slider on the aerobird like it does the throttle trim tab on the Firebird Commander?

auto5man