Topic #10 - Get help with your practice
03-03-2006, 04:56 PM
#1
Topic #10 - Get help with your practice
Hello everyone and welcome back to the forum!!
Are you tired of practicing yet?
As you can see from all the previous week's threads, being our most competitive is all about "perfect" [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3864639/tm.htm]practice[/link], [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3867399/tm.htm]practice[/link], [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3893809/tm.htm]practice[/link].
The last thing I want to suggest regarding practice is to find a successful, experienced pilot to help us with our practice. Most are willing to give us some of their time while we're practicing since they're just sitting on the ground anyway. The experienced upper class competitors can provide an experienced set of eyes on our flying, suggestions for techniques on things they see we're having trouble with, and options for our setup to make troublesome maneuvers easier to fly.
If we can have the person practice being our caller on some of the sequences, we'll be comfortable with someone calling maneuvers to us before an actual contest. If you're in the Sportsman class, hopefully you've printed some of the [link=http://www.desertaircraft.com/sequences/]Unknowns to practice[/link], and the experienced pilot can provide some suggestions on flying the Unknown maneuvers.
Having an experienced pilot help us with our practice also helps to reinforce the basics. It's easy for someone watching us to see that we're no longer flying nice radiuses on the corners and we're no longer centering the roll elements on the internal lines of the maneuvers. We need the reminders on all the basics occassionally.
I'm going to play the part of your experienced help with a couple suggestions. The first suggestion for new pilots is on maneuvers with 45 degree lines, and there are lots of them. One of the basic skills is to be able to fly a 45 degree upline or downline. What does 45 degrees look like? Take your printed sequence and fold one of the upper corners down to the other edge of the paper to create a triangle with a 45 degree line.
It's probably a lot steeper than what you pictured in your mind or what you're flying in your sequence. Newer pilots tend to fly very shallow 45 degree lines. When I fold their sequence to show them a 45 line, they just say "wow". They're losing a point or two on the angle of their 45 line. We'll take another step towards being more competitive if we can fly the correct 45 degree lines.
The next suggestion I'm going to offer is to correct our mistakes before we pull our next radius. Each time we pull a radius, any mistake we have in yaw or roll is going to change to the other axis and create another deduction. Grab your stick plane and follow through with me.
Let's say we're flying parallel to the runway but we are flying with the inside wing ten (10) degrees low. This is a very common deduction for new pilots. We've already received a one (1) point deduction. When we pull to a vertical upline, the wing wouldn't be low any more, but we would flying with a ten (10) degree yaw. Now we get deducted one (1) point for the ten (10) degree yaw error in our flight path.
The same is true for a transfer of a yaw deduction to a roll deduction. If we're flying in towards the runway at twenty (20) degrees with our wings level we've already received a two (2) point deduction. When we pull to a vertical upline, we're no longer flying in towards the runway at twenty (20) degrees, but one of our wings will be twenty (20) degrees low. We just received another two (2) point deduction.
To be the most competitive we can be we have to correct mistakes before they transfer to another axis after we fly a radius and it causes another deduction. As a judge, I don't deduct for corrections back to the correct flight path if they are done immediately. If you correct them immediately, the yaw and roll errors won't cause another deduction after your next radius.
These are a couple examples of help an experienced pilot can provide for us. If you don't have any experienced competition pilots to fly with, don't worry about it. Have fun with your practice and bring what you've got to the contest!!
You'll find lots of experienced, successful competition pilots at the contest that are willing to help. You can also get help from the judges if you ask for it. You might learn as much at a weekend contest as a whole month of practicing!!
Next week, we'll be moving on to things we can do at the contest to be our most competitive. If you have any questions on practice topics, let us know. There are lots of experienced, successful competition pilots in the Cirkus Crew!!
Here's to another weekend of "perfect practice" for everyone!!
Dean
Are you tired of practicing yet?
As you can see from all the previous week's threads, being our most competitive is all about "perfect" [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3864639/tm.htm]practice[/link], [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3867399/tm.htm]practice[/link], [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3893809/tm.htm]practice[/link].
The last thing I want to suggest regarding practice is to find a successful, experienced pilot to help us with our practice. Most are willing to give us some of their time while we're practicing since they're just sitting on the ground anyway. The experienced upper class competitors can provide an experienced set of eyes on our flying, suggestions for techniques on things they see we're having trouble with, and options for our setup to make troublesome maneuvers easier to fly.
If we can have the person practice being our caller on some of the sequences, we'll be comfortable with someone calling maneuvers to us before an actual contest. If you're in the Sportsman class, hopefully you've printed some of the [link=http://www.desertaircraft.com/sequences/]Unknowns to practice[/link], and the experienced pilot can provide some suggestions on flying the Unknown maneuvers.
Having an experienced pilot help us with our practice also helps to reinforce the basics. It's easy for someone watching us to see that we're no longer flying nice radiuses on the corners and we're no longer centering the roll elements on the internal lines of the maneuvers. We need the reminders on all the basics occassionally.
I'm going to play the part of your experienced help with a couple suggestions. The first suggestion for new pilots is on maneuvers with 45 degree lines, and there are lots of them. One of the basic skills is to be able to fly a 45 degree upline or downline. What does 45 degrees look like? Take your printed sequence and fold one of the upper corners down to the other edge of the paper to create a triangle with a 45 degree line.
It's probably a lot steeper than what you pictured in your mind or what you're flying in your sequence. Newer pilots tend to fly very shallow 45 degree lines. When I fold their sequence to show them a 45 line, they just say "wow". They're losing a point or two on the angle of their 45 line. We'll take another step towards being more competitive if we can fly the correct 45 degree lines.
The next suggestion I'm going to offer is to correct our mistakes before we pull our next radius. Each time we pull a radius, any mistake we have in yaw or roll is going to change to the other axis and create another deduction. Grab your stick plane and follow through with me.
Let's say we're flying parallel to the runway but we are flying with the inside wing ten (10) degrees low. This is a very common deduction for new pilots. We've already received a one (1) point deduction. When we pull to a vertical upline, the wing wouldn't be low any more, but we would flying with a ten (10) degree yaw. Now we get deducted one (1) point for the ten (10) degree yaw error in our flight path.
The same is true for a transfer of a yaw deduction to a roll deduction. If we're flying in towards the runway at twenty (20) degrees with our wings level we've already received a two (2) point deduction. When we pull to a vertical upline, we're no longer flying in towards the runway at twenty (20) degrees, but one of our wings will be twenty (20) degrees low. We just received another two (2) point deduction.
To be the most competitive we can be we have to correct mistakes before they transfer to another axis after we fly a radius and it causes another deduction. As a judge, I don't deduct for corrections back to the correct flight path if they are done immediately. If you correct them immediately, the yaw and roll errors won't cause another deduction after your next radius.
These are a couple examples of help an experienced pilot can provide for us. If you don't have any experienced competition pilots to fly with, don't worry about it. Have fun with your practice and bring what you've got to the contest!!
You'll find lots of experienced, successful competition pilots at the contest that are willing to help. You can also get help from the judges if you ask for it. You might learn as much at a weekend contest as a whole month of practicing!!
Next week, we'll be moving on to things we can do at the contest to be our most competitive. If you have any questions on practice topics, let us know. There are lots of experienced, successful competition pilots in the Cirkus Crew!!
Here's to another weekend of "perfect practice" for everyone!!
Dean
03-04-2006, 12:26 PM
#4
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RE: Topic #10 - Get help with your practice
Great info Dean,
I never thought about the offset of the roll axis causing a yaw axis offset before. After reading this topic I know I need to work on correcting my wings level entries into figures like hammerheads, Cuban eights, loops, etc. I'm sure it is easier to correct the roll axis than it is to try and correct for variations on the yaw axis one you have transitioned into an up-line or a radius.
I have one practice tip regarding 45 lines that a flying buddy of mine came up with. We use a metal carpenters square (which has a 45 on it) to compare our 45 degree lines to while we are practicing. The usual method consists of the spotter backing off from the pilot a good 200+ feet (for better perspective) and holding the square up to compare the planes angle on the 45 lines. I then perform a series of 45 up and down lines, similar to what I will see in basic or sportsman, on either side of me and in the center. We have recently started using small 2 way radios so that the spotter can relay a simple "shallow", "to steep", or "good" message back to the pilot. I found that this really helps me determine what the line should look like. If the 45 line is centered in front of you it is fairly easy to see if you are correctly executing it. However, if you move the same line to the right or left it will look different from the pilots perspective. Using this method allows me to adjust my lines until I can consistently hit a 45 at any placement from my perspective. I usually see improvements on my lines within the first flight using this method. Repeating it often really helps solidify your 45 lines so that you can concentrate on placement of snaps or rolls on the line and not so much on the angle.
I hope this helps! I know It has helped me.
Firebomber
I never thought about the offset of the roll axis causing a yaw axis offset before. After reading this topic I know I need to work on correcting my wings level entries into figures like hammerheads, Cuban eights, loops, etc. I'm sure it is easier to correct the roll axis than it is to try and correct for variations on the yaw axis one you have transitioned into an up-line or a radius.
I have one practice tip regarding 45 lines that a flying buddy of mine came up with. We use a metal carpenters square (which has a 45 on it) to compare our 45 degree lines to while we are practicing. The usual method consists of the spotter backing off from the pilot a good 200+ feet (for better perspective) and holding the square up to compare the planes angle on the 45 lines. I then perform a series of 45 up and down lines, similar to what I will see in basic or sportsman, on either side of me and in the center. We have recently started using small 2 way radios so that the spotter can relay a simple "shallow", "to steep", or "good" message back to the pilot. I found that this really helps me determine what the line should look like. If the 45 line is centered in front of you it is fairly easy to see if you are correctly executing it. However, if you move the same line to the right or left it will look different from the pilots perspective. Using this method allows me to adjust my lines until I can consistently hit a 45 at any placement from my perspective. I usually see improvements on my lines within the first flight using this method. Repeating it often really helps solidify your 45 lines so that you can concentrate on placement of snaps or rolls on the line and not so much on the angle.
I hope this helps! I know It has helped me.
Firebomber
03-04-2006, 05:58 PM
#6
RE: Topic #10 - Get help with your practice
ORIGINAL: Firebomber
I have one practice tip regarding 45 lines that a flying buddy of mine came up with. We use a metal carpenters square (which has a 45 on it) to compare our 45 degree lines to while we are practicing. The usual method consists of the spotter backing off from the pilot a good 200+ feet (for better perspective) and holding the square up to compare the planes angle on the 45 lines. I then perform a series of 45 up and down lines, similar to what I will see in basic or sportsman, on either side of me and in the center. We have recently started using small 2 way radios so that the spotter can relay a simple "shallow", "to steep", or "good" message back to the pilot.
I hope this helps! I know It has helped me.
Firebomber
I have one practice tip regarding 45 lines that a flying buddy of mine came up with. We use a metal carpenters square (which has a 45 on it) to compare our 45 degree lines to while we are practicing. The usual method consists of the spotter backing off from the pilot a good 200+ feet (for better perspective) and holding the square up to compare the planes angle on the 45 lines. I then perform a series of 45 up and down lines, similar to what I will see in basic or sportsman, on either side of me and in the center. We have recently started using small 2 way radios so that the spotter can relay a simple "shallow", "to steep", or "good" message back to the pilot.
I hope this helps! I know It has helped me.
Firebomber
Great work Firebomber. I hope to meet you at the Albuquerque contest in June.
Have a great weekend of practice!!
Dean
