quote:

My variation on the Lomcevak is going right to left in a 45 degree upline roll to knifedge then peg throttle rudder stick to the upper right corner at the same time full left aileron and down elevator. The Lomcevak is a very impressive.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rod Bender

Ya, I hear ya,

We just lost our oldest member a few months ago. CB was 83yrs young, and flew right up until his passing. Granted, he could only fly about 150yds, then handed the TX over to someone as he could not see the plane anymore. But, that 150yds kept him coming out around once a week, it was a pleasure to meet him. His AMA # was 4 digits !!!!! Greg

quote:

ORIGINAL: kevinf2501

I am sure some of these items have been touched upon in the thread so far. However my experience in learning 3D maneuvers has been the following

A neutral/slightly nose heavy plane is easier for me to 3D with than a tail heavy plane.
I struggled with hovering and torque rolls for months and months and set up the plane on the tail heavy side. I was finally convinced to move the CG forward on 2 of my planes
and keep trying to hover and torque roll. On one day I did about six flights inching the CG forward every time. Going from tail heavy to nose heavy. ( subsequently I do this on all my new planes to find the sweet spot) I found that once the CG got slightly nose heavy (and I mean slightly) the plane was more predictable and more responsive to tail inputs and my 3D skills started to improve

The reason for this is as follows.
When hovering with the correct throttle inputs (to low a throttle the plane falls off and nose heavy it falls quicker) the CG is not relevent to keeping the nose up as the prop is creating the lift (not the wings) and therefore other than the spinner 100% of the weight is behind the lift point (being the prop) . so keeping the nose up is a function of throttle to overcome the entire weight of the plane and in addition any drag created by surfaces moving and not CG location. Changing the cg will not keep the nose up only good throttle management will. (as well as the correct inputs with elevator and rudder)

The CG does make a difference on the reaction of the tail to input. The more tail heavy the plane is the more input you need to make the tail move as the tail has more mass or weight to move hence more input . think of pendulum, a heavy one takes more force to stop it moving and get it going the other way than a lighter on and essentially in a hover the prop is your pendulum pivot point) I was very skeptical but convinced after trying the gradual moves of the CG forward . The reason i think newbies "think" a plane is more reactive in a tail heavy configuration is they tend to not get the "instant" reaction on the tail surface in a hover and therefore add to much input and end up over controlling the surface and getting behind.

I have purchased about 4 planes from people learning to 3D and always find the CG to far back. Tail heavy is ok but just like anything else to much is not good.
I also find the "slight" nose heavy condition makes for better harriers and rolling harriers as the the nose wants to drop a little and adding throttle to compensate gives a really good constant forward momentum without having to constantly blip the throttle..

There are a lot of people that fly 3D very well with a tail heavy planes. I typically find that I have to have a lot more stick input when flying their plane to get a similiar manouver done and that around center their planes feel mushy. They always say my control surfaces are much more sensitive to them.

There is more than one way to solve the same problem and this is just my experience. I like the plane to react predictably and quickly with less stick input and found that when I moved the CG to "slightly" nose heavy my 3D skills improved exponentially. This may or may not work for you. But if you are struggling its worth a shot to try it.

just my 2c worth.

Kevin

quote:


A neutral/slightly nose heavy plane is easier for me to 3D with than a tail heavy plane.

quote:

ORIGINAL: airwayman

quote:


A neutral/slightly nose heavy plane is easier for me to 3D with than a tail heavy plane.

As far as torque rolls go, I agree. Try balancing a baseball bat in the palm of your hand with the barrel (heavy) end up. Not all that hard. Now turn the bat over with the handle end up and try to balance it. Airwayman

quote:

ORIGINAL: AirWizard

I setup my 3D planes neutral......to fly hands off inverted

quote:

ORIGINAL: MikeEast

Now, I will tell you why I know this.
I stripped a set of Futaba 9151'sm (plastic geared digital) doing a knife edge loop last year, TWICE. I wanted to get more throw for waterfalls so I went from a 1 1/4" servo arm to a 1 1/2" servo arm. When I did I got what I wanted, BIG throws. 60 degrees plus. But when I would do a knife edge loop, at the bottom in the last quarter where you are pouring the coals to the rudder and correcting with the elevator to maintain course (THWACK) the gears popped on one servo. Sounded like a 22 caliber rifle. Fortunately the elevator half totally stripped and went to neutral and I landed with no problem. But I did not understand the problem, replaced the servo gears and lo and behold a few flights later it happened again. Then the light switch went off. I switched to a 333 in oz Titanium geared servo and that was it, not more problems. Of course this was in a 37% Scale plane, but you need to be sure that you take the appropriate actions for your plane.

quote:

ORIGINAL: jdkxtreme

If your bumping it that hard either...
1 cheap servos to start with
2 hitting it real hard and need to repair your plane...