Alex7403

What do you do when you Don’t see the airplane in the air?

Where is my plane????? [X(] [&:] []
Happened to me more then once, what do you do in order to avoid it?
Is there any procedure or a gadget?

Thanks
Alex

*JCB*

My Feedback: (9)

A: Bring a spotter with you next time
B: quit looking away from your airplane
C: Bring a spotter with you next time

rollo

Choose colors that contrast with the sky you fly in. Here in the seattle area light colors really like to blend into the usual grey skys. Especially during the winter, fall, and early spring months. Take into account any color blindness as this can play into what the object looks like also.

The interesting part is when you build scale warbirds and the color schemes are designed for camaflauge. oops... That light blue color on the tri colored Corsair or the grey on the mustangs and P-47s really does blend well.... I thought it was there.

Teachu2

My Feedback: (133)

1) Pay attention 100% of the time.
2) Stay lower.
3) If I lost it anyway, I pull both sticks to the lower right corner and hold them there. Watch the sky and you should see flashes off the covering. If I still don't see it, I'll rock the throttle up and down and listen for it. If I still can't find it, I wait for the THUD and watch for the explosion!

rwright142

I had something similar happen. I thought I was flying towards me, but it was going away. I did an
[link=http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/aerobatics/maneuvers/immelmann.htm]Immelmann[/link] and luckily it was the right maneuver.

On thing that will help you is to have the plane with contrasting colors. For my Fourstar I have yellow on the bottom and a black canopy and will add black stripes to the top of the control surfaces too.

richrd

Never look away or fly into the sun. I believe besides the stall is most cause of wreaks I know I did just once look down at my watch then up and to late going in I’ll do that again.
Rich

opjose

Fly closer in.

If you are loosing sight after looking away BRIEFLY, you are flying too far out.

teookie

Hope your not dead stick and just listen.




But it's better to not loose it. Fly lower/closer.

horace315

My Feedback: (15)

I was coming around for landing and the way our field is situated ne to sw the sun was just in the corner of the last turn on the ne corner, I lost my airplane in the sun, the spotter beside me I ask him can you see it he says I was hoping you did. I let the controls go to neutral, this was a super stick, and started looking at the last place I had a line of sight luckily the plane came down to horizon level and I managed to regain control and land it safely. that was a very hair raising situation, I don’t think any color would have helped me see it, it was about 430 pm or so and the sun at that time of day and year is in a bad place for about 45 minutes on that end.i just avoid flying at that time of day now, wind dictating the landing in that direction, a few people have had the same problem and normally no one fly's at that time of day in summer when we land on that end of the runway.

pywackit

Get ready to break out the wallet....

warhwk

My Feedback: (3)

I used to fly at a nearly abandoned airport with the owners permission. I was flying a mostly white airplane when I heard a full-scale approach. The Cessna was not landing, but I couldn't find my plane after looking away in the hazy blue sky. After about ten seconds, and afraid it would fly out of sight, I began doing continuous loops. The sound focused in one part of the sky helped me locate it in another few seconds.

I learned two lessons that day. Never fly alone if you can help it, and put on some contrasting stripes. I've never lost sight of a plane since.

bruce88123

Primarily - fly closer in. Distance is a plane killer. Never fly through the sun!!! Fly above it or below it or nowhere near it but NOT through it. Change the landing pattern if you need to do so and can. And fly a little slower if needed and it will help. What's the hurry anyway?

Jim Thomerson

AMA rules specify maximum length of 70 ft from hand to center of airplane.

bruce88123

Huh?[sm=bananahead.gif]

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I'll ammend that a little:

A: Quit looking away from your airplane
B: Quit looking away from your airplane
C: Quit looking away from your airplane
D: Don't let the plane get so far away

I added the "D" because something I see fairly often - especially with newbies, but I've seen many a veteran do it too - is to fly so far away, or so high, that the plane is a mere speck in the sky.

When I first moved to MN 12+ years ago, my dad and I would go to my new club and the guys would say, "Do you guys in NY fly in a tent?" because we kept the plane in close (as opposed to 3 counties away).

Now I realize that while learning you want to stay "3 Mistakes High", but also keep in mind that you are learning to control that airplane - don't let the airplane control YOU!

If it's too far away, BRING IT BACK!

warhwk

My Feedback: (3)

You're dating yourself.

bkdavy

My Feedback: (1)

I've only lost sight of my plane once. It was a maiden after major repair. While attempting to trim the plane, it flew into, and directly at, the sun. Unfortunately it was trimmed so well that it continued on a perfect upline into the sun. I was not alone, and my friend started moving away from me trying to change the angle of sight. I chopped the throttle and let go of the sticks, hoping to pick it up as it broke to the left. This plane ALWAYS breaks left when it stalls. After about 10 seconds of excitement, we finally picked up the plane as it fell away from the sun. A wag on the ailerons to see if it was flying toward or away, added some throttle, and then tried to keep it out of the purple spot burned into my retina as I brought it back to the field.

Needless to say, I'm a little more careful with where the plane is when i make trim adjustments now.

Brad

ag4ever

Assuming you don't have three other fliers doing 3D over the runway, then you don't even know if your ARE deadstick.

ag4ever

Are we talking control line or RC?

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

It's a line control joke.

Everybody looks away from their plane now and then. Part of situational awareness is doing that. You have to pick your moments, though, especially when you don't have a great deal of experience.

The only gadgets involved are your eyes and ears. Perhaps a calibration is needed? We used to recommend that to new weather observers when they couldn't estimate cloud heights properly. Between fetching spools of flightline and boxes of millibars, they rarely had time for a proper calibration.

Minnreefer

I just lost my plane today because I was trying to figure out where the wind was coming from for a moment, I lost concentration and my plane went behind some trees, my trainer hit full power but we did not see it again, I finally found it in many pieces after looking 2+ hours in the woods At least my engine and radio seems fine.

I was having a good flight before then, a few landing apporaches, flying inverted for a bit, some loops and such, feeling good about my airplane control , but it was a little low (coming in for landing) andturning a corner and the wind caught it .

Jon

Time to buy a new plane.

Alex7403

Thanks guys for the ideas im cooking some gadget in my head right now....

Alex

skorman

My Feedback: (3)

Sometimes you can't help flying into the sun but one trick someone taught me is to close one eye just before your plane goes through the sun. When the plane gets past the sun, open your eye and you'll find you can see fine. It's weird but it works.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

It may help if you get yourself a pair of Zurich sun glasses. No substitute, get the real thing. You won't believe how much they help. Read the review that RCKen did on them. Well worth the price.

M. Michael Meyer

1. Genuflect.
2. Pray.

(If you are not catholic proceed directly to step 2)