wed68

My son and I have recently got into flying electric planes, we bought a slo v and have made only a few flights but are having he!! with the wind.

Is there an electric plane that is more stable and easy to fly in the wind?

Thanks
Bill

Leety

i tried to fly my insane foamy edge today.
but agh!
it's was super cold and windy.

=[

Tommy632

HI Bill. Sure there are planes that will handle the wind but with that comes a faster and higher dollar plane. Since you've just got into this, I'd suggest that you just wait for a calmer day. Or, try flying early in the morning or late in the evening when the winds are down.

Tommy

wed68

Thanks for the advice, I agree I guess I should wait, We had alot of trouble flying the other day. The plane did not respond well to inputs and the wind kept forcing it down.

What are the indicators that the wind is effecting the plane and its not just that I can not fly well?

Bill

I love this forum!!!!

Troglotech

The Aerobird Extreme handles the wind really well, it's quite heavy and has a huge wingspan (55"). It flies in wind that the Commander and Challenger just turn turtle in!

Indications that it the wind causing problems can be any of the following:

Fails to turn into the wind direction
Turns upside-down for no apparent reason!
Suddenly dives
Suddenly gains altitude, stalls, comes back down again very quickly

Tim....

MUSIC PUBLISHER

wed68...I flew my T-HAWK today in 23 mph winds...its a pusher plane RTF..and is easily 1 of the tuffest easiest to fly planes out there..very inexpensive too..Ive had it a year..and it seems to always be the 1 plane that can fly when others cant handle the wind...

Tommy632

Yeah, what Tim said!! The plane will just not be that fun to fly. You'll see what we mean when you give it a try on a 0 wind day or evening. It'll be a totally different plane and you'll enjoy the heck out of it.

WolfeWind

The best indicator of too much wind is to look at the flags near your flying field. If the med sized flags are fluttering out from the pole, there is prob too much wind for most planes. If you can feel the wind in your face, it is probably too much. Tie a ribbon to your TX antennae - if is is blowing out at much more than 45 degrees you are pushing it. If wind bounces the plane around at all while it sitting on the ground, it is too much.

After you get some experience, you will be able to handle more wind. But at first, it is best not to fly if conditions are questionable. If you are wondering if there is too much wind, there probably is.

Time Pilot

It is fairly simple to tell if the wind is adversely effecting your Slo-V once you've had experience. Basicly, the plane doesn't do what you want it to do and you need to constantly correct for wind. Maybe the easiest way to tell this when you don't have the exerience is once you've trimmed it for level flight and it flys 'hands off' on a windless day. After that, the more input you need to add to keep it flying straight and level, the more the wind is effecting your plane.

Sometimes it is also not how much wind there is, but how steady or turbulent it is. I've had my Slow Stick up in around 10 mph winds that were steady and non turbulent (almost like flying a kite when going into the wind). It is fairly easy to control with these winds (though not recommended for a beginner). I've also flown when the wind was almost calm, but gusted from various directions to +5 or so. This makes for interesting flying for planes with large wings with light wing loadings!

If you get stuck in a situation where you realize you should have stayed on the ground, as long as you have battery power, keep bringing it around for a landing approach and take the first one that looks like it will put the plane on the ground safe. If not, power up and go around again.

canesugarrules

When the wind is up at our field, we have competitions to see who can fly a Wingo backwards the farthest. While the plane does get bumped around, it is still controlable. It is also relaxing to fly in calm conditions.

boss_blueangels

I love flying planes in windy conditions. I've got a Stryker that does quite well in light winds. I've only flown it in about 5 mph winds... but very no problems. Just today I was flying in some wind, and flew a good 100 feet with the antena cord dragging on the ground the entire time and it was about 5 mph. It was also a very steady wind... that never would happen with gusts. lol

I also fly an UltraSport 40 glow plane that is a BLAST to fly in 25+ winds, especially when gusty. More fun than aerobatics in my opinion, specially trying to land. [8D]

Rat1

The wind indicator I use with my Slo v is when I set the plane on the ground and the wind flips it over then it is too windy to fly and have fun. Yes I can fly it but not much fun.

Things I have done to make mine fly better in the wind are.

7 cell parkzone j3 cub battery
gws 1180 prop
clipped the wingtips back 2 inches(shorten wing span).
Move wing all the way back

Things I have tried that work ok are.

Cover the bottom of the wing with cling wrap to create a flat bottom wing rather then an undercambered wing. It worked well but the cling wrap would stretch after time then start to rip.

I might cut some wing ribs from thin sturdy board and cover the wing with Solite film, reduce dehidreal and add ailerons.

inverted flyer

there are 2 types of windy days - the gusty day ie turbulent, and the steady breeze.

If you have a very steady laminar air flow, then your parkflyer should be ok even if it will squirm a little and resist when turning into the air flow.

It's the gusty day that will cause you serious problems. Simple truth is that a still day is ideal for a small light plane. Blowy weather makes 'em skittish and unpredictable and in the worst case, uncontrollable.

Gusty weather also results in shorter run times as the propeller experiences the aviation equivalent of "wheel-spin" in automobiles. The wing also experiences partial stalls due to the inonsistency of the airflow and this means you have to run your motor that much harder to get the same climb as you would on a still day.

Lightly loaded models are wonderful to fly and are by far the best for the inexperienced pilot, but unfortunately they are also the ones which suffer the most in wind as they get buffeted around horribly. On a calm day they are heaven, in the wind they can be nightmarish.[:@]

Best way to enjoy your plane by waiting for suitable conditions. A great way to practice during inclement weather is with a flight sim. Fantastic for orientation skills and even for practicing aerobatics. Aerofly Pro is considered to be an excellent choice and is peerless from the point of view of flight realism and physics

Hope this helps
I.F.

777

My Feedback: (1)

Since I live in Kansas, which is known for it's high wind speeds, I asked the same question a while back.

The answer that I got was flying wings, e.g. Unicorn.

My personal best is 30mph winds with 35mph gusts. It handled fine. Additionally they are probably the most crash-worthy planes available.

I fly in 20+mph winds all the time. If I didn't I wouldn't fly!

Brad

oslim

To wed68: The bottom line is that any time there is any wind, it a bad time to learn to fly any plane. You probably have a good trainer plane with low wing loading & low landing speed. Be very patient, wait for calm weather, and practice with the plane you have until you are sure you have mastered it before you go to another plane with better wind capability.

It is very tempting to jump around and buy other planes to fly in wind, but you can easily end up with a collection of crashed planes and still not learn to fly.

cadetman

Hi to All
as its Blowing 25mph and gusting 40 in the U.K. so i am grounded today []
i have read all the comments and suggestions so here are my 2 pennies worth
turbulance and wind Gusts are the enemy of R/c flyers
as long as you are in steady air and its below the crafts top speed then its flyable
what most learners do is over react to gusts and turbulance and this is usually followed by the CRASH [>:]
because the craft is flying almost at top speed trying to penetrate the wind the controls are very sensitive !
turning a craft in high wind should not present a problem for one simple reason.. the craft has NO idea its in a head wind !
all it is doing is flying at full speed into the prevailing wind
our perception of what the craft is doing relitive to our ground position makes us think its slow to turn,
on the downwind leg is seems like is mushy to control but that just because its covering a lot of ground faster due to the higher ground speed..
this also is an effect of relative position
imagine if you were on an aircraft carrier doing say 25 Knots North and the wind was from the south at 25 Knots then the result would be Still air on the Deck of the ship
your Craft would fly Perfectly because of your relitive position on the Moving Deck of the ship
AM I RIGHT?
forgive me if this dispells a lot of theories about turning into the wind and landings etc
so the next time your out flying rember this.. the craft is doing exactly what you ask of it
take account of how fast the airspeed is and fly with the Air as your Friend and not your Enemy
Our Enemy as i mentioned earlier is Turbulance and Gusts of wind.. these are the Killers []
Cadetman

Troglotech

That theory holds together until you put inertia into the equation. Where you have a 10 MPH head wind and a plane that can fly at 10 MPH you will quite happily hold a stationary position in respect to the ground. Now turn the plane 180 degrees and you still have a stationary ground position but you now have a 10 MPH tail wind and no lift. In real life, no 180 degree turn is instantaneous, but you still have to accelerate from 0 MPH to 20 MPH in the time it takes to turn to achieve the same flying conditions. This is the reason why planes lose altitude on down-wind turns unless compensated for by more power, up elevator and long turns.

The opposite situation causes problems as well. Many 2-channel planes fail to fly properly in light winds due to the turn from flying downwind to upwind. The planes inertia means that as it turns into the wind, the relative wind speed increases significantly and so does the lift, causing the porpoising and looping that usually signals that the ground is going to be a factor sooner than later.

Experienced flyers using more than the beginners 2 channels have much more chance of flying successfully, given enough power and the use of elevators the head wind can be overcome and the turn downwind can be a smooth transition. Beginners with two channels will be at the mercy of the wind......in some cases you just cannot get those planes back up-wind again and they dissapear into the distance. The only way to save your 2-channel trainer is to apply full power and full turn and spiral it into the ground....it may be a bit bent but at least you've got it back....

cadetman

Troglotech
have you ever flown a plane of an arcraft carrier in these conditions?
if you have a long private road near you try it using a car !
you will find the plane will fly as normal even if the wind exceeds its flying speed
if you launched a slowstick in a 20 mph wind from the back of a car driving at 15 mph downwind it would fly as normal relative to your position in the moving car !
to anyone standing watching it would appear the plane was flying backwards !
the plane has a contant inertia regardless of Upwind/Downwind
as i stated in my first post it Appears relative to your ground/stationary position that the plane looses effective control
its just an optical illusion
what most people see is.. as i stated the effect of turbulance and gusts that Are the enemy of R/c
flying
ok.. think of it this way
if it takes a swimmer 100 seconds to swim 100 yards from one end of a swimming to the other
how long would it take for a swimmer to swim 100 yards across a fast flowing river?
Across means from one side to the other Not DIRECTLY across
i know he will arrive a long way down stream but he will still take 100 seconds
if you were on a raft floating down stream watching him it would appear he swam directly across
Cadetman

Troglotech

Your argument only holds true if you carry on going in the same direction! And that's the whole point, with models like ours we have to constantly change direction (otherwise it disappears into the distance), and it is during a relative direction change that inertia becomes significant. It takes energy to overcome inertia, you cannot accelerate from 0 MPH to 20 MPH without expending energy, it also takes time to de-accelerate which is why planes gain altitude on up-wind turns.

Using your example, sit on a carrier deck of a large carrier, 10 knot wind speed from the North and a 10 knot Southerly speed.....gives you a 0 knot wind speed relative to the carrier deck. Hold a slow stick or a HZ Commander in your hand, apply throttle bung it into the air in a Southerly direction, it should fly perfectly normally at, say 15 knots in respect to the carrier deck. That gives us a speed of 25 knots in a Southerly direction in real terms.

Now apply full right rudder and the plane will turn and change direction relative to the carrier. To do this takes energy (and a quicker direction change takes more energy). As you snap around you will find yourself facing the other way with a 20 knot head wind and loads of lift (obviously, as you are facing the other way and the wind is now in front of you). To retain the same altitude you will need your Slow stick or Commander to de-accelerate from 25 knots to 5 knots in the time it takes to snap around 180 degrees. Don't forget that acceleration and inertia are *relative* in respect to an observer.

In real terms, a Commander or a Slow stick cannot 'snap' around all that quickly, but the effects are the same only tempered by relative acceleration. In real terms, you gain height unless you can count on the use of elevators to counteract the effects of inertial gain (which the Commander does not posses).

However, all that said, I would agree with you that turbulent air is the real enemy of the RC flier. On large-winged planes the turbulence is averaged over the wings surface but on small wingspan models the turbulence will just turn your plane upside down in a heartbeat and there's not much you can do except watch it splat into the ground.

cadetman

Troglotech
is this not my whole Point?

you even admit it with your own words !
"Your argument only holds true if you carry on going in the same direction! And that's the whole point, with models like ours we have to constantly change direction (otherwise it disappears into the distance), "

when you have flown in a commercial aircraft do you hear the engines REV up when the pilot turns downwind?
NO you dont !
and in all my hours doing circuits in a tomahawk not once did i ever increase the throttle going downwind or loose height !
i openly admit that if i pulled 3.8 G and did i 180 downwind then any craft would loose hight but that would be true regardless of headwind/tailwind for any plane
Cadetman

oslim

To cadetman & troglotech: Thank you for your comments on winds & gusts. I look forward to experimenting with different plane designs in different weather conditions after I become more proficient.

For right now I think us newbies need to learn under the calmest conditions we can find. We learn primarily by observing the airplane response to a given control input, and any disturbance by weather just overloads a novice pilot. Another issue is that weather aloft is often different from here on the planet surface.

Thank you again.