jester_s1

Well the airplane, being an inanimate object, isn't able to care about anything. The point though was that with wind comes turbulence, which does make flying harder. Even smooth wind has a certain challenge about it, since the task of flying is to maintain a course relative to the ground. The RC pilot's task is easier on calm days since the plane just does as it's told. Learning to fly precisely on windy days is another skill to learn, and a lot of guys have a tough time with it.

jharkin

My Feedback: (2)

Helicopter.


---
(in all seriousness, helis are great for very windy days - but that was not your question)

As others have said... in a steady wind the plane itself doesn't really notice while in the air. You get in to trouble with wind in the following ways:

* In a really strong wind, a slow flying plane can struggle to make progress up field against the wind. The main thing to be weary of is having a dead stick far down wind and not being able to make the runway.

* If the conditions are turbulent it can make landing a challenge. At my field this is always an issue on windy days as we are in a bit of a valley with hills, a river and broken tree lines close around so on summer days we get a lot of thermals, downdrafts and general turbulence that really kicks you around on final to the runway. the main danger is that the wind will suddenly shift just as you flare for touchdown and slam the plane down.



Like others I tend to stick to my faster flying, more streamlined and heavier models on windy days. They dont react to the bumps of turbulence as much. Light weight biplanes with a lof of side area tend to be the worst (though I love 'em otherwise).


If you want to get a better understanding of whats going on with the plane (and generally learn to be a better pilot) a great read is the book Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langewiesche.

Jaybird

My windy day plane is a Hangar 9 Katana 50 with a Saito 100. It will handle most any turbulence and is fun to try and hold it in one spot relative to the ground when faced into the wind. I think the more manuverable the better for windy conditions. Also plenty of power to pull out of trouble if a landing approach gets out of hand. A successful landing is requires a stable approach.

Jaybird

Charlie P.

Jester S-1 beat me to it. Claiming an aircraft cares or not is anthropomorphism regarding a non-living object. It reacts. We react back to try and compensate. The better pilots are less reactive to the model/environment because they have anticipated and planned ahead. We have to react more often and more carefully with wind to maintain smooth maneuvers and fly pretty. The aircraft doesn't care if a loop is oval and spreads wide or your knife-edge passes over the flight-line. But some pilots do. ;-)

Turbulence may not be the same as wind. But they are directly proportional and you seldom can separate one from the other on any meaningful scale. If you have an updraft in one place you will have wind in others to feed it. Nature is a master accountant and ALWAYS balances her books (while we're anthropomorphising).

sensei

LOL, Less chatter and more stick time is what is needed by many so try to have fun and be a little less literal, besides calm air is for kids silly rabbit!

Bob

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

I fear this thread will go the same direction as the cross wind thread. Too many guys are going to start bible thumping us with full scale examples simply because they aren't forward thinking enough to realize that models can be set up in a manner that they do not need to react drastically to airspeed ( wind ) changes. Granted this does not work with all models but it will work with any shoulder or low wing airplane with semi symmetrical or symmetrical airfoils. My Extra and Macchi are great examples neither are all that effected by wind nor turbulence. Both have reasonably light wing loadings and both are set up to fly true. This means correct incidences, CG, thrust angles, aileron differential, throws, expo settings etc.

sensei

Exactly, oh and my windy day plane of choice is anything I fly on just about any day windy or not, but then again, that is just me.

Bob

jester_s1

I just don't have much patience for those who dismiss the common beginner question of dealing with the wind. They want to jump to a technical explanation of aerodynamics, ie, the plane just flies in whatever direction relative to the airflow you put it in regardless of what's happening on the ground, when they know darn well what the asker is really trying to figure out. It's not helpful, and it is condescending.
What newer pilots need to know about wind is how it tends to affect models (all aircraft really), and how to use control inputs, mostly rudder, to counteract those effects. I was lucky in a way when I started. I didn't have much time to come out to the field and was really enthusiastic when I did, so if I was windy I just dealt with it. I flew trainers on days that most guys won't fly aerobats, and I did have some mishaps. But learned each time from them, and I got pretty comfortable in the wind because of it. Frequently, I'm still the guy who is out there flying my Kaos or maybe my Stryker after everyone else has packed it up and went home due to the wind. Once you understand it and incorporate it into your thinking, it's not so hard. I flew an SPA match a while back where planes were drifting 150 feet or more during their hammerheads. They held a vote, and most of the pilots voted to quit flying early because of the wind. I felt I had a competitive advantage, but I didn't get to use it.

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

Lol. Bible thumping? Beware that green monster.

I find that full-scale and RC flying inform each other; I can effectively take off and land an RC Cub in fairly strong crosswinds because of crossed-control skills used in full-scale flying, and have a greater appreciation of getting too slow from watching many RC stall/spin incidents. The same with flying helis, they improve overall skills, make you think ahead & work more.

I'll disagree with your 'wind speed' comment. Light wing-loaded planes handle much differently than those with high wing loading. The light ones are a handful in turbulence, where the high wing loading one punches through and is more manageable.

Muttdog

At my field if you don't fly in wind then you don't fly very often. Practice and gaining confidence are the keys to success, not a particular airframe. Flying in wind WILL make you a better pilot and like others have said it makes it more fun. Take a basic loop for example. Kind of boring after the thousandth time but add a little crosswind and try to keep it straight. It's harder then it sounds and more rewarding then you can imagine when you pull it off.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

This is pretty much what I ment. You see Jester your approach is different then mine. Nothing really wrong with that but please do consider where it comes from. I'm a pretty hardcore competitive pilot. In order to reach the level of success that I desire I need to use every advantage I can get. Setting up the airplane to perform with the least amount of pilot workload is key to getting that level of success. So what does this have to do with a beginner? It forms a foundation that being a good pilot means taking the time to correctly set up and adjust the airplane to make it easier to fly. Then productive practice can happen rather then develop skills around a poorly handling airplane that will bite you in the butt when you move to a different poorly set up airplane with an entire new set of things you have to compensate with via additional pilot workload. Think of it as driving a car that pulls to one side when brakes are applied and pulls to the other side under acceleration, has unpredictable shift points. Sure you can drive it but it's more work and if you get into a different car that doesn't have those issues it takes a little time to adjust to it. One common thing that I have seen time and time again over 36 years of R/C is guys fighting poorly set up airplanes that don't seem to last very long and the owners always want to blame the design or toss out the " I got hit ". To me it appears your method is to learn why certain conditions effect your airplane and develop skills to counteract the ill effect. Not wrong by any means but why not take the next step farther and learn how to minimize the effect the conditions have on the airplane?

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

I agree with Jester. Hard to beat a Stick as a windy day plane. Easy to fly, lots of control authority, usually plenty of power and easy to repair or cheap to replace if you botch a landing.

Best planes for windy days are those which you do NOT have a big emotional or financial investment. The odds of a ding are higher in the wind.

I love to go out to the field on a windy day, say 20 mph of wind or so. Most everyone just sits around and talks, especially the giant scale crowd. "Too windy" they tell me. So I pull out my 1/2a plane and go for it! Shames them into flying!

Many people have so much invested in their plane that they are afraid to fly unless conditions are perfect.

jester_s1

No, I'm pretty big on proper setup too. I fly some SPA and just now am getting into IMAC, so I have at least some interest in airplane setup. More than that, I'm a tinkerer by nature and can't really be happy until I have a plane as perfect as I think I can. I made my comments above with the assumption that a plane is at least close to being set up right. The first wind handling skills that a new pilot has to think about include cross controlling ailerons and rudder in a cross wind, being ready to push the nose down when a gust hits that trainer and lifts it on a landing approach, and reading stalls in varying wind conditions. Those are stick skills that can be helped with proper setup, but even the aerobats require some compensation when the wind wants to push the plane off course.

Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

Personal " thought " !

A fellow beginner RC hobbyist asks for help with a simple question / subject.
Then the so called experts get involved and ruin the whole thread with their self bickering.
Really a shame, isn't it folks ?

da Rock

Actually, it's not a shame at all. The great thing about forums is each of us can decide to skip anything that looks like "self bickering" and move to the next post. No forum has a rule that you are required to read every post and every forum has pretty much infinite space so... don't worry about the space, but learn not to waste your time. BTW, whenever you notice posts that really do contain personal bickering on RCU, do everyone a favor and report it. There is a little triangular button in the lower left of each post for that purpose.

It's quite useful for example, to see how many experienced modelers know that wind does in fact include gusts of wind and the old saw, "airplanes don't know they're in wind" falls way short of being a modeling law.

Along the way, this thread has provided some really good insight for new modelers who're just discovering the challenge "wind" brings to their hobby. Read on.... but ignore anything that bothers you and you'll become better at finding good advice on the internet. Keep in mind there is "wind" in the forums too.

Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I fully agree ! Their is a " lot of wind " in the forums ! Hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

j.duncker

My Feedback: (2)

Good windy weather models.

Goldberg Shoestring if you can find one, a quickie 500 pylon racer, any 'stick' except the lightweight one. From todays ARTF offerings something like the Black Horse ZLIN 50LS would do just fine.

I flew in the UK for more than 40 years. You either flew when it was windy or you did not fly much. Even my student pilots flew when it was windy, we would only quit training when the trainer was struggling to make it upwind

jester_s1

049flyer hit on one of the other things that's so great about a stick, not only just for windy day flying but as a second plane for a developing pilot to learn aerobatics with- it's easy to fix.The fuselage is just a plywood box with a balsa veneer usually, the tail pieces are just flat plates, and the wings have the same ribs throughout and are all straight lines. You can have badly crashed stick back in the air for just a few hours and a few dollars worth of wood. I wouldn't toss one unless the whole nose was crushed in or the wing spar was broken in half.

cfircav8r

My Feedback: (1)

The key to any of this, wind or not, is learn why airplanes react the way they do to both our inputs and mother natures. Once you understand that the rest becomes just a matter of determining what you want from your planes and then you can wade through all the "opinions" and find the ones that fall in line with what you want. Is Speed correct? Absolutely, for the way he flys and his expectations for his aircraft. Is it right for me? Absolutely not. I want a plane that behaves more like a full sized one while he wants one that behaves more like a model can when flown to its limits. Any pilot, RC or FS, needs to learn how and why planes work so they can get what they want out of their flying experience. The error in the responses is not necessarily the accuracy of the response as much as it is the apropriateness for the asker.

Bob Pastorello

My Feedback: (198)

There's been a lot of good advice in this thread so far - my own two cents' worth - and someone already mentioned it, I think....
Choose the airplane/engine combo that you are MOST COMFORTABLE with...your "everyday flier", whatever it is...and fly it in the wind, working on improving your skills at handling the airplane near the ground. The plane will be fine, and your learning will be easier if you already know the bird. As you gain experience, you'll be able to fly different airplanes equally-well. It's all about your practice and commitment to doing it like you want to!

Tony Iannucelli

My Feedback: (193)

Wind is your friend under 15mph. A lot of sport planes will fly nicely in that. Learn to use throttle and rudder on final.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Great post! It's like someone read my mind. Everyone has the option to set up their airplane any way they choose. My way is just that, my way. It does raise a question from me though. I'm curious why you would want your model to fly the same as full scale?

TomCrump

Many of us strive to fly our models like the full scale. For us, that's the point of flying them.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

I completly understand that but wouldn't that goal be easier if the airplane was set up to be easier to fly? BTW IMAC uses the same maneuver catalog and judging criteria as the full scale IAC. Not trying to convince anyone of anything here, just maybe enlighten.

cfircav8r

My Feedback: (1)

In my full scale flying I have learned to fly with specific tendancies and maintaining that continuity with my model flying just reinforces those habits and techniques. It also gives me a greater sense of similarity that makes it more enjoyable. I also find the challenge of making smooth manuevers within "scale" envelopes enjoyable. I have no desire to compete at any level either. We all are in it for the same reason, a love of flight, but with different goals.