bkelly

i like to fly (or try) to fly 3d, and have several of the popular 40 size profiles ......while searching for my next plane the term pattern flying keeps coming up.....what exactly is pattern flying, is it 3d or not......sorry for the dumb question

rcpattern

My Feedback: (45)

Pattern flying is not 3D. Pattern flying is actually known as precision aerobatics. Pattern flying is usually very graceful and free flowing. A predefined set of maneuvers is performed. There are multiple classes, each increasing in difficulty. F3A or FAI is the highest level, which is also the international competition used in major events such as the world championships. Pattern is a wonderful teaching tool no matter what you like to fly. It teaches discipline in your flying which can be applied to almost every other type of flying. If you look at a lot of the top pilots (not all) in about every discipline, including pylon, IMAC, 3D, and helicopter, at some point they partcipated in pattern flying. You can find out a lot more about this type of flying at the website for the special interest group called the NSRCA (National Society of Radio Control Aerobatics. www.nsrca.org

Hope this helps,

Arch Stafford

sweetpea01

My Feedback: (10)

Very similar to IMAC which is the Big Bird version of Pattern. Not quite as graceful as the planes are bulkier. Minor diffs between the two in terms of competition but both will help your flying.

What you thought was straight lines you'll quickly find aren't

ExFokkerFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

It's not a dumb question to ask at all... I get confused looks all the time at the field when I tell people that I fly pattern.

Maybe we could get a 'sticky' to the top of this forum to explain what pattern flying is??? Moderators? Just an idea.

flybug

Darn I just got educated, being a pilot I thought pattern flying in RC was just that flying the pattern (,crosswind, downwind, base and final) lol, well you live and you learn.

xcead

pattern is really the most beautifull flying style of all

there are many others that people like to see, they are more spectacular and you make more risky manouvers near the ground and usually pattern seems to be a bit " boring " for some people....

im inviting you, bkelly, take one or two flying days and practice some simple manouvers, like loop, immelman, split-s, and pratice over and over and over, and again and again...when the manouver goes clean or you can performe a perfect loop, YOUR HEART WILL GO OFF OF YOUR CHEST !!!! other pilots will star looking at you in a different way, and you will cannot stop flying pattern
your skills will improve a lot, you will start enjoying more those flying days and every day will become a challenge to you, it doesnt matter you dont go to competitions, you will start competing with yourself and with your flight before the last one

sorry, may seem too much but try it, it is worth

good flights !!!

rcprecision

My Feedback: (6)

Pattern Competition Flying involves complex aerial maneuvers with a radio controlled model aircraft, where utmost precision and skill in controlling the model aircraft in any attitude and under all conditions is required. The model aircraft is 100% influenced by the wind and all maneuvers in the aerobatic schedules are judged relative to a point on the ground. The competitor must therefore compensate constantly for possible wind drift. Typically, pattern type model aircraft will have a fuselage length of no more than 2 meters, a wing span of less than 2 meters, and the weight must not exceed 11lbs. Power is usually an internal combustion engine, with no power limitations, but the engine has to be adequately silenced.

Flights are performed directly in front of the judges in an aerobatic zone or "box", which extends 60 degrees to the left and right of a center line, and at an elevation of no more than 60 degrees. Each time the model aircraft crosses the center line, a particular maneuver of a known (published) aerobatic schedule has to be performed, involving components such as loops, rolls, lines, spins, snap rolls, stall turns, and combinations of these. At the ends of the aerobatic box, the model aircraft is required to do turn-around maneuver to enable it to reverse its direction of travel. Generally the model aircraft is required to be flown at 150 meters from the pilot, in a plane perpendicular to the center line.

Each competitor's performance is assessed by a panel of judges who will award marks, independently from each other, between zero and ten for each maneuver. Maneuvers are assigned a difficulty factor (K-factor) depending on the complexity of the particular maneuver. Judging is based on four basic criteria: precision (or geometry), smoothness and gracefulness, positioning (display), and size of maneuver. Points are subtracted for various types of defects observed by the judges, the severity of these defects, and the number of times these defects are observed.

Got to www.NSRCA.org for more data on pattern competition flying.

Kweasel

My Feedback: (29)

Pattern is just like graceful figure skating. 3D is more like hockey practice without as much violence.

bkelly

now that i understand ....with my ability im still a hockey player, just flailing around and every now and then i impess myself. mostly by not hitting the ground, but occationally with a move that looked pretty cool. i can see what xcead meant by bringing up your ability to a new level as when i first learned to fly my brother asked me to pick a destination or goal and fly there vrs just keeping the darn model off the ground. and thats when i started to improve. now i can hover and harrier around the feild fairly well, but to have the will power to force the plane to follow a staight line or particular "pattern" would take disapline. Now with having that said what advantages does a "pattern craft" have over my 3d profile plane? can they hover?

xcead

mmmmm, hover well ,yes if you have a big engine, but the surfaces are smaller, in order to have more " slow" and precise movements, so we can say that they can hover, bot are not made for that as a 3d airplane
pattern ships have longer tail moments, thinner wing profiles ( you dont fly at such big angle of attack ) and are more flyable

dont spend time with a pattern aircraft trying to fly 3D,
fly smoother, bigger, precise, it takes dicipline, reading some info on the web if you dont have a coach and learn to use the throotle, (seems strange? you will see it is as important as the other 3 channels )

axial roll....takes a new meaning when you start flying pattern

and dont spend a millon dollars buying a big ship, many think that you should, try a smaller and you will have anough fun (of course the 2M planes fly better, im not saying that )

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

"Now with having that said what advantages does a "pattern craft" have over my 3d profile plane? can they hover?"

There are actually a fair number of sport/3D arfs that can fly pattern reasonably well on low rates and also fly 3D on high rates. Aircraft like the Lanier Razor 3D and the Model Tech Twister 3D ARF are built like pattern ships, but with 3D-sized control surfaces.

I often compare pattern flying to skateboarding or snowboarding in a half-pipe, with the pattern flyer's half-pipe being the "flying box" that they stay in. The pilot will take off and do a wing over or stall turn, enter a pattern manuver, then fly up the other side of the flying box, turn around and enter another manuever. It's very graceful and quite fun to watch.

With a hybrid pattern/3D style ARF, you could learn to fly the sportsman or intermediate pattern routines and still have a 3D capable plane as close as your high-rate switch. If you moved up in competitive levels, you'd likely want to get a dedicated pattern ship of some kind. For the non-competing sport flyer though, many popular models can do both well:

Lanier Razor 3D
Model Tech Twister 3D
Great Planes U Can Do 3D
Goldberg Matrix
Sig Mayhem
Hangar 9 FuntanaS 3D
Hangar 9 Showtime 4D
Model Tech Formula 3D

I'm sure there are many more models capable of both 3D and pattern flying, but the above list will give you an idea.

Emenoe

This is a really great thread. I have a friend who has been trying to interest me in Pattern, but lives some distance away. I've tried looking on the local district website and such to see about where I could actually go to watch this being done, but there seems to be a dearth of information on where to actually find pattern flyers in my area.

With all the discussion about how to "grow pattern", perhaps if some kind folks would post where their practice/competition fields are located so that spectators could visit and watch, perhaps the sport would benefit?

Just a thought.....

rcflyer48

My Feedback: (1)

Hey great question. I first started in pattern after seeing a pattern contest locally and falling in love with what I describe as "aerial ballet". The flights were smooth effortless and the geometry of the maneuvers was near perfect, regardless of the wind direction and intensity. I am still only in second level pattern and also took up IMAC. I won my first couple of IMAC (basic) contests and had guys come over to me during the IMAC and saying quietly to me.... "you've flown pattern haven't you". I am still at second level IMAC and pattern but pattern especially has vastly improved my flying. It is more rigorous and you are being judged throughout the entire sequence not just the maneuvers. I love it even though it is now much less popular than IMAC here.

Later on at another pattern contest an IMAC pilot came up, watched for a couple of minutes and said "obviously these planes aren't affected by cross-winds" which is totally untrue. All planes fly in the wind and are equally affected by crosswinds. I turned to him and said, "No, it is just that these pilots are flying to make the crosswind invisible".

I have found that in all ways my flying has become more precise, controlled and repeatable. Pattern even helps me in IMAC due to the fact that the judging at most pattern contests is more consistant and in some ways tougher.

I love the quiet strength of a beautiful strong pattern ship pulling through the air making drafting board accurate maneuvers regardless of a howling crosswind. I guess that is pretty well the opposite of 3D "just stir the sticks" type flying. However, if you look at the top aerobatic pilots world wide, about 80% or more have flown competitive pattern - Precision Aerobatics. Even if they are now competing in IMAC type events.

Think of Pattern as aerobatic boot camp and advanced training. Useful everywhere.

Neil

Kruzer

Great info here guys. Learning a lot. I am exploring what pattern flying is and would like to see some typical beginner (Sportsman?) flying sequences may look like? Any suggestions? Thanks.

mmattockx

The Sportsman sequence for 2006:

http://www.nsrca.org/technical/beginners/begin3.htm


All the sequences for 2006:

http://www.nsrca.org/scheduleA.htm


Browse around the NSRCA site ( http://www.nsrca.org/ ) and you will find a wealth of info about pattern flying.


Mark

firebld

This is realy a great info. Being new to flying and has couple of planes (Trainer, Mustang, Velox, PC9, Cobra....) pattern sound like going into 1/8 rc road car racing (its more speed, more precise...). The question is .. do i need a dedicated pattern plane or just about ant 3D capable plane will do... Any good review of this plane anyone ???

mmattockx

That depends a bit on your goals. Do you NEED a pattern plane - no. Just about any decently aerobatic (not 3D) aircraft will let you practice precision aerobatics. If your goal is improvement in your flying, that is all you need. Then practice, practice, practice. If your goal is to compete and do well, then yes you need a true pattern ship. As for recomendations, I build (no ARF's yet) and can only recommend kits or plans. From plans, the Boxer series are excellent aircraft and the Insight and Black Magic are very good 2M planes you can find on this forum. From kits, the CA Models ( http://www.camodel.com.ar/ ) Widebody 40 and 60 have great reputations and the Epsilon is also well regarded. If you are after a more sport oriented model that will be OK for practice, the Goldberg Tiger 60 is pretty good as are many others. I am sure others will chime in with ARF choices.


Mark

rodney tanner

I have heard helicopters do that quite well :-)

At a practice session before the F3A Pattern world champs at Pensacola in 2000 I saw Sean McMurtry (US team alternate) torque roll up and down the run the runway with his Prophecy. No big deal he was going to the TOC that year so probably needed the practice. That was before the 3D thing got going.

Actually if you point a trainer into a strong wind it will stay there all day. Does that count as a hover too??? :-)

Eric.Henderson

w

firebld

I've just got hold of Phoenix SeaBee from friend. Fit VMAX 52 engine wth tune pipe.fly very well. Ive tried all the routine and in prcocess of learning this.. What is the best way to learn and perfect the routine?

dutchalltheway

BKELLY...this is not a dumb question..in fact...I wondered this myself so you take the words right out of my mouth bud....good question it is

psookdee

Hi everybody

This is 2D map of p-07 sequence, might be useful to some of you......

psookdee

here is for another wind direction p-07[>:]

MikeRuth

Thise drawings are great, I was jst beginning to ask my self how you can take off upwind and then fly stright and level upwind with out a turnaround, In the drawings a procedure turn is shown but not spelled out in the text.

psookdee

hi all

does anybody has any ribbon 3D schedule of F07? If anyone do so, would you please post it for me?

Thanks for help

PatPat