ORIGINAL: otrcman

Wow ! Some really good comments right off the bat. Evidently I'm not the only one who wants his planes to MOVE realistically as well as look realistic while sitting on the ground.

Realistic motion seems to me to come in many different flavors. All contribute to the image. Here are a few to consider:

SPEED By speed I don't mean how many mph the model is going, but how fast does it appear to be going relative to how fast the full scale version appears to be going. To the eye, speed is perceived primarily by seeing how many times the plane travels it's own length in a unit of time. So if a real DVII goes 5 times it's own length in one second, then the model will look most realistic if it too travels 5 times its own length in one second. That has to do with relating the weight of the model to the size. That's an entire thread on its own, and involves model weight, power, and to some degree piloting technique.

ANGULAR RATES These are the rates at which the model banks, yaws and pitches. Sensei referred to ''loading and damping'', and I think he has a point. Heavy objects resist motion from external inputs, such as gusts. Think ''inertia''. And highly damped objects (things like biplanes) lose their angular rates rapidly due to the resistance of the air surrounding them. A kite is a good example of an object that has very little inertia (''loading'', if you will) and so it responds rapidly to any wind gust. But the kite also has lots of surface area, so the motions ''damp out'' rapidly. What we perceive when watching a kite is rapid, almost jerky motions, that die out quickly. Unfortunately, we can't get the light weight required for realistic speed and at the same have the high inertia that is necessary for resistance to gusts. Only in full size does this relationship exist exactly.

DIAMETERS OF CIRCLES A funny expression, but what I'm trying to express is the size of a maneuver compared to the size of the plane. When you do a loop, is the diameter of the loop equal to 2 wing spans or 20 wingspans ? When you do a 30 degree banked turn, is the diameter of your full circle equal to 10 wingspans or 100 wingspans ? To look truly realistic, the relationship between the size of your model and the size of your maneuvers needs to be similar to that of the full scale plane.

Dick