Originally Posted by
speedracerntrixie
I found an interesting picture. It's one of my pylon airplanes from last season of a landing that went horribly wrong. We were landing left to right and there was a slight crosswind blowing out at approx 60 degrees. At the end of the heat I was the last airplane to land. There was some confusion and a couple guys getting ready for the next heat thought the runway was clear. As a result they had walked onto the runway just as I was starting to flare blocking my view of the airplane for a couple seconds. When the airplane came back into view, I found myself over the grass. Now although the ailerons did get away from me and I am clearly in an opposite bank, it is also obvious that I used rudder to get back to the runway. As a side note, the airplane is clearly cross controlled, slow and at a high angle of attack. It did not throw it's self to the ground in a tantrum. A few moments after this picture was taken I touched down on the left wheel and wingtip then rolled strait until stopped and shut the engine down so my caller could retrieve the airplane. My apologies for a link to the picture rather then dropping it in the thread, it is a copy written picture.
http://shanksphoto.smugmug.com/Airpl...ce/i-8KJ9Zgx/A
Found another picture taken on the second day of the event. This time the wind is going the prevailing direction with the same cross wind only blowing in. Much better landing, although quite difficult to see, I am holding in a very slight amount of right rudder.
http://shanksphoto.smugmug.com/Airpl...ce/i-JMbnkK7/A
One thing I will agree with is that the size of models vs full size does change how they are affected by wind. IE a model plane flying at 30 Mph will be affected more by a 20 mph cross wind than a real aircraft doing 150 Mph.
However that is not a cut and dried argument either concerning many aspects of the aircraft handing.
EG take a 33% Extra and compare it the full size.
Those two aircraft will fly more alike than say an UMX aircraft vs the 33% Extra.
Or perhaps the Full size Extra compared to a Boeing 747.. They are both full size planes yet the difference will be greater than comparing the Real Extra to the 33% version.
One thing I will say, and I am basing this on almost 36 years of flying RC planes (perhaps over 300 different types) and 33 years of flying full size. (8500 hours)
RC models "in General" are infinitely more forgiving aerodynamically than full size aircraft. You can easily "ham fist" an RC plane and usually get away with it, e.g. pulling high G, cross controls, flying too slow, heavy landings etc, try some of those in a full size aircraft and you die very quickly.
I also have a full size Helicopter CPL, and over 15 CP RC helicopters, an RC Helicopter is virtually impossible to break in flight. I have tried it with mine, maximum Pitch climbs, pulling massive amounts of G, positive and negative. Nothing ever breaks unless you hit the ground.
In a real helicopter, being too harsh on the controls of some models, IE snapping full left then right cyclic, will snap the rotor mast completely and you die.
That's the real difference, and probably why full size pilots must do exams before they are allowed to fly solo but RC pilots do not.