ORIGINAL: Brazier
[:-] I recently got a FireBird Commander XL, my first plane. The 1st flight was unsucessful-lost it 2 miles away
Luckly found the next day-problem was high winds aloft- but now i'm nervous about flying again.-Is this a hard plane to fly? I'm brand new to RC planes- thanks for any help[X(]
No, it is a very easy plane to fly.
You did not say how it got 2 miles away, but I suspect you let it get down wind from you. What do you estimate the wind speed was where you were flying?
Here are some tips.
A critical piece of advice to you and to all two channel pilots. Respect the
wind! REALLY RESPECT THE WIND!!!!!
These planes either have throttle and rudder or throttle and differential
thrust, which does about the same thing.
If you fly on a windy day you have a very high probability of losing the
plane. Why, because you have no way to fight the wind. If the plane gets
down wind from you, and it will, here is what happens. You hit the power to
fight the wind, but these planes climb when you hit the power, so instead of
coming back to you, they climb and as they climb, the wind pushes the plane
further away.
A very very experience two channel pilot can work around this through a series
of maneuvers called the death spiral. However, this is a difficult thing to
control for a new pilot. There is a fellow in our club who has lost two
Firebird Commanders to the wind. I even lost an Aerobird because I did not
know to push the nose down to dive into the wind at the time. It was my first
flight.
Now, when the wind is mild to moderate, 2-5 mph, he is very very good with
this plane. However he is still pretty new, maybe 15 flights, and has not
learned how to handle this plane in the wind.
A three channel plane with elevator control can push the nose down and dive
into the wind to come back. So, don't fly your rudder/elevator or diff thrust
plane in wind over 5 MPH until you are very good with the plane. Don't get
over 7 MPH until you can easily fight your way back from a down wind position.
TIP
For the Firebird, II, XL, Fighterbird and Commander, if you put a popsicle stick under the back of the wing, it lowers the angle of attack of the wing and the plane will not climb
as much on power application. If you learn to manage the plane well, this can
give you better penetration into the wind, but it still will not let you put
the nose down into the wind.
Here are links to the intro videos for two of these planes:
Firebird Commander
http://www.modelflight.com.au/rc_mod...ander_high.wmv
Firebird Outlaw
http://www.modelflight.com.au/rc_mod...utlaw_high.wmv