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Old 03-14-2004 | 02:44 PM
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Farmbuyer
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From: Indian Trail, NC
Default RE: To pinch or to Thumb....

Still learning to fly (on my own) and have about 60-70 total flights primarily using an .061 on a powered glider. I started out thumbing and recently realized that as the stick walks around under my thumb that I will slightly reposition my thumb from time to time and that there is always a subtle bobble in the plane's flight because the stick must be in, or go to, the neutral position in order to reposition my thumb and I am not always in level 1-g flight when I do this.

Yesterday I was practicing very slow and low flight and got aggravated because the stick felt kind of out of place under my thumb and I was scared to reposition because the bobble would be unacceptable at 15' off the ground. so I grabbed each stick with two fingers and got instant control, so much in fact that my flying got better by an order of magnitude or so it seems.

I used to think that this position felt unnatural but now for me it is the way I will fly from now on. I also realized that my left middle finger naturaly touched the buddy box switch which was a bonus. Finger repositioning is now done unconsciously and no longer seen in the planes flight path. Once I felt I had run out of roll input but it was my fingers not used to moving that far. It was kind of like an exponential stick response without the computer. With the thumbs, I never really knew where the stick was compared to using two fingers. Maybe when the plane is up high and lazy I will use the thumbs but when it is on the deck I will definately be using finger tips to fly. My experience might not be the same as yours but yesterday was a really good day in my flying skills development because of switching to two fingers.

Greg