Hi guys,
Yesterday morning I made a breakthrough in TR'ing. While practicing on RC Pilot sim I realized several things that combined were preventing me from TR'ing.
1) The TR is a real rolling maneuver, and has less to do with hovering than rolling. The only differences are that there's no forward speed and no aileron held to TR.
2) Although I can do nice slow rolls, consecutive rolls, and point rolls, I only know how to do them to the RIGHT. So when this thing starts torquing to the left I still give it the same timing and commands as a right roll, which explains why I have been dropping out and giving the wrong rudder.
3) Up until now I was thinking of the TR as a hover where the plane spins. The minute I started to think of the TR as a vertical roll that goes nowhere due to hover power only being used, I could easily get the stick moved in the correct direction, and somewhat correct amplitude (that will take practice), and I could envision rolling consecutively and indefinitely. The average number of consistent TR's that I could pop out jumped all the way to 3, and I was flying out of them, not dropping out. I have pushed my max to 5 consecutive TR's, up from 4, but now the difference is that I can follow the top of the plane around as it rolls. I have started to practice all my rolls to the left, especially left rolling circles. My problems now have to do with maintaining hover throttle and general overcorrections. I have made more progress on TR'ing in the past month than in the previous year. I'm very close to really doing the TR consecutively. I traded out the Freestyle for a Sig Somethin Extra and I just bolted in a YS .45 with 12.25 x 3.75 APC prop. It was hovering ok with an OS .40SF and 11x3 prop but barely pulled out vertically. I will post my progress. This is a lot of fun!
-Tom Andersen
Greensboro NC