what is 3D flying? what makes a plane 3D plane?

this has been asked many many times, and the technical answer is that 3d flying is flying beyond the stall.
in most 3d manoeuvres the wing has little or no forward speed and the control surfaces rely on propwash to remain effective.
3d manoeuvres include- the waterfall, prophang(hover), parachute/elevator, torque roll, flat spin, pinwheel, blender, harrier and the list goes on, and on, and on!

what makes a 3d plane?
in my opinion, reasonably low wing loading combined with a good 3d airfoil. lots of power (at least 1.5:1 power to weight ratio).
large control surfaces with a lot of throw, and most important- a good pilot

And then there's an offshoot of a prophang/hover called a torque roll in which the plane uses the torque of the engine to do a roll during a hover.

My favorite 3D maneuver is a vertical climb that goes to a 3/4 waterfall (which exits inverted). Chop the power and enter a flat spin. Add power (On my plane, if you add power in a flat spin in goes up ). Revers all the throws and do some tumbles and finally let the plane fall out. Not only fun and challenging to do, but it looks really neat.

wow, all that sounds really complicated. any website showing pictures or movies?


would an Ultimate stick with a saito 120 be considerd a 3D plane?


edit: oh and how do you enter a flat spin? after seeing top gun ive allways wanted to do a flat spin in an R/C airplane.

Its really hard to define a 3D plane. With the proper set up and pilot almost any plane can be made to 3D. The Ultimate Stick will do 3D, I wouldnt consider it a 3D monster but it will perform and hover nicely, as well as elevators and crows, etc. As a matter of fact I was torque rolling an old style great planes big stick today.

Movies and descriptions of maneuvers are everywhere for free
www.3dbatix.com
down on the deck dot com ( No spaces) they wont ever let me type that out as a URL for some reason, I guess they have something against Joe or something))
www.horizonhobby.com (look in the past archives for articles by mike)
www.torkitordorkit.net
As well as countless other smaller sites.

As far as the flat spin goes. Gain lots of altitude. Stall the airplane (tip: if you can manage to stall it with a little power and close to level flight then it works better). When the airplane stalls enter a conventional spin with some up elevator and full left rudder you will probably have to feed in some left aileron too most model planes wont do it without the aileron. After about 2 or 3 rotations slowly begin to transition from left aileron to right aileron while adding some power. The plane should enter a flat spin like this. Once the flat spin has started you can make it more dramatic by feeding in more throttle and experimenting with transitioning from up elevator to down elevator. NOTE: Depending on the plane you fly and how you have it set up you might have to add throttle at a different time or not add full right or any down. Every plane has its own way of doing it.

SOme planes won't enter a flat spin right side up and have to enter inverted.

Remember, while inverted, the rudder is reversed to to enter the spin, right rudder left aileron (Push the sticks together) and transition to right aileron.

It may sound and look complicated, but it's not that hard to do. Just takes some practice.

Take a look at my site, www.3drc.info . Click 3D Aerobatics, there's a good description there.

What is 3D flying? one hell of a load of FUN!!!!!!!!