Just bought a Magic 46 with 11x6 prop. Can anybody teach me how to hover this plane. I have never learnt to hover

1) get a new prop, APC 12.25x3.75 is the best fr that engine to hover.
2) get the most movements as you can on a rate switch

Ive always said if you want to learn to prophang you need to know how to get out of it vertically. if you fall out add full power and your out, as when you hover low you cant just let it drop out of the sky and when the speeds up pulll out.

It very hard to lear to hover. it takes lots of concentration and uses all 4 controlls at once. to get into a hove you fly in a strait line (slowly, if you go fast, you WILL rip the wings off) and pull up and bring the throttle down so your not rising or falling, at the begining its quite hard to get the right amount of throttle to keep it in the one hight (this come with practise).

now your in the right position to start to hover (vertical as possible) at a hight the plane will fall out. to keep it in the hover you need to input the correct controls. so if it falls to the left, add right rudder. if it falls to the right add left rudder. if it falls to the undercarige pull back if it falls onto its back add down.

do this for a while. your confidence grow and reactions will quicken and most likley you will get lower. when your really confident do it low.but make sure you knowwot your doing.

anouther way of doing it is to do it at low leval. in thery if your lower, and it falls out it wont gain enough momentum to do much damage. just use the same method as abouve but make sure our not a foot from it, if you are your mad and you shouldent be trusted with a glowplug far less a hovering plane, only do this when youve got experience, even with that i sometime catch myself out.

to get into a low hover fly low and slow, sharply pull up and add power and hover as above.

this is the way i lernt: over the crops at our feild i usd the low hovering method, if i fell out (as i did after 10 seconds) the crop cushioned the fall. yes it was annoying haviong to walk in the crop loads of time and have to restart it but i learnt how to do it quickly and with little fear of damage

but the main thing to say is......

PRACTISE PRACTISE PRACTISE!

hope it helps

ian firstly you dont need lods n lods of movement to propphang a magic...
if you want to learn prophanging then start off with enough hieght so if you did get into trouble you can get out of it easy...you do use all 4 control surfaces...But you get it right up into a vertical climb and you got t6o keep it there using all 4 of your control surfaces...once you get the hang of it its easy you will be doing it without thinking...

Anyway PRATICE MAKES PERFECT!!!!

Dean

Another trick that i have learned is if you begin to fall out of a hover you need to stay calm and let the model fly. If it starts to fall on its back then fly as if inverted don't try to do too many crazy stick movements to keep it upright. At the beginning it is better to let it fall out and wait until you have complete orientation of the plane. Then fly the model just like you would any other time. Usually the reason one crashes is due to over-reaction or wrong orientation. Keep the throttle pegged for stability and let the model fly out of trouble.


Give it a try and good luck.

The most important thing is to never give up!!!!

check out my Cougar review for my tips.

main points.

tune the engine to run perfectly nose up. you need perfect midrange and pick up.
once you can keep the plane pointing upwards up high don't worry about letting it go downwind, your ready for step two, do it LOW! not 10' not 6' sub 3' the low height means if it does fall over you do very little damage.

for the rest check my cougar review

someone once told me this saying is incorrect, he said practice doesn't make perect, Perfect practice makes perfect.

In other words your not going to get any better if you practice the wrong stuff your just going to learn bad habbits.

as far as hovering goes I was always told that the entry is crucial, you cant just force a plane to hover from any attitude. If you dont enter it right its going to be harder to keep it in a hover.

Loads of good advice already. Definately change the prop 12.25x3.75 orsome people prefer the 12x4, both APC. Apparently the 12X4 gives better static thrust on a 46 moto but I note you haven't said which moor you are using.

I would une your engine a couple of clicks rich. You should then test your throtling nose up. When you go into the hover you are going to need the enging to respond well to throttle inputs. You don't want to be too over powered. I as using 30% cool Power in my cougar but found that hovering is easier with 5-10%. With the srong stuff I was either falling or climbing out. The low nitro kind of sofens your throtle respose.

Best time to try this is in light to no wind. When the wind gts up themodel blows back towards you too quickly.

I would come in low heading into wind. Pass yourself, ideally at idle or just above to give minimum momentum to the model, and head about 20 -30 foot into wind. At that point pull up and add some throtle. You are aiming to get the model as vertical as possible. It is much easier to hold the model in the hover once it is totally vertical. I would aim o give just enough throttle that on you fist few attempts you fly a slow vertical climb trying to keep it straight. Once you get to about 50ft push in down and up the revs to fly out. At this point it's not a bad idea to practice pulling out to inverted or o the sides as his will get you use to recovering from all possible directions when the model falls out with zero airspeed late on.

On the first few attempt don't wory about getting the model stationary. As you become comfortable with the pull up and straight vertical line you can start to add less throttle on he pull up so that your climb gets slower and slower. With time you will get an idea of the timing to put the revs on and the controls in the hover. Remember you are trying to keep the model ballanced on the the tail, a bit like ballancing a broom on your finger.

I find it best to fly level at idle pull up and add the revs as the momentum dies. This gets the model stationary nice and low. My advice, for what it's worth, is to start high the fist time you try to get it to be at a stand still, I don't think it is wise to be putting you model into a posiion where you are not in control at low level, at the least you are likely to scare and possibly upset some of your flying buddies.

You will reach a point where you put just enough revs on that the momentum runs out at height. When the model stops your reaction will pobably be to gun the motor for fear of falling backwards intoa pile of match sticks. That's fine (I would even say ideal) as this will mean you fly out rather than falling out with no control.

Keep at it and you'll soon be adding justenough revs to kepp you up when the momentum dies. I'msure you'll work out hefiner points from here to get you hovering down on the deck.

Te other hing that I found really useful in the latter stages of learning his was to have someone stood next to me (in my case Brains from one of the posts above) telling me what to do, this can help you push yourself to ty a bit harder o keep low and still. Even if they are alking rubbish (not you Dean) then there is an incentive to improve just to shut them up.

If you have someone that flies at your patch that can already do this ask if you can stand next to them and see how they do it. Watch the sticks and the model, they might even give you a running comentary which might give you some tips.

Good luck and remember always three mistakes high, they are only designed to land (softly) on their wheels, and on the patch.

sj.

I hav'nt perfected it yet, but am working on it. The advice that helped me the most. A guy told me to watch the tail not the wing and use small inputs. He also said he could teach anyone to hover for $100................. Buy a $100. worth of fuel and practice.
Hang in there. I think Stevie Wonder could solo before I can hover longer than a 60 seconds. It's a steep learning curve.
later David

I have had my Magic for about a year now. 11x4 wide prop, 3Ds great! I Learned to torkroll mostly on the sim, lots of hours. Then I just got out there and buened fuel. I have found that the Magic is very strong, full power walls, blenders, waterfalls-most done at full power. Spins sooooo fast that if you blink, you miss the spin! Only thing is it wont knife edge. Just fly it out if you get into trouble, and dont over control, as this plane is quite touchy. AND DONT DO WHAT I DID... I was torkrolling with the tail in the grass when the engine flamed... Flopped onto the gear hard. thanks to me not starting my timer! Plane was okay.


Lots of practice!

3D-kid330

going by phils advice, i have recently learnt to prophang (hover) using a panther funfly (basically a magic).

i come in at a low low idle, which is very low with a good ol' irvine .36, i slowly fly past myself into wind at about 1 foot height and once about 8 feet in front of me i slowly add power and up elevator until its vertical, then its a case of a little right aileron to counter the torque and a bit of up elevator to hold it there, rudder use is important and finding the 'sweet spot' for the throttle is aswell.

i hang very low, (less than 2 feet) not because i am a show off (although it does look good lower) but because, if i lose it or it falls over too far, it hits the wingtip and noses over.

the wingtips are a mess and it has patches but it has taught me a lot, i can now hover almost indefinately on decent days with little wind, when its wind i struggle a bit but im getting there.

may i wish you SMALL MOVEMENTS AND GOOD THROTTLING!!

when i started that perfect entry was everything, it sets up how stable the model is going to be. once i got that and could drift downwind all be it a bit untidy i came in low and started to hover over the patch, over the next 2-3 mins i pulled more and more up in giving more throttle as well, this taught me to start using rudder insead of aileron, it got easier and easier as the tank ran drier. i landed, fuled up, added more movement!!! ( as i now wanted responce, not less movement to counter my untrianed fingers ) and went up again. i kid you not i went straight into a 30 second controled hang, next hang i touched my tail, then i used to watch the tail only, now i can take an over view.

the hang is unlike any other stage of learning, it SUDDENLY! clicks, you go from not hanging to hanging in one flight, yes you still screw up, but thats because you get cocky. once you've got it you find you hardly move the sticks, you can enter it from any angle or speed and drop backwards at quite a rate and still be under control.

bigest factors, engine tuned right, confidence ( either you don't care if you do spank the plane, or you already have ) start high to learn it, once you can drift down wind, come in low. if you go into stall and hit throttle, or start hovering and pull up very slowely is your choice, which ever works best for you.

now, i just need to click this TR stuff

If you're new to hovering or trying out a new plane you're going to blow it a lot at first so take advantage of that fact. Get the plane up fairly high (50-75 feet) and learn how to blow it without losing altitude. For example if the plane falls out to the canopy one natural reaction is to pull full up which gets you a descending loop, got to break that habit fast, down low it's a disaster. While you're up there watch what the plane likes to do. My Somethin' Extra and my Sledge liked to wander off to the right in like a really high alpha knife edge, both had too much right thrust. After a short time you build up the skills and enough confidence to be sure you can lose it and not put it in so you can start working it down confidently.

Mike