Want to learn how to do a rolling circle

Rolling circle counterclockwise

Begin a right roll and hold. The trick is as the plane rolls past right knife edge but before inverted begin down elevator input to initiate the left turn and hold down elevator to maintain altitude. Then after the plane passes inverted then through left knife edge, when the plane is halfway between left KE and upright begin inputting UP elevator to maintain the turn. repeat repeat repeat to complete the circle. Trick is to set a roll rate that you can manage at full stick over so you can just push the stick over and work the elevator to maintain the turn AND level flight through the circle... Its not easy but its doable once you get the hang of it..

Rolling HARRIER circle right roll counterclockwise circle

This takes a lot more practice and coordination
Roll right and hold.
Left Rudder
Down Elevator
Right Rudder
Up Elevator
Left Rudder
Down Elevator
Right Rudder
Up ElevatorLeft Rudder
Down Elevator
Right Rudder
Up Elevator
Timing has to be spot on to get it right.

Goal is to hold the nose on a 45 degree or so axis and maintain that axis,, like there is a rod sriven through the nose and out the tail and the plane rotates around that axis that is on a 45 degree angle. Its a BEAUTIFUL maneuver when done correctly..

I sit in front of the TV and just work the sticks through a whole movie just to get the rythm down... left, down, right, up, left, down, right, up, left, down, right, up, left, down, right, up, left, down, right, up, left, down, right, up, left, down, right, up.

The trick is to input each control slightly early so that the rudder and elevator are steering the plane to the left when that surface is actively in the vertical. In reality everyone naturally tends to do this anyway so its a lot harder to do a rolling harrier in a straight line than it is in a circle.

Also to really make it work you have to manage the throttle to maintain JUST enough throttle input to be able to maintain roll rate and altitude. One of the hardest maneuvers to do correctly, at least it is for me but I pretty much have it. Im just learing to clean it up now. Its like learning to hit a 90 mph fastball, the more you look at it the slow it appears to be going. Once you have practiced a while you can see the plane pretty well and can actually vary the stick inputs to make the plane do what you want it to do. It will surprise you what you can do with enough practice. At 1st I couldnt do 2 rolls without nearly crashing, now it doesnt seen that hard at all.

BigNed's instructions are the way to do it. I practice on the sim. It really gets you off to a good start. It's actually a great excersize in stick control. If you can do that, you can do many other cool manuevers that require such tight throttle, ail, elev, and rudder coordination.

3Dbatix.com also has an instructional on Rolling harriers. You just look for the instrucitonal vids and you can see the transmitter and the plane at the same time to match stick movements with what the plane is doing. I think flying cirkus has this too..

I do mine backwards from most people. Instead of making the "circle" turn part using the elevator when the wings are perpinduclar to the ground - I use the rudder while the plane is inverted and upright.

Just started out that way to learn it. After you get that down and it's rough, but a true rolling circle then you start blending all the controls together as you go around so that it smooths out.

Have a plane that's set up good to begin with, if it's nose heavy getting a good rolling circle is very hard because the nose wants to drop bad while inverted and that's just one more thing to deal with.

The toughest part for me is throttle management, and it is KEY to maintaining roll rate and attitude IMO. Like everything else Im sure that in time it will be automatic with a few thousand hours of practice and a couple of 55 gallon barrels of fuel..

I had trouble with throttle control as well. Then I had trouble keeping the ailerons at full deflection while I rolled. Finally I have gotten better at that but now I'm working on rolling high alpha but flying straight, then making turns. So I guess that would be rolling ovals. It takes tons of practice. I'm not even close to what I'd like to be. Also I need to figure out how to roll the opposite direction. I just started trying to do that on the sim today.

Some great advice here. When I first started I did nothing but rolling circles for two full hours. And that yielded about five 1/4 circles. This is tough to get the hang of. Ryhthm is everything. If I could add one pointer. There should be a pause at the top and bottem of your ELEV stick movement. If the plane is climbing increase the time of your pause. If it's diving decrease the time of your pause. Also every plane needs a different amount of throttle. Srart in the middle and increase or decrease as needed. My funtana will do rolling circles and rolling harriers. The only difference in input is the amount of throttle and the rate of the ELEV.

David

Oh yall do it the easy way and set your ailerons up so that flull deflectoin gives you the desired amount of aileron.I learned the hard way. The best thing to do is to get a simulator and jut pratice. After many hours I can do rolling circles either direction with as many rolls as I want. Right now the hard one for me is the single roll circle. Very little aileron.

My experience:

Divide the rolling circle in 4 quarters. Do not try to perform the full rolling circle at once; try the 1st quarter , then ad the 2nd and so on. Abort the maneuver whenever you feel is necessary, try it again.

You can use any of the 4 different ways to approach the rolling circle:

1)From your horizontal level flight line: starting from left to right; option a) roll right, option b) roll left.
2) From your horizontal flight line starting from right to left, same options as before; a) roll right b)roll left.

Throttle management during the maneuver is a must in case of having strong wings or even moderate winds; depending on the direction you might have to add some throttle if your plane is against the wind. This will render a constant speed of your plane along the path of the rolling circle.

Same thing for the aileron; although the rolling circle assumes a constant aileron rolling rate; the wind can play games on your rolling rate.

Above all try this at home using your flight simulator; then when you master this on the computer, try it a the field; you will notice that the wind factor would also have to be considered to perform the magic behind performing a properly executed rolling circle.

Enjoy

Or, you could go to the flyingcirkus.com and go to the 3D university..they have video showing the stick movements right on the screen over the rolling circle video...too cool

Yup, its a GOOD instrctional video..

crap!!! I knew it was harder than it looks..I cant even rub my tummy and pat my head simultaneously ..ahhhhhhhhh but with afp theres always hope!

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Thank you

3DU at www.flyingcirkus.com is much better than Chris Maier,s

That and the fact you don,t have get saved at the same time

Hey read the flaming post will ya. That is the problem today anybody says or shows any sign of religon and they becomes a instant target.

I am entitled to my opinion as much as Chris is, only I didn,t have you download a video to see it. So whats your problem?

Brad-A,

Your remarks are posted in the wrong thread.. I think you meant to post in "Extreme Yak 54"

I was talking about Chris Maier and his video

Brad-A

Then, please accept my apologies for assuming wrongly...I t seems that I had just read the "54" thread where someone had ben awaiting a reply from you. When I read yours, in this thread, my mind went back to the other... Again, my apologies.

No problem