STG, well, people do compliment my improvement, but i feel like if they knew how hard i tried thye would see i am not just "picking it up easy." i consider a natural someone like kyle, they guy who has the funtana vids.. have you watched his indoor foamy vids? god! talk about complete control. i wonder how much he flies.

AEROHEAD, im with you, work hard and results will surface. and it is a lot of fun.

Yes Kyle is gifted. He is a standout. His entire life has also revolved around flying for the last 3.5 years. It is much more than just a hobby for him, it is an obsession. He will be the first to tell you that he has a radio in his hands practicing in a constructive manner all the time.
He got into flying by picking up the G2 sim as a game. Lol.

Btw, I flew my first IMAC event last year and Kyle was my caller. He is a really nice, humble guy. He flew my plane at the end of the day and made it look awesome. It was fantastic. I was flying a little FL330 with a SA100 in it.

The first time I did real rollers with my foamy was last summer and it was as exciting to me as when I first started to learn how to fly. For me, I don't think it would have ever been possible without a good sim and a ton of hours.

i tried out the slow speed angle on g3 tonight. i am able to keep a rolling harrier alive on 50% speed with the yak. i did notice that there seem to be two way to add inputs for this one. they way i did it initially was to add every input singly. if it was inverted, i gave up only. if it was knife left i gave it right only.. and so on. then i remembered that i saw a vid of one of the panama brothers showing his radio as he flew a rolling harrier. he seemed to be meshing his inputs. the way it looked was both sticks were always in motion. his elevator went slowly from up to down. his rudder, left to right, never pausing in neutral. i tried this and saw that it gave a different looking harrier roll. is either method prefered? how do you guys do it?

I could have written this post exactly as you have,I'm in a bummed out stage,after almost 20yrs flying & 3 yrs of it 3-D'ing I got to the point where I had to ask myself,"why am I putting myself thru this?". My 3 yrs at 3-D have led to more damage to planes than in the previous 17. I too used to be the role model of how long a plane can last with hundreds of flights(some 10yrs and over 500 flights) and now I'm banging them up regularly. Although most of the hard landings can be fixed,it still bums me out. I wonder how many 3-D'ers have gone thru this? I have to confess, I push myself to be the best,I want to stay down lower,longer and more often than everyone else and its costing me. I dont have a sim so I practice like a mental patient,I'm at the field more than everyone else. At this point, I have decided to be more selective when I get low,I have to be patient & wait for the best days (light wind)and keep it in closer so I can see it better. That should help some,I plan on using a cheap plane to do the heavy practicing on, a modified U-Can-Do 60. I know its not the best plane but I'm having some success with it;torque rolls,harriers,rollers,walls,sick slow HA KE and all the standard stuff like 4&8-pointers,blenders,flat spins&turns. I'm not real good at rolling harriers yet,avarage at torque rolling,can harrier better than anyone here,many good landings & long runs up&down the field.All on a U-Can-Do,I can do some of these maneuvers on other planes(Yak,Showtime)but I dont get low with them because of the speed they travel,I hope the "Do" doesnt ruin me from being able to fly the "better" planes. I guess some of us have to "pay to play". If it gets too hard on you,back off a notch or 2,...for a while at least!!

I've been practicing in a destructive manner. In all seriousness,as addictive as 3-D can be,its not the only way to fly or the toughest either. A good rolling circle,slow roll,Lomcevak & some others can be extremely difficult to master as well. Some guy at my club thinks hes the best now because he does one 3-D maneuver quite well(I know he thinks hes the best because he told me so!),I question that because I've been practicing rolling circles longer than any 3-D move and have a long way to go before I get it perfect. It seems 3-D attracts the showoff in some of us(me included) but it should be kept in perspective to the big picture.

3d doesa attract the showoff guy, but that's not all it's about. i like the feel of the plane hovering right in front of me. then pull out and do pattern stuff right afterwards. i like mixing them both.. even if im not that great at it yet, it is a lot of fun to have a challenge this difficult.. keep working at it and see improvement.

It is definately hard to excel at 3-D,my point is that there are several avenues to choose at first,IMAC,Pattern,3-D & probably more. Being good at a few 3-D moves doesnt necessarily make you "Top Gun". A good Pattern or IMAC flyer can do things that would also take the beginner years to get it right. I guess "Freestyle" is the blending of all these disciplines.

The best thing you can do is back off a little for a while at least,dont do the low, high risk stuff. Finish another model or 2. Then after practicing up higher you should feel better about getting down on the deck. I know I get tensed up too much some times and mistakes can turn into crashes when I'm like that. I need to be relaxed and confident with what I,m doing-only practice can give you that.

I just treat all my planes like foamies. Yup all the way to the 35% and soon 40%. I just tell myself before each flight its just a big foamie.

I started more with 3D flying and can tell you IMAC is also a challenge. I think the first thing I thought was cool was knife edge circles. The IMAC practice helped my 3D and vice versa. I mean rollers I really became proficient at when I understood every input required to do precise 4 point rolls.

For me hovering down on the deck became no sweat after I got really comfortable with harriers and elevators. Its more or less the best way to get into a DOD hover. I also find getting as close to my plane as possible helps.

I think the more willing to take risks you are the more bold your flying will become. Flying the same plane just over and over also helps you become a great pilot. For me I love the Extra 260 and Ultimate. In about 28% and up size they are all very predictable.

Another point to getting DOD,hovering at 20-30 feet doesn't really give you much comfort,I had a flame out at that altitude and after the monster tail slide there wasnt much left to recover. So I keep thinking of that when I torque roll,if that happens when DOD,less distance to fall,less damage and you can see it way better.