New to the 3D scene....
I have a QQ Yak 54-72 inch with a Evolution 26GT.
I'm learning with plenty of altitude.
I got into an inverted flat spin {on purpose} and almost didn't get it out but survived.
I've noticed a lot of 3D manuevers, the airplane quits flying { I guess that's why they call it 3D} due to such extreme control movements. This is stuff a real airplane won't do so all bets are off.
Question: What's the best way to recover from an flat inverted spin without losing altitude?
Better yet, what's good technique for not losing altitude with these 3D manuevers....
Mike
Memphis TN

You are holding down elevator and rudder and probably some power. Leave the power in, hold the down elevator and release the rudder. The plane should stop spinning and start pitching upward. RElease some down to stay level or hold the down to pop up to vertical for a hover. In an extreme case, you may need a touch of opposite rudder.

It's when you release everything that you get the big pitch downward so you need to hold the down elevator to hold your altitude. If you are at very low power, you may need to increase it some to get airflow over the controls. With the smaller (.46) planes, I'm usually at high power, trying to get it to climb in the flat spin and I can usually just release the rudder and fly out.

If you have lost power and have no airflow over the controls, good luck.

Mike I have the same plane but use a Saito 1.80. To get out of a flat spin I just go to idle and neutralize the stick. Mine will spin maybe 1/2 a revolution and stop. The nose will be down. I use about 1/2 power while in the spin. This will slow the decent.
A flat spin is one manuver that will loose alt. Some planes will climb in a flat spin with full power but not many. The rest of the 3D stuff takes lots of practic to hold alt. Like a rolling harrier. The thing to remember is use the throttle to get out of trouble not the elevator. The plane is flying on the prop for a lot of this stuff not on the wing like your average sport plane. Your left thumb will need some training. I learned a lot of 3D on a SPAD3D. It flys awful on the wing. It must be flown with throttle 90% of the time. I learned more flying it for 6 months than I learned in the 5 years prior.

David

On most of my 3D planes I just ease up on the controls and that allows me to pull out of a lot of stuff. If you checkout my video of my Ultimate you can see that rollers running with the wind make it easy to loose altitude.

You always want a good power reserve regardless of what type of plane you fly, but for 3D this is really important.

Most of what I fly is 33% and up so there are a lot of things which are different.

FWIW when I had a Saito 180 I ran it on 30% heli fuel and I didnt have a delay in throttle response.

I do some decent rollers in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKApCe7jS7o

You can see how the wind will affect even the big planes. For harriers and hovering it can help you. When you get good at rollers you can either come down in rolling harrier elevators or gain altitude.

Some planes will flat spin better than others. My Edge I had would do the most sick and perfect flat spins. The Extra's and yak's seem to like inverted flat spins more than upright.

I also just neutralize the controls, when it gets at the right attitude, I add power and fly out upright. You need to make sure you have enough altitude especially upright. All my bigger planes just keep spinning 2-3 rev's when I end an upright flatspin. If I ever ended one of these too low it would surely spin into the ground. I believe this is what happens to most people that say they could not get it out of a spin and it continued spinning right into the ground. Eventually it will stop spinning, especially with opposite rudder and aileron. Anyway, start with lots of altitude and practice getting out. Then, when you get bored with that, you can end it the inverted flat spins with inverted harriers. Try doing upright to inverted to upright etc etc. Those are really fun, but go up nice and high.

(That face is me looking way up high at my plane).

A lesson on how a plane flies looks to be in order. A plane must first be stalled before entering a spin. Stalled means the wings have quit generating lift, generally due to an excessive angle of attack, or are lifting unequally in this case to the extent needed to initiate a spin. By about the third revolution of a spin the plane is in a "deep stall". A flat spin occurs when the c/g is aft, or it is aided by power and control input.

The proper exit of any spin, flat or steep nose down, is to neutralize any aileron input, push the nose down, and apply opposite rudder to counteract the rotation. In an inverted flat spin (the worst spin scenario) holding power, or adding more power, has been the cause of many planes spinning all the way to the ground. The nose has to be pushed over to gain airspeed for the wings to begin generating lift again. There will usually be an additional altitude loss with spin recovery. Simply neutralizing the controls delays the spin recovery and generally causes excessive amounts of lost alttitude and a continued spin rotation beyond that desired.

Fortunately our power to weight ratios gives us a lot more latitude in our spin recoveries, permitting the use of power to move the tail into a more useful position. Learning the correct recovery techniques will be quite helpful when you fly a plane that does not have as generous a power to weight ratio, or if you decide to fly competition. As in any other maneuver, planning the exit before you initiate the entry is quite helpful. The use of the correct control input will let you pick the place you want to stop and exit a spin.

Thanks for the great response guys. This 3D stuff is hard but that's why I'm doing it!
More questions to come...
Mike
Memphis