How to hover?
 

I have been trying to hover for quite a while now and I just can't get it right! How do you expeirienced guy do it? Thanks for any help!

RE: How to hover?
 

1st things 1st. Can you put the plane into a Harrier (or high alpha) position and drive it around in that position? Can you do controlled elevator drops? If you can do both of these well, then you are ready for some nice controlled hover manuevers. Drop down into your elevator drop, as it slows, get the nose up into the 45 degree angle and keep slowing your momentum forward. As you creep to nearly a stop, slowly bring the nose up using power, not elevator. You want a nice smooth transition for a nice controlled hover. Because you've mastered harrier driving as I like to call it, you are ready for the smooth slight corrections needed to hover. Most people over compensate during a hover, causing the plane to go out of control very quickly.

A lot of people also try to find that sweet spot for the throttle, when in fact, its a constant blipping of the throttle. Once in the hover, Concentrate on keeping the plane from going up! NOT on keeping it from dropping. This sounds backwards, but it changed my world wrapping my head around that. Heres a quick video of some nice hovering I just posted to my youtube channel.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVVayPKbWI0[/youtube]

RE: How to hover?
 

What do you mean by elevator drop?

RE: How to hover?
 

Elevator drops... Some call it "Parachute", See in the video I posted, when the plane is dropping kind of straight down with a little forward momentum, but flat? That is an elevator drop. Then once you get close to the ground, you increase nose attitude into a harrier. Once in a harrier, you can "Drive" the plane around the field where you want it to go just feet above the ground. Mastering this helps refine your movements on the sticks.

RE: How to hover?
 

Many planes cannot do an elevator drop, but most will enter a harrier and hold it.

RE: How to hover?
 

having the correct airplane and a very light one will be easier to learn on.

RE: How to hover?
 

Ihave found that if the plane cannot elevator drop, then you definitley do not want to be trying to learn to Hover with it. Believe me, I have tried so many different planes, as I currently own over 100, that there is no since hovering a plane or learning to hover with a non 3D plane. However, once you learn to hover, you can amazingly hover many planes you would never imagine could, for instance, I can hover the Eflite Taylorcraft plane.

The planes that do the best 3D are those that are nearly or exactly the same in Wingspan and Length. If your plane is much longer in length than wingspan, then you've got a pattern ship. Excluding those planes that are obviously not pattern or 3D.

One of the planes I learned on was the Eflite Eratix. Electric. Lots of wingarea, tons of rudder of elevator surface. A great plane to learn 3D on. Then there is the Addiction X. Or Extreme Flight Edge 540t electric. and many others. But yes, picking the right plane to learn with is very important. You'll kill yourself trying to learn to 3D or hover with the wrong plane, and/or a bad setup on the plane. Even a throttle curve on electrics plays a big difference in performance.

If you have someone at your club that already does 3D, knows how to setup the mixes, etc, have that person test your plane. That way that person can tell you if the plane is wrong, the setup is wrong, or if the plane is right on, and they show you all what it can do. At least you know the plane CAN do the 3D moves, and its now all up to you to learn to control it.

Hope some of this helps.

RE: How to hover?
 

I'm learning on a Great Planes U-Can-DO EP. I have also hovered mt Tiger Stick .46 and it was easy but I was high.

RE: How to hover?
 

OK... get a DW Foamies 40" Yak 55.... get two of'em... set it up like Mike tells you to....
and get yourself about 8 1320 LiPo three cell batteries and two chargers....

and then practice!

RE: How to hover?
 

This is the best advice here. That's how i learned to hover, on a DW 40" Yak 55. I also use 1000mah lipos in addition to 1300s. Also, make sure you bring several spare props. The APC 10x4.5 slow fly props break like twigs on any ground contact.

RE: How to hover?
 

What worked for me was a little weird.. but hey it worked for me, it might for others..

I was doing what would be snap roll into hover....
BUT what I was doing was... snap roll "into hover" but not hovering and "blasting out".
Each time I would reduce the gas input after the snap, eventually it would hover a moment then fly out...

little by little I was able to increase the time I hovered... but still I was repeating something I had done a thousand times so had the "get out" already learned.

obviously this was done with enough height to spare.

later I then started getting lower and closer and not needing my snap roll to enter....

"the wall" is another good manouver for this type of entry.

ie do "wall" then instantly blast out..... and increase time between "wall" and blast out.

Like i said.. its weird I know.... but it worked for me.

RE: How to hover?
 

Not mentioned here:<div>
</div><div>Solid hovering requires very small, very quick inputs in reaction to (or even in anticipation of) small changes to the aircraft's attitude.  These changes are difficult if not impossible to see at a high altitude (where, let's face it, many of us like to try to learn, to give ourselves some safety margin) before they become such large changes that control inputs can not effectively right the plane.  This results, of course, in the airplane constantly "falling out" of a hover.</div><div>
</div><div>For this reason, the foamy advice above is excellent...it's an airplane you aren't too worked up about if you smash it up!  This lets you bring the airplane right down close to the ground, where your reactions can be MUCH quicker, since you'll see any attitude changes the moment they begin.</div><div>
</div><div>So grab something you don't care about, bring it in close, and then BURN FUEL (or electrons, whatever).</div>

RE: How to hover?
 

honestly if the guy above is doing it with out touching the sticks should there be multi post thread on how to do it ?????????????


its not complex enough for a thread IMO

RE: How to hover?
 

I learned a little differently. I started with a SPAD3D. These things fly terrible but are great for teaching your left thumb what to do. A SPAD flies on the prop more than the wing. Learning rudder and throttle control is key to 3D flying. I know guys that have been flying 30 years that take there thumb off the left stick once it's in the air.
http://www.spadtothebone.com/SPAD/SPA3D/ Put the cheapest old servos and 40-50 two stroke on it. Buy a dozen 12x4 props and have fun. I built my first one in less than a day.

david

RE: How to hover?
 

mobaddawg,
Here is some things to consider:
Hover directly into the wind. It is much easier to push directly into the wind. Straight up with no wind is hard because you then have to fight torque roll. At an odd angle is hard because wants to float away. A 5-7 mph constant wind is ideal.
Hover as low as you can so you can see and react quicker. COURAGE
Put lots of expo into your rudder. Lots.
I often overcontrol. When I do I try to remind myself to use quick pulses.
Try to keep your nose as high as possible.
Make your plane as tail heavy as you can stand it.
I learned on an OMP 47" profile EDGE

RE: How to hover?
 

i'd also recommend an electric. That way you don't have to worry about engine stalls, fuel delivery, etc. when learning.

RE: How to hover?
 

You get a jet

RE: How to hover?
 

I didn't notice at first you are using an EP plane. I had the Flight Flex Yak55 and it was the worst plane EVER. Why? Because it flexed! Control was terrible. I did not have this UCD but I recommend getting a stiffer airframe.

RE: How to hover?
 

I'd go with the advice to learn how to Harrier first.

I've been spending the last month or so just Harriering on every flight - absolutely nothing else at all. I've lost count of how many flights I've done.

I use a PA Katana MD. It's probably not the best as it's pretty sensitive to inputs and yet not as robust as the EPP profile models, but at least being a small electric I can fly it at a local park early mornings before work, which gives me plenty of stick time. You can read about some of my experiences here...

http://www.rcmf.co.uk/4um/index.php/topic,83180.0.html

and here...

http://www.rcmf.co.uk/4um/index.php/page,124.html

All the best...

RE: How to hover?
 

A harrier is agood maneuver to enter a hover from!! A slow easy transition...

+1 on learning to harrier....

RE: How to hover?
 

There are many ways to learn how to hover, I personally do not think that you need to harrier in order to first try your hand at hovering.  In reality it is not all that difficult once you have mastered the basics.

RE: How to hover?
 

I learned to hover before harrier. In hindsight, I wish I had learned the other way around. Harrier then hover so I guess I'm +1 on that. As mentioned, the choice of plane does indeed make a big difference as well as bring it down low low low so you can see small movements very quickly. You must learn to react very quickly to those small movements and if you wait too long before adding a correction it's sometimes better to just punch out and go around and try again. (In thrust we trust)

Also, practice on a sim helps especially a good one such as RealFlight if you have the hardware to run it.

.

RE: How to hover?
 

What do you think about the Multiplex Acro Master for learning to hover ?

RE: How to hover?
 

Get as low and close as you can, try and fly more bold every time and if the sweat is not pouring of your forehead you are not pushing yourself enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTtxStJJyFI