Knife Edge Switch
 

Nah, I don't buy it. I don't think I'll ever use the mix. I get no less than 3rd in IMAC at contest, so I think im good. And by the way.....First in free!http://www.scaleaerobatics.org/conte...02/sccmas.html

didn't do soo good at this one in the IMAC though, but overall not bad for the season. This was my worst contest.

Knife Edge Switch
 

This is getting WAYYY off topic but...

Im a teenager as well, I fly F3A and IMAC, I have won comps, I dont think im good, I can fly ;) , CPLR is good, Hyde is good, Briggs is the best but i am light years away from them but I dont think mixing is even slighty a factor in me not being as good as them...lol flying sportsman and also freestyle and doing well is nothing to do with mixing?? I could do a few torque rolls, maybe a few 3d moves and im sure mixing wont probably help me there, thats not what the mixing is helping on, an example: on a vertical upline and a cross wind is pushing the model off vertical, when you put the rudder imput in you dont want to also think, oops I need to put left aileron in as well to conteract the roll couple, its pretty simple really. Do you never think how much easier some of your manouvers will be without holding in that aileron while in knife edge.. Do you fly F3A??? when you start winning F3A then you can say your good. Its fully a personal preference, some people like flying the plane and also flying the planes problems, I still think a properly set up plane would help and i prefer flying the plane. Ill be seeing you in a few years at the F3A world champs, ill show you how to use mixes then :D :D :D :D

Knife Edge Switch
 

All these TOC guys, are good enough to Kick ***** with a basic four channel radio and a Sig cadet.. :p

Knife Edge Switch
 

Here's the facts. Lets say for the sake of this discussion that you and I are equal in talent and we are flying in a TOC. You are flying without mixes and I am using them. Yes we can both do point rolls, yes we can both do harriers, blenders, knife edge and the rest, BUT, since we are of equal talent my plane will do it with less divergence from the flight path and you will loose. I've said this before and I will say it again, everybody who wins consistently in almost every sport uses the cutting edge of technology and it makes no difference whether its archery, formula 1 cars, or the bathing suit in a swim contest. Advantage is advantage and all else being equal advantage will win. As long as its legal people will use it and to keep up so will I. Its not cheating, its just leveling the playing field.

Knife Edge Switch
 

Ok, Let's look at it another way...
You and I enter a scale competition. You bring your scratch built, balsa and ply, fabric and dope covered Aeronca, and I bring my Byron Originals Fiberglass Cessna that has rivets and panel lines etc. molded right into the fiberglass. I win; because my plane, (that I spent 200 hours on) has more detail than your plane (that you spent 2000 hours on).

You're right. It's fair. :rolleyes:

Knife Edge Switch
 

1)Depends on how well I did my rib stitching.
2)We would be in a different class
3)No electronics (the topic here) involved.
I'm not saying you have to use mixes, if you don't want to by all means don't, but when the best, most competitive pilots in the world are you can't call it cheating. :^)

Depends on the plane
 

My brother flies an old Joker pattern plane, no mixing. He brags about how he corrects everything himself, but the fact is, it doesn't need much, partly because it doesn't have the rudder throw to do things like knife edge loops. The UCD 3D has so much coupling, it is almost impossible to knife edge loop it without mixing. I still need to correct elevator and aileron because my speed is not always the same and sometimes the wind is blowing, so I definitely don't view it as cheating. It is just eliminating the bad tendencies of that particular aircraft.

Rick

The switch thing
 

3Dbatixkid, I noticed that you said that you don't think it's necessary. For your plane maybe it isn't, but the original gentleman said his airplane had severe coupling issues, instead of fighting his airplane, he wants to have fun. This whole sport is about having fun not arguing about who is right, cause guess what, WE'RE ALL RIGHT. We're all free to believe and do what we want to. One of my patternships has minimal pitch coupling, I can do point rolls from horizon to horizon on a string with no mix, that's cause it's easy to drag a little elevator. I also have had planes that are so lousy with coupling that no amount of CG or trimming would make them any better, but the magic switch made them look arrow straight. Why fight the airframe when you don't have to? My point to the original gentleman is, if the plane couples pretty bad, set up your mix like you know how, and leave your switch on, then in other attitudes of flight rudder input will yield true (or close to true) yaw.
Another analogy for the attacking, haha, The F22 has fly by wire with multi surface mixing just to keep the thing in the air, the pilots stick movements are giving him multi surface movements,more then just the traditional surfaces deflecting, he is still flying the plane. Food for thought.

Knife Edge Switch
 

All these TOC guys, are good enough to Kick ***** with a basic four channel radio and a Sig cadet.. I agree to disagree
Ive been flying on realflight a model which really I thought was a 3d king, a toc flier took the controls off me and tried to do the same thing but couldn't, this guys currently 5th!! not a great example but I don't think these guys are superhuman, they just fly so much and repeat the same thing so many times it becomes natural.. Also there planes fly pretty much themselves.. Trust me. The skill comes out when there is the pressure and other factors such as wind.. the mixing is a byproduct of pattern, long before there was imac and the toc was flown with pattern planes mixing was used mechanically, it came out of a need to be the best and to get as much help to-wards that goal as legal. Why cant they use gyros, sure full size jets use them but do they take away the skill factor... this is a whole topic in itself...

Back to the question, rudder to aileron mix should be always on, it affects the plane in every attitude but again personal preference, maybe it may hurt the 3d performance ?? Probably the best way is to put it on a switch and then fly around with it on, if it does something funny turn it off, if not take it off the switch..

Knife Edge Switch
 

I was flying today and this thread came to mind. I never really thought much about it until a few days ago reading on here.
Try a rolling circle with your knife edge switch turned on. I guess it would depend on who bad your plane rolls and pitches during knife edge.
Take the U-CAN-DO-3D for example. Knife edge on that plane, plain sucks.

Dave

Knife Edge Switch
 

Interesting thread. I'll put up another vote for mixing, and leaving it on. I do fly IMAC, and prefer sequence type manuevers as opposed to 3D type stuff. I'm sure i get as much enjoyment doing one turn rolling circles as other guys get doing harriers. My Extra does pitch couple with rudder, but doesn't roll couple. My Pitts roll couples and pitch couples more than ANY plane I've owned. I use mixes in both (more, of course in the Pitts) so that when I give a rudder command, I want YAW, not yaw+pitch, or yaw+roll. Since for me, I can think of no situation where yaw+pitch is desireable, the mixes are on all the time, rather than on a switch. I realize that setting up both sides of a knife edge mix yields benefits in EVERY manuever that requires the fuselage to be the lifting surface. A four point roll done at one second per point doesn't require much, since the nose won't drop much and can be raised bumping the elevator while inverted. An eight point roll done at 2 seconds per point looks GREAT if the nose is kept "on a string", and requires a lOT more. A 15 second end-to-end slow roll performed with my Pitts without mixes would not only require varying pitch correction, but also the roll rate would change considerably slowing down during the first quarter of the roll as rudder is fed in, and speeding up in the third quarter of the roll as the opposite rudder is fed in. Not saying it can't be done with precision, but I'd personally as soon have the mixes (they're mine, I paid for them when I bought the transmitter, and I'm GONNA use them!!!) :D I can count very well also, but when I do my taxes, I'd as soon use a calculator.

Pattern planes have most coupling issues designed out, with the emphasis on flying charazcteristics, not appearance. IMAC type planes are additionally concerned with appearance, so flight characteristics sometimes suffer. Radios provide a tool that minimizes adverse characteristics, so as to allow the pilot to fly the MANUEVER rather than flying the PLANE, and for me, that's great.

Your mileage may vary.....
Tim