ORIGINAL: lnewqban
ORIGINAL: hogflyer
Me! After 35 years of flying I still enjoy flying 2- and 3-channel.
Nothing wrong with 3-channel, and many who say stay with 4-channel probably have never flown 3-channel before anyway. I'd grab it and fly it until its so fuel soaked it can't be flown any more. The Sr. is one of those planes that are great to take out in the evening for a slow, lazy floating end of the day flight or to just shoot touch-n-go's.
Hogflyer
Hogflyer:
I am one that have not flown 2 or 3 channels, and don't know how.
I believe I could do it, but not too far from level flight in circles or flat number 8's.
I could not do rools, snaps, or more complicated maneuvers.
It would be interesting to start a thread teaching 4-channel pilots how to do typical maneuvers with just 2 or 3 channels; if for not other reason, just to learn how it was done time before the 4-channel radios were available and affordable.
Regards!
There is not much difference between flying 2-, 3- or 4-channel, depending on the aircraft you have. You want to hook the rudder up to the aileron channel on the right stick. Most 2-/3- channel will be lower performance planes like primary and secondary trainers, 1/2A and gliders, but there are exceptions, and most will be rudder/elevator(/throttle on 3-channel). There are some pylon racers that are 3-channel – throttle/ailerons/elevator, but that’s another ball game. I’ll just look at the R/E/T aspect.
3-channel flying is, for the most part, just like 4-channel. The main difference is the feel of the plane and what you see in turns. When banking, the 2- or 3- channel plane yaws into the turn instead of rolling. You’ll see it swaying back and forth going into and out of turns. Some planes have a noticeable yawing motion while other do not – depends on the specific model. You control the plane just like you do with ailerons, but don’t expect a quick roll unless you have a lot of rudder set up. Flying without rudder generally means you have more dihedral in the wing, so it’s more susceptible to cross winds because you can’t force a wing down.
The maneuvers you can perform are similar, but not exact. Most 2-/3-channel planes will be sluggish in the roll by design, but with enough rudder control (or the right design) they have excellent rolling characteristics. It’s not uncommon for an R/E/T plane to perform almost all the aerobatics a 4-channel plane can with the exception of cross-control maneuvers like side slips. You can roll, loop, stall turn, spin, Cuban-8’s, immelmann, split-S, etc. All it takes is practice, but some of the maneuver will not look as crisp as a 4-channel plane. Just the nature of the beast.
The place you will have to get used 3-channel is on the ground – you’ll steer the plane on the ground and take-off with the right stick instead of the left, but it doesn’t take more that one or two ground loops on a tail dragger to get this down.
2-channel is very similar to 3-channel (talking powered here, not gliders) but you don’t have any throttle control, and you don’t land until the engine quits and then make a dead stick landing. Most 2-channel planes are also hand launched.
Not if you really want a challenge, try 1-channel which is rudder only.
Hogflyer