Well, just as I thought I was getting the hang of flying again...after a 2-3 yr hiatus mind you I JUST about put my Avistar in the dirt today. I was practicing touch and goes because I feel my "pattern" flying is fair. I can USUALLY 3 point land this thing with no bounce but can always use practice. Now, at the moment, where Im flying there is cornfields on both sides of the runway. They act like a good wind break once you get into ground effect but until then there's a about a 6-8ft corridor until you get up to the wind blast when you get atop the height of the corn. That said I was coming down on final, wind probably "steady" at 4-5 mph gusting 8-10 MAYBE at a 45ish degrees to the runway. I get it down probably 6-8 ft off the ground and all of a sudden she's starting to get a bit squirrely on me. Out of now where my LH wing dips so I can see almost the whole underside of the plane...and my thumb was already on the left stick to correct for a little up draft right before that! Needless to say I pucker up and DUMB THUMB it...LEFT! Now its almost 3/4 inverted and loosing altitude fast. I then proceed to very quickly flip the right stick and somehow get it right side up and gun it out of there. Don't ask me how. Pretty sure one of my main gear kissed the grass once it got righted and I pulled up for the GA. Holy Crap boys and girls! This is a first for me. I don't know if I got a freak gust of wind and at the height (same as the corn beside me) made a vorticity type action but all I know is...actually I dont know...how I recovered from that one. I guess I just reacted but man my heart sunk and thought for sure I was going to pick up pieces. From start to finish it couldnt have been more than a few seconds but looking back it seems like it was much longer than that!

The Avistar is a fun bird, but it still gets a lot of lift. Any wind gust and it grabs the wings like crazy! I know I wasn't stalling, as I usually come in fairly hot. I think I was about 1/4 throttle. Anyway, one for the books. Need a little more "seat time" before I'm ready to maiden my Decathlon I'm in the process of building.

Sorry for the pointless post...just wanted to share. I will say though, you couldnt wipe the smile of my face right after when I was safely in the air at a safe altitude, flying right side up!

Its not a pointless post and can be usefull to others. I suspect your recovery was aided by the possibility you may have without thinking about it also used rudder imput to oppose the uncommanded roll. Most folks will not use the rudder in this situation but it is exactly what is needed.

In an approach and at lower speeds the closer to actual stall the more important this is, The ailerons loose effectiveness and the Rudder is more important for the recovery than ailerons. Actually at very low speeds in this situation the the ailerons can be counter to the imput due to the adverse yaw that ailerons all have due to various degrees.

John

It helped me , made me smile too cuz you didn't biff it.

I did pretty much this same thing at my first pattern competition.  Too slow, too low, wing dipped, etc.  The rudder saved me and I was able to finish out the competition weekend with the same plane.  And since i was lacking experience (it was my first year in RC) I will credit the save to the simulator (REal Flight) and luck.

High wing planes are much more susceptible to wind gust updrafts and the like

I have had several  of those unexpected moments, and thanks to the fact I barely use ailerons when landing and use mainly rudder, I have been able to recover quickly.  I have the same type of field I fly from, corn on three sides and a barn on the other, so turbulence is an everyday occurrence.  After a while you get so used to it that recovery is second nature.

You said the key word "wind break". While above the cornfield, you held the sticks trimmed for your approach based on the wind up there. Then as you dropped below and entered the wind protected area, your air speed dropped radically making it mushy in the turbulence of the protected area. On top of that the aileron/rudder were in in the wrong spot once you were got there as you found out. And what should have been the final nail, ya dumb thumb it off the deck yet pulled it off .. You lucky so and so Yeah most of us have been there, but not always that lucky.,,or was it skill

Next time a bit more air speed as you descend into those conditions.

I almost put my GoPro on the plane that day but thought to myself, "No I better wait and get more comfortable with this thing again before I try anything stupid" Would have been an awesome vid...as far as luck/skill goes? Not sure how to classify that one. All I did was react the best I could to the given situation, Found out 6 foot is about the minimum you need to perform a half barrel roll

In all seriousness I really need to use the rudder more. I generally use ailerons on final, will rudder/elevator combination be enough to right a plane on final? I know aileron effectiveness goes down drastically at slow speeds. Whats the technique for you guys using for rudder on your landings? I understand keeping the nose pointed down the center-line but what would it do if the plane is constantly rolling back and forth from wind gust? Wouldn't ailerons be used to counter?

I use a combo of rudder and ailerons on final, basically point the nose with the rudder and keep the wings level as much as possible.  I try to turn into the runway as flat as I can, and use a long approach to bleed off airspeed so that when I cross that last row of corn I can set it down as close to the end as possible so I dont have to worry about overshooting the other side.  The one we fly off of is about 400 feet long at the most.