Scenario: I havent flown in over 15 years. When I was flying, I was considered a pretty good pilot. That was then and this is now... lol I decided to get back into the hobby so I bought a trainer and a new Computer radio. I flew 3 times succesfully (had to let another guy land it on the maiden flight) but I'm not happy with the response of the plane. It seems that the elevator wouldn't move enough to get the plane off the ground and it mad very slow "long" turns, kinda like the servos were turning short. Does this mean that I have a setting or settings wrong on my radio. I dont understand this dual rates business yet, so any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks a bunch
six6strings

What kind of radio do you have?

With dual rates you have the ability to have different amount of throw or travel on the particular control surface (elevator, ailerons, rudder). Per your post, you say you're not getting enough travel/deflection on the elevator to provide the necessary pitch to lift the nose at the proper speed to provide lift. The problem can be one of three things maybe. I would first look at your elevator and make sure it's not binding in any way and allowed to move freely up and down. Then look EPA (end point adjustment), on your radio. If your EPA settings on your transmitter are set to the max you might want to consider moving the control rod closer to the surface on the control horn. This applies to the ailerons as well, which will provide more deflection and a quicker roll rate.

Now with dual rates. You can have one rate(low) set to where the deflection is minimal say 80-90% of EPA, then you can program 100-110% of travel to the surface to serve as the high rate which is enaged by flipping the D/R switch on your transmitter.

Hope this helps and didn't confuse you. Look at your transmitter manual, it should give a good explanation of dual rates and how to set them up.

good luck and welcome back,

What radio? Did it come with an Instruction Manual? Read it first. It Should be listed as "DualRates"

Well, the confusion you have is merely one of terminology .... Plane's do not have high and low rates, it is the radios that have them....

The Servo's are mechanically connected to the control surfaces. The servos have a limited amount of travel, call that 100% travel. 100% travel will move the control surface an amount that is dictated by the way you have connected the control rods to the servo horn and control horn. The instructions for your plane should indicate what control surface deflection you should have as a "recomended starting point". The right thing to do is to set your control surfaces so that 100% servo travel will give the exact control surface deflaction that the manual recommends. Now, manuals often give High and Low rate deflections. Use the high rate deflections for your settings.

To set and test your control surfaces, you must have your radio switched to "high rates", so figure out which switch to switch, and set it to high rates.

So, at this point, you should have your radio set to high rates, and the control surfaces mechanically set to the throws described in the plane's manual.

Then, in your radio's menus, you can set the low rates. The low rates are usually set as a percentage of the high rates i.e. low rate ailerons will be 60% of high rate. What this means is that 100% stick movement will cause a 60% servo movement. You will have to try different settings for you to get them to match the plane's instructions.

So, at this point, you have set your plane to match the high rates by mechanically setting the control rods for your servos. The Low rates are a % of the high rates. Flipping the dual rate switch togles between the high and low rates.

The purpose of low rates is to make sure that you do not surprise yourself with the agility of the plane and end up disoriented and with a pile of sticks.

As an out of practice veteran, flying a trainer, I would suggest to you that you ignore high-low rates for the moment, and just use high rates. Then just use gentle, and fine-controlled stick movements to control your plane.

If the plane still feels sluggish on the controls, then increase the high-rate throws of the surfaces.

The important thing is that you know what you are setting/changing. If you are on high rates, you can do everything that you could do on low rates, and more. There is no real danger on a trainer of using high rates at the wrong time. In higher performance planes, using high rates at high speeds or other manouvers may exceed the capbilities of the plane...

So, switch to high rates, and stay there.

A more valuable feature of computer radios is exponential. What this means is that the the relationship between stick position and control surface position is non-linear.... i.e. if you push the elevater stick 50% forward, the elevator doesnt't go 50% down. I have my radio set so that almost 75% the control surface movement is in the extreme 50% of the stick movement. Or, in other words, if I push the elevator stick half way forward, the elevator only moves about a third of it's throw. If I push the stick the whole way forward, the elevator moves to it's limit... This means that the controls movements are gentle when you have gentle movements on the stick, and are agressive when you use agressive movements. It is sort of hard to describe in words, but easy to see the results.

gus

A nose heavy plane will appear sluggish too.

Assuming your plane has the CG at the proper place, dual rates on your transmitter should help. Even better IMHO is exponential rates. You get fine control near the center position yet have max throw at extreem stick positions. Even better is a combination of exponential with dual rates like you can get with the Hitec Eclipse transmitter, that is even your dual rates have exponential capability.

Thanks so much for the informational replies. I've been reading here for a while, but have never posted.

I have a Futaba 6EXA..... I had a gut feeling that is was a Dual Rate issue, but I wasnt sure. Thanks again for the very helpful information.