Been flying my sturdy birdy II in my 3 acre backyard. Boy is there ever alot of obstacles, trees, antenna towers, powerlines. I really need a way to slow my plane down quickly and safely.

The only quick speed reducing maneuver I know of is the skid. Full rudder in one direction, opposite aileron deflection in the other. F4F pilots used this maneuver during World War II to (hopefully) make A6Ms overshoot them (no pun intended).

Any other good ones out there?

pop up/wall would work if you have the power to pull out if your down low. to do this chop power a split second before you pull full up ele , as the nose pitches up relax the ele a bit to just bring the nose vertical and add a little power at the same time. you can transition out with full power if you have the motor, if not just power up and nose it over a bit. I do it all the time with my funfly's, usually transition into hover or roll's/snap's on the upline...never used it to slow down though I have flaps for that. I assume you only have one ail servo so flaps/flapperons are not an option, other than a wall/pop-up and what your curently doing I can't think of any air break type maneuvers. best thing to do is fly a plane more suited to the enviorment(slower more agile) or fly some where with less obstructions.


John

A snap roll will drop your speed quick. Not a good thing to use for the purpose if low and dead-stick...

Immelman will dop your speed, gain altitude and turn you around all at once.

Anything that puts a large G load on will drop your speed. Its just a matter of picking which maneuver to use for the situation that requires you to slow down.

There's always pulling the left stick back. don't stop the engine... you lose speed faster if the prop is turning slowly than if it stops.

For late in the landing approach... wagging the rudder and preventing roll with ailerons (and using elevator to prevent the pitch-down that some planes have) is usually the best choice.

If you put the nose down and smash into the ground the speed comes down very fast.

Pulling the left stick back.. What if he's Mode I?

Mode I the rudder and aileron are swapped. Elevator and throttle are not.

Mode III and mode 4 are the left hander's modes... and would swap the elevator and throttle.

Put it up and use it at larger fields and get a slow park flyer for the back yard.

Ed M.

3 acres isn't much space for a glow model. I hope you don't have neighbors.

Switch to a lower-pitch prop.

There are a lot of ways to slow down your plane to hit the runway when you're dead stick. Large S-turns, deliberate stalls, etc. If I have a light aircraft that doesn't like to come down, I'll just hold back the elevator and make it do continual stalls until the plane is at the right altitude and speed to land on the field.

On heavier planes that might snap over, I'll sometimes do a loop if I have enough altitude and speed. If it's at just the right speed and altitude to shoot off the end of the runway, then I'm probably too low to attempt much and I'll let it go off the end of the runway.

Experience with the plane will help you figure out what works best.

What are you using for a prop? If it's say a 10 X 6, then go to an 11 X 5 (or4), or a 12 X 4. Speed will be much lower, but you'll also get better vertical.
Dennis-

SunTracker, the maneuver you describe - cross controlled aileron and rudder - is a slip, not a skid.

A skid is when you have too much rudder, or not enough aileron, in the direction of the turn. That will degenerate into a stall/spin to the inside of the turn (i.e the the low wing will drop) if one is not careful.

A slip is safer. If you stall while slipping the plane you have a bit more time to react because the high wing (outside wing, in a turn) drops.

If you need to drop into a small landing area, you can add a slipping turn to your repertoire. Just enter a normal turn, then feed in your opposite rudder and yet more aileron to maintain the turn. When you get lined up on final, just reduce aileron input to establish a normal forward slip. That assumes the wind direction is such that the low wing is to windward after the turn onto final. If not, then flip the inputs to slip with the other wing dropped.

Also, don't forget, you can fly slower to begin with by just feeding in some up elevator trim.

Have fun

As to how to handle a small runway.... PRACTICE. Its amazing how small a runway you NEED.

With practice you can easilly keep an average .40 size plane inside an area the size of a football field. (not crossing the track they run around it at the local High school) You may be suprised... you probably already DO keep in that small an area. So a 3 acre flying site is PLENTY.

A local club measured the area of thier leased site at 5 acres. Over 1/3 is never almost flown over. (but they do cross into a neighbors area by maybe 50 ft regularly)

Anyone here fly R/C combat with .50 Ci limit? you would know this.. the 250 ft from the spectator safety line, if that line is close to the pilot's line is FURTHER out than you normally go doing a traffic pattern around the field with a trainer.

We don't use as much airspace as some people would have you think.
*****

Another thread brought up something which helps immensely with putting a plane down on a short runway after clearing a tree or other obstruction... SPOILERONS. It takes practice to be able to do it... but you can come in at high angle of attack, with some power on, spoilerons deployed and have a VERY short roll on landing. It brings the plane down like it was on an elevator.

What I do to slow down is make a big box pattern for landing, that gives me plenty of time to get lined up also. In theory at least.
Main thing is to cut throttle.

Adjust your low-end needle to the lowest reliable setting and go with a larger diameter, lower-pitched prop. That big prop becomes a good speed break when you throttle down.

Jesse