I have seen videos of slope soaring and it looks like it would be a blast to do. Unfortunatly it requires a good size cliff hopefully on the coast of a warm island which is no where near where I live. [>:]

The way things are going with the Earth's climate you may not have a cliff today, but you might wake up to have one outside your window tomorrow. If you live in Nevada, just wait a couple years and you'll be on the coast.

simply put, 3D flying is CONTROLLING your aircraft below stall speed.

biggest thing with pattern and IMAC is putting the plane exactly where you want it. Flying a straight, level, and paralelle to the flightline is not as easy as you think.

BTW, we added to our club that all 3D flying will be done over the field, not the flight line, and everyone will fly the pattern.

There is also control line and free flight in various forms.

Jim

That's an interesting bit of advise. I guess it could work, but you would have to know the pilot and how he could react. If he was submissive and small, you just may pull it off. Of course if he isn't so small and doesn't appreciate it, it could mean that you would swiftly have a mud hole stomped in your ass. Just a theory. [&:]

Re: "BTW, we added to our club that all 3D flying will be done over the field, not the flight line, and everyone will fly the pattern." < Thats a great idea! I'll bring that up at our next club meeting. We made a rule at our club that heli pilots are to use the inactive runway if they are not going to fly the pattern.

We show each other respect at our club. Hovering over the runway is permitted just as touch an go's are. As long as people announce their intentions, everything is fine. If someone is doing touch and go landings, I don't hover over the runway. There were a few people in the beginning who wanted to do away with hovering over the runway but that didn't get very far. I'm thrilled to see that 3D is growing faster than any other type of flying.

Can someone explain what control line flying refers to? I have heard of it but don't really know what it is.[sm=confused.gif]

Thats an easy one. Thats where the plane is connected to wires which go out to a control handle. The control handle controls the elevator to make the plane climb, or loop as it flys in a big circle around the pilot. The wires also keep the plane from flying off into the wild blue yonder. The planes engine is adjusted for high rpm and has no throttle. The pilot simply takes off and then flys the plane until the engine runs out of fuel. [8D]

This is not true in all cases. For instance, in C/L stunt, the engine is set for low RPM, 4 cycle. When the pilot pulls the model into a maneuver, it puts the engine under a load and causes it to revert to 2 cycle and increases RPM. In some forms of racing, the pilot has a control to shut off the fuel line and kill the engine.