zachj1212

I am a happy owner of the aerobird challenger! I have been flying alot lately, but i know that i am missing something. A relationship with the wind! I want to know more about it, and how to work with it, like flying upwind, downwind, ect.

I would like to know how the wind works with all planes. please help me, so i can have a GOOD relationship with the wind.

thank you!

zachj1212

Pilot Chad

My Feedback: (4)

I will state the basics. This may be something you already know. When you fly into the wind (upwind) you will go much slower, yet keep your altitude. When you fly with the wind (down wind) the wind helps you move faster and gives you a boost.
If you want to get the plane on the ground in windy conditions, go and get the plane where you can retrieve and then reduce power and fly into the wind where it slowly comes down.

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

Not really much to tell more than what newb said. Really, that's the basics. Above and beyond that, you need to learn how the wind blows around your regular flying field, I.E., prevailing winds (which way the wind blows more often than not), any small eddys or areas of turbulence that develop, and above and beyond that it's experience. Gained, I might add, by going out and actually flying your airplane in the wind.

Now I'm not telling you to go out and fly no matter what the conditions, especially with an Aerobird. But start off slow, this is a gradual process and it takes some time. It might wind up costing you some flying days, true, but as your experience grows, so will your confidence level, and eventually you'll be ready to fly even in a hurricane crosswind. Well, maybee not quite a hurricane, but you get the idea.

One other part of this equation is the airplane. True, you can fly any airplane in the wind, it just depends on your skill level as a pilot. But there are airplanes that are easier to fly in teh wind than others. Taildraggers, generally, are harder to handle in crosswinds than trike gear planes. Low wing planes are usually less suscuptible than high wing planes. If you get the chance to go to your local R/C field, check out what planes seem to handle wind better than others. I'm really not bashing your aerobird, but it's not going to like much wind at all. Way too light, not enough power, lots of wing area. I'm not saying it CAN'T be flown in the wind, but its' not the best.

Andy

Pilot Chad

My Feedback: (4)

Also, Pretty much the slow tourqy planes are going to be the best. anything hevay flies good in wind.

twistr

My Feedback: (4)

Another point to consider in the wind, I notice this mostly with trainers the worst, is that while flying into the wind, depending upon wind speed, you may have to dive and climb the plane to get some decent speed going. Fully symmetrical winged planes aren't as bad because they slice right through the sky/wind, but a trainer with flat bottom wing, may need to fly this pattern into the wind...

Hossfly

As for as the aerobird challenger, i know nothing. As far as the wind on an airplane, I can shed some light there. How many volumes do you need?
The wind in the air is like the water in a river, or on a calm day as the water in a small lake. Not to get into pressure gradients and the sciences of airflow, let's just say that air is like the river. In deep pools and wide areas the flow is smooth and steady. In narrow areas, shallow areas and/or areas of obstructions the flow changes direction around obstructions, becomes turbulent and can even mess things up a bit.
In the modeler's small world a tree, a house or small obstruction can provide a significant turbulent action to a rather small breeze. On some days, even though there isn't much wind, where the sun warms the surface, and creates thermals (rising air masses that do not cool at the rate of the surrounding air) there can be areas of significant low altitude turbulence. Each cumulus cloud marks where a thermal air mass is condensing.

As far as the airplane and flowing wind are concerned, the airplane flies within the air mass. While the airplane flies at some TRUE airspeed (TAS) within that mass, the airplane tracks over the ground at a vector resultant of the TAS vector (TAS and time along the true heading of the airplane) and the wind vector defined by from the wind direction to where the wind is blowing and the same time. The difference between the ground vector (Ground speed and track) and the air vector (True Heading and TAS) defines the drift angle of the airplane in going from A to B.

Your model is flying downwind, level at a given speed. The TAS remains constant yet you the observer can only see the groundspeed. (Groundspeed (GS) is TAS + tailwind component or TAS - Headwind component of the wind vector.) When you turn around and come back, your model appears to have slowed down. Yes the GS has slowed down, but the TAS is still constant. Example: Your model flies a TAS of 50mph. The wind is from the south at 10 mph. You fly north. Your GS is 60 mph. Turn back south and your GS slows to 40 mph. The airplane does not change its airspeed. The airplane flies and stalls based on AIRSPEED, another kind of airspeed normally called Indicated Air Speed (IAS) which is a measure of molecules of air over the wing surfaces. This varies for any TAS due to pressure altitude, temperature, and several other factors in a smaller way. RC modelers seldom need to consider that except for those in high country. Consider that the machine stalls at thee same IAS while the TAS increases about 2% per thousand feet in alt. for any given IAS.

The crosswind component of the wind vector will displace the aircraft from its heading vector by the vector amount for a given time. For example flying south with an east wind of 10mph will displace the aircraft to the west 10 miles in one hour. To correct you must head into the east by some degree. An airplane flying at 60 mph will have to correct about 10° to the east to compensate for that 10 mile displacement where an airplane flying 120 mph would only need 5° of heading change to correct for the "drift".
That explains why when flying those parallel race tracks around the flying field, your airplane does not always go in the direction which you point it.
For an easy method to get a quick idea of the drift angle needed, estimate your TAS. Pick a number. Divide the TAS by 60. That gives you the degrees required for 1 KNOT -- 1 mph is close enough -- of cross wind. Estimate your crosswind and multiply it by the degrees from above. That is your correction. Example: TAS = 90 mph. 90/60 =1.5, 1.5 x 10 mph Xwind and you have a needed 15° correction to maintain track. Plenty close for RC work and it worked for me in jets when there was no fancy navigation equipment. [8D]

Many RC pilots have a problem landing in crosswinds due to the fact that they don't realize that as you slow down for the touchdown the drift angle becomes much larger thus requiring corrections. Yet sometimes the surface air isn't moving nearly as fast as the air some 50 ft. up so you have to take it as you find it. Welcome to RC.


Another factor often overlooked by the RC pilot is that if you have a fairly strong breeze along the flight path, and you start a 180° turn around, if such is a headwind, then the aircraft will start actually moving toward you once the model has turned 90° minus the turn drift angle. Starting a turn with a tailwind, the model continues moving away from you until the model has completed 90° of turn PLUS the drift angle at that point of the turn. A slow trainer sometimes does not start a return toward you from a downwind turn until the model is actually pointing directly back.

I have seen RC pilots completely loose slow models simply because they would not control the heading, get the nose down to attain the highest possible TAS and fly directly back to the runway area. I have seen pilots lose models because they tried to keep altitude and slow down during a deadstick, then the headwind was stronger than the TAS of the model or at least strong enough that they could not attain any GS to get back to the runway. There is only so much potential energy between a flying machine and the earth. One must use it wisely.

Iturnright

I guess the best thing might just to be to take a few key things from this post and try to learn the rest through experiance. With the aerobird I wouldn't suggest very much wind at all! given its tendency to spiral in when the stick is held over for too long, if you gain lots of altitude and you run into heavy winds, it is very hard to turn it out without ending up with another problem. I just wouldn't fly the thing with any wind over 5mph or so. Keeping in mind that the surface wind can be significantly slower than it is 50 ft into the air.

NJAIRSTRIKE

My Feedback: (2)

fly into the wind with a sig kadet lt 40.. if the wind is hard enough like maybe 15 to 20 miles an hour and your trying to go upwind against the wind for a landing.. say goodbye.

twistr

My Feedback: (4)

I second that NJAIRSTRIKE. I am teaching a friend to fly and we lost his LT 40 a couple weeks ago in the wind. Wing came clean off.

MerlinL14

NJ, twistr, not so. Flying into wind with a trainer can be as much fun as flying 3D (well Almost). I was flying in 25-30mph winds yesterday with my Seagull Boomerang (same as LT40) and it handles the wind OKish. I completed 5 harrier landings. Yes I was flying WOT @ 30mph into wind but with good throttle control, a 15-20mph wind is a none event.

twistr

My Feedback: (4)

A bolt on wing may have saved our plane, so you're right, they can fly in the wind, they are just not as easy to fly as a fully symmetrical winged plane is.

MerlinL14

The boomerang has the wing held on with elastic bands.