Hey all,

Okay umm...call me stupid but all I need to do to prove my proficiency so I can participate in the fun fly at my club is to do some manuvers. The problem is I don't know what they are. The first one is called a cuban 8 and the second one is called a illman, I think. I've heard people talk about the cuban 8 before but I've never seen/done one. And I am completely lost on the illman. I did a search but nothing useful came up under the title "cuban 8" either that or I skipped over it which probably happened.

Thanks!
IBrakeForNobody

Go here http://www.dmac.org.uk/

and click on downloads, Agree to the legal stuff, click on #10 called Flying Aerobatics. Download it and install it. It describes both maneuvers you are asking about and more. Once installed it will open in your broswer and the maneuvers are at the top and once you click on it then you are presented with a great explanation and diagram. The illman is acutally spelled Immelmann

Get all of the others also, this is some nice stuff. Although not mine, they are good

Check out this link to see what each maneuver looks like.
http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/...ics/maneuvers/

[link]http://bandito.50megs.com/rc/hangar.html[/link]
[link]http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/aerobatics/maneuvers/[/link]

The immelman i will desribe to you. I think this is correct. Or at least quite close. I was doing these all day today and having fun.


You go into a loop and when you get to the top and are inverted, you roll to regular. It is a type of turn (i think)

Again, I could be wrong, so if i am someone correct me. A cuban 8 is like it in a way. It is a little hard to learn though. I need to wrok on it.

Geist,
I just spent 30 minutes looking for that very link. I just saw it the other day, and thought immediately of it when I read this post. Good job. IBrake....go to the site Geist suggests--you'll learn everything you need to know!

Nuff said..

thanks everyone for the replies! I really like that giestware.com one. Really clears things up. I also looked at every link to. Really nice! [8D]

Thanks agian!

Thank you both for the kind words

Chad- While I guess you could call it a turn it is more accurately a course reversal technique but your description was accurate. The end result is the same with the exception of the gain in altitude.

bruce, yes i guess your true...

Little update:

I've been practicing on the sim every chance I get with these manuvers. So far, I can do a immelmann almost effortlessly but every time I do a cuban 8, I have a habit of yanking up on the elevator during the roll so it makes the plane fall out and go some other direction. [:@] I have it set on the hardest settings so its actually harder than in real life.

On your trainer, the dihedral will be hard, but you can do it.

I have a bandaged up Avistar MKII, BTW. And it had a OS .46 and a 11x6 prop and a taildragger conversion. Don't think that will help out much in aerobatics...

IBrakeForNobody,
On the contrary, you should be able to do just about all of the basic aerobatic maneuvers with that plane. Heck, with a little practice and a fine touch you should even be able to get a little knive edge out of it. I love coaxing stall turns out of trainers when I'm working with my students.

Have some fun with it. You might be surprised just how much it can do. Just because it says it's a trainer doesn't mean it can't do aerobatics.

For the Cuban-8, as well as many of the other basic maneuvers, you need to learn to do them "by-the-numbers," 1 control at a time.

Start the Cuban-8 flying down wind, full power, parallel to your runway and a safe altitude high.

Don't do a full 3/4 loop at first. Instead of 45 degrees down angle, shoot for 20-30 degrees at first. Start the roll just as the plane gets the nose down because on a trainer, the nose is going to drop a bunch so you need to start very shallow. Doing this should allow you to finish at 20-30 degrees nose down. This shallow angle will keep the speed from building up so much.

Release the elevator and put your thumb or finger beside the stick and push it over. This should help you to not hold in any elevator. You will probably want full aileron.

You are gripping the stick too hard so you can't feel the different inputs. You need to go up-release, roll-release, up-release, roll-release, up to level. Practice releasing, or very nearly releasing, the stick so it can spring back to center. Check with your hobby shop and see if they can install stiffer transmitter springs.

It is actually much harder doing acro with a trainer than with an acro plane. You need something at least like a Stick, but built with a flat wing, an Ultra Stick or a Big Stick with the wing flat. These will roll a lot better.

Thanks for the advice! I also have a ultra stick 60 with OS .61 engine and full span ailerons (no quad flaps) I want to practice with the avistar first so I don't put my stick (has 4 flights on it) in any danger...sides, the avistar is held together with the finest CA, epoxy, and mailing tape money can buy.

[X(][X(] That's pretty good IBrakeForNobody

Yea I was going to suggest you go in and turn up the tension on your transmitter springs on you ailerons, elevator, and rudder. Just take the back off the transmitter and turn the little screw. It really helps "feel" the center when you are trying to do axial rolls and pulling up with out rolling one way or the other.

Ed_Moorman- result of 3/4 loop is straight down. 5/8 loop is what you meant for Cuban 8 entry?

Just think of it as an Immelman with a little more loop action. In fact if it makes you nervous to do rolls while in inverted dive, just slowly transition from the Immelman by adding a little more loop each time until you are comfortable. Remember that altitude is your friend when learning new maneuvers.

When you do a loop you need to remmeber that you need to change elevator throw with the change in airspeed. At the top of the loop you need less elevator than anywhere else. For me at the very top, I actually use down elevator to flatten out the top to make it more round.