i keep on hearing this "oh its a 3d plane" what is that mean????? and whats the difference between 3d and flying regular

3 D flying and 3 D planes are designed for a style of aerobatic flying. I am sure that you have heard of an airplane hovering, well this is 3 D. The planes typically have larger elevators and ailerons and the surface throw's are alot greater than your run of the mill plane. You can still fly what is considered sport flying which is doing just what you want to do. Good Luck, Dave

oh i got you, yes i have seen hovering. thanks

The difference is if you are good or just showing off. Flying the air craft or Just Hanging around[sm=spinnyeyes.gif] There are people that can hang on the prop but do not no how to take off or land

If you want to bore nonflying spectators to death, fly 3D. The nonflying crowd want to see high speed low passes, rolls, low recovery loops and spins and perfect landings.

[sm=pirate.gif]

I sincerely hope you are kidding. While low passes look cool, I have yet to see a single spectator not amazed by 3D. Seeing a 10 foot plane hovering is nothing less than amazing. At my field that is the thing that draws the crouds. When a plane is landing no one even cares. There is 0 excitement there to the crowd.

As we gain experience, we all eventually learn that nobody watches us fly. You can be practicing a near perfect pattern sequence that would win a contest and the wide eyed kids will be wowed by the guy doing a bunch of nearly zero-skill hot dogging over the runway.

You know eye candy is what people like to see. In basketball, the dunks are what people want to see. Why? Not because you get more points, but because it is spectacular. Seeing acrobatic and 3D plane has the same draw. The spectator doesn't care about the skill it takes to land without a bounce, but the eye candy of acrobatics. It is just a simple fact of life, not meant as a shot toward anyone or their flying preference.

Ok, let's not go off-topic and turn this into a debate over which is better. Each is better in the eyes of that type of flier.

Now back to the question:

Aside from having larger control surfaces, 3-D planes are often lighter, with thick airfoils which allows them to fly at the slow speeds required for the radical maneuvers they do.

Of course, there are some planes, Like Extras and Edges that do not follow the thick wing rule.

I like to think of the difference between the two as the difference between a Ballerina and a Football Player. Each has their different structure, and each has their different abilities.

Not to mention the fact that most people wouldnt believe that a plane can do that without actually seeing it.

The high speed stuff is fun to, as is smoke...but people tend to get out of their seats more for 3d...

Now you're correct in saying that they arent awed at the skill...they just think that its more dangerous and they might see a plane crash...

We're human...we dont want anyone to crash, but if they do, we want to see it!

Conventional aerobatics rely on the aircraft using its wings to " fly" through the aerobatic maneuvers. While nearly all conventional aerobatics rely on full control during the flight, there are a few violent "departure" maneuvers, wherein the aircraft fully departs from controlled flight (eg. Lomcevak) & tumbles wildly through the sky. Additionally, in some particular cases conventional aerobatics are flown at considerable airspeed & the aircraft can be very lean, clean & faster than hell.

3D maneuvers very often rely on the aircraft literally hanging on their propellers, rather than the wings -- which at times are simply convenient platforms for hanging large controll surfaces from --- with the big controll surfaces acting more like thrust deflectors than flying surfaces. 3D is very wowee stuff, as it is well outside the norm of what folks see aircraft doing in daily flight.

3D planes are built very lightly, so that they have high thrust-weight ratios, thus permitting the helicopter-like ability to hang on the prop & maneuver in that condition. This light structure & very large control surfaces virtually prohibits high-speed flight -- in some cases the aircraft will literally tear themselves to pieces if flown too quickly.

Both are exciting to watch & to perform.

Just my experiance, but what the non flying spectators really want to see? Crash's of course. Doesn't take any skill nether!

i understand perfectly, btw funny comment about 3d.

Whats the diff between 3d and reg flying?

Money and skill.

tru dat.

RC outlaw makes a pretty good point though. There are people who can hover very well but have trouble landing. I was at the wram show this year and part of the show were the 2 guys hovering was great but it started to get boring. Some guy yells out "IF YOU WANNA HOVER GET A HELICOPTER". Some guy at the field hovers alot and it gets boring after a while.

I don't have an airplane which has adequate power to hover. To learn how to do it, I would need to buy bigger engines and try doing this maneuver more often then I do. So, I lack the skills needed to hover. However, I can grease a plane on at times with the best of them. Even the bad landings I may make are usually pretty good; but, on occasions, I can make really bad ones. I love doing T&Gs. This is the most interesting and fun maneuver I do. I like nothing better then a well executed landing or take-off. These are very practical maneuvers to know.

3d is something which has caught on since I left the hobby in the early 90s. It's my understanding that the bigger gas powered airplanes are better at doing these types of maneuvers. Many airplanes are now called 3d airplanes, which I understand are marginally so.

At some point I may get more into 3d or high alpha, which I think is a better name for this stuff. However, right now I'm more like 90% of the guys out there, just doing what I like to do and flying airplanes I like to fly and not thinking about trying to impress anyone (except myself, of course)!

A few of us flew at a 4th of July picinic a few years ago. One of the guys there was terrific at 3D so he goes out and does his thing. It was the first time I had seen 3D in person and I'm thinking I do not want to following his flying. He landed to a few people clapping so I figure what the heck. The only thing my poor little Hots would do was high speed passes and the like. The whole time I was flying I could here the crowd responding, the faster and lower I flew the more they liked it. The 3Der couldn't believe it, we figured the crowd wanted to see the "little" airplanes do the same thing the big ones do. So now anytime we draw a crowd we do high speed passes.
My theory is that the non-flier has no idea the level of skill it takes to fly good 3D. They just see the 3D plane sit in one spot and as one spectator said,"flop around".

I will throw my $0.02 in.... easiest way to describe "3D" flying is, flying slower than the planes stall speed, using the prop to create lift, not the wing.

I guess each area is different. We have some insanely skilled 3D guys at our field. There is a yak 54 (35% or so) that hovers that thing 6 inches off the ground while torque rolling it. He does rolling circles all day that are flat. People are just in awe of this massive plane doing remarkable things. I think seeing a little profile 3D is one thing, but seeing some of these giants 3D is quite another.

Nothing makes the crowd more whipped up than screaming across the field at 180+ with a Q40... All you hear each pass is a collective "holly *****!!!" Of course you always have the couple guys running for cover because "there's no way you can be in control at that speed"... I usually don't run for cover until someone with a new 3D plane shows up

Watching 3D is kind of like watch the helicopter guys fly. I know its difficult and I have to admire thier skill and determination, but it just doesn't look like something that would interest me.

But being one of the few scale builders at my club, I am accustomed to being "different".

If you really want to get the crowd going try the high speed inverted battery toss.[X(]

actually I don't mind learning hovering but at the same time that gets boring. I think that the tight loops, lightning fast rolls, and flipping the plane in place in the sky looks cool.