What is the difference betwiin 3D and Pattern? What kind of plane for each?

You gotta give us a little more info.

Are you wanting to fly electric, glow or gas?
What's your budget?
Are you interested in becoming competitive or just want to fly on the weekends?
What is your current skill level?


3D is a flying style that involves flying specialized aerobatics usually below the stall speed of the aircraft.
It includes maneuvers such as harriers, elevators, blenders, hovering, torque rolls, etc.
It is normally judged based on execution, versatility, originality, and choreography.

Pattern is a flying style that involves flying specific aerobatic maneuvers in a pre-determined sequence.
It includes maneuvers such as loops, rolls, stall turns, spins, etc.
It is judged based on precision.

Prices for each type of flying range from a basic set-up of $500 bucks to the top of the line stuff in the thousands.

lol, big difference.

3D is,,, well, 3D is raddical manuevers performed in a condition where the wing is pretty much stalled and you are relying on the engines thrust to control attitude and altitude. The planes are usually over powered and have exaggerated control surface size and a very light wing load. Most advanced 3D pilots use scale aerobatic planes like the Extra, Edge, Yak, Sukhoi, Ultimate Biplane, Giles etc.. Lookup videos and you can see tons of 3D. The basic 3D posture is called the "harrier" position where the plane is flying with the mose up at about a 45-60 degree angle flying most on rudder control and engine thrust. The basic maneuvers are hovering and torque rolling, rolling harriers, High alpha knife edge flight and misc stalled spins. Examples of the spins are the Knife Edge Spin, upright and inverted flat spins, the "blender" and the "waterfall". Most good 3D pilots tempt fate by performing all of these maneuvers as low and slow as possible..
99% of really polished and well known 3D pilots cut their teeth on pattern flying, most fly pattern and IMAC. IMAC is basically pattern flying with the afforementioned scale aerobatic planes.

Pattern is a precise graceful sequence of geometric shapes that are performed in a particular order. "Pattern" pilot s must fly airplanes that are small enough to fit into a 2 meter square box and they must weigh less than 5KG or 11lbs. There are several different levels from "sportsman" to the world class level called FAI or F3A. The sequence and its maneuvers are scored on a scale of 0-10 according to geometric accuracy, roll rates, straight lines and overall symmetry of a manuever, generally speaking. Pattern is performed in a "box" that is indicated by lines extending out to the left and the right from the pilots feet at 60 degree angles. The box is also limited to a vertical limit of 60 degrees from the pilots point of view. Its all about geometry and disciplined control of the aircraft that required that the pilot is able to put the plane EXACTLY where he wants it when he wants it to be there.

These are my planes. The blue one is for 3D/IMAC and the pink and yellow one is my pattern plane.

So pattern makes the plane fly like a plane and 3D more like a heli (I don't mean to be rude). Is there a category that judges the flight compared to the perfomance of a full scale plane?

I think your probably wanting something like IMAC.
IMAC tends to center around scale aerobatic planes like the extra, edge, yak, etc.
They fly the same maneuvers that you would see at a "real" aerobatic competition with full size aircraft.
Its judged very similar to pattern competition.

Check out the following sites for more information


3D - http://www.blaineaustin.com/tech_tips.htm
Pattern - www.nsrca.org
IMAC - http://www.mini-iac.com/DesktopDefault.aspx

Yes there is such a category where planes are judged upon how "scale" they fly. There is a whole world of competitive flying that is dedicated to replicating scale flight... IMAC is not much different that pattern relative to scale flight. There is an organization out there that competes and judges planes on how realistic they look, and how true to scale they fly.. IMAC planes are WAY lower in wingload than the scale versions. They are Built to scale and they do emulate scale aerobatic competitions, but they are quite different.

Let me tell you something.,, Good 3D is HARD and I mean HARD to perform. If you can fly 3D proficiently there is not anything with wings that you cant fly well. All 3 disciplines (3D IMAC and pattern) are the extremes of aerobatic skill. There are other challenging things you can do with RC planes, but none more difficult to master than these.

I am still far away from performing any of these!. For now I know that I have to practice, practice and then more prectice because it is a tie right now, sometimes the plane wins, sometimes I win. LOL.

I love planes and I could not think any thing else better than this to spend my free time, but at the same time I want to be good at any speciality within the hobby, not just fly arround, that is why I am asking waht is there out there to do and I think now that you can go either way because one line does not go against the other.

You are asking the right questions!!!

Just keep practicing and as your skills develop you will know what direction you want to go in improving your skills.

Also, nobody says you have to pick 1 disipline. I fly pattern, 3D, IMAC and helicopters too. There are guys that do only 1 thing and there are guys that literally do just about anything RC that there is and have ridiculous amounts of money tied up in it.

Yes, money is a very important factor in this hobby but I have learned that you can get arround and have lots of fun without having to get a second morgage in the house. Oh! and I became good at repairing the Arrow! LOL. It has to take me arroud during the basic training process!
I did already buy a second plane, It is a Sea Bee from Phoenix Models and I want to fly it tomorrow with my club's instructor by my side, just to see how it flyes and then back to the hangar untill I can do it by miself.

cjposada,
I can tell you from personal experience that having somebody that you can learn from in person is probably THE biggest asset you will have. I tried to learn how to fly 3-D awhile back. But not having anybody at our field that could fly it I was on my own to learn. Only resource I had was here on RCU. Just didn't work out. I finally gave up in frustration. Try to find a psrson that can help you out at the field. That will go a long way, trust me.

Ken

Good job on the info Mike.

Pattern help with 3D, 3D does not help pattern.