I am starting to get the hang of flying the 1972 version of the Falcon 56. Its the only plane I have ever flown. I am planning on building my new Falcon 56 ARF this week. The old Falcon does not have ailerons. The new one does. My father is teaching me to fly. He is fairly good but he has never flown anything with ailerons. What should we be aware of when we fly the new Falcon for the first time? Thanks. Steve.

Here is a review of the ARF: http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=997

I've personally never flown one so I can't offer much input myself.

the one with ailerons will be alot easyer to fly for starters,when I started RC in about 1977 the falcon56 was my first RC plane, what I did was to build it with ailerons at the suggestion of the local hobby shop(LHS) since I had a Kraft 4ch radio.
what I found out was the little 1"strip aileron that the kit recomended making, did almost nothing to contrl the plane, and the gent helping me out at the time made me add 3/4strips to the trailing edge after the first flight telling me you will never learn to do anything but put around the sky without working ailerons.
there are many who started flying the elevator rudder controled planes, but you will find the (full house)thottle,rudder,elevator,and ailerons to be much more controlable and easy to fly plane.
if your dad has never flown any planes without ailerons he's in for a pleasant surprise,just make sure there even with the trailing edge and it will fly like the clasic version only better.

An aircraft designed to fly with rudder will fly nearly the same as an aircraft with ailerons. People that think that an airplane flies alot better with ailerons have probably very little experience flying without them or have not flown an aircraft designed for rudder control.

Ailerons are effective at normal flight speeds but not near a stall. The rudder is always effective. I've seen many a crash at slow speed where the pilot tried in vain to maintain control with the ailerons neglecting to use the rudder. Some even claim they were victims of interference because they thought they lost all control of their aircraft. They didn't know how to use the rudder and probably learned on an aileron equipped trainer.

Aircraft designed to fly with rudder instead of ailerons:
1. Must take off and land directly into the wind.
2. The airplane will roll but the rolls will be barrel rolls instead of axial rolls.
3. The rudder will be very effective at all speeds, even near a stall.
4. People that learn on a rudder plane learn from the start how powerful the rudder is at all flight speeds and learn to use it. People that learn on aileron planes rarely learn to use the rudder.
5. Rudder airplanes are easier to build and repair and much simpler.
6. Rudder planes are much more challenging to fly inverted for extended periods.
7. Rudder planes can perform most of the same aerobatic maneuvers but the maneuvers won't be as crisp.
8. Rudder planes are more stable and easier to fly than aileron planes.

Flying with ailerons is very similar to flying with rudder. You will have no trouble with the transition, just remember that the rudder is still there and waiting to be used at the proper time. If you get slow and the ailerons don't work use the rudder!

Here is what to be careful of:

When you turn with ailerons, you bank the wings and pull the nose around with the elevators. To tighten the turn, use more aileron and MORE ELEVATOR!

Too often I see beginners try to tighten a turn by just adding more aileron. This causes the plane to roll over onto its back - now it's inverted and they panic and pull "UP" which brings the plane straight down.

Excellent advice MinnFlyer!
I learned on the Junior Falcon, Falcon 56 then Senior Falcon back in the old "kit days" of the late 60's early 70's. The key to rudder and elevator model aircraft is adequate wing dihedral. Wing dihedral can be the seen when you hold one wing half down flat on a board. If the other wing half is off the board at the wing tip you have some dihedral. Anytime you input rudder control in an aircraft with adequate wing dihedral (no ailerons) you cause yaw motion or "side to side" motion. If you were to (in this case) input right rudder to an aircraft with adequate wing dihedral the yaw (nose right) motion causes the left wing to catch the air lifting it up into a right turn. Examples of a present day model aircraft with excellent rudder control are the Ember or Vapor micro flyers. Your idea of starting out with Falcon 56 is excellent. It would be interesting to find out if this new Falcon 56 ARF has less dihedral than the old rudder/elevator/throttle kit. Usually ailerons become more responsive when dihedral is decreased. I suspect they have decreased the wing dihedral some. I was thinking of getting this new Falcon 56 ARF and converting it to brushless electric, being I remember all those freeze fingers winter days out in Western North Dakota. I don't see CG offering this great little model as an brushless ARF or even offering conversion instructions, which is a bit surpirsing.

Airplanes can be just as responsive when flown without ailerons as with ailerons and as mentioned dehedral is the key. An airplane without ailerons cannot be controlled at all with a flat wing however the more you increase the dihedral the more responsive the airplane becomes right up to the point of pilot induced ossilation.

An airplane with ailerons is exactly the opposite reduce the dihedral to increase control response and if excessive dihedral is used the ailerons become almost worthless.

Folks who add ailerons to two control airplanes without reducing the dihedral will find the ailerons to be poor responding likely less than when you use just rudder on the same airplane and of course if you convert to just rudder from an airplane designed with ailerons you will also find a poor responding airplane unless you incresed the dihedral.


John

Right on John!

I've got a "Deluxe" version of the late 60's Falcon 56 under construction. It will not have ailerons. I built one 38 years ago and solo'ed on the third flight, also without ailerons. On that one it was powered by an OS .19 and controlled by an Orbit 4 channel radio with 3 PS-4 servos.

As to dihedral, there is no fixed rule here. Low wing airplanes typically need some to be neutral to rudder (the plane will yaw, but not turn). The same amount in a high winged airplane will allow the rudder to steer it.

As far as a flat wing not being controlled by rudder, it depends on the design. I did all the directional steering in the glide of my Stingers (a Formula One pylon racer) with rudder only, as the ailerons did almost nothing when slowed to less than 40 mph.

A good Class II design from the early 60's will do almost any manouver that an aileron model can do, with the exception of knife edge flight. If you ever get the chance to fly a Stark Shark it will shock you what rudder and elevator can do.