When you've been in the hobby for a while you have a list of things that you want to be able to accomplish. Ihave several maneuvers that I've tried at times to do and haven't been able to do them. The one that has been at the top of my list to try and do is the Knife Edge Loop. I've had many planes including the Ultra Sports and the Dave Patrick Ultimate and I've never been able to do this maneuver. When Ihad the Ultimate Iwas still pretty new and didn't know what the heck Iwas doing so Iwas never able to really do it. Well today I finally accomplished this maneuver. And what plane did Ifinally use to do this with?An Ultra Sport?An Extra? An Edge? Nope, nope, nope. Idid it on my Great Planes Escapade, OS46 FXand standard servos all around. We have finally gotten some flying weather here and I finally got to get out and fly this plane as Ihaven't been able to fly since I did the review on it. So I was playing around with it and Ifound that it would climb very well in a knife edge. So when Igot to break over at the top of the climb Iknew Ihad a possibility. Ikept after it and after a few more tries Igot it to do the knife edge loop. It was a bit ugly, but it was passable as a knife edge loop. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke Idid it again, 3 more times in fact!!!! I'm pretty pumped up about it.

So, what's the purpose of this post??To toot my own horn? Maybe a little bit. Ok, a bit more than a little bit. But moreover to show that you don't always need to spend huge bucks to be able to do these types of maneuvers. The Escapade runs $99.95 andthe OS46 FX runs $129. So there you go!!Now Ican't wait to get back and and see what else this little surprise of a plane can do!!!!

Congrats, right now on my list of things to accomplish, is to get the plane back in one piece. Once again Congratulations, even more so that you pulled it off with a low budget, basic, sport plane.

I didn't think you ever had time to FLY.

Yeah, well I should have been home writting instead. But what did Tom Cruise say in Risky Business??Sometimes you just gotta say what the heck......

Ken

 </p>

Hey, that's great, Ken.  The one thing that I really want to do is to learn to fly electrics.  Yeah, I can fly them, but since I am such a fuel guy, I just don't bother that much with throttle control as needed with electrics.  So, I want to work on that, and fly them as they should be flown.</p>

Is that a good thing?  I don't know, but if I want to fly indoors this coming winter, I had better learn it.</p>

CGr.</p>

Nice, Ken! I am still scared of knife edge loops

I am curious...
Do you use rudder to climb while in knife edge?

Total newbie question.

Noah

Yes, you climb with the rudder. You also have to use the rudder on the backside to bring it around and level it out. That's the scariest part of the maneuver!! </p>

Ken</p>

Craziness!

Sounds like it takes super-human motor skills for that one!!

YIKES!


Noah

Almost like helicopters.  Takes to many hands!!!!   

did ken manage to stuffa saito 91 in an escapad. or balance it on the trailing edge of the wing

Nope, OS46 FX. Balanced on the recommended CGstraight from the manual!!

Ken

Not to mention standard servos!

Hi RCKen
A knife edge loop is a great target to aim for. I'm trying to think which plane I will try it with. A few years ago I tried it with my SPAD Canard and it was a disaster. I had been moving the CG back so that it could comfortably do a knife edge. I had the CG so far back that I noticed that it could go vertical in Knive edge. I usually would stop the knife edge after it passed the vertical by about 45 degrees. One day I decided to go for a full loop. I started very high, about 4 mistakes high. The darn thing went into an inverted flat spin and nothing I could do could stop it. Scared the heck out of me. After reading the fun you are having I will try it with one of my conventional configurations. My SPAD Biplane.

Congrats Ken, can you give yourself one of those "attaboys" that you give other people?</p>

</p>

Jon</p>

hi   congradulations-  -now thats a real  advanced manuver for anyone

Congrats on reaching one of your goals. I too have an Escapade and I'm a big fan of that plane. Love flying it.

If you ever get a chance, would you honor us with a short video clip of that maneuver? I'd really like to see that done.

Thanks

Are you gonna make yourself a knife edge loop attaboy now?

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>

You go Ken!!!
Ihave a couple of planes that will do it but as I get close to the ground just before it goes back to level I freak out and pull out of it, those last few seconds are a killer to watch. I just can't deal with the stress!!
Gene
Attaboy Ken!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First of all, gratz ken.

Now...i think Ken's original point is one that bears repeating...many many many times.

You simply do NOT have to spend a truckload of money in this hobby to have an ABSOLUTE blast. Sure...a great big Extra might have a high 'cool factor', and a 2 year scratch build is certainly an accomplishment worthy of genuine pride...but FUN can be had on nearly ANY budget.

CGR, you mentioned flying indoors this winter...let me share a little story with ya.

This past winter, our indoor club came up with an activity that provided us with more howls of laughter, trash talking, ribbing, and genuine FUN than I've had in the past 5 years.

And we did it for < $150 per person, all up, ready to go.

A bunch of us bought Parkzone Embers for "lazy indoor tooling around". After a couple of indoor sessions, "someone" had this crazy idea. LET'S HAVE EMBER PYLON RACES!! A couple trash cans got moved out onto the floor for "pylons", couple of guys offered to be 'judges'...and off we went.

Within 2 weeks, I'd clipped the wings of my Ember, changed the CG. Some other guys modified the rudders a bit. Before long, a few of us bought new wings (they're < $20) and were experimenting with swept leading edges, delta wings, you name it. Our only "rule" was that the powerplant and servos had to remain stock.

We had a blast! And given the inexpensive initial cost AND repair costs/time, nobody was worried about crashes, or "aggressive" flying. I looked more forward to our 3 hours indoors each week than i had ANY trip to the field in quite a while.

Ken's point is a great one, and not to be overlooked. There are PLENTY of ways in this hobby to have an absolutely great time on VERY minimal budgets.

Now that you've learned that the stick on the right goes side-to-side, you need to learn that it also has more than full up and down too!

Congrats-Nice thread-I too just completed this move with a $30 plane and simple HS225 servos and an OS55AX for power in a fun fly type plane. No big $$$ spent. Pulling out on the bottom will raise a hair or two. Good Job.

PS-RCken-Toot away bigboy, well deserved.</p>

I think my decathlon would have done it, but the coupling always confused me too much to hold on to it more than a knifeedge.