help with rc lingo
 

when i go out and watch the plane at the local hobby airfield i hear alot of different terms. most of them i do not understand. like what us expo??
so is there a document where i could find alot of definitions about these terms??

thnaks in advance

RE: help with rc lingo
 

GreatPlane's glossary is a good place to start.

http://www.greatplanes.com/glossary.html

Expo is short of Exponential....

gus

RE: help with rc lingo
 

Is it just me or is the term 3D really iritating. Not just RC but I really hate it when terms are adopted incorrectly just because they sound cool. Alloy wheels really gets me too. If you want to make up a term that has no meaning that's fine, but using already know words/terms incorrctly kills me. OK, I'll stop now. :) Oh and is there anything in the world that's not "virtual" now. **BARF** I'll really get off my soap box now... really. Wasn't spam the 1st "virtual"?

2 specific terms please...

1) Hammer Head. What is it called now?
2) Is a cuban-8 called something else too?

thanks,
Mike

RE: help with rc lingo
 

Hammer Head is actually a newer term for a "Stall Turn"

RE: help with rc lingo
 

thanks for the info

RE: help with rc lingo
 

Dead stick landing - VERY quiet.

Stall means two things - either you're about to have a dead-stick landing (see above) or your wing just stopped flying and the plane's going to need some input.

Expo - a very nice way to tame a twitchy airplane electronically (control surface movement is reduced at small stick movements) or a place where you spend LOTS of money to get a radio with 'expo' (exponential)

Spin - plane's wing is stalled and it rotates quickly. Go find out what an inverted spin is. And for what it's worth, an Ugly Stik on floats doing an inverted spin looks as stupid as you'll ever see a plane look.

RE: help with rc lingo
 

I'm not totally sure, but I'm under the impression that "hammer head" is actually the older name, it's just that RC modelers (or specifically the AMA?) called it a "stall turn" for many years. I'm pretty sure the full-scale guys have always called it a hammer head. I think the AMA used the term "stall turn" to diferenciate it from a "wing over". These days, I don't think too many guys do "true" "stall turns", I see a lot of "wing overs".

I've never heard of another name for a cuban-8. However, I remember when I started flying having absolutely no clue what a cuban-8 was, then wonder why it was called that.

Rob, I HATE when people refer to the engine quitting as "stalling". I don't know how many times I've had to try to explain what a stall was and wasn't to beginners. The engine quits or stops, or the plane is deadstick. The wing stalls :D Just my pet peeve.

(It's also fun to kill the engine up nice and high when there are lots of spectators around. You always hear people saying things like "oh no, he stalled, he's going to crash" and stuff like that. It's even more fun when I go in to a near-vertical dive, pull out in to a loop, then set up and land. :D (don't try that at home, kids, I do it with a combat plane. Seriously light wing loading, and pretty much impossible to damage in that situation, not your typical wood plane). I guess they never heard of a "glider" before. :D


Mike, what about "alloy wheels" bothers you? The fact that all wheels are made from an alloy of something or the other?

RE: help with rc lingo
 

In the old (barnstorming) days, with full scale pilots, "stall turn" was the common term. "Hammerhead" has been around for at least sixty years so I guess it is proper. "Cuban eights" have been referred to as the "spectacles", again in the olden days.

Another misnomer heard a lot is "semi-symetrical" airfoil. An airfoil is symetrical or not depending on if the mean line is straight or curved. What is normally referred to as semi-symetrical is in fact an airfoil with a mild chamber. Though not technically correct, some terms creep into common usage to such an extent that resistance is futile.

As a flight instructor, I once had a young student, to which I had told there was traffic at 2 o'clock, ask me how I knew since it was only 1:45. He had always had a digital watch.

Every field of activity has it's own jargon, and learning that is sometimes as hard as learning the skills.

RE: help with rc lingo
 

Umm, you guys have serious problems I would consult a clinical psychologist. :) Names are just names, they are qualitative and used solely for identification purposes. If everyone accepts them as a norm then they can be referred to in that way.

What bothers me is things (without naming names of companies) like a cow advertising a chicken place. Uh, I'm no farmer but thats a dairy cow they use in the ad, what does it care about people eating beef? :)

RE: help with rc lingo
 

Next you'll be bringing up the proper pronouceation of "Holstien" :D

And yes, names are names, but it's nice to know what someone is talking about. It would be pretty funny if we all had our own names for the same things. :D

RE: help with rc lingo
 

Since we're floggin this horse..

What about lights, and various other electrical appliances.. Up here, I guess it's a *******ization of the french language, or the fact that a switch is either opened or closed..

Peopel around here either turn them on, or 'open' them: "Close the lights when you leave the room" "If you can't see, I'll open the lights" "Close my computer when you're done surfing RCU!"

You 'push the toaster', 'plug in the kettle', start your car and close doors!!

For some resason, I figured Cuban eights would be taboo in the states?!

RE: help with rc lingo
 

The reason names are important is because we deal with certain thigs that have same names and different meanings.

"Stall" is one of the most crucial when dealing with this hobby.

Why? Because in the Non-Airplane world everyone knows that "stalled" means their car engine just quit.

This crazy language of ours is difficult enough without having to explain everything we say.

Montague is 100% correct. You should NOT reffer to your airplane's engine as having "Stalled".

Otherwise you could be teaching someone, and let's say the blow a landing. So the instructor says. "You crashed because the plane stalled."

Meanwhile, the student is thinking, "This guy's an idiot! The engine was running the whole time".

(Of course is possible that the instructor IS an idiot but, that's another thread)

So when it comes to flying, "STALLED" means only ONE thing.

It has nothing to do with your engine, and everything to do with your wing.

RE: help with rc lingo
 

:)Traffic at 2 o'clock:D:D

RE: help with rc lingo
 

Prang
Auger
Pile Drive
Doink
Geological Exploration
China Excursion

Hopefully you won't have to use these RC terms too much;):D

RE: help with rc lingo
 

Montague: The word alloy by itself is not a metal and does not define anything. Just my pet peeve. :) I belive people meant some kind of aluminum alloy when they said "alloy" all the time in the 80s. What about titanium, steel, brass, etc... Now people don't even say alloy, it's simply aluminum. Much better, I can breath again now.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=alloy

I got beat up once by the school bully for telling him he was wrong about the contrails being engine exhaust.

I guess hammer-head is a shark too. Reminder to self, seek professional help soon.

[oops, typo]

RE: help with rc lingo
 

S*it- means someone just crashed

RE: help with rc lingo
 

...and the funny thing is you don't even have to speak the same language and you still know they said, S*IT. The wonders of the universal language of anger.

RE: help with rc lingo
 

very true like when you learn a new launguge whats the first words you leanr?
all the Rude ones :D

RE: help with rc lingo
 

Several off topic and unnecessary posts have been removed. Please keep to the subject.

As you spend time here and at the field you will pick up the new terms. It does take some time. As noted in other posts some are confusing. One of my favorites is "chicken stick" for a tool used to flip the engine over. Some still start engines with their remaining fingers. (I build furniture and once saw a sign in a friends shop stating "Do not use remaning fingers as push sticks").

EXCAP232

RE: help with rc lingo
 

I was on the field for the first flight of the Douglas DC-8. It had a stick like projection from the rear of the fuselage about where a tailwheel would be if it were a taildragger. It was at least 8-10 feet long. I was casully acquainted with Clyde Schleiper, test pilot for Douglas and he referred to the thing as a chicken stick. So much for the English language. The Oxford Dictionary adds many "new" words each year just because they are in common use. To Dr. Wogz remember what I think was said by Winston Churchill "The United States and England are two countries united by a different language". Now it seems as if Canada joins the league but then so do individual states in the U.S. of A. Y'all.

RE: help with rc lingo
 

That's hilarious... traffic at 2 oclock when it's 1:45 :P:D

I never do either stall turns or wing overs. I like to do a bit of both. Most pilots can tell the difference, too.

Hey, what's wrong with the term "3d"??? WHen we hover we are using the dimentions, correct?

RE: help with rc lingo
 

"Meanwhile, the student is thinking, "This guy's an idiot! The engine was running the whole time". "

It would help if the student had a little common sense :)

I think it is good for any student to learn the fundamentals of flight and why the airplane does what it does. If he/she reads about the fundamentals of flight they will know what a stall is. People should specify that the !QUOT!plane stalled!QUOT! or the !QUOT!engine stalled!QUOT!. For that matter when a servo is not powerful enough to move the control surface in a High G maneuver then we call that a !QUOT!servo stall!QUOT!. Hence the term !QUOT!Stall Torque!QUOT!. Of course most beginners and non aerobatic people don't worry with this one much.

RE: help with rc lingo
 

I worry about it, but I've never had a problem with lack of torque.

I've noticed the term "hover" means at least 3 different things.

1. (And the most widely-used definition). Where the airplane is at or near vetical nd "hanging" on the prop.

2. Where the airplane is pointed into the wind at a more-or-less level attitude and ground speed is near 0.

3. A variation of 2 with the airplane at around a 45° up angle. (Which is actually a harrier going upwind).

Sigh..

RE: help with rc lingo
 

I've taken to calling the slow-speed level, in to the wind type of hovering "kiting". Ie, fly it like a kite. I don't think I came up with that on my own, but I don't recall where, if anywhere, I heard it before. But it does make it easier to talk about.

that's funny, I had the same thing happen (didn't go to violence though). The clueless kid was convinced that if was water vapor like a cloud then it would rain in lines. Duh. I do think half the world thinks it's "smoke".

RE: help with rc lingo
 

IT'S NOT?!?!?!

Just kidding ;)