Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Hi people,

I'm new to the site. What a mine of info. Top site!!!!!

Anyway,

I've just dug my old Precedent Hi Boy out of the loft and bought some radio gear for it. I have never flown it as I was side tracked when I discovered golf a few weeks later.

I am now getting bored of golfing twice a week so am going to try and learn to fly my plane on my local sands (which are massive for safety and freedom to land anywhere), on my own.

I would be greatful for any positive advice or answers to the following. I have read the previous post regarding this matter but there are just a few other questions I would like to know.

1. On the ground, how fast does a plane need to be going before the rudder will turn it ?

2. How far back from the leading edge should the C of G be on this plane (with an empty tank). I have lost the instructions.

3. I built the plane when I was 15 and in a rush to build it. The film covering looks rough in places and the tail plane is on a slight slope to the fuselage (approx 2 or 3 degrees sag to the right). Will any of these factors have any adverse effects on the plane?

4. Tips on take off and landing.

Please, please give me some positive advise. Save me the "you need to get lessons", I like a challenge and feel confident. I'm a joiner by trade so repairs are no probs.

Thanks in advance to all the replies

Regards

Carl

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

I will stay the "GET HELP" speech because-- GETTING HELP --is not what you desire. So my advice is to use a simulator like FMS to learn the visuals of flying- A sim will not replace -- AN INSTRUCTOR --but it can HELP...

Also take video and read this thread.... http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/One_...2394955/tm.htm

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

With those types of questions, I would definitley say get some help.
Do a search here for teaching yourself, or something along those lines. You'll see that help would be helpful.

#1 you were 15 and in a rush to build the plane. Did you have experience, or help building it? How do you know it was built properly.

The rudder should turn the plane at any speed as long as it's connected properly, ie. to the front or rear wheel.

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Get a simulator... I taught myself to fly Heli on one on my own.
Without some sim time I'm afraid your plane wont last long.

The plane doesnt need to be going too fast on the ground before the rudder will become effective. The prop blast going over the tail will help maybe 15mph or so..

Not sure on the CG but the thickest part of the wing is a decent starting point...

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

I to will save you the get an Instructor speech... Possitive advice.
When taxiing, if you have a steerable nose wheel the plane barly need to move to turn..

Take off is simple, advance throttle slowly and keep it on a straight track, when you feel in get light(you'llknow trust me) pull a little up elevator, then use the ailerons to keep the wings level while you STEADILY climb out.

Turning- When you are high enough to allow a couple mistakes before the dreaded ground catches your plane apply a Little aileron in the Direction you would like to turn, the pull a tad of up elevator.. If you see the tail start to "sag" or drop below the nose apply a little rudder it the direction you first applied ailerons. When you are going the direction you want level the wings.

Landing THIS is the hard part! First you want to test the aircrafts stall characteristics up HIGH, to see just how slow it'll go.. Then cut the throttle to Idle and glide to about 15 ft. above where you wanna land... KEEP THE WINGS LEVEL! And let the plane slowly descend at 2-3 ft AGL pull a slight bit of elevator(just enough to get the nose up) hold it there til' it slowly settles in on the main gear..

Good luck! Regards, Cody

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

If you are bent on learning to fly on your own as you indicated.....then those questions you posted and any others you may have needs to be addressed by an experienced person.
1. You need to go to a flying field with your plane and ask someone to help you with your questions and concerns.
2. As you intend to do this by yourself.............HAVE INSURANCE....this is a must. You will loose control at somepoint and hopefully it may miss a car, person, animal or yourself.
(There was an incident last year in the UK or Scotland where an RC plane went out of control, flew into a small town and killed a little girl who was shopping with her mom)
3. Your frequency where you intend to fly may be jamming someone elses nearby or viceversa.
4.In case you injure yourself with the prop.....you may need medical help.
5. etc etc....too many to mention.
If you overcome the above and others that I did not mention.....then you may teach yourself to fly.
When you do...welcome to the hobby....it's one awesome feeling when you learn to fly, but do it safely and learn safety.
Cheers.

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

1. Slow. Try it. Several times, without taking off. The longer you practice taxiing, without taking off, the better you'll be able to deal with in-flight corrections. Make at least ten passes, with the plane approaching you. Get used to which way to pull the stick to make the plane move away from you when it's headed at you - so you can keep it from running into you when landing and taxiing.
2. Balance it on the spar. It's designed that way.
3. Smooth up the surface as best you can. Don't sweat the canted horizontal stab.
4. Get the engine running well. Make sure you can point the prop staight up for 15 seconds without the engine RPM sagging at full throttle. Make sure your control linkages are not loose. Make sure your wing and tailfeathers aren't going to fall off. Same for your landing gear. Know where those trim tabs are, so you can move them a little without looking down at your transmitter. Make sure the transmitter and radio batteries are both charged well. Make a couple trials before you try to fly, so you know that the plane and transmitter will not run out of electricity before 20 minutes or so elapse. Then recharge. Do a range check. If you don't know how, look it up. Taxi into the wind, increase your speed, and the plane should lift off by itself. Be prepared to bring the nose down to level, with the elevator. Be prepared to tilt it up to level, in case it wants to dive. Be prepared to roll the plane level, in case it rolls to one side. Adjust the trims for straight and level flight. Practice making the plane turn away from you when it's headed toward you. To land, line the plane up with your runway, bring it straight toward you, and set it down right in front of you. You know how to make it move away from you, because you've practiced, now do it. Land with the fuselage level and the wings level. With power off, the plane will descend, just keep it moving forward.

Flight simulators are very inexpensive practice, even if you buy the most expensive one availalble.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Also - it is MUCH tougher than it looks. Trust me. I bought a cheap little electric slow stick and couldn't keep it in the air for more than 7 or 8 seconds my first time. I am afraid that a balsa glow plane can't handle the abuse a slow stick can.

Give it a shot, perhaps you'll get lucky.

Bryan

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

You say you just got the plane out and got some radio gear? You don't have the instructions, so how did you set up the control throws? They are pretty critical that you have enough but not too much, 1/8" change in thro on any surface makes a noticable change in how it handles. Just trying to make sure you got all the bases covered. As for the CG, usually around 25% of the wings chord, or at (or slightly in front of) the thickest part of the airfoil.

Ok, but will you at least come back here and post your experiances, be them good or bad? ;)

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

The Precedent Hi Boy has a relatively high wing loading for a trainer, so you will need to watch your speed, especially on landing approaches. If you get too slow you find that your ailerons stop working, which is not good.

Built as per instructions the Hi Boy also has a fixed nose wheel, which I guess is why you are asking when the rudder starts to work. If yours is this way (when I built one a few years back I made the nosewheel steerable) you will need to ensure it tracks straight enough to get rolling enough for the rudder to kick in.

BTW, does your model have ailerons? I have a recollection that you could get this with or without.

I may have some instructions for the Hi Boy around at home, but I'm working away and won't be going back for a week. If this is not too late I can try and dig them out.

Don't want to put you off but without some help or at least a simulator your first flight may well be a short one.

Good luck anyhow


Terry

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

I agree with above posts, it's a bit more tricky than it looks.

If you're absolutely going to do this yourself I suggest you get a small, cheap electric parkflyer...A GWS slowstick perhaps?
It's of highest importance that you learn the orientation and get your brain to mirror the stick movements when you're plane is coming towards you.
`
Most beginner tend to overcontrol, there's no remedy for this except keeping the control throws small and use some exponential in the radio...Then practice.

Sorry to say, but I don't think you're gonna make the first turn.
You're likely to take off, and perhaps climb out if you're keeping cool and not controling the plane too much, then you'll feed in som aileron to make the turn, plane will bank, a bit too much, then you overcontrol on the opposite aileron and spiral down to crash...But hey, video it and proof us pessimists wrong :)

Edit: Someone mentioned helicopters.
I build and learned how to hover a Raptor 50 without instructor or sim, the thing with a helicopter is that you can progress slowly and go from skidding, to hovering, to skidding to stop.
A plane is diffrent because it need speed to fly and once it takes off, it'll have to come down with speed to keep flying on the wing.

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Positive advice?

Just do it Carl! It obvious you're a natural and there's nothing more you can learn that we can teach you.

Happy landings! :D

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Take Video ;)

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Read all of the stuff above -- read it again.

Find a place with LOTS of space around it that is free of buildings, trees, powerlines, & most importantly, PEOPLE.

The plane is always farther away than you think, particularly if/when it goes down.

It is most likely going much faster than you think -- except in the case of turns during a landing approach -- then it is going much more slowly than you think.

Save your pennies -- you wiil need them

Have fun

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Hi Carl.
You can do it.
I taugh myself to fly. The best advise on the landing someone gave me was "don't worry about putting down in front of you". If you have engines like mine they will quit when they feel like it. If that happens try to point the nose into the wind and land it. Even if it seems a 1/4 mile out, don't try to fly it back. The trainers generally can handle a plowed field or similar, just bend the gear back and do it again.
Only other thing is keep stick movements REAL SLOW. Don't worry about your building skills or covering, I've seen some pretty disgraceful stuff fly. Agreed on the wing thickness/cg.
If you are not in a club and out in a field by yourself, any old radio equipment works fine. (do a radio check)
Good luck.
Spanky

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

When landing, the plane will be coming toward you. This can be a problem to a first timer because the aileron and rudder controls will seem reversed.

The trick that helps many of us is this: As the plane comes toward you heading for a touchdown (and you are facing the airplane), push the aileron control stick toward whichever wing is low. This will help keep the wings level.

Also, don't turn too steeply when setting up for your landing and control your rate of decent by decreasing the engine speed, you may even need to speed up the engine if you are coming down too fast. If you are decending too fast and try to correct by giving an up elevator control you will run out of airspeed and drop out of the sky.

Good luck. I hope you stick with the hobby regardless of the outcome. My original self-taught flying excursions were unsuccessfull. I gave in and got a little help. I'm still in the hobby 20 years later.

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Are you at least 20 miles from anyone or anything that you could potentially hurt? You need to realize that these things are not toys. If you lose orientation (which is very likely), you may think your plane is flying back toward you, when it is in fact flying away. By the time you realize this, it's out of sight, and out of range. Your plane will most likely fly at least 40 mph, and probably faster. At 40 mph and 15 minutes, it would travel a minimum of 10 miles. With a larger tank, or faster airspeed, you could approach 20 miles before it comes down. That is how innocent people/property get hurt. So, saying you're going to fly this "on your own sand" is a farce. Good luck, though.

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

As stated, get a sim. When you get confident, then try the plane. Keep your hands and everything else out of the prop. Once you get it in the air, don't panic. You don't have to fly full throttle. Once you have it up a ways, you can cut it back. Keep it high at first and get used to it. When its time to land, get it level, bring the power to idle, and fly it straight till it lands. If at any point you lose it (and you will), pull the power back so it doesn't hit full throttle.

After a crash, dont turn the engine till you clean it out. If there is any dirt or sand in it, clean it out good with a tooth brush and alcohol. After you get it totally clean, then flood it with marvel mystery oil and lube it good. Don't turn it with dirt in it.

Good luck.

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

.... You get no help from me after your cute little post later in this thread.

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

carl,

If you have to ask questions here you're really not teaching yourself to fly;) You are just not getting in person help:D

Teaching yourself to fly implies going out and doing it by yourself asking for advice is cheating;)

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

I learned to fly a ruder only hand launch by myself so it can be done. Start with a AMA membership so that you are covered by some insurance then go for it. You will either learn to fly, or become a great repairer or both. Good luck.

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Buy lots of glue because you are going to need it. One flight for 30 seconds (if it last that long) will be all you are going to get, then it will be a week or more of repairs and then perhaps another flight of maybe 45 seconds this time, and then another week or so of repairs...... and so on until you get it. If this is your way of having fun, then knock yourself out and go for it. If not, then find a local club and have an instructor teach you how to fly. Who knows, you may be a natural, but even naturals go through a learning process.
When you learned to ride a two wheeled bicycle, did you fall off the first few times? Flying a radio controlled airplane is the same thing except that when you fell off your bike, you didn't bust up your equipment, only yourself and maybe a scratch on the bike. If you crash your airplane hard enough, and you will, you will damage the receiver and the servos and your next crash may be the results of damaged equipment before you get to dumb thumb it in yourself.
As Forest Gump said, "Stupid is as stupid does!"

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

If you have a digital camera available. Show us some photos of the plane. Especially close up pics of the servos and control surfaces.

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

They have doctors performing surgery over the internet now. We need some kind of telepresence on the flying field to help people learn how to fly. :)

RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
 

Teach people to fly over the 'net? Heck, we need to be able to fly over the 'net so we can try out each others planes! :)