What should I be practicing?
 

Hey everyone, my first post here so let me give you some background.

I built a Great Planes PT-20 (from kit) 4 years ago, got to the point that I soloed, then got out of the hobby for that time because of space constraints living in a small apartment.

Sometime in march/april I got the flying bug BAD and bought a tower hobbies .40 RTF and a great planes Super Skybolt kit, with the idea that I would fly the skybolt when it's finished (assuming that it took me awhile to finish and get my flying skills up there.)

Well, I had a total of one day's of training on the buddy box with my TH .40 trainer (several flights worth in periodic light rain and moderate winds). I was fooling around one day (solo, I maidened it myself before that day of training, relying on previous skills and the fact that I have been flying computer flight simulators since I was 5, which was 18 years ago) doing something I knew I shouldn't be doing but I did it anyway (low, inverted on a trainer) and ended up packing it in, destroying the center of the wing and the wood in the center of the nose. I rebuilt it and have since flown the crap out of it, I'm pulling the cheap trim off of it on almost every flight, and can now fly it inverted (at altitude, with more elevator throw than before). I tend to go out and shoot touch and goes and landings with it a lot.

When I crashed the TH .40, I went to the local hobby store to get balsa for repairs and ending up grabbing a sky raider mach II and an O.S. LA .40. That night (LONG night) I both put together the mach II and rebuilt the trainer and flew them both the next week. I maidened the mach II myself after giving it a very bad CG check and it was grossly tailheavy. It porpoised all the way through the sky but didn't require much aileron trim. I managed to a decent landing on it (busted the wood prop because I flared too high but if I breathed on the elevator stick it would loop), added 3oz in the nose after shifting the engine all the way forward and putting the battery behind the firewall, and now I can fly it pretty well.

I can get in the knife edge position with the mach II but it doesn't seem to want to hold altitude there. I'm relatively comfortable flying it inverted. It also doesn't do stall turns that well (will kick over with the rudder but it ends up flopping around after that).

What should I be doing to prepare to fly the skybolt? Chances are, I will maiden it myself because well, I just want it to be that way. It'll be my 3rd maiden and I'm going to make sure to check out a lot of things after my own experiences and witnessing maidens gone wrong at the field (failed aileron servo, my own bad CG location, etc.)

Should I be practicing flying the plane with precision? (nice, smooth level turns, energy management in manuevers, etc) What should I do to build up rudder skill?

In order to practice with the rudder, I'll try flat turns (full rudder, opposite aileron to counteract coupling) on my trainer but it turns like crap on rudder. On the mach II I'll practice rudder on landing to change course instead of aileron (we land on a grass field that is actually a small hill and it can be tight at some points, I try to stay in the same runway sized area when I land).

The only deadstick landing I had was with my trainer when I was on my buddy box and it died after takeoff. I told my trainer that I had it and landed it no problem, but I also had plenty of speed and didn't touch the ailerons except maybe to level the wings a couple of degrees. I barely made it inside the fence that surrounds our field.



I'm also planning on building a Top Flite DC-3 and a Top Flite .60 size mustang, both with retracts (but I'm not going to bother with all the scale details, I like the engineering part of the building and not the scale part as much). I was planning on going with .40 LA's on the DC-3, using the mach II to break in the engines good before putting them on the DC-3.




On another building note, I switched from CA to wood glue because I started to hate the smell and the frustrations of working with it. Now that I have a proper set of various clamps, it's going pretty well.

RE: What should I be practicing?
 

It sounds like you're practicing everything you can with the planes that you have available to fly currently. One of the reasons that the Skybolt is so popular is that it flies more like a sport/pattern plane than a traditional scale biplane. Getting very, very comfortable with your Sky Raider Mach II sounds like it should be good preparation for your Skybolt maiden.

From the problem you describe trying to fly knife edge with the Mach II, it sounds like it might be underpowered or noseheavy or both. The Mach II doesn't have much rudder surface to fly on, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't fly a knife edge better with a ball-bearing .46 on the nose and the CG a little more in between the two settings you've had it at so far. You sound pretty comfortable with building, repairing, and modifying your planes; you could even consider slightly extending the rudder on the Sky Raider Mach II to improve the tail authority for wing overs and knife edge flight.

Other than those considerations, you might want to practice greasing in your landings with two or three clicks of throttle above idle and try to get used to coming in a little "hotter" than you normally would with a trainer or sport plane. The Skybolt will need to be landed a little faster than the two planes you're currently flying, and should slow down more quickly once its on the ground and the throttle is cut.

Those are my thoughts for now, hopefully you'll get some additional suggestions here.

RE: What should I be practicing?
 

UM,

You are doing everything right as far as I can tell from your post. BUT...there is no real definite answer to your question.

Practice SOMETHING every time you fly. Practice what you are bad at first and what you are better at second. Always fly with a point, and don't listen to advice from people who can't fly....there are lots of them, and most of them think they can fly.

Fly as often as possible with people whom you consider 'out of your league'. Make freinds with superior, (far superior), pilots and ask LOTS of questions. Usually, the best pilots are the ones that the people who can't fly, complain about the most. You will need to learn to take a bit of heat for trying to improve your skill set. It's just a fact.

I have found that the best way, for me, to improve my skills was to fly every day. That is difficult unless you get a foamie. SO...I got a CR-1 from http://www.chargerrc.com and flew it every day for a year. I fly only gas and foam now, but I still have some glow planes. I still fly foam every day, even on the days I fly my larger planes. It's very convenient, any park, vacant lot, schoolyard, farm etc. will do. This November will be 2 years since I soloed and I have flown SOMETHING glow, gas or foam 5-6 days a week for most of that time.

Pretty soon you will be flying scale aerobats with gas engines and digital servos....this is how we get you hooked.


BTW, as previously noted, you will find KE much easier with more power, more side area and more rudder.

Get a foamie, fly it every day and practice SOMETHING every time you fly. It's that simple. GOOD LUCK!!

RE: What should I be practicing?
 

A good tip that was given to me by a VERY experienced RAF instructor.

Always plan your flight before takeoff. Do not take off then wander around at random. Flying a specific sequence of manouvres [ a schedule is ] is also a good plan.

If you really want to learn KE flight get a profile model, either a glow or electric foamie will do.

RE: What should I be practicing?
 

I`ve asked myself that question a few times. I`m still a young pilot but feel very comfortable with my trainer. Have been flyinga 4* and a Twist for second planes for a month or so. The Twist for 3D and the 4* for patterns .
I have a new GP Skybolt , that MinnFlyer maiden for me last weekend . It was cool to watch some one fly a plane like that. I have yet to fly it, always take it to the field but don`t have the nerve to try it yet. After seeing what the SkyBolt can do I`ve decided to pratice with the 4* a little longer.
For rudder practice I do a lot of crosswind touch n goes. And the wind has been so bad this year that using the rudder has been a must for spit S, Cuban 8`s ect. to get the plane to track right. The Twist has helped a lot as hovering, harriers and such take a lot of rudder pratice.
One thing I did notice with the Skybolt is it needs a little power on landing. Seemed to drop quick once the throttle was cut.

RE: What should I be practicing?
 

Maybe too much nose weight, eh? I think I might try dropping an ounce in the nose and see what happens. I'm hesitant to extent the rudder in case I want to race the plane in the club 40 pylon race (unmodified Mach II's with O.S. LA 40's are the "stock plane" of the races here).

As for fast landings, are you talking about the difference between a full stalled 3 point and a wheels landing? I can do either with the Mach II, but wheel landings on it are much easier because it tends to stall quickly (might be the additional weight?)


Foamies eh? I'll look around and see what I can find for cheap, or maybe even make my own from plans (looks easy enough, haha)



I DO need to get more comfortable with my rudder. I've been using it, but only in some instances. It looks like using it more during stunts could help build up my skill. (especially to compensate for wind and crooked maneuver entry).

Thanks guys :-)

RE: What should I be practicing?
 

Besides "greasing" your landings, there are a couple of other things you can practice.

When landing, fly your plane down until the mains are about 3" from the ground. Many people land by lining their plane up with the runway, then while still several feet in the air, cutting power to an idle or slightly above and basically gliding the plane in to land.

Bi-Planes lose speed VERY quickly when you cut power due to the additional drag. You are most likely going to have to keep about 1/4 throttle when landing or you will lose too much speed and stall. By flying the plane down, you should be able to land safely with little or no risk of stalling the plane.

The other thing is that because of relatively short wingspan, the plane is going to a lot more responsive to aileron inputs. If you can increase the aileron throws AND practice HIGH SPEED rolls you will be able to get use to a faster aileron response.

RE: What should I be practicing?
 

Would really high final approaches also help? I spent several tanks on both the TH .40 and the Mach II pulling very high approaches and cutting back to idle. I'd come down steep and kill speed by leveling out very close to the ground.

What do you mean by high speed rolls? Do you mean being able to handle orientation with the plane rotating quickly or do you mean being able to handle the high speed and throwing in rudder/aileron to keep the roll straight?

The most I can do right now with rolls is yank the stick over hard and wiggle the elevator from up to down. I've yet to start adding rudder to my rolls, as just my elevator wiggle is still pretty jerky. I'll often get a very sloppy roll that has a bump in the middle where I accidentally threw in too much down elevator.