RE: Throttle position for level flight vs. landing?
 

It was windy last night but I did have a chance to try the inverted flight test you suggested and it only required just a very slight touch of down elevator (1 click on the trim) to keep it level. I think I'm pretty close to having it setup now. After a few more flights I'll ad another 1/8-1/4 oz. of weight to the tail and give that a try, should be perfect.

I have to say, the Big Stik 40 is a joy to fly, and is a perfect 2nd plane for transitioning from a trainer. On low rates it flys similar to a trainer, and on high is capable of some pretty wild stuff. With mine being converted to a tail dragger/skid it tracks on takeoff, straight as an arrow. After increasing the rudder throw it handles ground turns pretty well, but if I had to do it over again, I would replace the skid with a tail wheel.

Thanks again to all who responded for their opinions and details. This site it a great resource of information for us newbies. DG

RE: Throttle position for level flight vs. landing?
 

Ack! Don't move trims for checking inverted flight. Move the stick. I can envision something really bad resulting from that procedure.

Edit Add - Just a FYI, most trim planes to need a slight touch of elevator when inverted. There are several reasons for this, but one good one for beginners is the slight pressure they need to keep on the elevator stick reminds them they are INVERTED. You'd be surprised how often new pilots forget that and pull a 1/4 loop into the ground. So, if you only need slight stick movement for inverted, I'm not sure you want to get any more neutral in pitch.

RE: Throttle position for level flight vs. landing?
 

John, good point for all reading this. I only adjusted the trim to see how many clicks it would take to level it out just to have some reference of how my cg was, and it was only 1-2 clicks, I did move the trim back as soon as I rolled back to regular flight and left it there. I asked my instructor to stand next to me as I did it and he talked me through it. Rather than just roll inverted, he had me basically pulled a half loop to inverted and then try to maintain level inverted flight from there in a straight line 2-3 mistakes above and forward of the field (for safety) and roll back at the end of the field. I'm getting better but I'm not ready to do inverted circles or low inverted passes over the runway:D DG

RE: Throttle position for level flight vs. landing?
 

With my larger pattern plane I set the trim at 1/3 throttle - I get judged on 'straight and level' passes, and this is the throttle setting in which I am flying straight and level past the judges. Of course when I advance to 3/4 throttle for a vertical up line the plane wants to climb before I give elevator. The options are to a)manage throttle wisely or b)use a throttle to elevator mix. As a beginner I prefer option a.

With my 40 size plane I set the trim at 3/4 throttle, because this is where I do most of my flying since aerobatic moves need all the speed I can get (yeah, I wish I had a bigger engine...). I don't notice any climb when going to full throttle, but the plane comes out of the sky pretty fast when I slow down (light bulb!). I just use a little more elevator when landing with that one.

Of course, properly trimming a plane is important, I guess more to some and less to others. Is your thrust angle right? Is your wing incidence right? These are just two things that could affect how much altitude change you get when you change throttle.

Not sure about this, but I imagine a flat bottom wing will be affected more by throttle management than a semi- or symmetrical wing - is this correct?

RE: Throttle position for level flight vs. landing?
 

gregoryda - ok, that takes a few dozen rmp out of my heart rate. I was concerned with trimming for inverted only to find right side up flight a bit interesting. Sounds like you had it under contorl.

"but I imagine a flat bottom wing will be affected more by throttle management than a semi- or symmetrical wing - is this correct" - in simplified terms, pretty much. The issue is mainly the pitching moment seen with nonsymetrical airfoils. Probably more than should be tackled here in detail. But in essence, there is a pitch created by the wing that is not equally offset by elevator trim at all speeds. Symetrical ailfoils have zero pitching moment, while all other will generally have a pitching moment. You really won't detect much if any pitching moment on neutral planes with symetrical airfoils, i.e. a pattern ship. Info all over if you google, here is a start on the subject on a wiki page... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitching_moment

From wiki "In the case of a symmetric airfoil, the lift force acts through one point for all angles of attack, and the center of pressure does not move as it does in a cambered airfoil. Consequently the pitching moment coefficient for a symmetric airfoil is zero."