2008 Basic Narrative
 

I put together a 2008 Basic Narative using the 2007 one and adding what was needed. feel free to use it and tell me if I screwed something up

Figure 1 – Roll. Just before you get to the center of the box, start an aileron roll. You will not be judged on the rate of the roll – it can be as fast or as slow as you like. Typically, the faster you roll, the harder it is to stop it with the wings level. Give a little down elevator while you are inverted so that you don’t lose altitude, and stop the roll with your wings level. As soon as your wings get level and you complete the roll, your score for this figure is set. However, you will continue to be judged as you fly to the right end of the box so KEEP YOUR WINGS LEVEL and don’t climb or descend. Any deviation on this line will be reflected in downgrades applied to the second maneuver.

Figure 2 - Half Cuban 8. Begin by increasing the throttle to full power and execute a smooth 5/8 inside loop. Again, as you come over the top of this figure, you may need to keep a lot of power as you will be flying into the wind. As you approach the inverted 45 degree line back towards yourself, decrease the power to idle and hold some down elevator to maintain a nice line. Most newcomers make this line too shallow, so concentrate on getting the line correct. After holding the 45 degree line for a bit, execute a half roll to upright and maintain the 45 degree line. Finally, execute a gentle pull to horizontal flight and increase the throttle. You should now be flying back towards the center of the field.

Figure 3 – Hammerhead. Begin this figure by applying full throttle and executing a gentle pull to a vertical upline. Again, use the rudder to keep the plane tracking straight up. Once you have reached sufficient altitude, begin to decrease the power. Leave 3 or 4 clicks of power on, and just before the plane stops moving, apply full rudder. It is almost always easiest to hammer INTO the wind if there is a cross-wind. If the wind is down the runway, hammering either left or right is OK. Once the plane starts to pivot, the throttle can be reduced to idle. One method of preventing the plane from wagging its tail after the pivot is to keep some rudder input after the pivot and slowly take it out as the plane goes down. At the bottom of the line, execute a gentle pull to a horizontal exit and increase the throttle. Try to make the entry radius and exit radius equal don’t execute a sharp pull at the bottom. You should now be flying back to the center of the runway.

Figure 4 - Loop. This figure looks easy and is probably the first aerobatic maneuver you flew when learning to fly. It is, however, extremely difficult to fly well. Begin by increasing the throttle to full power, and start a gentle pull. The size of the loop is not judged, but the bigger the loop, the harder it is to make perfect. Keep the radius consistent and wind correct with rudder if necessary as you execute the first half of the loop. As you come over the top, you may need to keep a fair amount of power as this portion will be flown into the wind. You may even need to apply some down elevator across the top of the loop to keep it round. As the plane starts down the backside of the loop, decrease power smoothly to idle and use the elevator to keep the radius consistent. Finally, increase the power as you come back to horizontal flight. The loop should start and stop in the same place at the same altitude!

Figure 5 - Humpty Bump. As you get to the end of the field, pull a gentle radius to a vertical upline. As you establish this line, use your rudder to keep the plane tracking straight up. Remember that in IMAC, you are judged on the TRACK of the airplane and not its ATTITUDE. So you may have to crab into the wind (with rudder) to maintain a nice vertical line. Once you have gained sufficient altitude, pull a nice gentle radius over the top to a vertical downline and reduce your throttle to idle as you come over the top of the half loop. You should now be looking at the bottom of the airplane as it flies straight down. Be careful as you pull across the top of the half loop to keep the wings level as this will make the downline straighter. Once the airplane has flown down a short ways, complete a half roll. Draw another short line, and then execute a gentle pull back to horizontal flight and bring the throttle back up. For the best score, the lengths of the two lines before and after the half roll should be equal. The airplane should now be headed back towards the center of the field parallel to the runway. As you approach the center of the box, you may notice that the plane has drifted in or out compared to where you started the sequence. You should practice holding the appropriate crab angle through these figures if there

Figure 6 - Reverse Sharks Tooth. Fly a short ways past the center of the field, increase the throttle to full power, and execute a gentle pull to a 45 degree upline. Hold this line for a bit, and then execute a half roll to inverted. You will probably need to hold down elevator to keep this line straight. Use your rudder to keep the plane on track (this will be hard as you will be looking at the back of the plane while it is upside down) and keep the wings level. Once you have executed a short line while inverted, pull a gentle radius over the top of the figure to a vertical downline and reduce throttle to idle. Complete a straight downline and then execute a gentle pull to horizontal, wings level flight and increase the throttle. You should now be headed back towards the center of the field.

Figure 7 - 360 Degree Aerobatic turn. This maneuver will look better when flown centered. Right in front of you roll to somewhere between 60 to 90 degrees and start a 360 degree turn, during the turn, add rudder as needed to maintain altitude and it’s also important to not increase or decrease the bank angle all the way through the maneuver. As the plane is coming around to the end of 360 degrees, start to roll level. The speed of the roll should be the same as when you first rolled to start the maneuver for the best points so timing is important.

Figure 8 - Sharks Tooth. Fly towards the end of the field, and increase power to full throttle. Execute a gentle pull to a vertical upline. As before, use the rudder to maintain a nice vertical track. Execute a gentle pull across the top of the figure to an inverted 45 degree downline coming back towards yourself and decrease the power to idle. Hold down elevator to maintain a nice line (not too shallow!) and then complete a half roll to upright. Hold this line and then execute a gentle pull back to horizontal flight and increase the throttle.

Figure 9 - Vertical line Pull 90 degrees to vertical, fly a short distance and perform a ½ roll, fly the exact same distance as you did before you preformed the ½ roll and push to level.

Figure 10 - One and a half turn positive spin. As you approach the center of the field at a high altitude, begin to reduce the throttle smoothly. As the plane slows, you will have to feed in up elevator to keep it from descending. This will gradually bring the nose up.
Once the throttle has reached idle, keep feeding in up elevator until the nose drops in a stall. You will also have to be keeping the line straight with rudder – particularly if there is any crosswind and your airspeed decreases. Don’t worry if the nose of the plane is cocked 45 degrees before the stall – it is most important to keep the line straight! As the nose drops, feed in rudder in the same direction as the wing that is falling right rudder if the right wing is falling and left rudder if the left wing is falling. Once the spin begins, go to full rudder and full aileron in the same direction (you should already be at full up elevator). After 1.5 turns, neutralize all controls to stop the spin. If the nose is high, give down elevator to establish a vertical downline. After the downline has been established, execute a gentle pull to horizontal flight and increase the throttle

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Excellent narrative Bill. I will have to print and practice this one. So is it safe to say that all of these maneuvers be flown at airspeed to keep the lines straight? (except the spin)

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Thanks Bill! When are you coming down to Lums?

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Haven't read it...but good work...

for all the new pilots...

I STRONGLY suggest that you learn the aresti!
Once you know it, it really is very easy to follow just with a quick glance

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Iwas gonna come down this weekend but Jake said you guys were not gonna be there. I hear you and your son have been practicing and you have a new toy to play with this year

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

I think Jake's at the Huckfest this weekend. It looks like rain down here through Saturday (we need it) then breezy Sunday. I'll try to make it Sunday.

Yes just a little 40% toy :D I probably won't have it out till next year because I'm waiting for the new Futaba 2.4 receivers to come out. In the meantime I'll just drool on it in the garage....:)

M

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

That's correct. When I trim a plane, I find out where the plane likes to fly a set sequence which is based on how much power to weight ratio I have, then when I go through the trim chart, I fly that power setting and do my thing. That way, in IMAC I am taking some load off of me because I know the plane is going to do certain things at certain power settings and it gets easy to predict what, if any, corrections I will need.

The plane I normal fly IMAC with can easily handle flying at half throttle through everything but vertical stuff. I mean actual half throttle. I almost always use a throttle curve that gives me max rpm at full stick and one half stick is exactly half the rpm. A good curve takes into account that you are idling at 1000rpm and max rpm is 7000 (6000 rpm difference) so mid stick is 3000, not 3500 which is half of 7000. When I do this I get a rpm change for every click of the throttle. A typical gas engine is making full rpm long before the throttle plate is actually opened the whole way. If you do not do a curve, you could easily be at close to full rpm at around one half stick or a tad more. You could use mechanical resolution to get close, but a curve sets it perfectly.

These numbers are for just giving you an idea of how I do it. Feel free to do whatever you like

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Your description of the aerobatic turn almost sounds like a knife edge circle. You say to roll to 60 - 90 degrees and use rudder to maintain altitude. If I roll to 90 deg. and use rudder to maintain alitude I believe I am in a knife edge configuration.

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Nice write up Bill!

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

les,

You can certainly use the rudder to maintain altitude if need be and if it looks like a KE then so be it as long as it's not climbing or decending. If you are flying it at the same speed as you did the rest of the sequence then you are going to need rudder to maintain altitude. You can always use less bank which will require less to no rudder.

Remember IMAC is about the track of the plane (I.E. the line), not how it looks.

I tend to focus on the CG point on the plane and if it's tracking the way I need it to then the nose can be 45 degree of if need be to correct for wind. If you fly it at a pretty fast speed you will not need rudder but the roll out will be much hard to get on line and at the same speed as the roll in.

Bob_s

Thanks...

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Sorry. I didn't realize that the bank angle of an aerobatic turn had to be between 60 and 90 deg. That said, I see now that top rudder will have to be applied to maintain altitude. Is this maneuver typically done at a 90 deg bank?

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Not always true.


If you only bank about 70 and maintain a good speed you will not need rudder. Of course this will depend on your plane. Find what is comfortable with your particular model

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Anybody up to posting a Sportsman's narrative?

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

As sweetpea says it's not always needed but remember this one thing, for the flow of the sequence to look good you would be flying this turn at roughly the same speed you did everything else and flying to whole sequence a close to full throttle is gonna really kill your scores, it's much harder to stop a maneuver where it should end if flying fast.

Give me a couople of hours if not by tomorrow evening

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Very nice narrative. thank you!

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

True enough... but it makes sense to me to use rudder now because you aren't going to have the option as you progress.. Kind of reminds me of the guys who tell me they can do rolling harriers that look decent without the rudder. That's fine and all.. but you can see the difference and when you slow it down and start changing directions without barrow rolling you are going to have to learn the rudder part :)


ps nice work bill!


sure you heard or maybe saw the pics... but 3W dead sticked out of no where in a high alpha slow and low KE.. did a fair amount of damage to my Extra... looks like I will have a new IMAC plane for next year and maybe rebuild the Extra for a 3D beater. :(

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

sinergy,

You mentioned that to me but I did not see the pics, not sure if I want to. ;) I'm sitting here staring at a brand new DA100 and a DA150. The 100 is going in the Edge for now and the 150 is going into my 40% Carden Cap. The 100 in the Edge is gonna be a total blast. I got sick of 3W singles. Their twins rock though :D, but I got great deals on these new ones.

Folks,

Here is something you may want to practice. At Butcherfest this year, Pete Castine ran what he called a "Short Unknown" It was not IMAC legal and was not part of the contest but it was scored and some cool prizes were given it. It was a total blast. This was the one given to the basic guys. It will very quickly teach you proper use of the rudder.

The goal is to not lose any altitude, yaw the nose or change direction, basically keep a perfectly staright line. It sounds easy but it's really hard as heck. You will fly it one way and then turn around and fly it EXACTLY the opposite. YOu MUST keep the roll rate EXACTLY the same and the delay in the points exactly the same amount.

Here we go these are all rolls followed by a hammer and then all rolls,

Flying into the wind do a 3 of 4 followed by 1/2 roll in the opposite direction, followed by another 3 of 4 in the opposite direction of the half roll. Fly out, pull a hammer and come back downwind now do the 3 of 4 in the opposite direction of the first one you did, then 1/2 roll in the opposite direction, followed by another 2 of 4 in the opposite direction.

Now to make it really interesting. vary the speed between each "sequence"

To lay it out like a caller would call it and flying left to right

In the box

3 of 4 to the right
1/2 roll to the left
3 of 4 to the right

Hammer (nothing up or down

3 of 4 to the left
1/2 roll to the right
3 of 4 to the left

Out of the box

I created an Aresti for it. It's not pretty and does not include the "K" factors...

http://www.thehiddenhangar.com/files...nown-basic.pdf

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Thanks Bill! That "Short Unknown " sounds like fun . I'll try it on my simulator.[8D]

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

The Sportsman narrative will be up tomorrow. There is only about 1/2 of it to "borrow" from the 2007 one

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Cool!. My main concern is how to label the combinations of maneuvers to write next to the aresti symbols on my chart/sheet. This would be useful for a friend or fellow flyer at the field who may be helping (or trying to) get me through the sequences that are written on my trusty sheet. For instance for the first maneuver in the 2008 Sportsman, would calling it a "reverse sharks tooth with 2 points of a 4 point roll on the 45* upline followed by a 45* upline with 1/2 roll" be the preferred description?. Man, by the time your caller is finished with that mouthfull, I'd be about out of fuel!:D Then the next maneuver might be called an inverted reverse immelman?? Since I'm relatively new at this Imac/aresti stuff I was wondering how/what the pros call them or if there already is a shorter name for these tied together complex maneuvers.[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Go here and download the Aresti Made Simple article and the Aresti Dictionary.

http://www.scaleaerobatics.org/aresti.html

They should help you out a bunch

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Bass1,

The first maneiver is called a Bow-Tie.

It's up to you but I would have the caller call each part just as you are finishing the first part. So in response to the first maneuver, I'd call it like this fro mthe moment he's in the box to the end of the maneuver

Call pilot in the box

To Pilot: At center pull to a 45 degree upline, 2 of 4 on the upline

Wait until he completes the first part of the roll and then

Now pull a135 degress to a downline,

Pull 135 degrees to a 45 degree upline, one half roll on the upline

Pull to level, exit inverted

That's all there is to it

I would suggest that you start in basic until you can nail down how to read Aresti. It does take practice and as was already mentioned read the Aresti made Simple, The 2007-2008 Judging Guide and try to get someone to help you that already does is.

You do need to learn NOT to rely on the written narratives. Once you get past Sportsman, there is no narrative. PLUS, your' caller is liable to screw up calling a maneuver and if you do not know it your caller can cause all sorts of zero's for you

I had that problem once, I fly a lot with my caller and I call for him as well. During a contest last year I was not paying attention to the sequence and just doing ewxactly what he said, well he skipped a whole maneuver which was number 5 and that in turn zero'd all maneuvers after that so I ended up with 4 zero's, maybe 3, I cannot really remember. I knew the sequence well, just was not paying attention. He felt so bad, he really thought I was never gonna have him call again but I got him on the next round and he did just fine, emphasizing the one he missed.

I got him back later, about 2 contests later I did the same thing and even argued with him when he corrected me and he zero'd several. He then asked if I did it on purpose and I of course did not and I really did feet terrible.

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

I feel pretty confident in reading and interpreting the aresti symbols. I practice alot by myself and usually memorize the manuevers(basic) and their order in the sequence. In Sporstsman the "Bowtie" is easy to remember as the first maneuver and makes sense because that's what it looks like. It would be helpful if all the maneuvers had an abreviated name to ease the memory load when flying/practicing without a caller. The "Hammerhead" and 360* turn are easy enough and I would use a term something like " bottom tooth, 1/2 roll, snap" for maneuver 6 (unless there already is a name for this maneuver). I guess it's up to the individual flyer to assign an easy to remember name to some of the more complicated maneuvers. Then when all the maneuvers have an appropriate name or a "nickname", I try to make a song/poem out of the nicknames to aid in memorizing the sequence;) I almost rigged a boom box tape recorder with a footswitch triggered pause control. Thinking I would record back to back the "callers" descriptions/instructions of the maneuvers in the sequence. Then when flying the sequence, tap the pause on and off between each maneuver with my foot. I would now have my own soothing and confident voice telling me what to do!:D

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

I think coming up with your own names might not be a good idea. For example, the figure you mentioned above would likely be called as "a shark tooth with 1/2 roll up and 1 positive snap down." (You would probably also hear "Pull to an upline. Half roll. Push to a 45 downline. Postive snap." while you flew the figure.) If you were use to hearing "bottom tooth, 1/2 roll, snap" you might get confused. Also you would likely confuse someone you were calling for.

Have you thought about starting in basic? You can always move up, but you can't move down.

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Bass,

Counting, IE tapping your foot, will work in some cases as you mentioned, but remember that if you do it going into a 45 or vertical line that's where counting will make the line unequal if there is some kind of element on the line. Remember, you slow up as you are climbing so caounting to two, do the roll element and counting to 2 will casue the second line to be shorter as the plane has lost speed.

I try to view my lines being equal by using something off in the distance. I do this while calling as the caller can see the lines much easier leaving the pilot free to fly the plane.

I agree, it's not a good thing to use your own names, what happens if you normal caller cannot call for you and you need to find someone else. You would have to get that person up to speed and if your vocab is way different then you can create confusion and possible problems.

In your example, I simply call "hammer", most everyone that has flown IMAC knows what that is, if there is a roll element in it I'll say that as well, ie, in this years sportsman, "Hammer, 3/4 roll going up and opposite 2/8 on the way down". I may even say which way to do the 3/4 roll as it dictates what the plane is going to do, ie...go out further or come in closer

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Bill, When I mentioned "tapping" my foot, I was refering to tapping my foot on the pause(off and on) switch that would play the next maneuver description/instruction on my pre-made "caller" tape.;)

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Ah, I understand now

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

OK guys/gals, I finally have time to write the naarative for the Sportsman.

Sorry for the delay

Sportsman is here

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_6609262/tm.htm

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

I have had a judge tell me that I should count out the 45 and vertical uplines and downlines and when I pointed out to him that the airplane's speed wasn't constant so that wouldn't produce equal lines he stated that the speed doesn't change that much. I had the same judge tell me that my airplane should come to a stop in the stall maneuver before the spin. Obviously that thinking is flawed since if the airplane's horizontal motion comes to a stop then the airplane isn't maintaining altitude (unless it is in a hover).

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

The judge was wrong on both counts.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO criteria in a spin that requires the plane to stop forward motion. ALL that is required is that the plane is stalled. Relative ground speed is irrelevant. This judge needs some more schoolin.

In many figures, especially in the lower classes, the count method works close enough. It all depends on how much energy is lost during the roll elements on the line. You need to practice your count method to see how close it comes to giving you equal lines.

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

les,

I'd have a talk with that judge.

I'm by no means perfect but I do know that an airplane in a climb is going to slow down, how quickly depends on the angle and pwer available. Even with excess power it still is going to slow, jsut not as quickly. Now if you still had throttle left you could do the climb and slowly increase throttle but that is gonna be tough to do and maintain a constant speed, now tosh in an element and even more speed is lost.

Also, I'm sure you are aware that stall speed does not have to be zero airspeed. In our models it's close but it certainly is not zero

If I am wrong someone correct me.

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Just curious, has anyone tried the short unknown I mentioned earlier??? SIM or plane, doesn't matter

If you did ,tell me, I'm interested to see what you thought.

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Bill, I'll give that short unknown a shot on my simulator during halftime of tonight's football game.:)

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Bill, the short sequence you posted is AWESOME for practice - it really forced me to use the rudder without thinking about it - thanks! I'm going to drill on this one until it's intuitive.

Mark

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Well I just tried the "short unknown" and have come to the conclusion that I'm not as fantastic as I thought[X(]! I tried the sequence at head high altitude to give me a real good reference on holding a constant altitude and wasn't too bad with that aspect but drawing a straight line with all the various points in the rolls was a different story. Sort of looked like the drunk guy trying to walk a straight line in a sobriety test you see on the "Cops" tv show!:D I will have it mastered by morning.;)

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Mark,

It really teachs a lot.

Bass,

Don't miss the game on my account....

Glad you guys like it. It really helped me improve my rudder control

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

OK a complete new guy here to this type of flying....I was a sport flyer 30 years ago and getting back into flying this year...just learning some 3D.....(hard to teach an old dog new tricks):eek:
Question is....in the beginning sequence...do you do all manuvers in sequence without leaving the "box" or do you fly outside the "box" and make turn arrounds and get set up for the next manuver. [sm=confused.gif] In other words after the hammerhead do you do an imediate loop or do you go and do a turn and come back to show center and then do the loop....as an example.
This should be fun..I have done airshows in 1:1 scale but never with a model.
Dave [sm=idea.gif]

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Hi Dave,

All maneuvers are done when you enter the box. In basic, there are no maneuvers where you leave the box and come back in but in the higher classes you have crossbox maneuvers, but again you never really leave the box as in full scale. Your turnarounds are built into the Aresti such as a simple Humpy Bump, Hammerhead, half cuban, etc...

The Aresti shows where you would place them. Technically there is no box any more but the Airspace Control Score was created in it's place and is really subjective. Basically where ever you stand is considered center and you would fly the sequence with a good balance both left and right

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

Check out www.mini-iac.com -- there's a lot of good info there to get you started.

RE: 2008 Basic Narrative
 

I am going to start flying in some IMAC contests next year.. if I plan on doing 4-5 contests, would you recommend doing my first one in the basic class? Or should I start at sportsman... I consider myself a decent pilot, but have never competed before. And this seems like a whole different type of flying to me...