cyberbob

Hey!

Could smb give me an advice of what kind airplanes/sailplanes is better to fly in medium/strong wind conditions (glider is the best to me, but I know they are not for strong wind)? I'm newbie in RC flights and in place I live there is often strong wind...

Thanks,
Bob!

Villa

Hello cyberbob in Norway. I live in North Carolina in the USA. In high, gusting winds, you can have problems with most R/C planes. Some of my most enjoyable flight have been under those conditions. Rather than type of plane, you might look at method of construction. I suggest you go down to the SPAD forum, below, and read up on that method of construction. More is available at
http://spadworld.net/forum/ and at spadtothebone.com These plane easily survive rolling over on the ground as occurs occasionally during those high wind conditions. I have described many of my high wind landings at these sites. You can search for these by author, which is villa. Are you familiar with the description !QUOT!A cart wheel landing!QUOT!. I think all my planes have survived that. It is when a wing tip digs into the ground, the plane tips up over the engine and bounces into the air, the other wing tip hits the ground, and then the tail hits. A balsa plan will;l be totaled. Not a SPAD plane.

Villa

A low wing plane with tricycle gear (three wheels) probably will be the best one for high erratic winds. The Canard plane shown on the left is a SPAD of my own design. It does very well in the wind. I am not certain if that is because of a design advantage, or my confidence that if I make a bad landing due to the high wind, that there will be little if any damage. I tend to think it is the latter, rather than the former. I would like to see comments on this from others.

waross

I think building a more durable plane that will cart wheel is a cop out on learning how to really fly in the wind. I get a kick out of guys who come out to the field and when they realize there is a 15 mph or more wind they don't even get a plane out. Then there are the guys with the 30 and 40% planes that look at me on those days and say are you nuts, you can't fly a 40 size plane in this wind. So then I fire up the plane and take off. Upwind you may need full power but down wind you can let off the throttle quite a bit. Landings can be easier in the wind sometimes than with no wind. I enjoy using the wind to land a plane or two vertically. I had a newbie out one day in a high wind and was flying my twist. I throttled back and stood the plane still 75 feet in the air and then slowing backed off a little more just to sit it down like a helicopter. Overbuilding a plane to survive a crash in the wind is not flying...it's crashing. If you learn to fly in the adverse conditions you can fly in anything and then when you get one of those rare days with no wind then it is like a walk in the park. JUST LEARN TO FLY!!!!!!!!!!!

snys

I agree with waross. We usually have lots of wind here too. I used to wait for quiet days, but then I could only fly once a month or less!
Then one of my friends took me to the slope, and I did some slope soaring. Once you understand the wind, it is easy to fly in it.
Some planes are more wind capable than others, and depending on your runways heavy crosswinds can be really challenging.

Just fly the damn thing!

Villa

waross, I have crashed over 100 times in 33 years. That is about 3 crashed per year. Some people might call that near perfect. I know what your opinion is. I use about one gallon per two weeks on .46 size engines. That it a lot of flying. I do it year round. Your statement about copping out by building a stronger plane means only your opinion counts. I stated above that I love to fly in high wind conditions. Most of my planes have been balsa kits that I built. Sure I reinforced them as I gained experience. Some kits were junk. Mnay of the ARF's today have been junk, but I uderstand are improving. I just don't want to frequently rebuild the plane. I have been flying SPADS for only about 3 years. If you have not crashed in high wind conditions, with gust, downdrafts and tiny tornadoes, it means you have not done as much as you imply. If you are ten feet off the ground, get blown into knife edge, and the wind changes to vertically down, tell me what all your experience will do for you. I have saved it many times under those conditions, but sometimes I blinked and hit the ground. The adrenaline rush for me is fantastic. According to you it is just an easy landing, with all you experience. I happen to like SPADS. One reason is they can survive many crashes. I don't design them to do that; the method of construction is different and ends up with a more rugged plane. They are heavier, ugly as sin and I'm sure have many other evils that you can recite by heart. My Canard to the left is fantastic in the wind. I have crashed it 3-4 times in high wind conditions. Usually I just pick it up, shake it to move the tank clunk into position, look it over and check it out, and take off again. It must be boring never to crash. I crash very rarely and smile every time I do crash because invariably I learn from it. With over 100 crashes some people think I'm pretty smart at flying.

andrew66

i think for high wind flying, any plane (biger the better) will do ok if you have the experience. i learned to fly in very gusty winds and i try to avoid short coupled airplanes.( they can be squirrely) but as long as you remember to "fly" the plane in on landings, it shouldnt be a real problem. takeoffs can be interesting too, but its the landings that will get ya. my first time landing in gusty winds, i cartwheeled (it didnt go in that hard so it was repairable) and one of the more experienced flyers told me about the whole "flying" the plane in for a landing. i was just reducing the throttle and gliding in which caused me to crash. (i was flying an LT-25 at the time)

waross

You maybe right, some people might refer to that as near perfect. I tend to think of it as quite a bit less than perfect. If one flies their planes as much you state you do then I would think they should become good enough pilot in order to not crash so much. Sometimes the crash is unavoidable; however I think too many people are just too reckless with their flying or maintenance of their equipment. Prime example is crashing a plane.......taking a quick look at it and then flying it again without really examining the plane well and checking out the radio or engine. Another good example is someone who had a fluke crash, then pulls the engine and radio out and puts it into another plane and goes flying.......with the second plane ending up like the first........duh......check the equipment.....so yes my comments are my opinion and just that. And yes we are all entitled to our opinions, and lastly if someone takes offense to those opinions there just might be some truth to them then.

bobmac010

Strong, steady winds never bothered me. It has always been when the wind is constantly changing direction, varying from 180 at 18 to 100 at 7 that made me panic. Strong steady winds make it easier to fly, but you do have to have at least some experience. Gusty winds just sharpen your skills as a pilot. You become quicker to respond to the unexpected. I love flying in the wind, provided I have the right plane...
With 15 mph winds, my son's home-built 40-size trainer weighing in at 4 pounds with a wingloading of 13.5oz/sq.ft. will become airborn on the flight station before even starting the engine.
My 72" Katana S weighing in at 13.5 pounds flies very well in 20 mph winds.
The configuration makes a big difference, as Villa stated. Low wing planes are not affected as much with cross-winds as high wing planes are.
High wing planes catch air under the wing on the side the wind is coming from, greatly increasing the pressure under the wing increasing lift on that side, causing the plane to roll away from the wind. Low wing planes are not affected as much because the wind passes under the wing at pretty much the same rate on both sides.
Tail draggers are affected more than tricycle gear for obvious reasons. The tri-gear have positive stearing until the plane pitches for takeoff. The nose wheel is still on the ground until flight speed is reached, meaning that the rudder has enough effectiveness to counteract the crosswind.
Tail draggers are at the mercy of the wind, (uless you have a 3D plane with 120 degrees rudder deflection), once the tail lifts off the ground.
Also note that SIZE does make a difference. Don't let your girlfriend convince you differently. Aerodynamics is NOT proportional. That is why a Piper Cub can stall at just over 35 MPH, and the typical trainer stalls at about 20MPH. Air molocules do NOT change size with the scale of the model. The dynamic lift that a smaller wing can produce is not propotional to the scale of the plane.
Please note that there are a LOT of different factors involved, like construction materials, airfoil, airspeed and wing loading, but this is an over simplified explanation.

I actually prefer the weaker, lighter planes to the sturdier, heavier planes. They make a much more spectacular crash when they do go in.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Here is a Rascal Forty flying in high winds:

http://www.rcuvideos.com/view_video....a916edcb6b6392

paladin

My Feedback: (9)

Bob, what you fly is not as important as flying. I tell all the new fliers they better learn how to fly in the wind or they wont fly much! You need to get a book that deals with High wind delta procedures, cross wind landing/takeoff, AOA, and throttle management, and lift vectoring. You need to think this through completely as you read because one screw up in the rong location means serious bench time.

My wind plane is a GP Piper Cub ARF. I love showing up at the feild with lotts of better suited planes for the conditions their and all the skirts are on the ground shooting the bull, with half the planes still in the cars. I pull the cub out assemble it, tie it down, fuel it up, and fly. Some times one of the newer pilots will ask if I realy intend to fly as I'm readying, he gets to hold the plane (sone times all the way to takeoff). But the best part is to watch the scramble for planes after I land successfully. All the experts that said it was two windy have to prove they can do it too, and some of the others realize its not as bad as they were lead to beleive.

joe