What exactly is a "Pattern Plane"?
How should a pattern plane be flown and is a 540 Edge a pattern plane?
Thanks for reading!

Hi P-40.

Try the button (on the top right bar) as this question has already been posted a couple of months back. And yes, the Edge 540 is a pattern plane.

Regards,
-Fabrizio

Well I did a search and could not find such a question, I suppose it must be something other than "Pattern Plane". So it would be helpfull to post the link.

My understanding is that a pattern plane is an aerobatic aeroplane to meet the non scale aerobatic competition requirements. The Edge being a scale airplane is not a pattern plane per say, but may meet the rules and may even be competitive. If built especially for pattern the Edge would likely have a longer moment arm than the scale version as smoothness is important.

But I am not even a novice, so feel free to correct me if wrong.

Pattern planes are designed so they fly as close to perfect as possible. Every detail about how they fly is focused on allowing a pilot to perform extremely complicated precision maneuvers with as little correction as possible.

Real pattern planes have a wing span of 2 meters or less and a length of 2 meters or less. This dimension was used as its the height of a European door frame (I'm not kidding). Designers stay close to the max dimension as the bigger the plane the easier it is to see and judge.

I did a "search" and found this thread. there are several others such as what plane to fly pattern? etc.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.a...+pattern+plane

Eddie

An Edge is an aerobatic plane but not a pattern plane, pattern planes are design specific and I know of no full scale planes that are "pattern", the main difference between IMAC and Pattern.
Steve Maxwell

If you watch an IMAC competition and a pattern competition, you won't see much differance, except that there is some 3D in the top level of IMAC. And of corse the IMAC planes are all scale, and only a small amout of simi scale planes in pattern. The pattern planes are generally a bit smoother, but as a novice I can hardly tell the differance.

You will find that true pattern planes are generally of equal (similar) dimension in wingspan and length. An Edge, usually has a shorter length than wingspan. It is more sensitive to pitch than a true pattern plane. The Edge is just as or more aerobatic, but is not as smooth flying as a pattern plane. Although in some hands, it can be flown very smoothly. Also, in general, a pattern plane does not have nor require the larger control surfaces that an Edge, Extra or similar plane has. Just my perceptions of the differences.

AdrianM, I live in England therefore (reluctantly) in Europe. My door frames exceed 2mtrs.. lets incease the size limit and use Gas. I am surprised your door frames are not the biggest.
AdrianH

I was always told that the reason planes were 2M was becuase or Euro door frames. Mark Novack from ZNline posted that here some where a few months ago...lol!

AdrianM, My Synergy is 1.90mtrs, lets hope they dont get smaller = back ache

AdrianM, My Synergy is 1.90mtrs, lets hope they dont get smaller = back ache

American doors are 7 feet tall, thats 84". 2 meters is 78" or six and a half feet. I don't think Europeans are significantly shorter than Americans are they?

yes, the shortening is due to overpopulation. lol..

The door frame varies a bit in Europe also
Just measured mine and it is 2.05 m high. So 2 m goes through with a decent clearance

Actually 2 by 2 meters and 5 kilograms is set because they are all nice round numbers.
As you Americans use your own measurement system instead of international one the limits end up being not round ones:
78.74" by 78.74" and 11.02 lb (rounded to 2 decimals).

ini

American doors are not an average hieght of 7 feet. They are 6 feet 8 inches. They are NOT the biggest. LOL

I lived in Europe and I do remember thinking that German doors seemed much wider than most American ones. I missed door knobs a lot. Never got used to those flipper door handles.

I think 78.74x78.74 and 11.02 lbs sounds much more precise.....