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Post by phantom on May 5, 2010 16:43:20 GMT 1
Got my SC yesterday and it was a blast. I did a triple loop!!!! First time I have ever flown any r/c plane. Although I did crash when trying to land on the road and busted up the cowl pretty bad so now I land in grass (doesn't damage my SC as much). Does anyone have any tips on landing besides practice, practice, and more practice?
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keok
Flight lieutenant
Cub's eye view
Posts: 64
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Post by keok on May 5, 2010 17:01:46 GMT 1
The general consensus around here is that the cowl is made out of tissue paper.  Get some good 3m packing tape and tape that bad boy up. Definitely practice makes perfect just keep after it. And when its too windy or dark practice on a simulator like FMS its free and nothing to fix when you pile it in. ;D |
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Post by phantom on May 5, 2010 17:05:24 GMT 1
Thanks Keok
I will have to check out that simulator idea!!!
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vroom
Flying officer
Posts: 30
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Post by vroom on May 5, 2010 19:31:17 GMT 1
Someone once told me that landing is nothing but a controlled crash. If you keep that in mind you wont feel as bad on the botched landings. I always land my planes on grass as well. I don't like coming down on blacktop or concrete.
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Post by phantom on May 5, 2010 21:25:53 GMT 1
I had one good asphalt landing today and several not good asphalt landings today  I like the soft grass landings except mine aways goes nose first into the grass and that looks like a newbie job  although it does save on the prop and spinner ;D |
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jbess
Squadron leader
Posts: 154
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Post by jbess on May 6, 2010 4:34:50 GMT 1
My best advice: bleed the speed. The slower you fly, the softer you will touch down, the less damage will occur if you botch up the landing. The caveat is the slower you fly, the less effective the controls are (less airflow over the control surfaces). The idea is to fly slow enough, that you stall the wing just a few inches above the ground (for an RC aircraft, real aircraft is a few feet). Yes, practice is the biggest thing.
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Post by Dillzio on May 6, 2010 6:00:49 GMT 1
My best advice: bleed the speed. The slower you fly, the softer you will touch down, the less damage will occur if you botch up the landing. Here here! That's what I did and it worked well for me, once you get really good at doing controlled crash landings then you skills can develop from there  When I want to land, I start by heading away from me, to get some distance for the approach. I then turn it round to face me and back down to half throttle to loose some speed. Once it's facing towards me and about the right distance away I'd cut the throttle, and go in for a controlled crash landing! As you approach the ground, pull up a bit (it will save you from crashing into it anyway). Try to glide just along ground level as low as you dare, and when you loose enough speed you'll touch down for a nice smooth landing. If you're going slow enough to be able to land while pulling up, it will push your tail down and prevent the plane from doing a nose over while landing. Once you get your eye in on the distance/speed/altitude you need for landing, you can start landing at 1/4 throttle for some really smooth action. I think the critical thing is speed, you want to just be gliding in with minimal throttle, if you're coming in with too much speed, go to full throttle, pull up and go around for another try. When you touchdown, you want to touch the ground because you're going so slowly that you've lost your lift, NOT because that's the way you've steered the plane, if that makes sense? Another tip I can think of, if you do hit the ground with too much speed, and run out of "runway", nose down into the ground. The plane will nose-over, but that will be better than going onto a road, hitting a curb, or cleaning up one of your spectators. Practicing steering in your back yard with the plane facing towards you can be good too, you get to practice taxiing and reverse steering. You also get practice at what side of the throttle is up, and what side is down... I remember on one of my first flights, I got them a little mixed up for a moment... what would have been my first perfect touchdown didn't go quite the way I hoped. Luckily the cub is a strong little beast, a great plane to learn in. You should do a few mods though to known soft spots, like batt box and wing saddle. |
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Post by ginginho on May 6, 2010 9:47:00 GMT 1
OK there is some good advice here, and some not so good.
While learning to fly, land INTO the wind. It doesn't matter whether it aligns to the tarmac run or not, but this will reduce your ground speed whilst keeping your airspeed up, avoiding a stall.
Don't think that you MUST land with power off. It is actually easier to land with some throttle as the prop wash gives air movement over the control surfaces and hence they are more responsive. If you have trimmed your plane out correctly, your approach and landing altitude are controlled soley by the throttle.
Whereever possible your landing should be across your view, either left to right or right to left, not towards yourself. This ensures that controls act as you see them and not reversed. Even experienced pilots avoid landing whilst flying towards themself unless it's absolutely necessary.
Work out what your approach will be before flying ansuring that you have plenty of room downwind of your desired landing area to perform your turn into final approach, and practice it (at a higher altitude) during your flight so that you know:
1) How far out you have to be to have a nice level approach
2) What you need to avoid during the manouvers leading up to the approach
3) What sort of throttle you need to stay straight and level as you fly over the landing area
4) What effect the wind is having on your airspeed as you fly into it.
As and when you want to land you now are aware of what is required to get it down nicely. Use less throttle than the practice flight, so that the aircraft loses altiutude very slowly. If you feel you are going to overshoot, reduce it further and use a small amount of elevator to lose height quicker and then use a small amount of up elevator to level it off when near the ground.
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Post by ginginho on May 6, 2010 10:24:23 GMT 1
Add to above, I've found a very useful explanation of powered landings that I read a while back and explains what I attempted to state above. It talks about and Easystar but the same principles apply to any normal aircraft (SC included). Copied here for your information:
Originally Posted by Chuck NoFlyZone on RCG:
Instead of thinking of it and having a mental image of one of those 3D planes that fly along at a 45 or 60 degree angle... look at it this way....
1) Launch the plane and trim it to fly level at about 1/2 throttle.
2) Reduce the throttle a couple clicks, and then trim it to fly level again. You'll notice that since you reduced throttle, you must give it some up elevator to fly level. What you'll have now is a slower flying, level flying, EasyStar (or any other plane).
3) Reduce the throttle another click or two, and trim it again to fly level by adding in another few clicks of up elevator. You'll see right away that your Easy Star is flying a LOT slower, yet still level!
With practice, you'll learn just where to put your throttle stick, and how many clicks of elevator you need for when you get ready to land your plane.
When it's time to land, simply dial in your clicks, and reduce throttle (or program it into the transmitter).... and fly the last leg of your landing approach like this. Gently lower it to the ground with the throttle stick alone... and you won't even NEED to flare the plane....
Now, here's the really odd part about this. Every time you hear guys talking about landing their plane under power this is EXACTLY how they're doing it. The odd part is that they always seem to conveniently leave out the part about dialing in some up elevator to reduce the air speed of the plane. This makes most newcomers think that to land a plane under power means that their plane is going to be coming in fast! When in reality, it'll be coming in slower than a deadstick landing!
(This technique is actually the beginning stages of what is sometimes called high alpha flying)
The first time you try this, you are going to be smiling from ear to ear. Trust me, buddy. Give it about 1/2 hour to learn it, and you'll be doing it with every plane you own.
Good old Chuck!
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Post by john66 on May 6, 2010 14:00:20 GMT 1
Good advice ginginho at what point between launch fly and crash are you supposed to implement the above procedure?
I'll give it a try! ;D
John
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Post by ginginho on May 6, 2010 15:41:18 GMT 1
Good advice ginginho at what point between launch fly and crash are you supposed to implement the above procedure? I'll give it a try! ;D John Chuck's process should be applied as follows: After (launch), during (flight), before (crash).  |
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Post by Dillzio on May 7, 2010 12:25:55 GMT 1
Whereever possible your landing should be across your view, either left to right or right to left, not towards yourself. This ensures that controls act as you see them and not reversed. Even experienced pilots avoid landing whilst flying towards themself unless it's absolutely necessary. Wow, that really surprises me so see you say that Ging. I thought learning reverse steering for when the plane is headed towards you is a fairly basic skill that all RC users need to learn. I admit that it doesn't come as naturally, it increases your chances of error, but making errors is how we learn, and practice makes perfect! I'm trying to think of where I originally got the idea from of landing coming towards myself, because now that I've learned to do it like that I can't think of doing it any other way. I think I first got the idea from watching one of Killoughtta's videos, this was before I even knew about this forum: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWPWD9hVdYI find it works well because as the plane gets nearer the ground, it gets closer so you can see exactly what it's doing more clearly, and after a perfect landing your cub ends up just in front of you, no long walks to go fetch it! I also find it difficult to line up with a runway if I'm not standing on it, but again, I guess that's where practice comes in. I guess since I taught myself how to fly I may have learned somewhat unconventional methods. It wouldn't be the first time I went about doing something the hard way.  -Come to think of it, I'd better go spend some more time on my sim, I gotta learn real mode 2 controls and how to use ailerons! |
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Post by ginginho on May 7, 2010 13:46:36 GMT 1
Whereever possible your landing should be across your view, either left to right or right to left, not towards yourself. This ensures that controls act as you see them and not reversed. Even experienced pilots avoid landing whilst flying towards themself unless it's absolutely necessary. Wow, that really surprises me so see you say that Ging. I thought learning reverse steering for when the plane is headed towards you is a fairly basic skill that all RC users need to learn. I admit that it doesn't come as naturally, it increases your chances of error, but making errors is how we learn, and practice makes perfect! I'm trying to think of where I originally got the idea from of landing coming towards myself, because now that I've learned to do it like that I can't think of doing it any other way. I think I first got the idea from watching one of Killoughtta's videos, this was before I even knew about this forum: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWPWD9hVdYI find it works well because as the plane gets nearer the ground, it gets closer so you can see exactly what it's doing more clearly, and after a perfect landing your cub ends up just in front of you, no long walks to go fetch it! I also find it difficult to line up with a runway if I'm not standing on it, but again, I guess that's where practice comes in. I guess since I taught myself how to fly I may have learned somewhat unconventional methods. It wouldn't be the first time I went about doing something the hard way. -Come to think of it, I'd better go spend some more time on my sim, I gotta learn real mode 2 controls and how to use ailerons! Ah, I didn't say don't get used to flying towards yourself, I was only stating that landing that way is not ideal as it tends to be more prone to errors than across your field of view. The initial part of the approach will include the plane flying (almost) towards yourself anyway, but at a height which will forgive a small incorrect input. Making errors is as you say, part and parcel of the learning process, however making them close to the ground (i.e. landing) is more likely to result in a crash situation. Another problem that can result includes a "not so perfect" landing, where your aircraft overshoots. If the plane is coming towards you in this situation, you are putting yourself (and anyone who is around you) at risk. There are several options that become evident if aborting the landing is not possible, these are: take the hit (not advisable); force it down earlier than the approach dictates (lawn-dart with ensuing damage to the aircraft); duck/run! Although it may not extremely dangerous with an SC, anything larger/heavier/faster probably will be. Across your view just means it ends up a little further away. Landing across your view also means that the aircraft gets closer to you as it gets closer to touch down, ideally with it meeting Terra firma directly in front of you. A short walk is all that's required to retrieve the aircraft, assuming that you are unable to taxi back to close to your position. Erwin isn't landing towards himself in that video, he's landing across his field of view (R -> L). |
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Post by killioughtta on May 7, 2010 14:29:24 GMT 1
Although I like being very close to the runway (be it designated or makeshift) I like to stand to the side and near the end whenever possible. Landing across my field of view allows me to flare more easily and touch down right where I want to. Landing straight towards you is actually pretty useful too for me. I find exactly what Dill said to be true: as the model gets closer to me (and lower to the ground) I see it much better and have better control over it. My first choice is close to the runway, to the side and towards the end of it. I'll have to make another video to go with my old one. That was a long time ago in RC years and I've nailed the landing as a result to these frequent practices. My favorite part of scale flying is landing and taking off.  |
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Post by phantom on May 7, 2010 15:23:24 GMT 1
This is all great advice and I will be putting everyone's ideas together to come up with my own approach. I have found that I like to land my plane with me standing on the sideline (that way I don't hit myself) so if I have a problem, I can full throttle and try it again. Thanks again for the great advice!!!!
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although it does save on the prop and spinner ;D
