Approach Suggestions..

[surjer]

I have noticed approaches are way more difficult with the ailerons as apposed to the 3 channel "rudder" approach. Should I still use rudder for alignment? Thats going to be tough getting used to flying with the rudder on the left stick now.. Steering on the left and elevator on the right is WAY different than what I am used to.. It just seams that alignment is very difficult with ailerons because it drops the wing down instead of just "turning" the plane. Rudder DOES bank the plane a bit but not near as much as the ailerons do..

Thanks in advance for any help!

[aturkington]

I wish that I could give you a suggestion, but frankly I am in the same stage of learning - In fact I wrecked my 4 channel flyzone cessna because of the same issue. overbanked and then kaboom! The turns were far more severe plus I was overcontrolling due to wind and visibility.

[bearweasel]

Use the rudder for alignment during landing. Use the ailerons up high. If you can, go out to a small airport and watch the student pilots during landing. You'll see (and already know) why using ailerons down low is a bad idea!

[mississippiflyboy]

I fly approaches just like I do in full size aircraft (still a student though) with the exception of flaps. Fly a rectangular pattern while reducing power until you are inches off the ground and then pull it and pull back for a nice flare. Contrary to popular belief, power is what you use to ascend and descend, not the elevator. You keep the nose at a fixed pitch and slowly adjust your power settings for a smooth pro landing. At stock weight, this can be more difficult....when you add "goodies" onto the aircraft, it tends to fly more like its full size counterpart and not float as much.

Stay off your ailerons on final as much as possible...just minor adjustments to keep the wings level and use your rudder to line up on the runway and stay lined up. When flying in a full size aircraft, the rudder is not just for coordinated turns. Small inputs to the rudder make it much easier to keep a course heading or correct it by a few degrees. My first few hours in a Cessna 172, I had a hard time keeping my heading until my flight instructor showed me how to "tap" the pedals to line up on a heading and it became much easier.

[kalnaren]

mississippiflyboy said:

I fly approaches just like I do in full size aircraft (still a student though) with the exception of flaps. Fly a rectangular pattern while reducing power until you are inches off the ground and then pull it and pull back for a nice flare. Contrary to popular belief, power is what you use to ascend and descend, not the elevator. You keep the nose at a fixed pitch and slowly adjust your power settings for a smooth pro landing. At stock weight, this can be more difficult....when you add "goodies" onto the aircraft, it tends to fly more like its full size counterpart and not float as much.

Stay off your ailerons on final as much as possible...just minor adjustments to keep the wings level and use your rudder to line up on the runway and stay lined up. When flying in a full size aircraft, the rudder is not just for coordinated turns. Small inputs to the rudder make it much easier to keep a course heading or correct it by a few degrees. My first few hours in a Cessna 172, I had a hard time keeping my heading until my flight instructor showed me how to "tap" the pedals to line up on a heading and it became much easier.

+1. That's one thing my students were really surprised about when I was teaching them -pitch controls airspeed.

Talking about R/C now, if you're landing straight into wind, the SC will pretty much land itself IF it is trimmed properly. You trim it for level flight at half throttle, so at very little or no throttle, the same trim, it will gently decend. However, I've tried several crosswind landings with the SC and man I wish I had ailerons for that. A very slight bit of into-wind wing low and a very slight bit of opposite rudder would be great. It's very difficult to side-slip a R/E controlled plane.

On approach, get any x-wind correction in with ailerons, and then leave it and use the rudder to stay aligned with the runway.

[surjer]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have been practicing using my left hand to fly the plane with rudder up real high and that really helped. Now when i come in for landings with the Ailerons I can use the Ailerons to keep her level and the rudder to align my course.

X-Wind landings are a bear. I am trying to get the whole (Thumbs in, or thumbs out) thing down but I havent quite got the hang of that yet. I tend to want to move my left and right thumbs the same amount when trying that... Doesnt work so great! lol

All in all this plane makes for a GREAT Aileron trainer I think.. Of course I have nothing to compare it against.. I need to practice "hotter" landings as well. I tend to dead stick and from what people are saying thats not a good habbit to get into when looking at future planes...

[kalnaren]

You almost have to land the SC deadstick, especially if it's into wind. The thing just doesn't want to drop.

[trollsplitter]

not to through a curve ball or get off topic but what do you do with a rc thats only elevator/ailerons?

[sinai]

Aileron/Elevator only like the PZ P-51?

Another RCU member told me,
1. Just make sure the plane is APPROACHING YOU (COMING TOWARD YOU) during a landing.
2. Line up the wings with the horizon, and "put the stick under the low wing to keep it level"

It helped my landings and orientation to "PUT THE STICK UNDER THE LOW WING" if a plane is approaching.

Btw, REDUCING AIRSPEED (by cutting the throttle) lands the plane better than forcing it down with DOWN-ELEVATOR. Before touchdown, a gentle up-elevator acts like the "brakes". BUT IF YOU FORCE IT DOWN, that plane will still be moving very fast, and up-elevator just makes it climb, and tip stall during the landing.

[trollsplitter]

Takes for the tips, fly orintation dont seem to bother. Not sure why but I just put my mind in perspective of the plane and I seem to make it go the way I want. It's a FW-190 I own and flew it for about 5 mins before I had transmitter issues and crashed it. I sent it back to horizon ands they sent me a brand new plane <great customer service>. however in the 6 mins i made a couple desent landings. I think im going to wait till winter when they put the ice roads in to fly on the lakes. The soft snow should help to cushon the landing and the lakes give me lots of room to fly

[torquayflier]

hello

one thing i learnt recently is as your about 6feet above ground coming in against the wind keep the prop juuuuust above min power and bring the elevator up a couple of degrees and HOLD it not too much up and down and it will come in nose up like a space shuttle and brush the ground nicely!
it looks really good head on coming at you. hope that helps
dave

[cjg]

torquayflier said:

hello

one thing i learnt recently is as your about 6feet above ground coming in against the wind keep the prop juuuuust above min power and bring the elevator up a couple of degrees and HOLD it not too much up and down and it will come in nose up like a space shuttle and brush the ground nicely!
it looks really good head on coming at you. hope that helps
dave

Agreed, that is the way I land and apparently it is the proper way to land a taildragger. I use about 1/4 to 1/3 power and ease the power on and off to keep nose up while still descending.