The four leaf clover in the wind; success or sudden death..

LAST EDITED ON Jun-13-06 AT 03:17 AM (CST)
 
A vertical dive into the ground made me think about flying the pattern in the wind.

The fatal problem was the first loop of the four leaf clover. Going straight into the wind during a turn nearly overhead resulted in a serious loss of speed, centrifugal force, line tension, and control. I missed getting tension back before impact.

The earlier part of the pattern was survivable. Consecutive loops were pushed down, but opening them during the climb kept the bottoms above the ground.

In the overhead part of the overhead 8's, the model moved with the wind, and speed and tension were maintained. They were sort of control line assisted free flight in parts, and somewhat larger than usual, but not dangerous.

Vertical 8's were flown with small tops, but the wind stretched them out to the right size.

I think the reverse wingovers went well because the plane was not turning overhead, and speed was maintained. I softened the entry to keep the speed up.

I kept level and inverted flight a bit high to have some room and deal with buffeting.

Does anyone have a technique for a successful completion of the four leaf clover in the wind?

I'm thinking of a very clean but somewhat heavy and well powered airplane, and minimal flaps to keep the speed up ....

My first "successful" clover ended with a lawn dart maneuver. On exit from the clover, you come up and over like a wingover into the wind. That is when I lost it.

That can be tricky even for the pros, a few tricks are to whip the model on approach to the maneuver, and when you are in the turn add energy by stepping back and pulling your arm closer to your body.
For me the killer is the second loop as it tends to go ballistic and making the turn at the bottom can be hairy.

A person who witnessed the conditions in person would have estimated:

A. The contest would be cancelled.

B. Everybody would stay down.

C. A body count in excess of two out of six.

D. None of above.

In reality, everybody but the winner (who had a commanding lead), flew TWICE, a total of eleven flights. The two losses were in the second round.

A great demo of competative spirit. Having survived the first go-round, everybody who needed it tried for a better score.

CL Mike,

You might enjoy getting a copy of a series of articles I did for either STUNT NEWS or MODEL AVIATION ... I forget which right now ... called Fly Like a Champion. In it I discussed the pattern maneuver by maneuver and part of each was specific information on doing the maneuver in both bad wind conditions; zero wind, and lots of it.

I think Curt Nixon at PAMPA Products can supply copies if you're interested.

We recently installed a callibrated windsock at our flying field. It stands out straight at 15 MPH or better. The result is that we fly happily in winds of less than 15 MPH which previously would have kept us grounded. Knowledge is power, or maybe just hubris.

>That can be tricky even for the pros, a few tricks are to
>whip the model on approach to the maneuver, and when you are
>in the turn add energy by stepping back and pulling your arm
>closer to your body.
>For me the killer is the second loop as it tends to go
>ballistic and making the turn at the bottom can be hairy.

Any time Ive ever had tension problems is the climb into the third leaf if i didnt have enough speed coming out of the first two.
lol and the loss of speed in the exit is kind of a hartstopper...things seem to go in slow motion.

LAST EDITED ON Jun-14-06 AT 03:04 PM (CST) by LNeumann (admin)
 
Deleted by Ty for reasons unknown.

TY Was that the red one with black and white checkers on the leading edge?
Ed

LAST EDITED ON Jun-14-06 AT 03:05 PM (CST) by LNeumann (admin)
 
And I guess we will never know since this was also deleted by Ty for reasons unknown.

Try having the engine quit in heavy wind just as you've made the second loop and are just past the 42 degrees to start the third loop. I don't think I could have run fast enough to catch it when I was 20, much less now.

Mike,
Teds articles that he mentioned are very good and do talk about "surviving" bad conditions. However I'm going to attempt to answer your question from the view point of a "good" flyer who is not National Champion material. I am a survivor however, and pride myself on surviving "bad" conditions.
For the four leaf clover in very windy and turbulent conditions try to make the first loop entry (inside), directly down wind and a little higher than normal (maybe 45-47 degrees instead of 42. The wind will tend to push the airplane down lower than what is expected on the exit from this first loop, as the airplane exits gage where you actually are relative to your entry before automatically applying down to begin the second loop (practice this in high wind without continuing to the second loop). If your first loop was high enough and the exit came out where it should have continue straight across to the entry of the second loop (outside). Remember that when nearly directly downwind the control forces are going to suddenly feel heavier than normal and you're going to have to pull significantly harder than normal to make this loop (the wind will be forcing the speed to increase, as well as making your flying arm "longer"). Going back to the exit from the first loop, if the wind has forced the exit lower than it should be let the loop continue (actually this is more like a horizontal climb) until you have the altitude that you started the loop with (45-47 degrees) before starting the outside loop. Yes, this is an error and will most certainly show up in your score but you will survive the conditions. Start the second loop too low and you most certainly will not! Back to the exit of the second loop (hey, you survived), let the airplane run straight up a little higher than what your natural timing that you've developed, tells you to (shoot for nearly directly overhead). as you make the turn for the third loop the wind will tend to push the airplane down and the top that you thought was going to be directly overhead or beyond it won't. The third loop is actually the easiest to survive but critical for setting up the fourth and final (and most dangerous) loop. Once again gage the altitude that you've exited the loop from and if necessary let it run past horizontal (intersection). Another error, but remember the increase in control force and the wind push will make this last loop nearly always come out lower than what you would wish for, give yourself plenty of room. For the exit vertically over the top try to push back just slightly before directly up wind. Don't try any blazing square corner exits at 5 feet, they're not supposed to be judged anyway and are seriously dangerous. Gentle control applications are required upwind in heavy conditions. Give yourself lots of room on this exit.
Last and most important, practice in the wind. Give yourself extra room at first and eventually you'll learn to gage the extra margin needed when the wind really whips.
I hope this helps, no magic just common sense and making the right decisions. Don't allow yourself to be forced into a situation that you know is wrong (too low) just because you've flown it a certain way when the conditions are good. Judgement and shapes must change a little when flying in really bad conditions.

I never had a problem with the clover itself. My problem was the exit, the wingover into the wind.

Further to Ted's offer, I have a video set of three tapes where he and Dave Fitzgerald discuss the finer points of where & how to fly in various conditions. They are available through me, if anyone is interested.

Just FYI,

>I never had a problem with the clover itself. My problem was
>the exit, the wingover into the wind.

According to current rules, this is no longer required.
You can bail out any way you want.

Correcto-mundo ???

What say the jury ?

LAST EDITED ON Jun-14-06 AT 02:39 PM (CST)
 
.

Overhead meaning top of the circle? I'd better look at the rule "book" online.

My advice is to fly the exit straight over back to level flight.
Regardless of what the rule book says (Ty is right about this), Judges have their own prejudices and are used to seeing it flown that way. No matter how correct you are you don't want to put yourself in the situation of arguing with the judges at a contest. You'll lose in the end and if you argue successfully and make the judge mad it may affect your scores at future contests. Be kind to judges!!! If you want to be a successful stunt flier let other non-fliers argue fine points like this with judges either at a contest or away from the contest. Believe me, I learned this the hard way.

Ty and Randy,

There's been furious debate lately about the diagrams in the rule book not conforming to the written maneuver description, especially on exits. The written description of a maneuver might say, loosely, "This maneuver ends here x" but the line showing the prescribed track of the airplane continues.

Pilots can make life easier for the judges if they don't push the envelope too far, especially until we get clear guidance on this question.

Randy, you're sure right about not trying to nail a 5-foot radius pullout four feet from the ground at the end of the wingover. It's not worth the risk and it won't score points anyway. The pattern is tricky enough without adding unnecessary gambles.

I once had a "spirited" discussion about this. We were flying at a contest at Boeing Space Center and the wind was howling down the Kent Vally chute. I completed my clover and at just past the top of the circle, I made a left turn to drop cross wind in a curving flight path and recovered to level flight. I could feel the line tension suddenly bleeding away as I crossed the top of the circle and felt it was a "save the plane" move. There was quite a lot of discussion as to the legality of this move. I contended that the maneuver ended at the top of the circle and I could recover to level flight any way I wanted.

Just a footnote to add to Randy's comment about the concern about how he ended the four leaf clover in hard wind. When attending VSC in 2004 I watched one of the lesser known flyers Bill Werwage ending the four leaf in some downright heavy wind. He went just past overhead then took a path similar to what Randy describes with a large radius to the left back to level flight. When I asked him about it Bill said as has been mentioned here that the judging is supposed to in fact end overhead. Maybe we need to make sure the various judging clinics mention things like this so it doesn't look so odd to the judges and flyers. By the way Bill won that year at VSC.
Gary Akers

Hello Mike,

From line tension point of view this first loop of the cloverleaf is indeed critical. It get's worse with stronger winds...
A related risk: Loosing line tension in the top loop, can cause the fuel in the tank to run a away from the feedpipe. This can on its turn cause the engine to quit in the second or even worse 3th loop of the clover. Very often with fatal results.

In the seventies, Jim Manall (UK) has written a great article on flying the pattern in Aeromodeller magazine, later copied in the "Control line Aeromodeller" .

In that article he advises in strong wind to enter this first loop not from 40 degrees, but from much higher, almost doing a soft wingover from the downwind point entering it. This keeps the speed up and helps you a lot to complete the manoevre. We here in Herentals, Belgium we call it the "untidy Manall approach", but it works!

Another approach by Berringer (French World class): While executing the first loop, Go from a full extended pose (You can stand on your toes if needed) to a kneeled down position (One knee will do) This way you add energy to the system, maintaining linetension and maintaining fuelfeed....
You can take a normal pose from the 2nd loop onwards

Kind regards,
Paul