Following the Plane

taking off on that great thread on handle position(it was getting kind of far afield)

The idea of following the plane with your hand is something to think about. Since I've actually practiced the pattern a few times now it is pretty obvious that there is more to it than just keeping your hand pointed at the plane. Not only do you have to point the handle at the plane, you also have to lead the plane through the maneuvers, esp. sharp corners. A good fast combat plane can do all the turns with little problem because it pulls so hard the lines don't whip the plane around much. At slower stunt speeds a lot of arm waving is needed to keep the plane pointed in the right direction as it goes around the turns by counteracting the whip of the lines. Leading the plane around the corners helps it keep its composure. Excellent plane design and trimming helps, but it is really easy to get even a good plane out of shape in some maneuvers.

The position of the plane relative to your hand also can make a control movement. This shows up in inside loops. As you start up the loop, the plane movement is actually counteracting your hand movement. Then as you go over the top the plane is coming down and accentutating the up elevator movement. Tends to make the loop tighten up. If you just follow it around there is less tendency to tighten the turn, but it still will because the increased airspeed increases the effectiveness of the up elevator and any wind is helping it along also.. So you have to dial out some up with the wrist at just the right time to keep the rate of turn constant. Very counter intuitive. Makes it seem like you are diving into the ground.

It would be nice if we could always keep the handle oriented to the vertical of the fuse and avoid these problems. Separate the up and down of control movements from the up and down caused by the relative postion and angles of the handle and the plane. My wrist won't twist that far though.

there's a patentable idea for you. A control system where the up down movement is separated from the up down caused by moving the handle around. Maybe use a squeeze handle. Squeezing the grip gives up and opening it gives down. Both lines exit to the plane very close together so there is no coupling of handle movement and the control position.

Hi Phil, You're beginning to sound like a Stunt afficianado! Don't become a popsie on me now! How about calling Don and Tom to come out to meet Pat Saturday morning? He and I are coming in together this Friday and plan to stay at Gil's. All of us are going to Phila. Sunday. Glad that you and Ken came out this past weekend. I have your trophies and will bring them along. Alan Buck will be down to fly this Saturday as well.

Hey Phil,

I'm going to Philly, too. Looking forward to seeing you there!!

Guys,
This and the previous thread present a lot of excellent thought on handle use, position, modes of using, etc.

I'm a bit concerned that we may be thinking too much about it, however. Maybe because I really started flying in the '50s (black U-Reely era), I learned some (many?) "bad" handle habits. Some I can adapt, others are too deep in muscle memory to uproot.

I'd prefer CL, like bicycles, to be learned in the muscles, and tuned from there. If you want to dump a bicycle, think about all the weight and steering shifts instead of letting your trained reflexes handle it. Increment by increment conscious decisions won't do anywhere near as well.

Following or leading the model through a figure? Of course! (I think of it as leading...) To get a new flier into Lazy Eights, I suggest keeping the hand above the model on the insides and below it in the outsides. The model winds up flying a fairly even-altitude Lazy Eight, while the flier's hand traces sort of the same figure tilted left-side high. This is using the gross controls (arm and elbow) to position the fine and rapid controls (wrist and finger-group) for max comfort.

The big thing is to get the newer guys to fly more, correct only gross problems, and let his reflexes develop basic feel. Once that is there, progress and accuracy can be emphasized and sharpened with confidence and a less cluttered mental load.

Just IMHO...

I agree with Lou that muscle memory must be developed to fly properly. Personally I don't think it matters how you hold the handle so long as it feels comfortable to you and your muscles are trained. When I was learning to fly the pattern long ago there was never any mention about holding the handle straight up and down or laying it to one side when going inverted, it was something that just developed over time that felt right to me and so now I lay it on the side. I can't be sure but I feel that laying it on the side is now a subconscious cue to muscle memory that the controls are now reversed.

Your arm of course simply must follow the model no matter what attitude it's in so you end up tracing a small pattern with the handle. I once watched a video of myself doing the square eights where the camera was zoomed in on me and I was amazed at the complicated motions I was making. There's absolutely no way this could be taught or done with conscious thought, it has to be done instinctively. For me, conscious thought only comes into it when I pre-plan exactly where I want the model to make a hard turn (for instance) then let the automatic stuff take over.

I don't think talking about how to hold the handle is beating a dead horse or whatever. It does seem to be pretty important though to getting precision maneuvers. Granted you can learn to fly pretty well with almost any handle position, but that doesn't mean you couldn't do better, like learning how to hold a golf club. One of our local flyers got in the habit of holding his hand over his head and twisting it when he learned to fly a couple of years ago. Must have been from his first reaction to doing an outside loop, jerk on the handle to keep it out of the ground. He is getting better, but he still can barely do outsides and simply can't fly a smooth maneuver, all from holding the handle the wrong way. Muscle memories matter, but they can be relearned. A few years ago I taught myself to hold the handle tipped over to the left for inverted combat flying. that way the down line hits the other guys body and turns the plane away from the ground, instead of the up line hitting and dumping the plane into the ground.

Combat flyers fly the plane all the time without pointing their arms at it. It doesn't make for smooth, precise maneuvers, but it does allow you to do snappy maneuvers from awkward positions. That's one thing a combat flyer has to relearn. Letting the plane go past the handle to pickup control movement can cause all sorts of problems with line whip on slower models.

>>
>It would be nice if we could always keep the handle oriented
>to the vertical of the fuse and avoid these problems.
>Separate the up and down of control movements from the up
>and down caused by the relative postion and angles of the
>handle and the plane. My wrist won't twist that far though.
>
>there's a patentable idea for you. A control system where
>the up down movement is separated from the up down caused by
>moving the handle around. Maybe use a squeeze handle.
>Squeezing the grip gives up and opening it gives down. Both
>lines exit to the plane very close together so there is no
>coupling of handle movement and the control position.
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It's already been done back in the 1940's! The JEM controline handle
which was made in New York City utilized this concept. it was a large cast aluminum handle (about the size of a colt .45 automatic's handle) that had a trigger you pulled with your index finger to make the airplane go up. When you released the trigger, springs moved the elevator to neutral. To go down, you had to place your thumb behind the rod that projected out behind the handle and push forward. The brochure states that twisting or tilting of the handle has no effect on the control of the airplane. The lines exited the front of the handle out of the same hole.

The handle did not sell well. It is large, heavy, and awkward to operate.

Sometimes, solving one problem creates two others.

Bob G. flys inverted with his palm up and that is good enough for me