When you have the opportunity to judge the better fliers, you will see the different ways they bias maneuvers in the wind. Some of the better fliers do not bias their maneuver. But in my experience, most of the better fliers do bias their maneuvers by varying degrees.
For me, I flew flight after flight just doing inside and outside loops and square loops, locating the center axis of these loops in different positions relative to the wind. Then do the same thing with all of the other maneuvers. For me, I found it best to bias inside loops, to the left of the wind (opposite of Paul's diagram at the beginning of this thread) and for the outsides, I bias to the right of the wind. For the horizontal eights (the round ones and the squares, it works best for me to place the intersections as close as I can dead down wind. I place the triangles centered on the wind. The vertical eights, I bias slightly to the right of the wind. The hour glass is centered on the wind, the overhead eights are centered on the wind so that the intersections above my head are dead downwind. And the four leaf clover is centered on the wind - in other words, the vertical intersections are dead down wind. This is what works for me. The degree of bias sort of depends on the wind, but this has been worked out, for me by flying a few patterns over the years.
It is interesting, we have a flier here in Tucson that came out just a few years ago. He quickly went from Intermediate to Advanced. He did not really stagnate, but his rate of development slowed somewhat. When several of us suggested he bias the maneuvers, it was like a new revaluation. He went out and experimented with placing his maneuvers in different positions relative to the wind. In short time, he continued his progress and is now getting competitive in Expert here in Southern Arizona.
You just have to go out and find what works best for you and understand what works for one flier may not be the best way for you.
Keith
Topic: Setting up the maneuver (Read 2578 times)
