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Author Topic: Dreadful Wind  (Read 1460 times)

Offline Chris Fretz

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Dreadful Wind
« on: March 20, 2018, 03:57:25 AM »
I don't really ever see anyone talk about wind on here too much.  I must say it kicked my butt last year, one minute it was blowing this way the next it was blowing that way! Seemed all last summer was that way. Practically every contest I went to it almost burred my airplane into the ground. I'd pay attention to which way it was blowing before I got up to fly. But honestly once flying I can't tell wind changes. One judge told me I was doing the some stunts in the wind. I never noticed except for the airplane almost crashing. Also doing the stunts directly down wind makes the plane whip. So how do you guys do it?
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Offline Dennis Moritz

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2018, 04:58:31 AM »
Most of the time feel the wind at your back. Or the hairs on back of your neck. Yep. It reverses at times. Watch local fliers flying at their local contest. They will often do the figures in a specific place no matter how the wind conditions appear when looking at flag markers and so forth. At Garden State for instance, most of the time folks fly into a pocket made by the trees lining three sides of the field. Or is it two sides of field? Power up when wind is weird. If you gauge your angle to the wind wrong, running engine on the powerful side, can make the best of a bad orientation. I'm referring to wind weirdness. Changeable wind direction. Not wind blowing hard from a consistent direction. That presents different problems. Powering up can increase whip up where plane speeds up excessively during maneuvers flown directly down wind. 

Offline Perry Rose

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2018, 05:36:26 AM »
Using uni-flow will increase the speed up going into the maneuvers.
I may be wrong but I doubt it.
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Offline john e. holliday

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2018, 12:29:00 PM »
Yes most places you have to feel the wind on the back of your neck while doing maneuvers in front of you.  But some times on a rare occasion the plane will tell you which side of the circle to do the maneuvering on.  On the old circle at Topeka's Gage Park many a time the wind was blowing in my face to do the maneuvers.   Same at Fargo one year I was there.   D>K
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Online Dan McEntee

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2018, 09:38:50 PM »
   Part of the learning process in stunt is learning about atmospheric conditions and what causes them. There is wind, turbulence and thermals to deal with. When picking a flying site, pay attention to what direction the prevailing wind direction is, and what is further up wind that may change a straight line wind into a swirling mass, that is called turbulence. This can be anything from trees to rolling hills, cliffs, even parked cars. You will find that it is easier to deal with straight line wind by biasing maneuvers to use the wind to your advantage. Once the wind gets swirled up by obstacles, all bets are off! You can't predict what the "wind" will be at each lap. As already stated, power is your friend here, as well as model design. Smaller models with clean aerodynamics tend to be upset less by turbulence. Thermals are a whole 'nother matter. This what you may be feeling at your site. When a thermal goes by, it is another swirling mass of air, and will feel significantly warmer, followed by cooler air, which is the sink on the back side of the thermal. I have had thermals grab a model in the overheads and show me both the top and bottom of the model! If I'm sport flying or trying to practice, I pack it in and wait for better conditions. If it's a contest you drove hundreds of miles to get to, you gotta fly! The best thing you can do if the conditions are like this is, as mentioned, power up and be prepared and alert for anything! Sometimes this is referred to as "survival stunt!" Some guys switch to shorter lines. Others work to make the maneuvers larger with the best symmetry that they can muster. Maybe a little extra fuel in case you want to take an extra lap or two somewhere in the pattern. The contest at SIG Field is one place where you can have all three. If the wind is straight up and down the runway, you only have to watch out for thermals and use "normal" windy condition flying techniques. If it comes from the east, it is coming across a fairly large depression or hollow, with rolling hills and trees, but that rarely ever happened. If it comes from the west, it blows over the hangers that are 50 to 75 feet from the circle and that makes things really interesting! But it is the same for everybody, unless you get lucky with the flight order draw and get to go early or can catch a lull.  At the contests that you go to where you have to deal with this, pay attention to how others handle it and learn from them, both what to do and what not to do.
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Offline Chris Fretz

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2018, 06:01:31 PM »
I do find it tough feeling the wind wile spinning in a circle and concentrating on the airplane. True everyone has to deal with it,  however those that get to go early in morning do have it best I've noticed. Now let me ask this, if you are on your first loop or eight or whatever and  the wind starts blowing in on your airplane slacking your lines or just causing havoc. Do you bail out and skip that maneuver? Back up and give her heck?
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Online Dan McEntee

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2018, 08:01:17 PM »
I do find it tough feeling the wind wile spinning in a circle and concentrating on the airplane. True everyone has to deal with it,  however those that get to go early in morning do have it best I've noticed. Now let me ask this, if you are on your first loop or eight or whatever and  the wind starts blowing in on your airplane slacking your lines or just causing havoc. Do you bail out and skip that maneuver? Back up and give her heck?

   In the immortal works of the late, great Bob Hoover, " Fly the airplane as far into the crash as possible!"  It depends on the situation, and you have to make a split second decision, but stepping back would be the first thing. Try to get the entry and exit correct to get as many pints a s possible. This fits the survival stunt mode I mentioned. If the air is turbulent and windy to start with, plan on making the manuever as big as possible to begin with in order to leave yourself room for "alternate plan B".  But when all else fails, don't panic do what you have to do to save the airplane.
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Offline Steve Helmick

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2018, 10:16:18 PM »
Go to Flying Lines and look into the articles Paul Walker wrote. Everything from flying in calm to gale, and trimming. I'm pretty sure they're all archived there. Ah, here they are:  http://flyinglines.org/Aerobatics.html  Plus some contest results and pictures of our planes and NW flying fields. Or, ex-flying fields....  :P Steve


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Offline Dennis Toth

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2018, 07:28:17 AM »
One of the tips for wind is to watch other flyers and see where they are placing their maneuvers. Once you see the location pick out some object just ahead of down wind so you know where you are. For contest work fine a spot directly across the circle from the judges (they usually know where the wind is). Practice this so you don't miss your marks during the flight. Make the first round flight count. Down here is Florida we typically get the low wind early in the morning (usually right into the sun) which picks up by 11 am. Most of our contests are in the windier months, I have rarely seen second round improve unless we have low wind (<10-12 mph). Do a practice flight if you can to get a good setting for first round. I like to set my ship up to fly in higher wind (9 mph ish) by flying faster (slightly more pitch at the rpm the engine is happy at) then adjust the line length to allow me to keep up with it. If it gets really bad bump the nitro a few %, it usually doesn't pay to go lean as this can push the engine to runaway conditions then you just hang on.

Best,   DennisT

Offline Air Ministry .

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2018, 06:57:14 PM »
Make Wind Your Friend . ;D

Less prop , Less line length. Maybe a notch ( 1/4 Oz + ) more tip weight , a tad of nose weight if its bumpy.

One needs a beater , not a ultra light concourse front row unreplaceable THING .

I used a 35 sized on .018 x 55 Ft wire ( so they dont walk ) with a FSR 25 , prop down to 9x6 or 9x4 if really blowing/ bumpy .
or itll think its a kite, not an aeroplane .

This is good for making holes in the ground when its soft in winter .
Getting the Lines Tight as / before it hits , gets it hitting square .
Hitting angled can lead to tears , as things tend to fall off .
Snatching them tight can remove a lot of inertia .

S M O O T H Control Application in one or two places is essential /

windy Has Pete Mannels pommy ' How to fly the schedule ' while the Spanish armarda is being blown ashore  , somewhere on Google .
Hints on possitioning , maintaining the equilibrium , etc .

On a grass field with a grass center , you know its blowing when a .40 ship is trying to pull you down the field .
Kick the heels in and Lean Back .  LL~ LL~ H^^

Offline GERALD WIMMER

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Re: Dreadful Wind
« Reply #10 on: March 24, 2018, 04:41:47 AM »
Hello Matt  H^^ I like your advice, it is really to the point and very much as I have found flying here in windy NZ.
As winter approaches here it is time to get some new gum boots and build some more windy weather models , so we don't have to stop flying when its blowing.
 In fact those same models will work as great stunt trainers for my two sons Otto and Max.
Got one ASP32 on its way and will build some more simple foam wing stunters as they take a beating well.
 Large slow combat models are also a safe windy weather backup if you just 'need' to fly!

Regards Gerald  #^ #^ #^


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