After watching several videos, it seems that I need to give some kind of 'extra force or whip' with the wrist movement at the entry and followed by the arm movement making the loop shape, am I right?
*I don't know if my explanation is understandable enough or not, but I hope you get the point.
So far, I've tried to do the inside loops (mostly with the arm movement only) several times without any success, it ended up just a normal climb.
It sounds like you're not flexing your wrist, or your plane's controls are very slow. If you learned how to fly by stiff-arming the plane (i.e., hold your wrist stiff and point your arm where you want the plane to go), now is the time to stop. You should steer the plane by flexing your wrist (if your controls are set up normally, you'd tilt the handle top back toward you to turn toward the canopy, away from you to turn toward the wheels, just like you'd move a full-scale airplane's stick).
Note that I said "toward the canopy" and "toward the wheels". Start thinking in those terms -- that way, when you're flying upside down and you freak out and think "up", you'll push the plane toward the wheels instead of having a long discussion with yourself about the philosophical meaning of the word "up" when you're upside down, because that conversation will end with "splat!".
I'm going to use the full-scale terms -- "pull back" and "push forward". Pull back to go toward the canopy, push forward to go toward the wheels.
You shouldn't need to whip the plane, or lead it -- just give it some back elevator. It's best to
not try for a perfect loop at first.
I'd suggest that you start by doing some steep climbs, then dives, then work up to a wingover. When you're comfortable with those,
then think about looping.
For any stunting, it's a good idea to have a picture in your head of what you're going to do
before you do it. It sounds silly, but I've crashed planes before, and more than once, because I started a maneuver without having decided what I'm going to actually do. Knowing what you're going to do in advance means you'll never be 20 feet off the ground, headed straight down, and wondering "what now?".
It's also a good idea to avoid the ground. Competitive stunt is flown with the bottoms five feet off the ground. Don't try this -- plan on staying ten or fifteen feet off the ground until you're better.
I started writing this and I realize that I'm roughly quoting "How to Fly U-Control" by Dick Mathis. Unfortunately the book is long out of print, but I want to give credit where credit is due.
For the climb, starting a bit short of directly downwind, pull back moderately hard on the handle, briefly. Hopefully the plane should do something between a loop-sized curve and an actual corner. Plan on leveling out at 45 degrees altitude, then push in a bit of wheels-elevator and gradually descend back to level. When you're comfortable with this, and you have a feel for what it takes to level out up high, start working on making the descent steeper and leveling out more suddenly. If that's as far as you get this weekend -- you've done well.
Only after you're comfortable with that, try looping. Start by just doing single loops, and don't try to make them pretty. Basically, at this point in stunting, you
want to say "oh @#$%" at the top of the loop and pull back a lot on the elevator. I'd start a
big loop, then when you get to the top pull back a lot -- you'll recover way high (but you're used to that, because you've been practicing those climbs and dives -- right?). Until you start doing outside maneuvers, you probably want to do no more than five loops in one flight -- any more and your lines will twist together too much and the plane will get hard to control.
After that -- I'd suggest you start doing lazy eights. They're easier than they look (so, they're impressive), they don't wind up the lines, and they'll get you used to outside maneuvers and inverted flying.
To start, do a "kinda vertical S". You want to fly this maneuver in your head before you do it, or you'll get mixed up and crash. Start downwind. Begin an inside loop, but don't tighten it at the top. Instead, when the airplane is upside down and sloped maybe 20 or 30 degrees downward, push it toward the wheels, fairly hard. You should end up way high, and more or less level. Get the plane flying straight and level, and do it again.
As you gain confidence, extend the downward inverted leg until the bottom of the outside of the eight is a comfortable distance off the ground (ten feet or so is good). Extend that outside turn until you're flying downward at a 20 or 30 degree angle, and level out. Plan this whole thing so that the two downward legs intersect straight downwind. Recover to level flight, and catch your breath.
After you've done that a few times, try doing consecutive lazy eights. Start trying to make them look good.
The nice thing about lazy eights for the beginner (aside from easy and impressive looking) is that it can ease you into flying inverted. It gets you used to pushing wheels elevator when you're inverted and heading toward the ground, it starts you on outside loops, and it's fun.
Once you have that down, start extending the eight. On a day that's not too windy, start the inside portion later and later, and make the downward legs longer and shallower. At some point, you'll realize that
you're flying the plane upside down.
Then you can start doing inverted loops. Which should be easy. Because you've been doing half inverted loops for a while now.
Topic: F2B Stunt Pre-Flight Checks & Flying Tips (Read 6504 times)