Inverted flight

[Al Williams]

OK I give up.  How do you do inverted flight?  Do you turn the handle over?  What's the secret?
I can not understand how it can be done naturally. 

[Perry Rose]

Have someone with experience fly the plane to make sure it will fly inverted. If the engine quits land it inverted. Repair and try again.

[Dan McEntee]

   It's easy, just stand on your head after doing a half loop!!

    But seriously folks, this is the first maneuver you learn after successfully being able to keep a model in the air comfortably for the duration of a full tank of gas. The way to enter is to do a simple half loop and then after going over the top, neutral the controls so the model levels out near inverted and is probably descending, and as the model gets closer to the ground, give down control and do a half outside loop back to upright position. You have just done what people call a "lazy eight", and then as you repeat this, start to stretch the lazy eight out longer and longer until you can level the model out in full inverted flight. This is all done with the model down wind to help keep the lines tight. Now comes the part where you need to keep it there.  The age old question of how do you keep the control direction straight in your mind. I instruct people not to think about the controls as reversed. Instead of "up" and "down" control, think of it as "bottom" and "top" control. Bottom is down and top is up. No matter what the orientation of the airplane is, the bottom is always the bottom and the top is always the top. As you fly along inverted and you start to get a little too low, give it a little bottom control and the model will get higher, and if too high, give it top control. It helps to "dry fly" a little bit, just practicing this technique in your mind with your eyes closed and visualizing it happening. The next question will be to how to hold your hand, and the answer is to learn to keep the handle vertical. I learned to fly inverted by laying my handle over a bit, and some hold their handle horizontal. The problem with that is, that as the model proceeds around the circle and you don't keep up with the speed exactly, and the model gets ahead of you a bit, it tends to pull on the down line and it disturbs inverted level flight. It takes a lot of practice to get comfortable at this as it is kind of un-natural in a way.  As to what airplane to use, pick a model that is expendable, and just needs to fly well enough to fly inverted, because you will most certainly crash a time or 20! A simple combat type of airplane might be best and flying over tall grass may limit damage in the eventual inverted groundings, and all you have to do is restart the airplane and try again. Hand launching is required for this. If you are confident an competent at all flying upright and can do so with out crashing, it may only take you a few dozen flights to get the hang of flying inverted in the same manor, and a few dozen more to do it and keep the model fairly level, and then a few dozen more to keep it nice and flat going around. And maybe a few dozen more flights gets you in the area of a nice 4 to 5 foot elevation for contest work. Once you get to this stage, the next thing is outside loops, and the frightening thing here is the fact that as the model goes around the top, the nose is pointing down towards the ground and at a good rate of speed ! Just keep in mind that you have some bottom control input into the model and that it will go around into a nice outside loop, and if you see the need, just give it a little more, and at the bottom just flatten it out. By flattening it out back into inverted level flight, you will be star5ting to get used to the orientation of the airplane as it goes into a reverse wing over, but that maneuver is for another time.
  I hope this helps, and good luck with it!
   Dan McEntee

[Chuck_Smith]

I have taught people for decades that you don't want to think in terms of up and down. Instead, think inside and outside. Or even simpler this way turns towards the canopy and this other way turns toward the wheels.

I'm a firm believer that this approach makes learning inverted flight easier, it also makes the student better prepared for the next steps learning all the pattern maneuvers.

It's not about translating up and down and controls being reversed when inverted, it's about which way you want the model to turn - which never changes. So again, forget about up and down and just think inside vs outside. As Dan said, start with lazy eights and then stretch them out - thinking inside and outside while doing so.

You can spot really experienced pilots by how  quickly and naturally they can make inside corrections to level during inverted flight.

All IMHO,

Chuck

[Ken Culbertson]

I have taught people for decades that you don't want to think in terms of up and down. Instead, think inside and outside. Or even simpler this way turns towards the canopy and this other way turns toward the wheels.

I'm a firm believer that this approach makes learning inverted flight easier, it also makes the student better prepared for the next steps learning all the pattern maneuvers.

It's not about translating up and down and controls being reversed when inverted, it's about which way you want the model to turn - which never changes. So again, forget about up and down and just think inside vs outside. As Dan said, start with lazy eights and then stretch them out - thinking inside and outside while doing so.

You can spot really experienced pilots by how  quickly and naturally they can make inside corrections to level during inverted flight.

All IMHO,

Chuck

Copy what Chuck posted and paste it to the lid on your tool box.  If you learn to think this way everything is better.  I learned it from an "expert" flier when I was 13.  Once I was comfortable with it I was doing full patterns (they looked like crap but..) in a week.  There is literally no difference between upright and inverted once you "get it".  Listen to Dan on the rest.

Ken

[Howard Rush]

Good advice from all these guys.

[Brett Buck]

OK I give up.  How do you do inverted flight?  Do you turn the handle over?  What's the secret?
I can not understand how it can be done naturally. 

   You don't turn the handle over, and while some people hold their hand "palm up" when inverted, I don't recommend that.

    It's just a matter of practice, mostly. You can work up to it by flying lazy 8s and just extend the outside part longer and longer. One thing I try with rank beginners is to get them flying inverted before they get the idea of "in a panic, give it 'up'" and "down means crash"  too drilled in. But I assume in your case, that ship has sailed, and in most cases, people learn to fly level and do it for a long time before they get around other modelers that might make it easier.

   There is good information above, get someone to make sure it will run properly and fly properly inverted. One big issue is that some engines, particularly the Fox 35, tend to quit unexpectedly when on a profile model and you give it any significant "down" elevator. So do the fix for that ("Fox Burp") if that's what you have, or use a different engine. Another is that, if you can't fly inverted now, you also might be living with a significant trim issue - warps that roll the airplane to the right are generally beneficial to line tension as long as you fly upright, but will cause tension to be lost when inverted. You can't really figure this out beforehand if you can't fly inverted already, and if you get it inverted and it rolls in at you, which direction you move the handle is moot, you are going to crash.

   Aside from that, you just have to go out and do it, and that almost certainly means crashing a lot. Fly over grass, make sure that your needle valve or glow plug doesn't get wiped out in every crash, and for *goodness sake*, make sure you can keep going, right then after the crash, with quick repairs or another airplane. The worst thing you can possibly do is have one crash, then go home and stew over it, or take all week doing repairs, then going out and doing it again. Beginners tend to give up on the first crash - with built-up airplanes, there is nearly nothing you cannot fix with Hot Stuff and packing tape, including wings breaking off, etc.

   If all else fails, pre-load yourself to, if you get confused or in trouble, jam in full "down". That will at least get you out of immediate trouble, just like jamming in full "up" when upright. I generally don't like to fix one bad habit with another, but in a pinch, it does work.

     Brett

[Bruce Shipp]

Somewhere years ago I read someone recommended painting a red dot on top of the handle - a”panic button” if you will.  The idea was while inverted if you needed to bail out you simply put your thumb on the “button” and pushed, resulting in down elevator, an outside half loop and recovering from inverted. 

You don’t need to actually paint the top of your handle red and few will recommend flying with your thumb on the top of your handle, but the the concept that pushing on the top of the handle by figuratively “pushing the panic button” may be a tool to help you remember how to get out of trouble, just as Brett explained in his last paragraph. 

Another option is a good sturdy 1/2 A flown over tall grass.  I learned inverted with a Baby Ringmaster over grass and bounced that thing off the ground many times with no damage or nothing worse than a broken prop.

Good luck.

[Chuck_Smith]

LOL!, I though i was the only one left that still called CA "Hot Stuff."

For the newbies, that was the original CA for modeling. It came in a bottle with a fluorescent orange label.  You stuck a little tube about 2" long in the end of it. After about half a bottle you'd have this little stub sticking out. Around 1974 IIRC.

Chuck

[Peter in Fairfax, VA]

The "Lazy Eight, followed by Long Lazy Eight" method is what worked for me, and what I advise.  I had no coach at the time.  It was just us neighborhood kids, about age 9-13.

The idea of "give it some inside" instead of "give it some up" makes sense.  Have not seen this used, in practice.

I've noticed that students vary.  Some get so comfortable with upright flight that inverted flight is a big barrier, as they pull "up" in emergencies.  Others seem to be able to free themselves from the reflex more easily.

Regardless, inverted flight can be a big differentiation point with judges.  The inverted return leg of the reverse wingover can be very telling of the overall skill level of the pilot.  Wingovers come up early in the pattern and are a challenge to get exactly right.  Unlike the "inverted flight" section of the pattern, there is no two lap warmup to seek the correct inverted flying height.  As a competitor who is trying to improve, I'll often do a complete training flight doing only wingovers.

There was a slow combat flier in our area, Mike Streeter if I recall correctly, who was expert at "getting away" by flying six inches off the deck, inverted.  This defense was much more effective than I would have imagined.

Peter

[Brett Buck]

There was a slow combat flier in our area, Mike Streeter if I recall correctly, who was expert at "getting away" by flying six inches off the deck, inverted.  This defense was much more effective than I would have imagined.

   The late Jason Pearson also adopted that plan in WAM combat, and that was enough to allow him to win match after match.

    Brett

[Peter in Fairfax, VA]

I'm recalling that part of the effectiveness of "inverted getaway" against a superior plane is that after it sails past, its streamer is exposed to a cut.

In stunt, you can get docked points for flying two feet inverted.  Don't ask me how I know.

[Ken Culbertson]

The idea of "give it some inside" instead of "give it some up" makes sense.  Have not seen this used, in practice.

If you learned it that way then you practice it every time you fly.   I learned on the High School football field in Fairfax Virginia!

Ken

[Shorts,David]

Those other ideas are all better than mine, so I'll throw out some less often considered ideas that DO work.
1. If you have a radio control flight simulator or plane, fly it inverted, reversing the controls is the same.
2. Buy a 1/2a skyray or brodak thing if you're confident with your 1/2a starting skills. Fly over grass. It will do insides and outsides well enough to get the idea with frequently, no damage when you stuff it.
 - I learned inverted flying r/c at 200 feet high, so when you get stupid, you've got enough room to stay stupid for a while before damage occurs. Once I did mix up my up and down when I was flying someone else's plane that was so perfectly trimmed it flew perfect inverted laps with no input. I just stared at it in awe and when it began getting lower and lower to the ground I'd forgotten what was happening. At about 6 inches my brain engaged enough to feed in down control, or I just got lucky. Never had a plane fly so perfectly inverted that my brain just tuned out.

[Howard Rush]

There was a slow combat flier in our area, Mike Streeter if I recall correctly, who was expert at "getting away" by flying six inches off the deck, inverted.  This defense was much more effective than I would have imagined.

Yep.  Very impressive. You were probably there the time he infuriated a guy by doing that. After Mike landed, the victim dove his plane at Mike's, missing it.  One of the most amusing combat matches I've seen.