Learning to fly stunt patterns

[Dave Nyce]

I met with Bill Little in person for the first time yesterday, and also met his friend Phil. I found Bill to be a great guy, exceptionally knowledgeable, and he has loads of beautiful planes. I would like to learn to fly C/L stunt patterns, and wanted to get some tips from Bill.

I brought a Top Flite Nobler (ARF). After a couple of hours of hangar talk in his shop, we went to the flying field. Bill flew his plane expertly, as expected. I had not been able to get my Nobler engine started before, but Bill was able to start it. I flew the Nobler on 60 ft. lines, but the plane wasn't pulling at the top of the circle, so I only did a few inside loops on the downwind side. After that first flight, we found that my brand new, marked 60 ft. lines, were actually 70 ft. So we switched to Bill's 60 Ft. lines, and tuned the engine a little better (I had never run that engine before, so it wasn't broken in). On the second flight, the plane pulled well. I did wingovers, inside loops, and horizontal figure eights. On some consecutive figure eights, when coming down and starting the first inverted part of the figure eight, I apparently stalled the wing, and the plane came down. There was some damage, but the original control system needs to be replaced anyway, so it's not too bad.

Bill said that my patterns were way too small. So, I'll need to work on that next time.

Over the last couple of years, I've been helping some kids to learn to fly 1/2A planes, but it had been about 35 years since I had flown larger than a 1/2A plane, so it felt great, even with the mishap. I had never seen a C/L contest before the contest at Huntersville, which I attended a few weeks ago. I met Ed Ruane there, and helped with launching his classic stunt plane. I'm hoping to start out by learning the classic or old time stunt pattern well-enough so that I might participate in a contest in 2008. I also met Howard Shenton and Bill Mandakis at the contest (whom I had met previously online).

Anyway, Thanks a lot Bill !!!  And I hope to get up with you again after I get the Nobler repaired.

[Bill Little]

Hi David,

It was a pleasure to finally meet you in person!  We just need to find some more time to get out and fly.   While no true EXPERT, myself, I have certainly seen a lot of them fly.

Yes, you were making a common "newbie" mistake:  The maneuvers were way too small.  But, you will get it, and with your background, it won't take too long to get to where you are flying the whole pattern in your sleep!

Hope to see you again, soon, and remember what Phil said...... I am pretty much available any weekend!

Bill Little

[Charlie Pate]

Problem is , there are just not enough Bill Littles around!
People like Bill can shorten your learning curve immeasurably.
You will also find Bill to be  the same person at a contest as when flying at the field.

[Gary Anderson]

Hi David,

It was a pleasure to finally meet you in person!  We just need to find some more time to get out and fly.   While no true EXPERT, myself, I have certainly seen a lot of them fly.

Yes, you were making a common "newbie" mistake:  The maneuvers were way too small.  But, you will get it, and with your background, it won't take too long to get to where you are flying the whole pattern in your sleep!

Hope to see you again, soon, and remember what Phil said...... I am pretty much available any weekend!

Bill Little

Hi Bill, if you're available on weekends, come out to People's Church (Fresno, CA.) and give us a hand. Love to have ya, Gary