Need some coaching

[Paul Taylor]

As some know I took a sabbatical from flying. I’m back in the circle and I put my “Chunky Monkey” Vector on a diet and converted it to electric. To say I'm am happy with the results is an understatement. The plane groves nicely and goes where I point it. The only issue is at the handle end. I have always flown SKERD on some maneuvers.
Specifically the pull out on the reverse wing over & the horizontal square eights. I need to get what little mojo back. I let my skill saw get dull and rusty.

I know I need to stay ahead of the plane but what things can I do to improve my ability to pull out inverted corners? My outside squares are ok, just the square eights. And that first corner of the reverse wing over. 🥴

I know at some big contest a few top flyers will put on a stunt clinic. Maybe this could be done on one of the Stunthangar video Zoom calls? Charles???

Appreciate any and all feedback.

[Motorman]

On the reverse wingover inverted pull out just use a really big radius but try to end up at the right height. Eventually you'll get a feel for it and tighten up the radius. On the Horizontal eight that inverted pullout comes up really fast. Just make the whole thing a little bigger with higher bottoms. Try to fly through the corners instead of banging them and loosing air speed and try not to yank the handle. If the plane starts to wobble in the horzontal eight it's very hard to smooth it out again.

Motorman

[Paul Taylor]

On the reverse wingover inverted pull out just use a really big radius but try to end up at the right height. Eventually you'll get a feel for it and tighten up the radius. On the Horizontal eight just make the whole thing bigger with 10' bottoms. Try to fly through the corners instead of banging them and loosing air speed. Try not to yank the handle.

Motorman

Good info. I like the idea of a large corner. 💡

[Ken Culbertson]

I sat out nearly 35 years.  When I came back, I was still able to fly the entire pattern at perhaps mid to high advanced level.  I took the opportunity to get rid of a bunch of bad habits that I got away with when I had hair.   I completely changed my stance, arm position and handle grip along the lines of what I read and saw here.  Brett Buck and Ted Fancher's postings and video allowed me to regain close where I left off but do it by forming new muscle memory that works and will eventually let me go further than where I was.

Specifically, I had the same issues you are having.  Motorman is right.  In general open up your corners and learn to fly through them.  You couldn't do that with the Fox 35 but today's power is soooo much better.  Sit back and enjoy!  What changed for me was dumping the bias in the handle and adjusting my arm position to put the handle vertical.  This gives you full control both ways with just finger pressure and wrist.  Get your shapes back first.  Don't worry too much about the size of things till you get the shapes back.  I would not move the bottoms up to keep the size.  It may just be me but I do not fly well if I am not holding the bottoms at around 5'.  One habit I had to break was leading the plane (whipping) into maneuvers to build up momentum and not getting planted before starting a maneuver.  You couldn't stop and face where you wanted the maneuver to be and let the plane fly into it with the old stuff.

I am a huge fan of Video but I do it differently.  I record from the side so that I can see the plane head on in maneuvers and even more important I can see the pilot (me) from the side instead of a back shot.  When I watch the top fliers I watch them, how soon they plant, where they are looking, what their arms are doing, and not the plane.  I learned a lot doing that.

Welcome back!

Ken