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This may remain my last vice. I just cannot keep from hunting unless I am flying palms up and my fingers don't seem to care.
Thank you for what you do for this sport!
Ken
Truth be told, Ken, I suffer from the same impossible to cure palm up with my body always behind the airplane inverted problem. (You musn't tell anyone else!) Unlike many, nobody ever told me not to do so it just, somehow, came about naturally starting when I was about 10 years old and had only my slightly older brother to counsel me (not sure which of us had the greater hours in his log book, however) . As a result inverted flight was
always my worst maneuver; something I should have fixed but never did.
Here's the problem with doing so. Every time the position of the airplane relative to your handle changes...i.e. it gets ahead or behind it's "perfect" position relative to that flat handle at which it tracks straight...it's relationship to handle neutral changes and the airplane will climb or descend as a result. What exacerbates this (don't ask how I know) there is also an unconscious tendency to fly the airplane off to the pilot's right (CCW flight) instead of in front of him/her as I championed in the piece. This self inflicted loss of points largely goes away if the airplane is kept in front of the pilot with the handle held vertically!
Clearly, like many of the things I advocated in the piece, the disadvantages can be overcome given enough flights and diligence. My memory tells me that my noticable decay in inverted flight developed when I lost the only driveable close flying site I had for daily practice. The rest of my pattern didn't seem to decay much when legitimate sites became one to one and a half hours each way but the problem with inverted remained.
What I might have said about handle position that I failed to in the piece was that the value of a vertical (reference to level to the ground) grip is that as the aircraft rises or descends and the handle rises and falls in its miniature version of the maneuver the relationship to the handle remains essentially constant and thus inputs required for inside/outsides at any point on the sphere remain largely consistent and, thus, the inputs do as well.
Here's a little test. Hold your hand and arm out as though in level flight with the handle biased "down" in the pistol grip manner and note how much "minor" input arms (fingers and wrist) are fully available for insides but severely restricted for outsides. Note that some elbow or arm input is required for down inputs vice insides. Now tilt your back the wrong way for an overhead and notice how the restriction on outsides is much greater and will almost require moving back toward the ground to achieve the necessary control input. Doing so simultaneously pulls the airplane down toward mother earth which may help line tension in that outside but when you get back to the intersection for the second inside your handle moves toward the airplane costing you line tension at what might be one of the most critical points to not do so.
Enough. I'll end up with another six pager!
Ted