Flying practice didn't go too well

[TeeJay]

Oh well, just needed som practice mainly with landing but also with flying
I've never taken off or landed before, took off fine, my flying was all over the place, nowhere near as good as my first attempt when Richard took off and landed for me, maybe due to changes made with the plane (camera on the nose and re-balanced for CoG)



First two attempts at landing were OK (ish) well at least there was no damage, third attempt didn't go so well, I managed to nose dive it into the ground which slit the fuse, broke the tail off and damaged the canopy, took a while to find the camera too LOL

Anyway, in hindsight I should have flown around more before I attempted to land in order to get a better feel for the plane, I also should have been in a more open field with less hazards for a 6ft plane (puts a novice off a bit all those posts and power lines and trees)
Should also have got an experienced flier to fly it and check for CoG or any other bad behavior BEFORE I flew it, as a novice it's impossible to tell if it's poor flying or a poorly set up plane

I was expecting the video to be much worse as I've not balanced the prop, adaptor or motor which should have resulted in far more vibrations causing that rolling shutter (wavey) effect

Anyway, nothing that can't be fixed with some glue and glass cloth

Icon A5 2nd Maiden





Notes to self:
Soften all control surface responses mechanically
Use elevator and maybe opposite rudder in the turns, the nose drops on this but doesn't on the sim
Go to an open field/mountain
Take time to practice longer sweeping turns instead of sharp one's
FLY HIGHER !

[FPVSteve]

Not to worry, I think we've all been there - took me a while to get comfortable and you're right about flying in places with hazards. Not only does it spoil the flying, it makes you feel more nervous too.

Your flying was pretty good to be honest though - a couple of hairy turns where as you say you turned quite sharply but you recovered well. I think for your landings it might be worth going a bit further out, dropping the power (but keeping some on) and coming straight in towards you. That way you don't have to monitor your direction, just your altitude and attitude to the ground.

Why not try flying around slowly and get used to how the plane handles at low speeds (altitude is your friend while you do this!). Does it tip-stall? I'll bet it does with the flat wing, so you'll need to keep some speed up for landing. If you go out far enough though, you'll have no problem just floating in nicely with a little bit of power on.

Keep going .. oh and *slap* for breaking an A5!  :o  :laugh:

[TeeJay]

Thanks Steve
Yes, I think I had contemplated a lot of what you've said AFTER the event LOL
And I think it does tend to tip stall, our club trainer broke the tail off my A5 last week doing just that, it really doesn't like any hint of flare on the approach to touch down, think it just needs bigger gonads to come in lower, smoother and a tiny bit faster and let it just float down reducing throttle

I do have flaps on it but I've yet to get them set up (mix) properly as I know it does want to pitch up slightly with flaps, maybe they'll allow slower landings ? ? ?

[FPVSteve]

Yep they'll definitely help (and they'll reduce tip-stalling too). Always best to have too much airspeed than having too little though! :D

[Coyote]

Yeah we`ve all been there before. Like Steve said the flying wasnt that bad at all.

It looked like you rushed the landing tbh. It was too fast too high, then you tried to get it down too quick. Just abort, turn around and come in again much slower and you`l be fine :)

Damage doesnt look too bad, can be fixed which is the main thing

[venquessa]

Yep they'll definitely help (and they'll reduce tip-stalling too). Always best to have too much airspeed than having too little though! :D

Flaps will actually make the stall more violent.  But yes... they will allow slower approach speed.  Washing out the wing tips would work better.  Place the wing ends into stacks of books, but tilt the tip so the leading edge is down and trailing edge up,  just use a thin book under the trailing edge, leave it for 24 hours, then put a bit of strong tape around the wing tip, front to back, to try and stop it unbending.  This gives the wing tip a lower angle of attack and will stall after the wing root, ergo, no tip stall.

For landing my advice, would be...

Practice up high, in straight level flight, to see how slow you can fly, get used to knowing what is too slow.  If you can't hold level wings, it's too slow.  If the nose drops, it's too slow.  If it spins, let go of the controls, sharp push forward, wait a split second and pull out as gently as you can, only then apply power.

Always apply power when you turn low down.
Time and prepare your landing so as you exit the final turn you can descend gently while slowing to that minimum speed.
Aim to be at that minimum speed by the time you get to a foot up. 
Cut the motor and VERY, VERY gently apply back elevator pressure progressively to keep the plane from actually touching.
NEVER let the wings away from level.
Dont try to adjust heading.
Eventually the plane will run out of energy and simply lose interest in flying.
This lands you with minimum speed and minimum chance of a bounce.

It's never too late to abort.  Remember though, the sequence is:
Power, then climb.  Never climb then power.

If you find it wants to tip over when "holding off" at 1 foot (or less) up, then ease off the elevator and land it unstalled.  Stall landing is favoured if the plane stalls symmetrically. 

Another tip is to move the CG forward to try and stop tip stalls.

[TeeJay]

Thanks a lot paulca, sounds like some good advice, I'll take my time to digest it all and put it into practice

Cheers
Terry

[stef1]

with the transmitter you have you can soften the centre of the throws with expo i fly all my models with around 30% this makes small corrections much more exact this will still give you full control at full stick (better to get out of trouble)

be careful when you set up expo if you go the wrong way the centre control will be exagerated making the sticks more sensitive

hope this helps

stefan

[TeeJay]

Thanks Stefan
Yes I have both elevator and aileron on two different expo settings each, each one controlled by a different switch

I think I may have to limit the control surface travel though especially elevator, there was no instructions for that in the build manual so they were left on full throw in the tx, on the plane the servo rods were put in the centre holes on the horns, oh yeah I did my best to balance the travel of the surfaces in each direction using end points

Seems like most of the tx stick movement is wasted as it only seems to need the tiniest of nudges to get considerable movement on the plane