Re: Emergency turn

On Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:27:36 -0500, Tired Bob wrote:

Howdy from a 6-month lurker and archived-post reader who's turning out
to be neither a builder nor a flier but a repairer. Oh well. As usual
when a lurker outs himself, I have some questions about the hobby and
hope for help. Thanks in advance. After 3 days of slingshotting into a
tree and standing on a shaky ladder with a long, heavy pieced-together
pole, I've recovered a plane but need to know how to avoid similar
situations. What is the best way to do an immediate sharp 180-degree
turn when a tree or wall pops up in front of a plane? Ailerons to
90-degree bank with full up elevator, then reverse ailerons seems to be
the ticket (Is that a Split S?), but I usually find myself in a steep
climb. Do I just need practice or is there a better way? Thanks again
for any advice.
rr

Are you teaching yourself to fly? That's an excellent way to learn how
to repair and build airplanes (I taught myself to fly, on planes that I
designed, and learned (a) how to repair airplanes, (b) how to design
airplanes that can be post-holed into moist sod and survive*, and (c),
eventually, how to fly planes).

As Martin said, plan your flight before the aircraft leaves the ground
(or your hand). This is particularly important if you are a beginner, or
rusty, or if the airplane, field, or day presents some unusual
challenges. If you have a plan, then planned flight won't come as a
surprise -- you'll only have to think fast for things you _didn't_ plan
on.

If you can, plan on the most likely things that _might_ happen: "if I get
within 50 feet of that tree, I need to veer off to the left", or "if my
motor stops right _here_ I need to not take off, if it stops _there_ I
need to grit my teeth and land straight ahead, if it stops _up there_
I'll have enough altitude and airspeed to turn", etc.

One of the most fascinating experiences I had was getting the opportunity
to fly in a small twin-turboprop, and listen to the pilot's chatter on
the intercom. Do you know that pause when your plane is lined up on the
runway, but you're not accelerating yet? One of the things that is
happening is that the pilots are agreeing on landmarks for one-engine-out
events -- this is where we cut back the other one and hit the brakes,
this is where we try to take off anyway, etc. That way if the s**t hits
the fan, their response is coordinated and immediate. It doesn't hurt if
both sides of your brain have a similar conversation before you launch
your model.

As far as your question: It sounds like you are not rolling all the way
vertical before you apply elevator, so you gain some altitude. You're
also slowing down considerably, so you're lucky you're flying an
egregiously overpowered airplane. As Martin said, dihedral makes this
maneuver harder to do -- in general you need to add some rudder to make
it all come out right, or just accept that the turn is going to be ugly.

Good luck, keep trying, and remember that the most important things that
a pilot can have are altitude, airspeed and ideas -- if you have any two
of the three you can spend some of of the two you have to get some of the
one you don't, but if you're down to one you're in a world of hurt.

* Build everything in front of the wings out of strong materials: ***
backed with ply, basically. Then build everything behind the wings with
stick-and-tissue construction, with triangular bracing. The front will
absorb the impact, the back won't contribute.

This doesn't help if you post-hole into the ground in August, or if you
fly straight into a tombstone (I learned how to fly in the spring, in a
field across the road from a cemetery. The August post-hole came about
after I picked up the hobby again).

--
http://www.wescottdesign.com
.

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