Springfield RC Club, Minutes of November Meeting, November 7, 2002, Kevin Murdock, Secretary

Best wishes of the club go out to ailing members Loy Baker and George Ashley.

New Business:  Election of Springfield RC Club officers for 2003 followed. The nominations were:

As no further nominations were received from the floor, motion was made to elect these officers by acclamation, motion was seconded and a vote was called. Vote was unanimous for the election of these officers.

Discussion on the budget for the Christmas Banquet. Motion was made to approve $500 for expenses plus the $250 the club had already spent on the purchase of the Taylorcraft from Ron Hyde to use as a raffle prize. Motion was seconded and passed.

Dan Curtis discussed the additional money the club will receive from proceeds from the Pattern contest and the Helifly.

The monthly raffle was not held due to the absence of Dale Brown, who will be in charge of the raffle during 2003. No monthly program scheduled.  With no further business to come before the membership, motion was made to adjourn, adjourn at 8:30.

New planes have popped up. In the past few weeks 3 new pattern planes have appeared at the field. Tim Johnson and Rodney Elliott have been getting the trim flights on their new Swallows from Giant Scale Planes. The Swallow is a .90 to 1.20 size plane that seems to have some very nice flight characteristics. Rodney had a 2-cycle .91 on the plane at first but has changed to a YS .91 4 stroke and the plane has responded very positively. It has nice vertical performance with straight up and down lines. Straight flight and inverted flight is very stable and it’s tracking is excellent. Rodney was kind enough to let this writer get some stick time with his new plane and the flight was enjoyable. Rolls are axial, point rolls and slow rolls are precise with good rudder authority and minimal mixing will be required. Stall turns are positive with rotation and little adverse roll. Look for Rodney and his new plane at the field. Take a look at it and watch the presentation as Rodney puts it through its paces.

Photo: Rodney gives his Swallow a new APC (Click on image for larger view)

The second plane to appear was a new Focus owned by Mike Howard. The Focus is a 2-meter plane that Mike has powered with a YS 1.40 L; JR digitalis inside and Bolly fixed landing gear. After a few initial trim flights, Mike was all ready practicing the Intermediate pattern and doing quite well. This says something for the design and Mike’s assembly techniques. It is not uncommon to have 30 to 60 flights on a plane to get it trimmed and set up for the feel a person is looking for before beginning practice flights. Mike will be doing some minor adjustments but the Focus is flying very well at a very early stage. This is Mike’s first 2-meter pattern plane after flying an Aresti .40 and the Explorer 90 and his grin just keeps getting bigger. Check out Mike’s yellow, red and blue Focus next time you see him at the field, I just bet he would be glad to tell you all about it.

Photo: Mike adjusting the tail wheel of his shiny new Focus (Click on image for larger view)

If you would like to find out more about any of the planes mentioned above or pattern flying in general, ask any of the Springfield RC Club pattern flyers.

Due to a very nice turnout and participation at last years Introduction to Precision Aerobatics contest. The events committee has added this event to next year’s calendar. Remember it is for persons that have never placed in a pattern or IMAC contest. It will consist of flying the IMAC basic sequence for those entered in the IMAC portion and the Sportsman pattern sequence for the pattern portion. There will be more information for all that are interested, in the future. So start getting those planes ready, after all it will be warm before we know it.

I would like to end this month’s column with a few words of appreciation for our outgoing President, Charles Newton. Charles had given two years of service to the club in this position. He has conducted the clubs business, smoothed ruffled feathers, served in various positions at club functions and has been a fine ambassador of our sport and our club. As his term comes to an end I want to say thank you for a job well done, you have made our club better with your service and leadership.

Exiting the box……..

Dan Curtis

by Ed Moorman 

1. Landing every time. Don’t tell yourself to touch down every time you make a landing approach. Force yourself to go around if the approach isn’t a good one. A bad approach results in a bad landing 99% of the time. You should actually be practicing approaches, not landings. When you make a bad approach, go around, set up, and try it again. When you make a really good approach, then throttle back all the way to idle and land. Unless you are an expert, the approach determines the landing. When you have a good approach the landing will just about do itself.

2. Touching down before you pass in front of yourself. Have you ever done this? You become nervous to land because of wind or maybe it’s just not one of your “good” days. To hopefully make the landing easier, you make a big pattern, dragging it out. You end up touching down way before you get back in front of yourself. Is this how the landing went? BAM, the main gear spreads out. BAM, the nose gear bends. BAM, the prop breaks.

Sound familiar? It’s a very common landing error. Let’s analyze the touch down location. There are three places you can touch down, before yourself, right in front and past yourself. Right out in front is best. You have the best view of fuselage angle and the descent rate. Past yourself is okay until you get way past. The airplane is directional—right is right and left is left. The further away you get, the harder it is to tell the descent rate, but you can still set the airplane up slightly nose high and let it touch. 

Now, let’s look at landing before you get to yourself. The airplane is coming toward you so steering is reversed. Being tense makes this worse. From a nose-on position, it’s hard to tell the fuselage angle and the descent rate. This is the worst case for making a good landing. Even experts can’t consistently make good landings far away from a nose-on position. When you are having a bad day, give yourself an even chance. You should be turning early, not late. Land a little past yourself. You can see everything better and judge the touchdown better.

3. Seeing the bottom of the airplane. If you can see the bottom of the airplane during a landing approach, the nose is too high. If you are set up on a final approach, the nose of the airplane should be down in a glide position. When you can see the bottom of the airplane, you are approaching a stall. You need to either add power and go around or use the elevator stick to lower the nose. Stand with a couple of good fliers and watch the airplane on landing. You won’t see the bottom of the airplane.

4. Undershooting the runway. When you make a landing approach, you normally set up parallel to the runway on a downwind leg, throttle back, and turn to final approach. You can either make one big, sweeping base-to-final turn or you can square the pattern off with a base leg, then turn to final. Most beginners set up wide like they are going to make a square off pattern, then turn too tightly and angle in to the runway. 

There are three ways to line up for final approach. One, the right one, is exactly in line with the runway. The other is to overshoot a little past the runway and angle back. The third is to undershoot and angle toward the runway. The last one is the most common and the worst. When you undershoot, the airplane ends up aimed right at you. Nose on is the worst position for control. It is hard to see small movements and to get the correct attitude for landing. Nose on is also the least safe direction. You are aimed at yourself and must make a turn or go around. Next, undershooting can put you high on final. Normally this wouldn’t be too bad since most beginners land short, but it can put you in a position where you have to make a turn to keep from going over your head. This is a bad position for turning. You are low to the ground and staring at the nose of the airplane. All of these make undershooting the runway the worst position to land. Overshooting, while not perfect, is not that bad. If you overshoot, you will be angling across the runway away from yourself—a safe direction to be going. You can usually see the side of the airplane so making a turn isn’t that hard.

The solution, if you like to make one sweeping turn, is to set up closer to the runway and vary your bank to roll out in line with the runway. Or, you can make a definite base leg and not turn until you are in line with runway.

5. Bouncing and porpoising. If a bounce isn’t caused by a very hard landing where the springiness of the gear flings you back up into the air, it is caused by touching down on the nose gear first. Nose gear first landings guarantee a bounce or a series of bounces called “porpoising” for the sea mammal who seems to continuously leap up into the air and splash back down. Lack of concentration and inattention can cause you to let the nose gear touch first. When you get to a couple of feet from the runway, you should concentrate on getting the nose slightly high. If the nose wheel is higher than the main wheels, you can freeze on the controls and just let the airplane land itself. From a couple of feet altitude, you can’t hurt it.

6. The “Slow Curve Error.” I coined the name “Slow Curve Error” in a book I wrote on Radio Control back in 1980. You see this error all the time and normally don’t recognize it. The airplane makes a slow, shallow curve away from the pilot usually ending up on the far side of the runway, maybe in the grass. Here’s what causes it. Lack of experience and natural tenseness as you get low and close to the runway cause the pilot to make very small errors. You make a steering correction, but it is in the wrong direction. You can already land so the correction is small and you immediately notice the airplane is turning the wrong way so you level the wings. Now you make the steering correction again, and again it is in the wrong direction. This continues and the airplane nibbles away at a slow, curving path away from the pilot.

Watch for this and you’ll see it at every field. To cure the Slow Curve Error, you need to practice some low approaches, flying the airplane low and slow past yourself while trying to keep it in the center of the runway.

from Flightline
Casper Airmodelers
Craig Bastian, editor
Evansville WY

Winter Flying
by Larry Dudkowski