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Here we are at the end of summer for some of us living in the northern climates.  Not much nice weather left for flying your radio controlled model airplanes or helicopters.  Although it is the end of the summer flying season for some of us, there is still a lot you can do to stay involved with our hobby through the winter months.

Some of the more durable and adventurous of RC modelers actually do some flying outdoors during the frozen months.  It is sometimes done on frozen lakes or if you have a large enough building available, you can fly some of the smaller electric powered models indoors.   And don’t overlook the sport of indoor RC model car and truck racing.  It is also a lot of fun and very much doable in any weather.

You may have the desire to build a new kit this winter or maybe you had an accident with your favorite model last summer and it needs some repair work.   Either way, the winter months are ideal for model building or rebuilding.  I have a couple of kits to build and one model that had a radio failure and it is in need of some serious repair.  My intent is to make a video of kit building and another one of rebuilding crashed radio controlled model airplanes.  However, these videos will be delayed for a while because I am in need of some serious repair on my right ankle.  I will be going in the hospital on the 13th of November for surgery.  I expect to be in a cast for several months and that will limit my ability to get into the basement to my airplane workbench.  I will prevail and the videos will be available as soon as possible.   Please bear with me and keep reading my blog for more RC information and be sure to sign up to receive my 7 day eCourse on getting started in RC flying.

Now, let’s get on to flying the stall turn.  It is also called the hammerhead because of the similarity to the shape of a hammerhead.  Begin with straight and level flight and make sure you are flying at a high enough altitude to give you time to correct any mistakes that may occur.   When you are ready to make the stall turn pull the nose up with full elevator and begin vertical flight and at the top of the hammerhead or at the point of the stall, reduce the airspeed with the throttle control and simultaneously give the rudder full left to make a sharp left turn without using the ailerons.  You will have to use some elevator control to head the plane straight downward.   Increase the throttle to get control of the model, but not too fast, because you will need to pull it out of the dive and you need to be careful not to overload the wing at that point.  At the bottom of the hammerhead, pull up elevator to return to straight and level flight in the opposite direction from where you began the hammerhead.

The hammerhead or stall turn is actually fairly simple to perform.  Just remember to start at a sufficient altitude to allow for mistakes and don’t dive at full throttle in order to avoid excessive G-forces on the wing when you pull out of the dive to return to level flight.  You can practice this by turning either to the left or the right at the top of the stall, but I think it is more common to turn to the left.

This turn is fun to fly and fun to watch and it often comes in handy when you have a limited amount of space to fly in.  As always, it is much better to have an experienced flier with you when you are first learning any of the aerobatic maneuvers to provide advice and emergency assistance when needed.

One more point on winter flying fun is to purchase one of the excellent RC flight simulators and practice these maneuvers in the comfort of your home and you won’t have to worry about crashes at all.

This is the OldManFlier and I will see you next time.

I know it has been too long since my last post, but I had surgery on my left eye this summer, and subsequently, I have lost the sight in that eye.  It has slowed me down a little, but I will continue to update this site as I can and will continue to pursue this most exciting hobby and share my years of experience with you.

I am currently working on creating a video presentation about building a radio controlled model airplane from a kit.   When completed, this video will show all details of building, covering, and installing the engine and radio.  And it will be followed later by a video of the model being put through its paces.  It will be packed with information and will be presented in a pleasing and educational manner.  It will take some time yet to finish it, but it will be worth the wait.

There will also be a video presentation of repairing my crashed Goldberg Anniversary Cub.  It has been around since the middle 1980′s and has crashed once before and was rebuilt.  A few years ago, because of a broken servo wire, it crashed and sustained some damage to the nose, cowl, windows, and wing.  Although, it is not seriously damaged, this will be an interesting video about crash repairs, because this model is equipped with a 2 cylinder 4 stroke engine and it will require some extensive work on fitting the new fiberglass cowl to the plane and a new radio installation.  Watch for it to  be coming out soon.

Additionally, I am working on a 7-day Ecourse on how to get started in radio controlled airplanes.  It will be sent out to anyone who signs up for it on the right side of this page near the top.  It costs nothing and it will help newcomers to the RC hobby get started.  It will be sent out in seven consecutive daily emails and each one is filled with what you need to know such as locating an experienced trainer, RC flying club and field, and how to decide on which type of model to start with.  There will be discussions on electric powered as well as nitro powered engines, the size of your first airplane with some suggestions on different models, and much more on all aspects of obtaining and flying radio controlled model airplanes.  Be sure to sign up for it as soon as possible and it should begin in the first week of November.

I know I kinda got sidetracked with this post that really started out to be about doing the stall turn or “hammerhead” and the Immelman turn, but I wanted to let you know about some of the future plans for this blog.  This is information that is important to the continued success of this blog and I will get right back into some more aerobatics in the next post, and I will try to get back on a more consistent weekly schedule.

Thanks for bearing with me.  This is the OldManFlier and I will see you next time.

I used the words “keep on flying high” in the title for today’s post as a reminder to you that while you are practicing radio controlled model plane aerobatics, you need to make sure you are maintaining enough altitude to allow time to recover from mistakes.

As I started thinking about writing this post, I realized that we haven’t talked about how to do the horizontal roll.  Like the simple loop, the roll is part of many of the other more complicated aerobatic maneuvers and you need to learn that and practice it until it too becomes instinctive to you.

Being able to successfully and gracefully complete the roll is necessary in order to perform the Immelman turn, the cuban 8, and  other more advanced aerobatics.  I would also suggest that you practice some long oval loops as part of the preparation for more advanced maneuvers.

Start a loop and at the top of the circle, add some down elevator to maintain a straight and level inverted flight then at the point where you want to end the long oval loop, feed in up elevator and complete the long oval pattern.  Remember to decrease the airspeed as you start the down side of the ending loop.  At the bottom of the second half of the loop, use down elevator to level out and continue straight and level flight back to the point where you began the long oval.

This long oval pattern is suggested here just to provide you with another kind of practice to help you become proficient in flying inverted.  To make graceful, smooth rolls you need to keep the plane flying level whether it is inverted or right side up.

Okay, now let’s move on to discussing what it takes to roll your plane 360 degrees horizontally.  Please remember that each model behaves somewhat differently and you may have to modify these steps to get the smoothest performance from your own airplane.

Start with straight and level flight and it is advisable, at least at first, to be flying downwind and feed in a little up elevator just as you begin the roll.  Until you gain some experience, it will be the tendency to end up in a steep dive, so it is good to start with a slight nose up attitude.  Quickly give your plane left or right full ailerons and as you enter the inverted portion of the roll, be sure to give it a little down elevator to maintain level flight.  Continue the roll until the aircraft has righted itself and is flying straight and level.

I don’t want to overload you with too much new material at one time and I encourage you to practice each maneuver as I have described until you are completely at ease with each new step before moving on to more advanced aerobatics.

Watch this blog for a new option to sign up to receive my new 7-day Ecourse on how to get started in the radio controlled model airplane hobby.  It will consist of one new step each day for 7 days and will give you enough information to get a good, knowledgeable insight as to what you need to do to get started flying RC.   Also, be sure to take a look at my “about” page and let me knpw what you think by using the comments button below.  I will be glad to hear from you.

This is the OldManFlier and I will see you next time.