> All, I'm curious to see how steep of an approach you all typically make when > landing an RES ship (in a TD style contest). I know it will vary with the > plane and the conditions, but I think I may be coming in too shallow. > > In my first contest ever last Sunday, I ended up in a tree, then from the > tree into a parked car. I was standing at the end of the landing tape and > had my line all set. I was to fly over the parking lot (approaches from > other directions were about impossible due to winch placement and trees), > straight onto the tape. My altitude and distance were perfect, and it was > looking like I was barely going to need to use any spoiler at all when > suddenly, some nasty sink started hitting my plane (2meter). At first it > was just sink, then it pulled my plane viscously towards a tree. The > controls didn't really respond and I couldn't afford to lose any altitude to > gain speed (or I would have hit a parked car), so the plane ended up flying > right into a tree and then falling out onto a car. Perfect. > > I guess my lesson learned is that it's better to come in higher and use more > spoilers in case you encounter this. So that said... typically, how high > are you when you are 100 feet, or 50 feet, or 25 feet from the landing tape > when flying RES (2meter to 3 meter size)? Thanks in advance for any sagely > wisdom.
Jeff, I don't beleive there is a simple answer to you question as to how high you should be on approach. How steep your approach should be depends on the wind. When the wind is light, I make a long gradual approach and as the wind increases in speed, I make my approach shorter and steeper. The best thing to do is to attempt approaches in a variety of wind conditions and watch carefully how you plane responds. My problem is that when I practice the wind speed is always constant but when I fly in a contest the wind speed keeps changing :) RES, you gotta love it :) Best Regards, Bob Johnson Fond du Lac, WI RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
