Bill Johns wrote: > > Here is a scenario for you experts.... > > You find yourself way down wind and way high up with an unballasted plane > and gotta head back into a moderate head wind. You can head directly into > the wind on a straight line back or you can tack back and forth like a > sailboat against the wind. Time is not an issue. Which technique will get > you closer to home with minimal loss of altitude? > This is a scenario where you have not given all the real information you need to make a decision. What you want to do is avoid flying back through sink while keeping the distance you fly as short as possible. Lift conditions will vary depending on the weather and time of day. Early in the day, straight back is probably OK. If lift conditions are present where lift and sink are well defined, then the odds are that you will fly back in sink if flying straight back, so you can guess left or right.
If it's a contest, then you can probably see some other models in the sky. Then you can avoid the side that looks like it has worse conditions. If you're flying straight downwind, then use your memory. Have you been standing in lift or sink conditions for the past few minutes? If it's sink then you don't want to fly straight back. Most folks think in terms of recognizing lift conditions. When you are coming back, you have to think about recognizing sink conditions since you probably have most of the altitude you need to make it back and get your time, without sink. I usually only worry about sink in the afternoon. If all of this is too much to think about, just fly back straight. If the model is flying badly, push down elevator. Or invest in a Walston plane locator. RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
