Hints on Hovering with airplane?

[dadspet]

Anyone have any good hints on how to master Hovering with an airplane? I've been trying it on Realflight G2 without a lot of real success. Must be some tricks I need to be aware of or someway to work up to it.

[flyfalcons]

Practice, Practice, Practice.

You need the right setup though: Plenty of power, lots of control throw, and good lateral balance. Start practicing by slowing down on an upline, and don't use enough power to hover. The plane will fall off in some direction. Practice recovering with a minimum of altitude loss. This is important; if you can recover then you'll feel more comfortable when things get dicey.

Once you can recover from any attitude, start hovering about 50' up. see what it takes to keep the plane oriented. Start practicing lower and lower, and recover when you start to feel the pressure. No need to push it and dork your plane.

Finally, the toughest skill: Backing the plane down. This can be very challenging, because the controls are hardly effective due to lower engine power and negative airflow over the ailerons. When I back down, I let it go a foot or so and hit the power in case I need to right the airplane.

You'll find that when you are lower, it is much easier to see every little movement that the plane is trying to do, and you can correct for it quickly. It will take a lot of time before you get good at hovering; a little patience will go a long way. It is a real crowd pleaser though! Here's a quick vid of me practicing with my UCD3D.

http://www.rcsites.net/flyfalcons/RyanUCD1movie.wmv

[Fernlope]

Practice, Practice, Practice.

You need the right setup though: Plenty of power, lots of control throw, and good lateral balance. Start practicing by slowing down on an upline, and don't use enough power to hover. The plane will fall off in some direction. Practice recovering with a minimum of altitude loss. This is important; if you can recover then you'll feel more comfortable when things get dicey.

Once you can recover from any attitude, start hovering about 50' up. see what it takes to keep the plane oriented. Start practicing lower and lower, and recover when you start to feel the pressure. No need to push it and dork your plane.

Finally, the toughest skill: Backing the plane down. This can be very challenging, because the controls are hardly effective due to lower engine power and negative airflow over the ailerons. When I back down, I let it go a foot or so and hit the power in case I need to right the airplane.

You'll find that when you are lower, it is much easier to see every little movement that the plane is trying to do, and you can correct for it quickly. It will take a lot of time before you get good at hovering; a little patience will go a long way. It is a real crowd pleaser though! Here's a quick vid of me practicing with my UCD3D.

http://www.rcsites.net/flyfalcons/RyanUCD1movie.wmv


Thanks for the help!

I was wondering how can we make our 3D planes (Extra SHP 47'') to constantly roll over itself without lose altitude and with slow speed. After I amke 3-4 rools...I am diving down already!. I can't get that right, any hint in how the rudder can help there?...etc..

Thanks!

[ditchit]

Well said...it's all about practice. A sim will help you program your brain with what to do when you fall out of the hover. I'm getting there with my hovering but I do have the occassional 'off' day...catch from 3:20 on my vid...near disaster....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnHv9p_Fpbo

[Sky-walker]

hovering 3d planes is just a piece of cake, at least compared to helicopters.. I never was able to fly a heli, but I have flown a lot of junk-plane and hover in the air first time. so it is easy

[gundamnitpete]

i find hovering 3D planes harder than heli's, atleast at the parkflyer size.

[Garyss]

Assuming you have a properly setup plane, I like to fly in to the center of the field at a moderaly slow speed, pull up with a quarter turn to view the now "top" of the plane and try to fly up as slowly as possible. Then with practice cut the throttle back until you stop. But then you have to continually "blip" the throttle as well as develop the feel with the elevator, rudder to maintain a proper attitude. As they say practice, prac..., etc. etc.

:D