90% of the time, I can't fly where I live either. It's always sunny, but the winds are horrible where I live and never quit. I usually end up driving 120 miles away to Roswell, New Mexico to fly with a friend, because they almost always have nice flying weather.

I'm rootin for you Dan. Last night I rebuilt my kesl and built half a new one. Now its so foggy out I can't even see my car in the driveway. I'm getting my launch technique down. I have better luck lofting the plane like a football toss to the neighbor kid but not apply throttle till it flattens out at the high point of the toss. I have had trouble with power on take offs it either flipping out of control or nearly so. Your mileage may vary. Good luck, fly it like you stole it

Originally Posted by builderdude

90% of the time, I can't fly where I live either. It's always sunny, but the winds are horrible where I live and never quit. I usually end up driving 120 miles away to Roswell, New Mexico to fly with a friend, because they almost always have nice flying weather.

One way to fly when the weather is lousy is to fly indoors . Look for a church , school , town hall , etc. where they will let you fly in the sanctuary , gym or multipurpose room , etc.

There are a number of small planes ( and helis ) available for indoor flying . The Night Vapor is probably the best one , it's AUW is 14 grams and it's top speed is about the same as walking .

For indoors I've also made an RC blimp , hovercraft , tricopter , etc.

RC blimp (1 min 47 sec)

Skirtless hovercraft (2 min 7 sec)

Home made tricopter (2 min 24 sec)

Here's a home made plane flying in a church sanctuary

Homemade indoor slowflyer (1 min 16 sec)

That's what I wish I could say. But it was not so. Instead, let me quote from the Duke of Bourbon after the battle of Agincourt:

Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame!

Henry 5'th, Act IV, Scene 5

It was almost calm today. Calm, with occasional gusts to 5 MPH. Remembering that the video shows a newbie flying a SUE in wind, I thought "Hey, I had a couple of good flights... I just landed in trees. We can ignore the mole like behavior of the rest of the attempts."

So, I took the NEKKID SE to the hay field. (or is it SUE now... NEKKID SUE sounds more fun ) I checked balance - and had a devil of a time getting it to balance 14" from the nose (which is the leading edge of the prop slot. I had to have my 1800 mah battery hanging past the edge of the foam. Well, dem is the instructions. I took it out and did the glide test, and it nosed in after 10 feet. Hmmmm... Being a little sensitive about nose-first landings, I decided to ignore wiser more experienced voices and balance it a bit further back. I moved the battery back, and got it to a place where it would sail nice and easy about 20 - 30' and the keel would hiss along the grass... Note, it went straight... more on that later. The CG was about 3/4" behind the front of the slot, about 14.75" from the nose.

OKAY... check out the control surfaces, check out the throttle... we are GOOD TO GO. This time I decided to try the method of "grab the wing and give it a bit of a toss like a frisbee".

Flight 1: I wait for the wind to die... I grab the wing, I face into the direction of the wind, I run the throttle up, and I give it a toss. It's UP And then it does a slow roll to the left and the nose slowly goes down... It's about a 20' radius turn, ending in a nearly vertical dive into dirt.

Okay... straighten the nose. I check the controls... I check the glide characteristics... still straight and nice. Okay... LETS GO.

Flight 2: Photo copy of flight 1. *SPLOT*

Okay... now it's time to do some troubleshooting. Maybe it needs up elevator on the right side... so, I get busy with tools and stuff and I get it so it's about 1/8" higher than the left elevator. I test the glide and it now shows a bit of turn during the glide... But hey, lets see what it does under power.

Flight 3: I face into the direction of the wind, I run up the throttle, I give the plane a heave and I hear a *CLICK*... The plane glides to a nice landing 20 feet away. Hey, this is the furthest I've gotten, and it was a nice landing... but what happened ???

AHHH... the second nose in had loosened the ESC. When I gave it the toss the power wire to the motor had moved far enough backwards to be cut by the prop. That was the *CLICK* I heard...

Okay, back to the house... find the solder, find the heat shrink... The Missus is all excited. "Got a good flight?" "I suck" She deflates... "Ooooh. Maybe some people just can't learn to fly." " Frazzlefrazz Grumble Frump.."

Back to the flying field.

Flight 4: Check out the controls (working), check the tape (holding), check my spirits (sinking)... run up the throttle, launch... and .... photo copy of flight 1. *THUNK*

Okay... Now this thing looks just like a big paper airplane. I remember what I used to do with paper airplanes when they didn't flight right. BEND THEM. This poor NEKKID SuE is getting pretty bent up in the front... so lets bend a trailing edge !!! I grab the outside tailing edge of the foam board and give it a 1/2" up curve. It might be too much, but at least it might bank to the RIGHT and crash on that side. ANYTHING would be an improvement.

Flight 5: Controls, tape, wind, spirits... run up the throttle, give it a toss and ... HOLY GRIEF, it's almost go... no, wait... NO, to the left and... *THUNK* This time the landing was accompanied by a little chunk of stuff flying out. I check... Oh, one of the elevator linkage rods is gone. It apparently fell out of position, hit the prop, and the prop projected it out sideways... So, I need to look for it. Surely it can't be hard to find.

Ever try looking for a 6" long 1/8 diameter bamboo stick in a hay field ?? I cannot recommend this highly enough - it rates right up there with looking for four leaf clovers and a 1909 S VBD penny.

After 20 minutes I decide to stop sending good time down a rat hole... so I go home and make a new stick... took less time to make a new one.

Okay, But I think I have a handle on this... I just need to tweak the trailing edge some more. So tweak it I do. Oh, do I tweak it. I tweak it like my life depended on that tweak. It's tweaked.

Flight 6: Okay, in addition to everything else... I decide to heave it the other direction. Why? WHY NOT? Nothing else is working. Check the controls, check the throttle, forget to check the tape... heave and ... it's flying. It might be ... what? The throttle slowed down and stopped. It's falling out of the sky... and once more, dear friends, nose first into the ground.

I figured this one out before I got there... but this time it was the control signal cable to the ESC that got cut... and the plug to the receiver is just gone... I can solder 30 awg wires, I've got the tools and the experience... but I don't have a spare plug. And it's sunset... and cold. and I'm discouraged.

I pack everything up, and then I remember the second part of the Duke of Bourbon's speech:

Let us die in honour: once more back again;
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go hence with his cap in hand.

Okay... so, I will not slink away... so what is wrong???

Well, it glides straight and true... but under power it curves the left... I examine the thing. Look at the picture of the top of the nose again. The front of the mounting stick is not centered on the seam... it's displaced by about 0.070 to the side. The back is pretty centered. It seems that the axis of the motor is not aligned with the axis of the plane. It works out to about 6 degrees of non-alignment (a little trig helped there). Could that be the cause of all the problems? *SIGH*

Well, NEKKID SE is kaput. Her nose is bent, her tail is tweaked, her motor mount seems to have been built in twisted. My spirits are dampened but I think I see a path forward. SO... On to building NEKKID TOO

Ad Astra !!!

Originally Posted by Dan_D

That's what I wish I could say. But it was not so. Instead, let me quote from the Duke of Bourbon after the battle of Agincourt:

Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame!

Henry 5'th, Act IV, Scene 5

It was almost calm today. Calm, with occasional gusts to 5 MPH. Remembering that the video shows a newbie flying a SUE in wind, I thought "Hey, I had a couple of good flights... I just landed in trees. We can ignore the mole like behavior of the rest of the attempts."

So, I took the NEKKID SE to the hay field. (or is it SUE now... NEKKID SUE sounds more fun ) I checked balance - and had a devil of a time getting it to balance 14" from the nose (which is the leading edge of the prop slot. I had to have my 1800 mah battery hanging past the edge of the foam. Well, dem is the instructions. I took it out and did the glide test, and it nosed in after 10 feet. Hmmmm... Being a little sensitive about nose-first landings, I decided to ignore wiser more experienced voices and balance it a bit further back. I moved the battery back, and got it to a place where it would sail nice and easy about 20 - 30' and the keel would hiss along the grass... Note, it went straight... more on that later. The CG was about 3/4" behind the front of the slot, about 14.75" from the nose.

OKAY... check out the control surfaces, check out the throttle... we are GOOD TO GO. This time I decided to try the method of "grab the wing and give it a bit of a toss like a frisbee".

Flight 1: I wait for the wind to die... I grab the wing, I face into the direction of the wind, I run the throttle up, and I give it a toss. It's UP And then it does a slow roll to the left and the nose slowly goes down... It's about a 20' radius turn, ending in a nearly vertical dive into dirt.

Okay... straighten the nose. I check the controls... I check the glide characteristics... still straight and nice. Okay... LETS GO.

Flight 2: Photo copy of flight 1. *SPLOT*

Okay... now it's time to do some troubleshooting. Maybe it needs up elevator on the right side... so, I get busy with tools and stuff and I get it so it's about 1/8" higher than the left elevator. I test the glide and it now shows a bit of turn during the glide... But hey, lets see what it does under power.

Flight 3: I face into the direction of the wind, I run up the throttle, I give the plane a heave and I hear a *CLICK*... The plane glides to a nice landing 20 feet away. Hey, this is the furthest I've gotten, and it was a nice landing... but what happened ???

AHHH... the second nose in had loosened the ESC. When I gave it the toss the power wire to the motor had moved far enough backwards to be cut by the prop. That was the *CLICK* I heard...

Okay, back to the house... find the solder, find the heat shrink... The Missus is all excited. "Got a good flight?" "I suck" She deflates... "Ooooh. Maybe some people just can't learn to fly." " Frazzlefrazz Grumble Frump.."

Back to the flying field.

Flight 4: Check out the controls (working), check the tape (holding), check my spirits (sinking)... run up the throttle, launch... and .... photo copy of flight 1. *THUNK*

Okay... Now this thing looks just like a big paper airplane. I remember what I used to do with paper airplanes when they didn't flight right. BEND THEM. This poor NEKKID SuE is getting pretty bent up in the front... so lets bend a trailing edge !!! I grab the outside tailing edge of the foam board and give it a 1/2" up curve. It might be too much, but at least it might bank to the RIGHT and crash on that side. ANYTHING would be an improvement.

Flight 5: Controls, tape, wind, spirits... run up the throttle, give it a toss and ... HOLY GRIEF, it's almost go... no, wait... NO, to the left and... *THUNK* This time the landing was accompanied by a little chunk of stuff flying out. I check... Oh, one of the elevator linkage rods is gone. It apparently fell out of position, hit the prop, and the prop projected it out sideways... So, I need to look for it. Surely it can't be hard to find.

Ever try looking for a 6" long 1/8 diameter bamboo stick in a hay field ?? I cannot recommend this highly enough - it rates right up there with looking for four leaf clovers and a 1909 S VBD penny.

After 20 minutes I decide to stop sending good time down a rat hole... so I go home and make a new stick... took less time to make a new one.

Okay, But I think I have a handle on this... I just need to tweak the trailing edge some more. So tweak it I do. Oh, do I tweak it. I tweak it like my life depended on that tweak. It's tweaked.

Flight 6: Okay, in addition to everything else... I decide to heave it the other direction. Why? WHY NOT? Nothing else is working. Check the controls, check the throttle, forget to check the tape... heave and ... it's flying. It might be ... what? The throttle slowed down and stopped. It's falling out of the sky... and once more, dear friends, nose first into the ground.

I figured this one out before I got there... but this time it was the control signal cable to the ESC that got cut... and the plug to the receiver is just gone... I can solder 30 awg wires, I've got the tools and the experience... but I don't have a spare plug. And it's sunset... and cold. and I'm discouraged.

I pack everything up, and then I remember the second part of the Duke of Bourbon's speech:

Let us die in honour: once more back again;
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go hence with his cap in hand.

Okay... so, I will not slink away... so what is wrong???

Well, it glides straight and true... but under power it curves the left... I examine the thing. Look at the picture of the top of the nose again. The front of the mounting stick is not centered on the seam... it's displaced by about 0.070 to the side. The back is pretty centered. It seems that the axis of the motor is not aligned with the axis of the plane. It works out to about 6 degrees of non-alignment (a little trig helped there). Could that be the cause of all the problems? *SIGH*

Well, NEKKID SE is kaput. Her nose is bent, her tail is tweaked, her motor mount seems to have been built in twisted. My spirits are dampened but I think I see a path forward. SO... On to building NEKKID TOO

Ad Astra !!!

Oh , Dan ! Very entertaining reading as always ! But I'm so sorry that success is eluding you !

Let's go over a few things ,

If it glides straight 20 or 30 feet with no throttle , that means the CG is fine and the airframe and control surfaces are straight , and you shouldn't have to raise one elevator or tweak a wing . So if it rolls ( banks ) to the left when you give it throttle , it's probably caused by one or both of these reasons .

One , was the PROP straight in the prop slot ? If you look at the SE step by step instructions ( photo 12 ) , it says glue the motor mount stick to the plane " with the motor AND prop attached , so the PROP is straight and centered in the prop slot " . It doesn't matter if the stick is straight , it just matters that the PROP is straight .

Two ( and I'm guessing this is more likely the problem ) , are you launching it full throttle ? Should not be necessary for an SE-LITE . My SE with the same motor launches at about 1/2 throttle . Increased throttle means increased motor torque , causing the plane ( ANY single engine plane ) to roll ( bank ) in the opposite direction of the prop spin . The ONLY way to compensate for that is with rudder input .

In your description of the attempted flights you make no mention of trying to correct the plane going left by giving it right rudder . On an SE , the rudder is for yaw and roll control - if it banks to the left you input right rudder , if it banks to the right you input left rudder . The elevators are ONLY for pitch control - if the nose starts to go down you input up elevator , if the nose goes up , you input down elevator .

So on your next flight , start with 1/2 throttle , then if it banks to the left give it a little right rudder . Land it and put in a couple of clicks of right rudder trim . Launch it again with 1/2 throttle , and if it still banks to the left give it two more clicks of right rudder trim . Repeat until it flies straight at 1/2 throttle .

The elevators should be trimmed so the plane climbs SLIGHTLY at 1/2 throttle , climbs more with increased throttle , and descends with decreased throttle .

I'm thinking you should just repair the nose on NEKKID SUE and try to fly her again . After all , she's meant to be a practice plane .

Hope this all helps ,

Al

Originally Posted by balsa or carbon

Oh , Dan ! Very entertaining reading as always ! But I'm so sorry that success is eluding you !

[snip]

The elevators should be trimmed so the plane climbs SLIGHTLY at 1/2 throttle , climbs more with increased throttle , and descends with decreased throttle .

I'm thinking you should just repair the nose on NEKKID SUE and try to fly her again . After all , she's meant to be a practice plane .

Hope this all helps ,

Al

Thanks... I can fix her up tonight, and have her ready to cra... FLY... tomorrow. It's mah birfday and so I am planning on eating good food and doing fun stuff all day tomorrow.

Rudder? We don't use no rudder. We don't play with no STEEENKING rudder.

Oh. Rudder. Yeah, I can try that.

Think of it this way... after I get done, you are going to have an encyclopedic treatise on ALL the mistakes a beginning doofus can make with the SUE. Seems like nobody else was making them, so I'm going to go through them all !!!! I'll try to get the Missus out tomorrow to film the debacle... the debut flight.

Ad Astra... even if we are going to have to dig our way out through the center of the Earth and past China one nose divot at a time !!!!

Originally Posted by Dan_D

Thanks... I can fix her up tonight, and have her ready to cra... FLY... tomorrow. It's mah birfday and so I am planning on eating good food and doing fun stuff all day tomorrow.

Rudder? We don't use no rudder. We don't play with no STEEENKING rudder.

Oh. Rudder. Yeah, I can try that.

Think of it this way... after I get done, you are going to have an encyclopedic treatise on ALL the mistakes a beginning doofus can make with the SUE. Seems like nobody else was making them, so I'm going to go through them all !!!! I'll try to get the Missus out tomorrow to film the debacle... the debut flight.

Ad Astra... even if we are going to have to dig our way out through the center of the Earth and past China one nose divot at a time !!!!

I admire your continuing good attitude , it really does help in this learning how to fly RC game ! I tell you , in the last 2 1/2 years of me flying RC , I've crashed COUNTLESS times , but I learn something every time !

Ad Astra , upward and onward to the stars !

Al

Dan now at least you know the full throttle atlas booster on from a dead stop launch method isn't working so well huh? Sounds like torque roll to me. There is something wrong when I can toss a plane farther than I make it from a powered start that's when I toss it first to give it momentum then add the throttle. There is a good youtube video about launching rc planes check it out

When you get it launched and turned one good trick to remember is move the stick towards the low wing when the plane is coming towards you to level it out. Left and right thinking is kind of slow when you are nervous that way you don't move the stick the wrong way trying to correct direction. I've heard of people that crash that way a lot.

Not old pros like me though

I second Al's opinion of the prop maybe not straight causing the left turn. Use the rudder man get on the stick and fly it at least to a good landing and check out all the trims. I noticed with stick mounts is when you tighten the screw from the mount to the stick it will tend to twist it so mount the motor first to the stick and go by the motor and prop being straight not the stick. Or the rudder trim isn't centered

Originally Posted by Low and Slow

I second Al's opinion of the prop maybe not straight causing the left turn. Use the rudder man get on the stick and fly it at least to a good landing and check out all the trims. I noticed with stick mounts is when you tighten the screw from the mount to the stick it will tend to twist it so mount the motor first to the stick and go by the motor and prop being straight not the stick. Or the rudder trim isn't centered

You guys probably hit it on the nose... lots of nose hitting going on.

The prop had been misaligned by 0.136 " Yow... Well, since drastic surgery was called for, I simply sliced the front of the wings off at the 10" mark, leaving 4" of solid and undamaged foam in front of the prop slot. I also cut the front 5" of the fuselage off. This left me with a 5" section to build from. I freed the front of the stick, leaving the last 1/2" still attached. I then reattached new wing fronts using hot melt butt joints and tape facing over the joint, and then a new nose on the fuselage using a 1" overlap scarf joint to the old fuselage. Everything was aligned, jigged, and then hot melted into place.

The motor stick was then aligned so that the prop is now even to within +/- 0.015" on each side. I hot melt glued it and allowed it to cool before removing the alignment jig. I seriously hope I don't have to work to +/- thousandths...

Next, I soldered the plug from a sacrificial Y harness to the ESC control line, and heat shrunk 1/16'th tube over each line.

Tested all the controls, and she's ready for balance testing, trim testing, and a launch with less than full throttle.

I also re-glued the mast-base for the antenna on my transmitter. While I was at the hobby shop this weekend, I remember seeing a number of those and thinking "what kind of doofus breaks his antenna and needs to replace it?" At least one answer is a doofus who sets the transmitter on the edge of the table and then bangs the wing of a NEKKID SE into it...

So, whats the name of a famous actress who had a nose job ? I am thinking of naming this incarnation of the plane after her

Ad Astra ?

I've got a good feeling about tomorrow's flight , Dan ! I think this is going to be the one ! Use that rudder to keep the wings level !

Originally Posted by balsa or carbon

I've got a good feeling about tomorrow's flight , Dan ! I think this is going to be the one ! Use that rudder to keep the wings level !

Just before going to bed I was passing through the kitchen, and I looked at NEKKID SUE... and that led to sitting down, doing a control surface check, observing the craft... who needs sleep when there is an airplane to admire and poke at.

When doing a few static test stand run-ups of the motor... I noticed that it moved !!! It could twist on the balsa shaft ! I could wiggle the prop tips back and forth by 0.077 inches by applying a rather small amount of force (20 to 50 grams? I didn't measure it.) Oh Oh. I had meticulously sanded the balsa beam down to get a tight press fit and attached it with a screw. But apparently the stresses on the system had strained the balsa past it's crush strength. So, a little work with some CA... and hopefully it will be solid tomorrow. If not... maybe some epoxy and a syringe.

Thinking about it... it seems that perhaps a stronger material is indicated for the motor mounting stick. I tried finding good numbers for compression strength perpendicular to the grain for balsa, basswood, fir, etc., but I didn't find anything in a short search. SO... I took 3/32 balsa and 3/32 basswood, stacked them, trimmed them to the same dimensions side to side, and put the sandwich in my soldering vice. A little turn on the crank and I observed that the balsa crushes long before the basswood does. Hm...

And it all seemed so EASY... *laugh*

HEY... There has been significant improvement

Today's technical glitch was new - peeling the battery off of the frame.

So I get everything together and I tell the Missus that I'm off to go flying.

Good luck !!!
Don't you wish me good skills ?
No. You need lots of luck.
Frazzle frazz gargle barg

If we hadn't been married for 30 years and if she didn't know where the bodies were buried, I might reconsider proposing to her. Out to the aerodrome.

Flight 1: Test control surfaces, send a prayer to St Daedalus (the one who didn't crash), run the power up to 60% instead of "Atlas Booster"... give her a toss and... it heels over. I apply rudder. WOW. I can sort of correct. It needs more altitude and remembering the words "control it with rudder and throttle" I pull back on the throttle just like I would pull back on the elevators. Of course, thats the wrong way However, the NEKKID SUE just swooshes into the grass and stops. HOLY POOPIES !!! Apparently it's NOT a rule of fyzzix that my planes have to land approximately perpendicular to the earth nose first. I step it off... about 110 feet. WOW.

However, the velcro holding battery has peeled the paper off... Okay, back to the aviation repair facility, also known as the kitchen table. A little tape, a new piece of velcro, and an excited report to the wife... "It's only minor repairs!!!!" .. Cheers all around. On the way out the door "Good luck !!!" I decide not to reply.

Flight 2:

My brother decides to join me... great, another peanut gallery.

Test the controls, run it up to 60%, and give it a heave. WOW, it's still banking to the left, but this here rudder thing can handle that. Of course, that slows it down and so it loses altitude. I try the throttle again, and once again... make the backwards choice... However, it whooshes into the grass at over 100 yards away. WOW. The recovery team reports that the plane is fine, but the new velcro and tape have sort of done it's thing - they held firm to the paper and foam beneath it. The battery is laying next to the plane, firmly holding onto an egg shaped bit of foam. Back to the repair facility.

I think... all my electronics are on the left of the fuselage. The plane constantly banks to the left. HMMMM. So, I cut a small pass through port in the fuse, and mount the battery on the right side... I also put it a lot lower, down near the keel. This time I sneak out without a report to the commanding officer.

Flight 3:

My brother and his dog follow. He's out of work, so he doesn't have anything better to do than to hassle me on my birthday. His question: "Do you think you can manage a turn this time?" ... annoys me... except... it's a fair question.

Pre flight check, make sure the crowd is behind me... LAUNCH. Wobble wobble, I manage straight and level flight. I go wild !!! Then I decide to show my brother I can turn it. Using rudder and elevators I manage to turn it around. It's coming at us... Okay, I can turn it. Meanwhile his dog has decided she doesn't like this thing, and so she starts to move away from us. I turn the plane, and it accidentally turns towards the dog. She moves more, and I turn more. It's like there is a compass needle to the dog.

Are you trying to hit my dog?
I don't have that much control!

Fortunately I manage to turn it again. I lose control shortly after that and it comes down softly in a big brush. My brother says "That was an okay landing. Nothing is broken." My comment - "That's a blackberry bush." It's in the middle of a 20' diameter blackberry thicket. I go get the branch cutters. My brother decides I'm boring and goes away.

20 minutes later I'm all scratched up, but NEKKID SUE is okay. Nobody told me that this hobby would involve BLOOD. Between a knuckle encountering a spinning prop, a couple of finger sticks with an x-acto, a few small burns from hot melt, and this... I'm beginning to think that it's safer to work with explosives.

Flights 4 through ??

Okay, the rest of the flights weren't so "entertaining". I resolved to stick with simple turns, climbs, descents, etc. I actually managed to land her once. I never got a "long" flight in... my turns still suck big time... but, I managed to actually sort of fly the thing. Sorta. Kinda. Well, I didn't completely suck.

The last flight of the day was a little nose-ish... and that caused a sudden shift in half the electronics. Apparently the connection of the ground cable to the ESC had enough abuse for the day. The black wire came out from under the heat shrink and is just hanging there in space. I hope it's just a matter of removing the heat shrink around the ESC and resoldering the wire to the pad or through hole... I don't see any evidence of phenolic breakage (yet).

SO... I will give you the same report that I gave to She Who Must Be Obeyed:

I have significantly reduced my suck factor !!! At this rate, I might even rate as a really bad pilot by summer 2013. Too bad the world ends on Dec 21'st of this year.

Ad Astra...

Very entertaining.
Congrats is in order. Yes, believe it or not, people do learn how to fly.
Sounds to me like the backwards thing is plaguing you though. Remember, when the plane flies towards you, the controls become backwards.

One tip you might try is to turn your body away from the plane as it flies towards you and look at it over your shoulder. That helps with the backwards thing until you get used to it.
What I use is a tip I received from good ole Pat Tritle.
He said when it's coming towards you, just point the stick towards the down wing.
What that means is, to maintain level flight, point your aileron (or rudder) stick towards the wing that is lower.

Now, this weird paper airplane design, I'm really not so sure is the best thing to learn on.
SURE it's cheap. But there are other planes that really are so much better for the beginner. I still feel that what you need is good old fashioned wings and tail, preferrably a high wing or a powered glider.

But keep up the good work.
And remember, practice really does make perfect.