Well I've been bit by the pattern bug. Sure, I can fly maneuvers at WOT and they could pass as the maneuver I was attempting, but I really never had amazing control to make it look like butter - especially with anything less than WOT.
So every session I've been trying like hell to perfect a few simple patterns.
1. Take off
2. Level Flight out
3. Half Cuban-8
4. Level flight back
5. Stall Turn
The Cuban-8 seemed easy at first. But then I noticed something. I was flying it at WOT and it really didn't look smooth at all. The plane was yawing in the loop from wind/setup issues, I wasn't coming out of the half cuban-8 at the same altitude as I ended, etc, etc, etc.
What seemed to be a rather simple maneuver has really made me crazy trying to get it to look smooth in all directions.
To make this look more smooth, it has really come down to three main things for me when practicing on the UMX Beast:
1. Use of rudder in the loop.
2. Flying on very low rates to get the ultra fine control for these precise maneuvers.
3. Throttle management.
Most people and beginners like me know how to use the rudder but use it sparingly, because let's face it:
Rudder controls on the throttle stick just feels odd when compared to real rudder pedals. In a real plane, rudder pedals are almost instinct because you can feel the plane and your foot almost wants to press on the pedal to correct the yaw without even thinking about it. We know how it works and usually apply it to some turns here
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