Is that a typical F5J landing? It seemed pretty hard on the plane to me.

Originally Posted by Mr. Wiz

Is that a typical F5J landing? It seemed pretty hard on the plane to me.

No it is not.

I thought the same thing. Much harder than I do mine.

Beautiful video

Got the spins watching the fpv footage of the thermal!

He must have a stout gearbox shaft to withstand such landings. Not to mention a stout motor mount.

Originally Posted by HotdogX

He must have a stout gearbox shaft to withstand such landings. Not to mention a stout motor mount.

Occasional fast landing is not a problem if you have Schambeck or Reisenauer motor. One might do it for an example because of being late and coming in fast, with no time to slow plane down.

But there are other problems. Already light lamination F3J wings are easy to damage in overly hard landings, and F5J even more so. Delaminations at 45 deg direction appear sometimes surprisingly easy to center panel especially close to wing joiners and wing leading edge. Also wing joiners, nose cones etc. are easy to damage.

The opening picture is slightly misleading because it shows F3J style landing circle. And plane lands exactly to center - obviously because it looks good. However, in F5J one gets full 50 points from 1m radius. It is mostly very easy to achieve unless one comes in grossly too late or plane gets badly upset by turbulence in final approach.

Great video. On light models I prefer the “flop” which is a stall over the spot. Heavy models can be lightly dorked.

Originally Posted by Bmwjoon

Great video. On light models I prefer the “flop” which is a stall over the spot. Heavy models can be lightly dorked.

Yes, that is also my style. Emphasis on "lightly dorked" :-)

I would say that most common F5J landing mistake is a "gentle" full size style flaring that is extended to the point that pilot hits his legs with wing leading edge. Auch On wet grass plane can also slide surprisingly long distance.

That's pretty cool, Jason, thanks for sharing.


Ryan