Ailerons ineffective in high wind?

Wan , I think Dan Thomas explained it very well. Go back and read his post again and I think that will sort it out for you.

You've received a lot of good information from the other guys , but I would like to say something about the wind. As far as a 15 mph wind , that IS a 'wind' and not a ' light breeze' as some will call it. I hear guys talking quite often about that 25 , 30 or 40 mph wind they flew in yesterday or last week. I don't think any intend to lie about it , but many people tend to exaggerate it. I carry a little wind meter in my field box which is pretty accurate and many times those

15-20 mph winds are actually 4-5 mph.

BTW , 15 knots is the maximum recommended cross wind for take off and landing a full scale Cessna 172. I don't like even a 10 knot crosswind. I like it nice and smooth. :-)

I love to fly RC in the wind myself , but it does require an airplane that will handle it , and , most importantly , a lot of practice.

Flying in the wind can open up a lot of fun possibilties after you get the experience. I still rememember when my son was young....10-12 years old , when we would get to the field and the wind was blowing he would say , "Hurry up Dad, get my airplane together before the wind stops blowing". He's now 30 and a very good flyer. Still loves the wind. :-)

Watch the other flyers and when you see someone thats flying in the wind almost as though there is no wind , go ask that guy for advice.

Just my .02 cents worth.

Ken Day

Reply to
Bill
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In the world of full-scale aviation, we have: Indicated Airspeed, which is what the airspeed indicator tells us; Calibrated Airspeed, which is what the airspeed indicator would say if it was a perfect installation without pitot ot static errors; and True Airspeed, which is calibrated airspeed corrected for pressure altitude and temperature.

The modeler needs to be concerned with plain old Airspeed and Groundspeed.

Dan

Reply to
Dan_Thomas_nospam

| As far as a 15 mph wind , that IS a 'wind' and not a ' light breeze' | as some will call it. I hear guys talking quite often about that 25 | , 30 or 40 mph wind they flew in yesterday or last week. I don't | think any intend to lie about it , but many people tend to | exaggerate it.

40 mph is a LOT of wind. It's also great fun if you have an appropriate slope and slope planes to fly there, but I probably wouldn't go flying anything that wasn't made of foam, and I probably wouldn't fly in it unless I was slope flying.

| I carry a little wind meter in my field box which is pretty accurate | and many times those 15-20 mph winds are actually 4-5 mph.

Well, don't forget the wind gradient. If the wind is 5 mph at six feet, it may be 10 or 15 mph at 30 feet up (the exact difference depends mostly on your terrain) and may go higher even higher.

And because of this wind gradient, flying in the wind IS somewhat different, even to the plane, than flying when there is no wind. People like to rant about the `myth of the downwind turn' and such, and while it is mostly just a perceptual issue, there are some real things that might affect your plane under certain conditions. And of course, people who say `flying in the wind is no different' are also assuming that the wind speed is constant (which it rarely is -- gusts, lulls and direction changes happen often) and are ignoring the turbulence that is usually there. But your airplane won't ignore these things ...

| BTW , 15 knots is the maximum recommended cross wind for take off and | landing a full scale Cessna 172. I don't like even a 10 knot | crosswind. I like it nice and smooth. :-)

Of course, now you're talking apples and oranges. Not only is a knot

15% more than a mph, but you're also talking about a crosswind -- that Cessna can probably safely take off and land in winds a lot stronger than that with no crosswind. And as for models, you usually don't have to do a proper crosswind landing or takeoff if you don't want to

-- just do it on the grass. (There are some exceptions, of course -- a paved runway, and a plane that can't go on grass.)

| I love to fly RC in the wind myself , but it does require an airplane | that will handle it , and , most importantly , a lot of practice.

To be more specific, you need a plane that has a top speed faster than the wind speed (because if it's not, you'll lose the plane downwind, no matter what you do), you'll need lots of control authority to cope with the turbulence kicked up by the wind, and you'll need big cajones to actually fly in a big wind -- either that, or a good amount of skill, or a plane that can survive crashes.

High wing loading tends to give you a plane that is faster and it also tends to get buffetted less by turbulence, which it's why it's suggested that you fly such a plane in the wind.

| Flying in the wind can open up a lot of fun possibilties after you get | the experience.

In some places, not being willing to fly in the wind means you're not flying, ever.

| I still rememember when my son was young....10-12 years old , when we | would get to the field and the wind was blowing he would say , | "Hurry up Dad, get my airplane together before the wind stops | blowing". He's now 30 and a very good flyer. Still loves the wind. :-)

If you're in a windy, hilly place, get something like your typical Zagi (foam flying wing) and fly it. It'll help you become quite adept at flying in heavy winds with lots of turbulence and the like. It's also a blast! But beware -- flying a plane that is undamaged by crashes tends to make you lazy (no need to bother with a formal landing -- just smack it down) and reckless (`hey -- watch this!'), so be sure to put yourself back into the right frame of mind when you fly your more fragile planes.

It's funny how you can go slope flying all day, and end up with not a single real landing -- just a bunch of crashes (or maybe just one!) (That probably didn't hurt your plane if you're flying the usual flying wing.)

Reply to
Doug McLaren

Thanks, guys. You all have been more than helpful. I made a print out of Dan Thamas' commentary and will take it with me to have coffee with a flying buddy to read it over again.

Wan

Reply to
wanjung

Sorry about misspelling your last name, Dan.

I did read over your statement and had no problems understanding it this time.

Thanks, Wan

Reply to
wanjung

Normally I don't post again after I have my questions resolved, but I am really in need of some information as to why I lost all other threads in this usenet. This is the only thread that I could find. All the others have disappeared. I mean there are no other topics here for me. It is very disturbing for me because I like to read about others model plane experiences. Could anyone tell me what happened or how to get it back?

Wan AMA 773188

Reply to
wanjung

Prolly because your upstream ISP is having problems with its server.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

By upstream ISP, do you mean my local ISP the same one who serves my emails?

Thanks, Wan

Reply to
wanjung

Here I am again. I found the following doing a google search. Maybe the reason why I have no other threads is explained?

"Help > Troubleshooting > Problems on the website

My group is missing messages! Why does it say "This group has 0 topics" when I know that it has more?

You'll encounter this temporary display problem when an individual posts and then removes many messages relatively soon thereafter. While it may seem that there are no posts in the group, please be assured that the content of the group is still available. To find older posts, we suggest conducting a search through our Advanced Groups Search page.

Our engineers are looking into this problem and hope to have it fixed soon. We appreciate your patience".

Reply to
wanjung

Assuming you're inverted, down elevator (stick forward) would be best..

Reply to
The OTHER Kevin in San Diego

I was being facetious Ed. :)

Reply to
The OTHER Kevin in San Diego

That's why you should fly a helicopter. Just point the nose into the wind. No need for a couple thousand feet of concrete to land.. :)

Reply to
The OTHER Kevin in San Diego

When they get rid of those old fashioned rotor blades and replace them with turbo fans, I'll make the switch.

Ed Cregger

Reply to
Ed Cregger

Those old fashioned rotor blades still work pretty good. They haven't killed me yet. :)

Thinkin' about getting my fixed wing addon this summer right after my instrument heli rating...

Reply to
The OTHER Kevin in San Diego

"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I thought about getting the rotary wing addon in recent times, but all those moving parts bothered me a lot. Something about the wings going faster than the fuselage just does not give me warm fuzzies. I'd rather fly twins.

Reply to
Six_O'Clock_High

On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 05:10:57 GMT, "Six_O'Clock_High"

Little story for you.. Back before I got my private (I now have my Commercial helo ticket) I was getting ready for a dual instruction flight. As I'm preflighting the helicopter, some old codger walks up and starts talking to my instructor. I overhear the old guy say he wouldn't be caught dead in a helicopter... very dangerous machines... fall out of the sky when the engine quits... The usual stuff..

We launch out of there and are flying of some of the local canyons and pass over this small valley about 500' AGL. Down below is a lot of brush, a few small trees and spot of short grass about 50' in diameter. Not a confined area by any means, but it's pretty small.

My instructor takes the controls, says "I've got the ship" and does a full down auto right to the spot turns to me and says, "Let's see that old fart land his Cessna down here."

Back then, I'd have rather been in an airplane, but now a couple hundred autos later, I'd rather be in a helo. I've gotten pretty good about hitting my landing spot in an auto.. No need for a length of land to get down. Just enough room to clear the rotor blades. :)

Still gonna get my fixed wing addon tho. Helos are too damned slow to get anywhere... :)

Reply to
The OTHER Kevin in San Diego

"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I hear every single word you said, but that does not change my 'feeling' about fling wings.

Prolly dates back to my two years in RVN...

Reply to
Six_O'Clock_High

On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 20:30:45 GMT, "Six_O'Clock_High"

Reply to
The OTHER Kevin in San Diego

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