Tips on WWI scale flying techniques?

Pull the nose up first before rolling.
Use a little down elevator when the plane is upside down.
Immelman.
Split-S.
Loops (egg-shaped: dive to gain speed first, don't use too much power on the up line).
Barrel roll--mix a little elevator in with the ailerons.
Wing over (the prettiest maneuver in my book).
Chandelle--a climbing 180 turn.
Spins (many happened, though unintentionally and usually with fatal consequences).
Things that seem to me to be atypical of WWI planes:
Snap rolls.
Pure aileron rolls.
Flat spins.
Inverted spins.
Lengthy inverted flight.
3-D maneuvers.
Knife-edge flight.
Just my opinion. I've got no credentials.
Marty

Brion --
Almost all WWI aircraft were capable of some aerobatic maneuvers. Here are some common ones:
-> Try a barrel roll starting two mistakes high; you might have to start from a slight dive then pull the nose up to about 15 degrees above the horizon.
-> Try a simple loop starting again from a dive; the loop should be smaller than we do with our modern models and somewhat egg-shaped.
-> An Immelman combines the above -- half a loop starting from a slight dive with a half-roll at the top.
-> A Split-S. Start at the top with a half roll and when inverted pull gently through a half loop.
-> Depending on the runway and wind conditions, you can also do a Touch-and-Go as well as an "Overshoot" -- A go around simulating the overshoot.
-> You can also demonstrate a Stall.
-> Most WWI types also performed very gentle Spins.
Cheers -- \__________Lyman Slack_________/ \______AMA6430 IMAA1564___/ \____Flying Gators R/C______/ \__Gainesville FL _________/ Visit my Web Site at:

I agree with you, Marty. Good suggestions. A slow, low flyby is always pretty, too, and could be a scouting or strafing mission.
Almost ANY inverted flight is a no-no. Gravity feed fuel supply, remember?
A spin may be dangerous. Start it high. My Dr.1 starts slowly, but after a couple of turns wraps up tight and is a little scarey. Remember, these planes, especially larger (1/4 scale or greater), need plenty of altitude and airspace to recover. Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

I flew a round of fun scale at our last event in May with my SE5A. This was a fun scale event and my first time entering. I did a straight flight out, procedure turn and a straight flight back a wing over and a loop. Don't use excessive power, be sure to dive into the loops and pull back on the throttle on the top. Seems to me that the WWI planes are at a disadvantage. They fly so slow the judges can see the slightest mistake. (Yea, I know, so don't make any) The event was won by Jeremy Fursman flying a P-51.

Makes sense. :o)
Royal Navy Lt. Parke learned how to stop spins in 1912, but was killed by a spin a few months later:
"Perhaps the real unsung hero is someone else. Frederick A. Lindemann, a bespectacled theoretician, smitten with flying -- who was initially rejected from the Royal Flying Corps due to poor vision -- succeeded in getting a pilot's license by memorizing the eye chart. He later used his family's influence to join the scientific staff at the Royal Aircraft Factory. This was no charlatan, however.
"He initiated a study of the instrument indications and pilot actions that appeared to cause spin entries during turns, and with little flying skill of his own, successfully determined the causes of stall/spin occurrences, and the control movements needed to counteract them.
"His theoretical conclusion was the correct one: that a pilot's instinctive responses to spinning were the WRONG responses. One must, he reasoned, apply and maintain full opposite rudder while the nose was pointed at the ground. Furthermore, one should not pull back until the spin stopped. Ah, but how to test the theory? Here is where Lindemann's stature ascends to prominence, because he tested his theory with himself as the test pilot. With observers from the Farnborough Aerodrome paying close attention, he took a spindly B.E.2 up to its service ceiling (near 14,000 feet), deliberately entered a fully established spin and put his theory to the ultimate test of accountability. Not only did he come out of it, but, after doing so, he then climbed back up and recovered from a spin in the opposite direction! The year was 1914.
For a while, the British kept this military secret, and used it to their advantage. Whenever a British pilot was outnumbered and needed to escape he would commit suicide -- from the perspective of his German opponents, anyway. He would spin away and down, only to recover close to the ground and speed safely away. Pilots talk though, and soon the secret was out ... to benefit all who followed."
A U.S. Marine pilot worked out a technique to get his seaplane through a loop and, along the way, out of spins:
"In 1917, First Lieutenant Francis T. Evans became one of the first aviators to recover a seaplane from a spin, a basic element of aviation safety. Up to that time if one got into a spin, there was no known recovery technique and both the aircraft and pilot were lost. Many had debated whether or not a seaplane, with its heavy pontoons, could be looped successfully. Early in 1917, flying over Pensacola Bay in a new N-9 seaplane, Evans decided to resolve the debate. At 3,500 feet, he dived, trying to pick up enough speed to get "over the top" of the loop. He lost too much speed on the way up. The plane stalled and went into a spin. Evans pushed his control wheel forward to regain air speed and controlled the turning motion of the spin with the rudder. Recovering from the spin, he climbed back up and tried again: stalling, spinning and recovering, until he managed to complete the loop without stalling. To make sure he had witnesses, Evans then flew over the hangars and repeated his performance. Pensacola incorporated his spin-recovery technique into its training. In 1936 he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross retroactively for his extraordinary discovery, almost twenty years earlier. "
Marty

Oh it stops easily enough. It's just scarey to see all those wings spinning around. LOL! Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

| Royal Navy Lt. Parke learned how to stop spins in 1912, but was killed | by a spin a few months later: | |
Fascinating stuff! :)
I guess the proper way to demonstrate a spin in an (early) scale WWI plane would be to enter the spin, keep trying to correct with elevator and ailerons, and smack into the ground!
I don't think the points would be worth it, however ...

That is what is called an Immelman today, but the manoeuvre that Herr Immelman perfected in combat was more of a dive, followed by a climb with a barrel roll in it, to place the aircraft behind and above a pursuing one.
Today one might consider a split S, but negative G was a nono on those planes, and a straight loop was too time consuming and needed speed. Hence the zoom and roll technique.
I suspect that any zoom followed by a roll then became known as an Immelman, leading to the manoeuvre as it is today.

be sure to nose over after landing, that way it will be a WWI landing