Model Airplane News

Intro to 3D Flying

Perform several tight inside loops to identify whether the plane is prone to turning or dropping a wing. If so, activate an elevator- rudder mix. If the tendency is slight, try a 5% mix. If it is more noticeable, try a 10% mix.

in all directions. For a variety of reasons, it’s often necessary to program different percentages to achieve the same physical travel in both directions. Every year thousands of airplanes are faulted because pilots make certain assumptions based on the “numbers” they read off of the transmitter, but they leave out the step of confirming all the physical deflections. They then either end up unhappy with the way their planes handle, or assume that having to make numerous and/or large adjustments later is an indication of a faulty design, when the problem may simply be that the right aileron or elevator deflects more than the left.

TIGHT
INSIDE LOOP

Left wing drops
noticeably
= mix 10% right
rudder with up
elavtor

Flight checks

A series of flight checks are required to program your radio for 3D flying. These flights should not be viewed as practice flights, but a time to evaluate your plane’s tendencies and fine-tune your radio setup. It’s therefore important to conduct your initial flight checks in calm conditions to make it easier to detect your plane’s tendencies and the appropriate mixes to use.

The first flight should take place on low
rates and you should trim the airplane for
slow flight at approximately half throttle.
Note that if you’re flying a flat-plate-airfoil
foamie, you probably won’t be able to find
an elevator trim setting that works consis-
tently, so the objective is to get it close and
make elevator corrections the rest of the
time.

Perform several tight outside loops to identify whether the plane is prone to turning or dropping a wing. If so, activate an elevator/rudder mix.

Power
reduction

TIGHT
OUTSIDE LOOP

Power Increase

Once the aileron and elevator have been trimmed, check the rudder trim by performing left and right 360-degree circles while maintaining a 45-degree bank angle and a constant altitude. If the nose wants to drop more in one direction, put in a little opposite rudder trim. The rudder is trimmed when both left and right 360s “feel” the same and require the same amount of up-elevator to hold a constant altitude.

Once the plane is fully trimmed, start evaluating the low-rate control responses during basic loops and both left and right rolls. The manufacturer’s recommended control throws and expo percentages are usually good starting points, but to fly your best, you must adjust each control to suit your immediate comfort/skill level. Therefore, as soon as you deem a control to be too slow or sensitive, land, and adjust the dual-rate percentage. Remember that the numbers on the screen are not important; only how the airplane feels to you matters. Also, try to be sensitive to whether the controls are equally responsive in both directions and keep fine-tuning the controls until you are comfortable with your plane’s handling and it is equally responsive left and right and up and down.