Tower hobbies corsair

[Efarrell]

I just purchased this beauty as my first "real" plane....I have flown a couple micros that I do rather well with

I fly a trex 450 helicopter, blade 130x, blade 180qx, and some other random helis....

So I attempted to fly this today and well let's just say it wasn't good

Should flying this be similar to a heli? I think one of my major problems was I may have been scared of some of the forward speed this needs to stay afloat.....what was happening to me was this upward and downward floating motion...


Anyone have any thoughts?

[Khal]

Originally Posted by Efarrell

Should flying this be similar to a heli?

Um... no.

I mean, the basic control/stick movements are the same, in that the right stick is your "yoke" (cyclic in a heli) and controls the roll left and right, and pitch up and down. The left stick is your rudder pedals, yaw left and right (and throttle up'n down, of course... or in a heli, your collective/throttle).

So in that sense, yes.

But surely if you've flown other 'planes, you already know that a 'plane is a very different beast to fly, right?

Originally Posted by Efarrell

I think one of my major problems was I may have been scared of some of the forward speed this needs to stay afloat.....what was happening to me was this upward and downward floating motion...


Anyone have any thoughts?

That kind of porpoising motion can be caused by stalling. Basically, you're overcompensating on throttle: So, you throttle up and the 'plane starts to shoot off, probably starts to nose up... then you suddenly back off the throttle because of the speed and the changing attitude, so the 'plane starts to lose airspeed and eventually stalls, and flops back nose down...

And the process starts again...

The solution is fairly straightforward: Climb to a comfortable height, apply a constant throttle -I mean, it's impossible to say exactly how much but most 'planes are usually setup to cruise between 50% and 75% throttle -and then use smooth inputs on the elevator stick to level the nose out and cruise straight and level.

If you're needing to hold constant down elevator (for example) to maintain level at cruise speed, then your best bet is to trim that out. Use the trim tabs initially during flight. But then you can mechanically trim it later to the same setting.

-----

The other most obvious suggestion would be that you have your centre of gravity wrong. I don't know what the centre of gravity is for that particular 'plane but a vague rule of thumb might be about a 1/3 of the way back from the leading edge of the wing.

Having the centre of gravity out of whack can cause VERY weird flight dynamics. It is vitally important to have it set correctly.

[Efarrell]

Wow!!!! Thanks for that response....a lot more than I expected.....I'm thinking that I was just to gentle on the throttle looking for a slower moving plane and it needs to be moving much faster to hold the plane steady

I will also re check my COG

Thanks again

[Khal]

Well, you're very welcome.

If you still can't figure it out, feel free to post back.

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