Two Finger Convert & Resolving Resolution, Now I Don't Need a New Transmitter

Lousy day at the golf course, I need new clubs.

Double faulted match point, I need a new racquet.

Mid life crisis, I want a Porsche (better choice than trading your late model in for a new edition blonde).

Crashed my plane and there's three wasted hours on the web checking out the latest greatest electronic upgrades for my setup.

TVAW, Twerking, Thrusting Vector Stalls, what's wrong with this plane!

I am going to save a lot of money and have a lot more fun at the flying field after today's experience.  Just a couple of posts back, Scott did an awesome review of what we have learned from David Scott's flight manual, Airplane & Radio Setup.  Buy the book now, I promise it will be the best money you ever spent on RC.  I didn't discover this book, Dave Messina recommend it in a reply to one of my blogs.  

Finally the sky cleared and I was able to head to the field.  The wind was gusting 10-15 but I was willing to crash to get some stick time.  For the first time in a long time, not only did I not crash testing the flight envelope of our developmental "ultimate flying machine",  I didn't even have a close call. No TVAW twerking (thrust vectoring ass wagging) or EPPE (elevon polar pitch effect).  

What made the difference?  I dialed my plane into a precise flying machine and not a 3D park jet. Don't get me wrong, I like to fly 3D with my Edge, but that setup doesn't belong on the "ultimate flying machine."

I went to the field with specific goals, another recommendation from David Scott.  I thought it was going to be a boring day; launch, land, change radio and/or control rod linkage holes, repeat, repeat, crash, repeat.  With every adjustment, the stick feel and flight performance was not incremental but rather monumental.  I could not believe the difference, it was like flying a brand new plane.  Scott and I truly had developed the "ultimate flying machine."  I know realize all the developmental negative flight characteristics were setup related and not design issues.  

So how did I approach my day?  I looked individually at pitch, roll and yaw.  At maximum stick throw, I got the maximum, and no more, desired affect.  I picked the roll rate slightly faster than scale but not a rifled bullet.  For pitch, I used to set full up to be able to do a Cobra.  From playing with the throws, I now know that what I had been using was too much, they were 3D settings on a precise airplane.  At that much pitch, it was to easy to TVAW, twerk, and thrust vector stall.  The final setting for pitch was where the plane would do a slow motion flip/tumble  loop at full throttle. For yaw, I wanted nice lazy rudder stall turns at full throw.  I then confirmed the throws at 50% throttle which is where I spend most of time flying.

I first adjusted the travel and expo rates to get the desired throw.  After looking at the numbers,  I then moved the control rod down the control arm on the servo to maximize servo resolution, i.e. take advantage of the full range of motion of the servo.  I adjusted my travel and expo accordingly trying to hit the sweet  spot of 90% each.  On my present build I have switched to FliteTest control horns that have 3 possible positions instead of just one on Grayson control horns and RCP plans (see Dave Backmarker's replies to Scott's posting on precise flying.  This will allow even more fine tuning. 

Not only was my plane more precise but the near crashes, TVAW, twerking and thrust vectoring stalls were no longer part of my routine flight experience!  I was in Mig heaven.  

One other very interesting thing occurred that also greatly improved the handling.  I keep a spreadsheet of my setups and throws.  My elevon throw was reduced from 2.5 to 1.5 inches.  But the differential elevon plus aileron max throw was reduced from 4 to 1.75 inches ( i.e. at max elevator to max aileron the additional throw was reduced from 2.25 to 0.25 inches!).  Clearly this added a great deal to better flight performance.  This reduction occurred from improving resolution.  I'm sure I could have programmed the radio to have less aileron input to the elevons, but that is way beyond my understanding of the Spektrum Dx8.  I'm still waiting the Dx8 For Dummies book.

So what I thought was going to be a boring day of flight testing, turned out to be one the best days ever at the field.  Not because I didn't crash, but I had take my late 70's American highway cruiser and turned into Nurburgring asphalt eating "ultimate flying machine."  Combine the new setup with our new Mig, and it truly is deserved of the title.

One more thing, I have changed to Dave Scott's two finger technique and thrown away the neck strap.  A additional bonus to an amazing day.

To finish up, here is picture of one of my prototypes that I painted so hopefully someone will buy it.  Looking through the paint at Hobby Lobby I saw some super glitter paint.  I top coated the canopy with it see if it looks more like glass up in the sky.  Next time, I'll do the glitter on top of silver.  The paint scheme is standard four color camouflage pattern from http://www.mars.slupsk.pl/fort/mig/default.htm

Stephan