Banked turns.

[dillwhacker]

Lost me too---sorry

[Vikki]

Been playing in Phoenix and I'm understanding how this banking turn thing works. Bear with me here.

When I had the original Larry (mCPx) outside in a field and tried to do a banked turn he slid right into the deck and did it at a good lick, too.

When I've tried it with a 450 size in Phoenix I've found that I've had to abort the turn sharpish because it's starting to slide sidewise down toward the deck.

I finally figured it out (with the help of some clues from members here). I'm holding aileron and back elevator. Aileron leads to a stepper sideways angle causing the poor critter to lose lift and turn turtle.

So, I've learnt, start the bank with aileron with some rudder chucked in and pull back on elevator and let aileron go centre. Back elevator seems to control the tightness of the turn along with rudder. I'm getting there but I now understand why it's called a co-ordinated turn. There's a lot of co-ordinating to do but it's starting to get into the muscle memory now.

Vikki.

[SamS]

I use -5% on cyclic, and +5% on rudder

[Gecko501]

I think I have my banked turns down and even a few figure 8's problem is the brain block doing it in the opp direction!

[Vikki]

Nice one, Gecko

Just took Lazarus (mCPx) over the field to praccy and did a couple of nice ones. Wind made it hairy though.

[dillwhacker]

I think my problem with co-ordinated turns is that I only have three brain cells. Two of them are busy on the cyclic, leaving only one to cope with the rudder and the collective...
So if I do a nice turn and keep the tail in line, I come out 20 feet lower / higher than I started....
And if I keep the collective under control, the tail is all over the place....
Plus I still feel strangely uneasy turning toward myself...
Ho Hum - more stick time required, methinks!
Good luck with it all mongoose!!

[Vikki]

Well, DW, if I lost a brain cell the other one would be lonely!

[James A]

If you want to learn all about banked circles etc and get yourself a good phoenix practice routine I suggest you look at the following site.

http://www.chadrg.com/flightschool/

He starts with basic hovers normal and inverted and takes you into circles etc. Really good series IMO that explains most elements and how to keep things tight.

[Vikki]

Thanks, James. Seen them but need to revisit in the light of things recently learnt.

[James A]

Thanks, James. Seen them but need to revisit in the light of things recently learnt.

Hi Vikki. I think they give you a number of thing including a practice routine (it's all to easy to just fly), goals and in flight tips. The key pointers for banked turns, if I remember correctly, are that the throttle (collective) controls the speed, the ailerons control your height and the elevator controls the tightness of the circle. Now of course you'll find you can argue all sorts of things effect each element, ie raising the throttle will effect the height but by breaking it down this way you can train yourself to react with an appropriate control in a certain situation.

If you find yourself sliding then you simply correct with your aileron (levelling out more) although this may well take you to a position where you're not turning as much as you wanted to which actually tells you you need to add more elevator and adjust your rudder accordingly. Now you've done that you may find your height is changing and hence you need to readjust with your ailerons to bank harder. As you can see, they're all interlinked.

In case you're interested, I'm still at the point of practising circles although in all orientations. When you try this, especially switching orientations during the circle by adding or subtracting rudder, you start to learn all sorts of fun stuff including stirring with the cyclic. At the moment I can move through them in distinct steps but still haven't got into stirring properly where you effectively pirouette all the time whilst flying a perfect circle.

Enjoy

[Vikki]

Thanks, James. The sim has given me good practice at bailing out of a turn that's heading deckward. Oh, and I grab me some height. Went good with Lazzy the mcpx today. No deck sliding as I corrected out before it went that far.

Sims are great not only for being able to practice something over and over but teaching you how to recover by instinct. I never reset a situation. Always try to rescue if I can.

Added aileron into Laz if the wind started to push him out of the bank. I think it's starting to (vaguely) look nice. LOL.