I got my start in RC with sailplanes, learning how to soar off the coast of California. I made a few trips to fly at the famous Torrey Pines, where model planes soar alongside seagulls, full scale sailplanes and hang gliders.
I earned my wings as a Naval Flight Officer, hence the "NFO." My training included flights in the T-34C Mentor, the TA-4J Skyhawk, the T-2 Buckeye, the Cessna Citation, and the S-3 Viking. I worked on a private pilot's license while in the Navy, but decided not to pursue that after completing my first solo cross country flight.
I competed in the International Miniature Aerobatic Club, winning the Regional Championship in three different classes, with an electric plane. I also placed in a couple Pattern contests flying an old pattern ship converted from glow fuel to electric.
This channel is just a repository of some of my best RC flights or interesting moments captured on camera, so I won't pressure visitors to subscribe, comment, or hit the Like button.
I bought the Avanti thinking it would be an easy plane to land. The sport jet airframe is quite a different animal from the delta and swept wing edf fighter jets I'm used to flying. I learned quickly I was unable to land my Avanti in a nose up attitude without stalling it. Conversely, a nose down attitude creating the nose wheel to touch first mafe my plane hop back up into the air, sometimes into a bouncing oscillation that again occasionally ended in a stall. I watch others land these Avantis all day with little ore no issues. This plane has become the bane of my successful EDF jet landings. But I haven't given up yet.
Great series of videos! I happen to have the same Avanti that you do. Which radio transmitter do you use to fly it? How do you set up the additional landing mode in your system?
Thanks for these thorough tutorials - liked and subscribed! Impressed with your instrumentation and other aspects of the presentation. Have you made video(s) of the sensors you use, how the data is communicated while flying, and how you display the data on video?
Thanks for the feedback. The series was a lot of work to produce, so I appreciate your comment. I haven't made a behind the scenes video of the sensors and telemetry data yet, but I have considered making one. A few people have asked about it. It is a bit daunting at first. The sensors should be listed in the description. They are all FrSky. I get continuous voice callouts for airspeed during the landing phase (LDG Mode ON), altitude only when I drop the gear, and voltage alerts only when cautionary or critical. The remaining telemetry is logged along with the above and saved as a csv file. That is synced up with the video in Dashware, which is available for free on the web (last I checked). In Dashware you can use stock instruments or make your own. Once everything is setup you can save the instrument panel as a template for the specific plane that you collected telemetry from, so it's much easier the next time. That's it!
Can you please give me some advice to land the Avanti? Mine bounces like a basketball. In the video I can see full flap and no throttle? I don't know. Your avanti stays on the ground as soon as you touch. Did you modify the landing gear somehow? Thank you very much.
The gear is stock and there is an idle thrust set at about 15% with throttle stick all the way back. The key is landing on the mains, never nose first. To get the nose up the jet has to be slow enough to rotate without climbing, so controlling your speed is important. I would practice some stalls at altitude to get comfortable with the slow end of the flight envelope. The stock Avanti stalls at about 17 mph with a 6s 6200 mAh pack. Very slow! Just line up early and go easy on the stick to avoid stalling on final. You can find more tips at the end of Part 6 of my video series on landing an EDF jet. Just click on my avatar, go to my channel, and look for the playlist, By the Numbers.
@@ivanvela5441 You're welcome! The shorter V2 nose gear lowers the AOA and dumps lift on touchdown. So, yes, that helps prevent bouncing. But landing slower will do the same.
@@rcnfo1197 I think moving back the CG will help too. When I go slow enough to land without bouncing, the elevator stops helping to rotate and I finally end touching first with the nose gear instead of main. If I push the throttle a little more to be able to rotate and avoid nose gear to touch first, the bird doesn't want to land and turns into positive ascent rate. My actual CG is per manual 105-110mm. Thanks for your help.
@@ivanvela5441 Exactly! CG is critical for that reason. Mine is at 125mm. It takes very little elevator to pitch the nose up, even at speeds down to my typical touchdown of 20 kts.
Dashware. It has stock instruments or you can use the provided tools to make your own. Just plug in your telemetry data and mp4 video. Best of all, it's free!
I have the same Avanti but upgraded/modified with 130A Avian 130 Amp ESC, and 12-blade 2150Kv leaf blower. Also, you Wing Cube Loading ~ 21 seems a little steep?
You should get much better performance than mine, especially if you use lighter packs. My WCL is 21 due to heavy 6200 mAh packs, backup battery and telemetry on board.
I don't know the formulas or terminology but I do know my Avanti is tied for my favorite jet. I have no problems landing it and do all the aerobatics I want with it.
Yes, it is! Only 200 feet long. It's set up mainly for small EDFs that need a smooth surface to take off. My 80mm Avanti needs about 300 feet to land, but I've seen smaller jets land and roll to a stop on the 200 foot runway.
I tried touching down at the very start of the runway at MCA (20 kts with my setup) with full flaps and no wind and still overran the other end. Perhaps with a lighter battery (5200 mAh instead of 6200) and more elevator authority to make use of aerodynamic braking it will be possible!
Awesome, many many thanks man! I had to keep rolling back to start of each one to get back the schematics, maybe to leave small picture in a corner whole time during one number?
A very nice explanation of stalls. You obviously have some professional knowledge/training in stalls because I noticed that you completely ignored the RC pilot mythological “tip stall”. Well done.
Thanks. I earned my wings from the Navy as an NFO and also practiced stalls while working on a private pilot's license. But that was a lifetime ago! A lot of research went into this series to make sure the information was up to date.
There is so much to learn and challenge a pilot new to soaring. This video is just a hint of what's involved in making a successful flight. I recommend checking out the many series of videos Paul Naton made on soaring. If nothing else, follow his tips on sailplane setup and tuning to get the most out of your flights.
I’d like to see this explained just a bit easier I’m not particularly interested in all the intricacies and technical knowledge. I just want tips in more “English” on better landing practices. I think I already do a lot of good things things on landings without knowing any of this. Maybe I’m on the wrong video.
Sorry it wasn't clear. This video, Part 3 of 6, was an attempt to provide an explanation why jets behave the way they do when slow. It is more theory and physics than practical advice. For that you can skip ahead to the end of Part 6, where I provide a list of tips for landing: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wy5blr3g5s4.html
Thanks. We had a thunderstorm come through just before sunset that cleared the air (and soaked the runway!), but just after sunset fog settled in. Some of the guys were joking I needed an IFR clearance to keep flying. The fog was mostly gone, though, by this flight.
It was! These jets are hard enough to see in the day. At night the lights really show well, which gave me enough confidence to try some aerobatics. Boy was I wrong! It needs a good tail light and landing lights. But no more night aerobatics for me!
Every time I attempt A low speed pass my plane tends to climb, I figure it’s do to a combo of power, trim, or the fact I always do them in a headwind. Any tips to help keep it low?
@@rcnfo1197 makes sense now haha that’s exactly how my plane is configured when I fly. So u would suggest putting the cg a little more aft and trim it down as well? From what I know some characteristics of a further CG will increase cruise speed but will also make the aircraft have undesirable & unstable stall characteristics? I guess I’m trying to ask if it’s a good idea to put it further & it that’s what you’re suggesting. I’m sure it depends on the aircraft as well, I fly an edf jet.
This was a great series, thank you very much for sharing this information. I have had my Avanti for 6 months, it's a great plane, but like all EDF's can be challenging to land. Thanks for the great advice....I'm already doing better landings! Can I ask what is the camera you are using? I'm looking for something small for flight evaluations....
LOL! I was curious how much the surfaces move in millimeters. The Position Indicator is precisely calibrated for that. But yours is the best possible answer, especially if you want to do these rolls just feet off the deck. I haven't got that brave, but a fellow club member was doing just that at our recent EDF Fun Fly. His Avanti wingtip in knife edge was about 6 feet from the ground and never wavered. He was also doing slow rolls and point rolls that low. That really set the bar for me! I'll need a lot more practice, though. In this video I lost about 20 feet at one point.
Thank you for the instructions. Like you, I see my rc airplanes as airplanes and not toys. To me they are small airplanes with the pilot being outside the aircraft controlling by remote control rather than inside the cockpit. When 'in cockpit' planes crash people usually die. When my rc airplane crashes I do not die. I walk away. I walk 'a way' out in the field and pick up the pieces. My planes fly in the same air in-cockpit planes do. They are subject to the same principles of flight. Like the in-cockpit planes the turn on final is a real danger zone. I think it accouts for more crashes at our rc field than any other thing. I like your approach to rc flying. So I have like-ed and subscribed.
Welcome aboard! Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Having flown both I like the ability to walk away from a crash. Or, as you pointed out, take a long walk to the crash. That's a good time to think about what went wrong and what could be done differently next time.
Sometimes with rc students I will get them in a good position and then say power off and glide back for a landing because your prop just came off. I like to see how they react, if they can do it and to leave them with a memory that it can happen and not to panic. I can also see what they do with retracts and do they look for a grass landing if they can't make the field.
Yes! Get yours flying again. It flies well enough to practice new maneuvers while being cheap enough to not worry too much about crashing. The perfect beater plane!
@@txkflier I can't even imagine how you keep maintenance records on that many jets. I had some kind of telemetry malfunction at the Jet Jam that I'm trying to sort out. Hopefully it was just the voltage sensor, but I'm beginning to suspect the problem may be with my transmitter. Multiply that one issue by 17 and I would have a headache for sure.
@@rcnfo1197 They mostly have Spektrum AR636 AS3X/SAFE receivers and no telemetry. A couple of them have AR637T’s with Avian ESC’s that tell me voltage and current draw. Do you have a video where you explain your telemetry and gauge setup?
@@txkflier I suspected that with that many jets you might want to keep things simple. I occasionally get asked about my telemetry setup and gauges. The process to display them is a bit complicated, so a video explaining that is a great idea. If there's enough interest I will do that.
I set landings gear and flaps and trim elevator for approach speed and throttle to maintain level flight. Reduce throttle to maintain glide slope, use elevator to control speed. Small adjustments are all that is needed.
Great flight. Just started watching your landing series. Great content!! What are you using to collect all sensor data and have function in a manner you have visually? Is that a frsky app that you convert all your flight data to display anything you would like? I use jeti and their studio is used in a similar way…although I have been satisfied with my flight logs on Tx and have rarely played with it.
Thanks! I'm using Dashware to display all the telemetry data. It works with any format or source. It allows you to make custom gauges in addition to their own. It's free to download and use.
