SAIEA - South African Indoor Electric Association

The steps below are in sequence, and go from beginner level to advanced level. Building up your flying skills to the top level doesn’t happen overnight, and must be developed step by step. It isn’t as hard as you may think, as long as you take small steps at a time. Do not be discouraged if it takes longer to learn a manoeuvre than you expected.

 

1∙ Landing: practise landing until you can do so on the exact spot intended.

 

2∙ Flying with the rudder is VERY important, so, rudder coordination has to become second nature. Practise this by doing turns with the rudder only. Do both left and right turns, so that your finger get used to going either way.

 

3∙ Try to have the plane exactly where you want it, all the time. Remember: “practice makes perfect”.

 

4∙ After you can fly upright very well, do all the same things inverted.

 

5∙ Try a few easy manoeuvres like stall turns, Cuban eights, loops, rolls, etc. It is important to do all manoeuvres in both directions, so as to never get a preference side.

 

6∙ When flying, stretch yourself to do the most you are capable of. Try harder things, so as to improve your flying skills. But keep it safe ...

 

7∙ When doing rolls, it is important to fly straight with “rudder - elevator - rudder” inputs. As you roll around to knife edge (that is flying on the side of the plane), apply rudder, then to inverted (apply elevator), and then opposite knife edge (KE) again (opposite rudder). It is easier if you roll slower than faster. Practise this right from the beginning.

 

8∙ Practise KE flight. Do it until you are comfortable, and can go around in a horizontal figure eight, with left or right rudder.

 

9∙ Four point rolls involves four 1/4 rolls, and is a very basic manoeuvre in aerobatic flight. Practise it. You should not move on before you can do it well in both directions, without changing height or direction.

 

10∙ Spins are hard indoors, but easy outside, and should be practised there first. When comfortable, go inside, but recover sooner rather than later ...

 

11∙ Prop-hang is an essential manoeuvre in aerobatic flight. Practise it over and over again. Later, try touching the floor with the tail.

 

12∙ Torque rolls look difficult, and, at first, they may be. But practising it systematically makes is much easier: first, prop-hang with the bottom side facing towards you, until you are very comfortable with that. Then leave the aileron control, and slowly let the torque of the motor roll it around. Keep it controlled all the way around.

 

13∙ A harrier is 45̊ flight. Practise doing it upright first, then inverted, KE and ultimately do it while rolling.

 

14∙ Rolling circuits are advanced manoeuvres. Start by breaking up the rolls into 1/4 rolls, in other words, do consecutive four point rolls in a circuit.

 

15∙ Then do them as consecutive rolls, slowly at first. Once you’re comfortable with rolling circuits to the right and left, do loops and all sorts of shapes while rolling.

 

And then enjoy aerobatic flight! Work out an aero-musical, try F3P maybe, but remember to have FUN!