A how-to for a blender to inverted flat spin. I would appreciate any input you can provide. I'm trying to keep it simple but not miss any important inputs or pointers, so please let me know if you can think of anything:

How to perform a blender and do a perfect, stress-free inverted flat spin:

One of the most feared maneuvers for new aerobatic pilots is the inverted flat spin. It is notorious for taking air frames all the way to the ground without responding to the inputs and prayers of the pilot trying to recover.


Fear not! The inverted flat spin is actually a simple maneuver from which to recover in the modern aerobatic airplane. And, entering the maneuver is made much easier by blending your way into it. Here's how:


1. Start out nice and high, because you are going to go straight down!
2. From upright and level, push to nose straight down, throttle slightly above idle
3. Input full left aileron and slowly feed in full right rudder
4. While holding those inputs, now add sudden, full down elevator and center your aileron input, still holding full right rudder.
5. You should be able to hold these inputs and maintain a good inverted flat spin. Try adding right aileron and a little throttle to help flatten it out if needed.
6. Recover by adding throttle, half roll to upright, and just fly out of it.


Once you get proficient, you can extend your down line and really get a fast roll going with more throttle before you add the rudder. If you enter it faster, you end up with a nice "WHUMP!" sound when you jam in the elevator.


As with any 3D aerobatic maneuver, don't fly beyond the limitations of your air frame or your own abilities. Keep it fun!


-Patto-

I am more of a full throttle blender kind of guy. A buddy of mine had a 51" 3dhs Slick and he could do a better blender at a 45 degree and full throttle instead of straight down. Full throttle blender with a 100cc is pretty cool too.

That procedure is written very well! I tried it out last night and was able to achieve a real nice flat inverted spin, and thanks to your statement "Try adding right aileron and a little throttle to help flatten it out if needed." the plane slowed down to a very slow spin which is what I was trying to do. I think that right aileron input at the end is called spill-out Aileron ?

Its worth noting that I was working on this maneuver at the end of last season and was never able to really get it - Even using David Scott's Advanced aerobatic book (I am a big fan of his teaching and textbooks). In fact this season I gave up on it and focused on slow rolls, hesitation rolls, and rolling circles.

Thanks for your post, it clarified a couple things that were not quite clear in my mind and now this one is in the bag of tricks!

P.S. High 3D rates works well.

Jason

google bone doc blender he does a good job on teaching and visualy showing the stick movments

Bone doc *

Here is the video I used along with Bonedocs video and shows the blender working both way....

3D Tutorial: Blenders (3 min 33 sec)

Nice tutorial, thanks. Can't wait to try it out. I like the warning about not using your favorite plane to learn on!

Great feedback guys! I'm glad this is useful!!

I am going to add some details about throw rates and other things based on your input. I was thinking of doing my own video to go with it.

Last time I did a blender, it broke 2 motor mounting bolts, lucky the other 2 held. Awesome to do, but hard on planes.

Originally Posted by rcbobp

Nice tutorial, thanks. Can't wait to try it out. I like the warning about not using your favorite plane to learn on!

No doubt Bob. I got confidence in my EF Edge when I saw 'P Huck' fly his @ Deland a few weeks ago. I figured I would never put the hurtin' on that airframe the way he did that day. The man is rrrrrrrrrrrruff on airplanes. It was quite an endorsement for Extreme Flight......................

I'll give this a try next week. 15 mistakes high and light on the down line throttle.................

Originally Posted by FoamieAirfarce

No doubt Bob. I got confidence in my EF Edge when I saw 'P Huck' fly his @ Deland a few weeks ago. I figured I would never put the hurtin' on that airframe the way he did that day. The man is rrrrrrrrrrrruff on airplanes. It was quite an endorsement for Extreme Flight......................

I'll give this a try next week. 15 mistakes high and light on the down line throttle.................

Yea make sure I am there

I just did 3 in-a-row snap rolls and broke 5 or the 8 ribs in my right wing. In the shop for repair.

Originally Posted by bobzilla

I just did 3 in-a-row snap rolls and broke 5 or the 8 ribs in my right wing. In the shop for repair.

On second thought.....................

K, that worked purdy cool on the simulator.

I found you can get all the aerodynamic result of the good snap to the inverted flat and Harrier exit at pretty low throttle settings. It actually slowed the maneuver down to where it looked rather graceful, not a hyper freak out. Wouldn't using lower throttle take all the high G stress out of the maneuver? Why do we (guys I've seen) want to do them at such high throttle settings? Is it different flying a real world model?

Also, I tried doing them both directions to the inverted, worked well, but pulling elevator after the Blender portion to try to get into an upright flat spin didn't work. Why? Hmmmmm.

Also, on my upright flat spins I always just enter a spin as you would say, for IMAC and then just adjust throttle and opposite aileron to get into it. Is there a preferred 3D technique? Regardless of the 'Blender' using this technique to get into an inverted flat spin is the easiest way I've tried. Coo'.

Well for starters - higher throttle equals more speed which equals more wow factor. Harder on the airframe yes but the faster you go the more crowd appeal you get. Blenders are meant to be high stress maneuvers. You can slow it down but it just doesn't have the same "pop" to it.

The other factor for higher than idle throttle settings is today's light airframes don't build up speed as fast on the downline. So you either start higher up (boring) get way lower on exit or add some power.

Originally Posted by FoamieAirfarce

Also, I tried doing them both directions to the inverted, worked well, but pulling elevator after the Blender portion to try to get into an upright flat spin didn't work. Why? Hmmmmm.

Also, on my upright flat spins I always just enter a spin as you would say, for IMAC and then just adjust throttle and opposite aileron to get into it. Is there a preferred 3D technique? Regardless of the 'Blender' using this technique to get into an inverted flat spin is the easiest way I've tried. Coo'.

You can go from inverted to upright spins easily. Like you said, pull full up elevator but reverse rudder direction. Otherwise it will mush over. If you keep the rotational energy going, it'll happily flip to the belly.

Originally Posted by FoamieAirfarce

No doubt Bob. I got confidence in my EF Edge when I saw 'P Huck' fly his @ Deland a few weeks ago. I figured I would never put the hurtin' on that airframe the way he did that day. The man is rrrrrrrrrrrruff on airplanes. It was quite an endorsement for Extreme Flight......................

I'll give this a try next week. 15 mistakes high and light on the down line throttle.................

Ooh boy. I'm knocking on some serious hard wood here. The EF Edge is one tough animal. You can give it all you got and it will hold. It will blender like a F-5 sharknado.
I give it pulses of throttle on the downline. It adds speed and sounds completely badazz.