I have to agree on the slow rolls. I love slow rolls and find them a great tool for learning the rudder and elevator co-ordination to keep them tracking and to help with rollers later. The way I see it the problem with doing a slow roll in your basic sequence you open yourself to lots of opportunity for deductions for track error and possibly roll rate as well.

Move up to Sportsman though for greater challenge.

Sportsman would be a big leap for me right now, although it would be more interesting. I don't have a plane that could get me through two sequences in that class, unless I upgrade my batteries in the one I have now.

Originally Posted by rclad

My fellow club member Barry took this video on August 5th as I was practicing for the IMAC Burnit Challenge in Harrison, Ohio, which just concluded today. I know my sequences here are far from perfect, but I would be happy if I could fly this well at a contest. This was only my third one, but my thumbs still shake and nerves take over. I zeroed a slow aileron roll today that I practiced a hundred times back home. I could just do a quick roll and be done with it, but I like the appearance of the slow roll.

I know there are point deductions every time I dip a wing. I'm working on keeping them level and using rudder to correct my line. I forgot to turn my idle back on for the second hammerhead, so that was a near flop. I had no air over the rudder. After the second spin I did some practice landings, rolls and hammerheads.

IMAC Practice - Basic Sequence for 2017 (8 min 3 sec)

I don't mean to change the subject, but I'm very curious about your experience at this most recent contest. I know you had posted on another thread about some frustration and a bad experience at your last contest. Myself and few others posted and hoped you'd give it another shot. I hope you had a good time.


Scott

Thanks, Scott. I was seriously considering getting out of IMAC and not competing any more, but thanks to the encouragement of so many people, both here and in my club I decided to keep at it.

The contest this past weekend had great weather, which really helped. And I had a chance to fly a couple rounds with no other planes in the air, which also helped. I also decided to dispense with a caller and just have a spotter call avoidance and help me stay on my line by calling drift. That gave me a lot more confidence to be in the air with other planes, knowing my spotter was focused on maintaining safe separation. Overall it was a good experience. I'm mostly disappointed I didn't fly as well as I can in practice.

There is still much room for improvement in terms of safety. I saw a 42% Extra almost fly into two pilots standing at the edge of the runway. The pilot flying the plane (in Basic class) had been having trouble landing all weekend, because he couldn't get his idle low enough to slow the plane down. On Sunday they moved us to the station on the other end of the runway, putting the upwind station in danger of his out of control landings. I know we can't make this hobby 100% safe from accidents, but it seems there is more that can be done to minimize the risks. I hope it won't take someone getting seriously injured or killed before more attention is turned toward safety.

I finally got a camera mounted in the cockpit of the plane I flew in Basic last year. I haven't been flying much since Regionals in mid-September, so I'm very rusty on precision work, but I wanted to see how helpful this kind of video would be.

So this is mainly a proof of concept video. There is much to improve on in just the physical set up of the camera, not to mention my flying! I think it is helpful, though, in pointing out errors I could not see from the ground, especially consistent errors such as entering or exiting figures with a wing low.

There is more detail about the camera setup on my bog:
2018 Sportsman Sequence - View from the Cockpit

Here's the latest video of my EF 95" Extra 330SC-E flying the 2019 Intermediate sequence, from my blog on RC Groups.



I still fly with the inside wing low, especially at the top of tall maneuvers. It's hard to get the right sight picture in my head!