Throttle Control


Watching MAAW's own Bob Moulder achieve a stellar second place finish at the Staten Island RC Clubs primer last weekend gave me some new ideas to share. This discussion will be about one of the least used primary controls the Throttle. How many times have you seen a pilot take their left hand off the transmitter when they are flying. You laugh but if you look you will see it. Several pilots gave away many points by not effectively controlling their model's throttle.

For the aerobatic pilot the throttle is as important as any of the four primary controls. With the correct power setting your airplane carves smoothly and efficiently through the air. With too much power maneuvers are rushed on the edge of control and the pilot is behind the airplane. Like a child being dragged by the leash of a large dog. Too little power the plane wallows, appear sluggish and unresponsive and at mercy of the wind.

The key to all of this is of course practice. Not just repeating maneuvers but experimenting and learning your airplane. Start with learning your cruise speed. From a comfortable altitude throttle down to half throttle. How does the plane feel? Is it carving through the air? Do turns feel solid and comfortable or are you still gobbling up real estate? Does the field feel small? Make small changes until you begin to find a pace that is comfortable. Think Goldilocks; just right. In most aerobats this will be somewhere around half to two-thirds throttle in calm air. Using your cruise speed will make your presence less obvious to our neighbors, save fuel and give you time between maneuvers for things like wind corrections or altitude adjustments.

Look at an example of a basic loop. From cruise the pilot travels into the wind from right to left across the field. Since most of our models are well powered he doesn't have to dive to build energy as is common full scale aircraft. As the plane approaches the center of the field our pilot smoothly rolls the throttle to full power. At the exact imaginary center the nose begins to rotate and the airplane begins to gain altitude as it draws a beautiful radius. While carefully wind correcting our pilots enjoys the lovely half loop he has created and begins to think about controlling his speed for the second half of his maneuver. If you think of the clock face our example plane has entered at full throttle at 6pm. The entire path to the top the airplane is fighting gravity and loosing airspeed until it gets to the top of the loop. Not until the nose is pointed down that the effect of gravity will begin to accelerate the plane enough to continue carving through the air. As the plane powers over the top to the 1 o'clock position the pilot slowly throttles back while gravity increases its grip. At approximately 2 o'clock power is down to idle and gravity keeps the pace. The pilot then begins to add power and pull more elevator to fight gravity and maintain the radius of the loop while passing the 4 o'clock point. By 5 o'clock the model is back at its cruise setting preparing for a smooth exit back to the original heading and altitude.

A lot of words for a loop. Keep paying attention to how your model responds in different attitudes and conditions. Practice throttling up into the wind and tighter turns. Add power into rolls and when inverted. Practice slow flight and climbs with only three quarters throttle. Your plane will tell you how much power is enough.

A friend was trying to progress from individual maneuvers to sequences so I came up with the little routine of some basics.

  • Straight Flight - a nice smooth straight line at cruise power with wings level into the wind parallel to the flight line
  • Immelman turn - at the far end of the field a nice straight half loop with a half roll
  • one Roll - centered in front of you while heading down wind
  • Split S - at the far down wind end a half roll then a half loop
  • Loop - into the wind and centered in front of you

Just a few basics strung together to work on positioning and throttle. Be careful the seem deceptively simple but very addicting!

Any questions or you need help grab me at the field or email me

Anthony
Anthonyr105@hotmail.com