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aeajr
477 Posts |
 Posted - 08/31/2006 : 09:35:44 AM
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What Goes on Which Stick on Gliders?
by Ed Anderson
If you are flying an RTF package, then your radio and servos are already
set-up for you. However if you are setting up an ARF or finishing a kit,
you will be installing your own radio equipment. So, which stuff goes on
which stick, and why?
We usually talk about what surface is controlled by what stick. However,
that is not really the right way to look at it.
For a two stick radio, used in mode two format, the standard format in North
America, pitch and roll are on the right stick with roll ALWAYS being your
primary turning control. Yaw and primary speed control are on the left
stick.
Note that I mention Mode 2, which is marked with the * below, but there are
other modes
Left stick ...............Right Stick ..................Mode
Pitch and Yaw .......Speed and Roll ..............1
Speed and Yaw*......Pitch and Roll*...............2*
Pitch and Roll ..........Speed and Yaw ...........3
Speed and Roll ........Pitch and Yaw .............4
For a power plane, landing gear, flaps and other such functions are assigned
to switches, buttons, dials, sliders or levers, if you have them.
Since Speed, Yaw, Pitch and Roll are the primary controls, and Mode 2 is the
standard in North America, let's look at those functions.
Primary Speed control - Motor, flaps or spoilers.
If you have a motor, that is your primary speed control. If you are flying
an unpowered glider, spoilers and flaps take on the role of speed control so
they are typically placed in the speed control position, on the left stick,
commonly referred to as the "throttle" stick. If you buy a radio that has a
sailplane section in the instructions, it might refer to the throttle stick
as the airbrake control.
Where does the rudder go? This is usually the confusion.
Depending on the design of your plane, the rudder can play different roles
so its placement can change. On planes without ailerons, the rudder is your
primary turning surface. It provides both roll and yaw control so it goes
on the right stick This stick also has pitch/elevator control also.
If you think of it in this manner, there is no confusion moving back and
forth between single stick and dual stick radios. On a single stick radio,
pitch
and roll are on the single stick, which usually happens to be oriented to
the right side of the radio. It doesn't matter if it is a rudder/elevator
plane
or an aileron/elevator plane. Pitch and roll are on the right stick, or the
only stick. If there is a third channel it is usually on a slide or a
switch which operates the primary speed control; throttle, flaps or
spoilers.
I have two single stick radios and two dual stick radios. The singles are
used for R/E/T for two parkflyers. The rudder, in combination with the
dihedral
of the wings, provides roll control and is the primary turning surface.
My dual sticks, both computer radios, are used for parkflyers, TD Sailplanes
and slope gliders. The surface layouts of my planes span:
R/E (right stick) ,
A/E (right stick),
R/E/spoilers, (spoilers on left, R/E on right,)
R/E/throttle, ( T on left, R/E on right,),
R/E/A (R on left, A/E on right, ) and
R/E/A/flaps (R/F on left, A/E on right)
Again, for unpowered sailplanes, think of spoilers and flaps playing the
part of speed control. During normal, "speed" flight the stick is all the
way
forward, flaps or spoilers are fully retracted. When you come in for a
landing and want to slow the plane, the stick comes back toward you, just as
it
would with a throttle, and the flaps or spoilers deploy according to stick
position. This increases drag and helps to slow the plane, just as would
happen with reduced throttle.
Now, you might ask, if you have a powered plane that has flaps, where do the flaps go?
On a non-glider with a motor, the flaps are no longer the primary
speed control and are normally moved off the sticks to a switch, a dial or a lever. Some people always put flaps on the
switch/dial/lever just to be consistent across all of their planes. That is fine too.
However, if you have an electric glider, then the motor is primarily used as a launching device. Typically you have full power for climb
then switch off and go into your thermal hunting patterns. In this case many e-glider pilots move the motor to a switch and keep the
flaps on the stick for better glide path and camber control.
Think of your controls this way and there is never a doubt what goes where.
Mode 2, the North American Standard
Pitch and roll (always primary steering control) on the right
Speed and yaw on the left.
Other stuff in other places.
Hope this makes sense.
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Best regards,
Ed Anderson
Long Island Silent Flyers
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Edited by - aeajr on 08/31/2006 09:42:12 AM |
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EZ1
3 Posts |
Posted - 09/13/2006 : 12:43:24 AM
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Ed,
I was thinking of putting spoilers on the left stick throttle on an ole Futaba 4YF but when trying to dope out this Optic6, was wondering why not just put it on the side left lever to put it on half spoiler, full spoiler, whatever (the spoilers have rubberbands to return to closed) Any problems? Figured it would be less confusing than putting them on the left stick while I'm trying to learn how to operate all this stuff. |
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aeajr
477 Posts |
Posted - 09/13/2006 : 06:51:26 AM
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I have a Futaba 9C and I happen to like the spoilers on the left slider. That is where I put them on my RES planes.
If this is a RES plane, consider the spoilers to be flaps then use the flap to elevator mix or the CROW mix to set up some elevator compensation as spoilers can sometimes cause a plane to want to dive and you need some up elevator to keep it level. The Optic can add this for you automatically and let you focus on the plane and the landing approach.
BTW, there is an article on setting up an Optic 6, right here in the Lounge, if you have not seen it. You may find some useful info.
Best regards,
Ed Anderson
aeajr on the forums
Long Island Silent Flyers |
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EZ1
3 Posts |
Posted - 09/13/2006 : 12:01:23 PM
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Ed,
By just feeding a servo through the side left lever on the Optic6 without any crow/mix...whatever(I have no alerions or flaps)can I operate the spoilers? By putting half spoiler on final and adjusting up or down acording to my rate of decent I'll have control of my landing distance. Bear with me... I'm so new to RC maybe I'm adding problems where none exist by broaching these, maybe, simplistic queries.*S*
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aeajr
477 Posts |
Posted - 09/13/2006 : 12:53:48 PM
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Yes you can do this.
When you are ready, post a question about elevator compensation with spoilers and we can have a discussion there and then.
Enjoy!
Best regards,
Ed Anderson
aeajr on the forums
Long Island Silent Flyers |
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EZ1
3 Posts |
Posted - 09/14/2006 : 12:15:03 AM
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aeajr
I guess using spoilers might cause the dynamics of the glider to pitch down and build up airspeed.Any familiarity of elevators in gliders I have is that they are what maintains air speed and glide ratio through pitch in both straight and level flight and turns. That being said, how do I,standing on the ground, tell just how fast the bird is traveling, let alone it's attitude without an air speed indicator and a yaw string staring me in the face? Just by observing the glide attitude and speed through observation and experience?...I guess. I know that the elevator can be coordinated manually to keep the glider's nose pitched up enough to be within parameters for a decent landing approach and still maintain airspeed. Or do the the adjustments have to be through some kind of an electronic mix or sumn in the transmitter?
One thing I do know about RC is that the more I know, the more I realize how little I do know donchaknow? *S* |
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aeajr
477 Posts |
Posted - 09/14/2006 : 06:28:30 AM
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EZ1,
Perhaps this will be helpful:
GLIDE PATH CONTROL AND ELEVATOR COMPENSATION
by Ed Anderson
aeajr on the forums
Thermal duration gliders are wonderful things. They will float along at fairly slow speeds for long distances with minimal loss of altitude. However when we are landing, they seem to float forever rather than settling down so we can land them were we want. So we have to learn about energy management to get the plane to touch down safely and " on the spot".
Since all of our energy comes from altitude, we want to be sure we have enough to make it to the landing zone otherwise we can fall short of the landing spot, putting us in the trees, causing us to miss the landing target during a contest, or perhaps just resulting in a longer walk than we would like. Glide path controls help us manage the energy and modify the glide path of the plane.
Flaps and spoilers are the most common glide path controls. They help us manage the plane's energy so we can arrive with more than enough, then get rid of the excess when we wish.
Elevator compensation can be very useful when we apply spoilers or flaps. It helps keep the plane at the desired flying angle. Without it, the plane may tend to pitch up or down as we apply these glide path controls.
ELEVATOR COMPENSATION WITH SPOILERS APPLIED - Glide path control
If you have a RES glider, you have rudder, elevator and spoilers on your plane. When you apply spoilers you increase drag, which will slow the plane. The slower speed reduces the lift produced by the wing causing the plane to lose altitude. The second effect is to change the air flow over the wing which "spoils" the lift. This also causes the plane to descend. Both of these are desired as we are usually deploying spoilers on landing approach where we are trying to reduce speed and get the plane to settle down. However since we are changing the lift and drag of the wing, this can cause a dive effect which we need to control. My Spirit 2M RES sailplane doesn't dive too much when I apply spoilers. My Sagitta 600 2M RES drops the nose fast. In both cases I need to apply some up elevator to help control the pitch of the plane to maintain the desired landing attitude.
This can certainly be done manually buy pulling back on the elevator control as we apply spoilers. However, on computer radios, we can take advantage of the mixing features to apply some up elevator automatically and in proportion to the amount of spoiler we deploy. This "elevator compensation" will automatically counter the planes tendency to drop the nose. Thus we can pay more attention to the approach and be less focused on keeping the plane level. I have a little elevator compensation mixed into my Spirit. I have much more mixed into my Sagitta 600. I still have full elevator control so I can continue to manually manage the planes pitch as in any other flight mode, but I don't have to manually compensate for the spoilers.
While each plane is different, you usually mix some up elevator with your spoilers. How that is done is specific to the radio. On my Futaba 9C and my Hitec Prism 7X I do this by assigning the spoilers to the flap channel, channel 6 on Hitec and Futaba, then use the flap to elevator mix function. How and where this is controlled depends on the radio. On my 9C, I have this controlled from a side slider. On my Prism 7X, it is on a dial.
ELEVATOR COMPENSATION WITH FLAPS APPLIED
We have a similar but usually opposite situation with flaps. As we apply flaps on landing approach, we again increase drag which will slow the plane, however flaps reshape the wing to be more curved on the bottom, more "undercambered". This configuration produces more lift and can tend to cause the nose of the plane to rise which further slows the plane. In this situation the plane can slow enough to stall. Once this happens, the nose will suddenly drop. Since we are on landing approach we may not have enough altitude to recover. This can result in a crash.
Again we can compensate with pitch control using the elevator. We can hold the nose at the desired attitude, usually by pushing the stick to counter this tendency to rise or "balloon" when we hit the flaps. However if we have a computer radio we can use that flap to elevator mix to add in some down elevator as we add flaps. This will automatically hold the plane in the proper attitude allowing us to focus on the landing.
On my planes that have flaps, such as my 2.9M Airtronics Legend, or my 3.1M Polecat Thermal Dancer, I have down elevator mixed into the flaps so that the plane does not balloon up when I apply flaps.
FLAPPERONS/SPOILERONS
On a plane that has only ailerons, many computer radios offer you a mix called flapperons or spoilerons. This allows you to change the position of the ailerons so that they produce a similar effect to dedicated flaps or spoilers. When you do this you will likely have the same need for elevator compensation as with dedicated flight path controls. Usually you can also turn on the flap to elevator compensation mix and have the same automatic elevator compensation as you apply your flight path controls.
I have a 2M slope glider that has full span ailerons. I find that spoilerons, moving both ailerons up, works very well in helping me land this plane at the slope. Using my Hitec Prism 7X radio, I have the spoileron deployment controlled on a switch which activates the landing mix. This moves the ailerons to a preset up position and automatically applies a little up elevator to keep the plane level. The plane settles quickly to help me hit the small landing areas at the slopes where I fly.
This would work just as well for a thermal duration glider that has ailerons but no spoilers or flaps. You can deploy the ailerons as spoilers or flaps, according to your preferences and the unique characteristics of you plane.
Summary
Glide path controls help us manage the energy of our gliders. During the use of these controls we need to use the elevator to help maintain the proper attitude so the plane neither dives or balloons and stalls. We can do this manually or we can use a computer radio's elevator compensation mix to apply this control automatically and in proportion to the glide path control being used.
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Edited by - aeajr on 09/14/2006 06:46:52 AM |
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What Goes on Which Stick
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