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There are
three mistakes the novice can easily make that cause the aircraft to be
difficult or impossible to see.
1) The pilot lets the model fly too far
away. At that point, when the novice pilot turns the model around he or
she loses perspective and can"t tell if it is flying toward or away from
his or her position.
2) The pilot is flying the model far out and wants
to turn the airplane and fly in the opposite direction. There is a
choice to make; he or she can turn the model toward the runway or away
from it. The pilot chooses to turn away from the runway to make a 180¡
change in heading, taking the model farther away and making it even more
difficult to see.
3) The pilot flies into the sun, is temporarily
blinded by the intense light, and loses track of the model.
Each of
these errors could result in a model's crash. The correction for each of
these is easy to instruct but perhaps more difficult for you—the
novice—to apply. So practice.
Keep your aircraft in close to maintain a
good perspective of its orientation. If you happen to fly farther out
than you planned, turn back toward the flying field. Don't fly close to
or in the direction of the sun.
Applying the Safety Codes goes a long
way toward reducing the risk that is inherent in flying models.
At the
same time, adhering to the Safety Codes maximizes the pleasure everyone
gets from the model-flying experience. Use the flight-safety practices
and the specific Safety Codes as five flight-safety standards I have
given you to your advantage.
Now you take control of the aircraft. As
you move the sticks, make small control inputs. The most frequent
problem novice fliers have is overcontrolling the aircraft.
Before radio
control was developed, these models used to be built to fly all by
themselves. Slight directional control can steer the airplane. After you
give a control input, release the stick, let the control stick return to
the neutral position, and watch what happens with the airplane. If
trimmed properly, a trainer will practically fly by itself.
Well, the
gas is almost gone. You did well. You flew the airplane and kept it
inside the flight-operations box. You didn't let it fly behind us. You
didn't fly it into the sun. And you kept it close enough that we could
easily see its orientation.
Now we need to let the other pilots know we
are going to land the aircraft. We loudly announce "Landing!" We wait
for acknowledgement to ensure that all on-station pilots got the
message. Now we can land.
Normally we would taxi back over to the
taxiway. However, our engine dies and the model is still on the runway.
We will have to go get it.
Before we go out onto the runway to pick up
the airplane, we need to announce loudly "On the runway!" Again, we will
wait for acknowledgement because we don't want another pilot landing his
airplane while we are retrieving ours.
Remove any remaining fuel before
cleaning the aircraft and stowing it in your car. Leaking fuel in your
car can be a fire hazard.
I hope you have learned something from these
safety discussions that will help make your flying safer and more
enjoyable. Keep the right attitude; don't be hurried, tired, stressed
out, distracted, or overconfident in approaching your shop work or your
model preparation or flying. Apply the five levels of safety—attitude, prechecks, backups, isolation, and barriers—when each or more than one
is appropriate to the safety risk.
Be safe and good flying!
MA
Donald
Brooks
brooksdw@ida.net
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