Cuban Eight in a head wind

[Henderson,Eric]

(Another trick is to change your power curve for windy weather using a different flight mode.)


The horizontal 8 is a tough maneuver in a head-wind. We tend to get locked into the attitude of the plane and not focussed on the track that the plane is drawing in the sky. This applies equally to judges and pilots.

For example you would fly a shallower 45' line up into the wind and a steeper 45 down-line down-wind. In actuality the plane would be tracking at 45' but would "look" shallower or steeper due to fuselage attitude.

The dilemma is, do you do it right, or make it look right? I have studied the FAI square on corner in a strong head wind. The top pilots shade the angle by a degree of two. I will watch them again this year at the Nat's to see what a second year of the schedule has done for them!

Another tip is to use some power, (say 1/4 throttle) going down the 45. Use all of the power going up the 45. This assumes that you used about 3/4 on a non-windy day. You can't rely upon the "gravity-drop-dive" a of a plane in a tail-wind. The longer it is hanging out there the more it will move down wind and hence give less of a 45 track, if the plane is at a 45 attitude. 

The best tip that I think I was give by Don, was to be much less aggressive with the throttle as I came down-wind over the top of the first part of the 8. Coming of the gas before you hit the top of the first loop and then "purring" down the 45 line really help balance the sizes of the two loop portions.

Eric.

-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org
[mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On Behalf Of Brian Young
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 10:30 AM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: Re: Cuban Eight in a head wind


The info by Don Szczur is good I especially find that
using more power is helpful. Im curious about prop
changes for wind and whether people change props for
wind; increase in pitch or decrease?

On the cuban 8s I find that I need to pay attention to
the upwind side and be sure to extend the 5/8 loop
adequatly since the downwind side tends to get
stretched by high winds. Im flying a reverse cuban 8
but it should apply to a cuban 8 as well.


--- Don Ramsey <donramsey at cox-internet.com> wrote:
> Keith,
> 
> I've added some flying techniques to my website that
> deals with flying in wind.  It's written by Don
> Szczur and would apply to this.  View at
> www.cox-internet.com/donramsey
> 
> Don
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Keith Black 
>   To: discussion at nsrca.org 
>   Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 9:08 PM
>   Subject: Cuban Eight in a head wind
> 
> 
>   I'd like some advice on the best way to perform a
> symmetrical Cuban Eight with a strong head wind.
> 
>   Today I was out practicing and was struggling with
> trying to keep the two halves even and the center
> downlines at 45 deg. and crossing in the middle.
> Obviously the wind is pushing the plane back when
> going into the first 1/2 Cuban so I know that it is
> necessary to drive into the wind, but to do this I
> need to keep the plane's nose forward for a longer
> period of time than normal (on the upline). Then
> when it's time to come around for the down wind
> portion it seems that I have to flip the plane a bit
> too abruptly in order to get the 45 deg downline
> centered before the wind pushes me back to far. It's
> at the transition between driving into the wind and
> reversing directions that I'm not sure about. Is it
> acceptable for the plane to relatively quick go from
> nose forward to nose backward? If I don't do this I
> get blown back to quickly, but doing so doesn't look
> very graceful. Also, in doing this it's hard to keep
> the loop perfectly round through 5/8ths.
> 
>   When going into the second 1/2 Cuban after
> completing the centered downline I want to make the
> 5/8th loop nice and smooth, but if I don't pull
> pretty hard at the bottom of the downline and get
> the nose pointing up then backwards the wind will
> take me too far down field. This pull up does not
> look as smooth as I think it should and for a long
> time I practiced it with a smooth pull up and would
> go to far down field. To keep the halves even, left
> to right, I have to pull much more than is visually
> appealing. Of course, by doing this is also looks
> like I'm pinching the bottom loop but in reality the
> loop is probably more even than it looks. I'm just
> concerned that this approach does not look very good
> and may end up getting downgraded. 
> 
>   Any advice or comments would be appreciated.
> 
>   Thanks,
>   Keith Black
> 
> 


=====
Brian Young
Tulsa
b4598070 at yahoo.com
918-745-6046h
918-838-0900w

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