Sitting in the plane or not ?

[george kennie]

In my experience, I think my focal point is the C.G. area of the
airplane.
As far as placing your cognitive awareness in the cockpit goes, I flew
that way for many years and as you will note, the inference is aimed at
beginning pilots and I concur. However, after flying that way for 30+
years I finally came to the realization that in rapid orientation
changes it is absolutely impossible for anyone to avoid control position
separation. Once separation occurs, a time lapse of varying interval
occurs during which it becomes necessary to reestablish positional
continuity and this interval will vary with the ability of the
individual.Once you get behind it's very tough to catch up.For me the
interval is not an acceptable one, so a few years back I abandoned the
practice in favor of flying the aircraft as a remote object that
requires specific inputs based upon a learned responce to positional
attitudes.Once these responces are learned and practiced, they become
allmost automatic and the cockpit separation time lapse all but
disappears. Now I am allmost never " in the cockpit" and that feeling of
"losing it" is quite infrequent, and if I burned 28 cases of fuel a
season would probably be history totally.
If you think I'm full of it, then try doing a rolling circle with one
roll and let me see you stay in the cockpit all the way around. Gets
pretty tough after 180 degrees, huh? The loop with one roll too gets
tricky. There's a lot happening positionally to really confuse the brain
and if your brain is as confused as mine you're probably more secure
accomplishing these maneuvers by rote and swallowing your pride.
Just my approach,
Georgie


Bob Pastorello wrote:

> I'll throw in my .01 here....I've worked with some folks through the
> years who have become pretty notable fliers...and with them, as other
> students, as soon as they can fly I start whispering about "get in the
> cockpit"...and STAY THERE !!!    My experience, and those I've worked
> with would reinforce the value of that "situational awareness" that
> the mental picture of being "in" the cockpit provides.    For those
> ready to claim it doesn't work - you have to do it enough, until it is
> a ritual...when running up the motor, until shutting it down...you
> work at keeping your mental perspective as if you're in the plane.  It
> can't be learned well in a dozen flights;  probably not 50...but once
> learned, many, many corrections that were troublesome before (like
> "wrong rudder") gets a LOT easier. Don Lowe has a long experience and
> history of many credentials and wins in aerobatics!  He wouldn't make
> that recommendation lightly.
> Bob Pastorello, Oklahoma
> NSRCA 199, AMA 46373
> rcaerobob at cox.net
> www.rcaerobats.net
>
>      ----- Original Message -----
>      From: Xavier Mouraux
>      To: discussion at nsrca.org
>      Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 7:49 PM
>      Subject: Sitting in the plane or not ?
>       Hello again, I was reading Don Lowe's column in RCM and was
>      surprised at his recommandation to beginners RC pilots:
>      "establish yourself as in the cockpit ... and then the
>      control motions required never change". I havn't flown
>      outside for a few month now so I can't try to verify what I
>      do. I am asking you guys who may have notice it before. Do
>      you fly like you are sitting in the airplane or you look at
>      the plane and move the sticks automatically ? Another
>      question related to flying: Were do you look when you pilot
>      an RC plane ?a) The plane in generalb) The nose of the
>      planec) The tail of the planed) Some distance in front of
>      the plane (were you want it to go) Thanks Xavier note: I
>      have not been in this hobby for very long so I don't know
>      everybody's history. If someone could give me a small resume
>      of Don Lowe, I will appreciate.
>
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