I don't like to make a lot of hasty adjustments to my gear. I believe that when you're learning acro, it's typically time and training that takes you to the next level and not the gear that's holding you back. Yesterday there was an exception to my rule. I've always flown with brake pulleys and resisted changing over to free brakes. I had the feeling that I may take a step backwards getting used to the different feel. I had tried it a few times in the past but didn't stick with it.
I've been struggling to correct the oscillations from initialing entering into to heli. The positive side has to accelerate and begin the rotation. Your body always lags slightly behind and as it tries to match the speed of the wing, an oscillation begins. If you don't dampen it right away, it continues to build with more amplitude until finally the glider collapses.
Generally you see the pros hold their hands out when they heli and make slight adjustment, so that's what I've always done. With pulleys attached, each movement of the hand initiates an increase or decrease on every upper brake cascade. The first oscillation makes it difficult to hold your arms steady and induces input to the entire trailing edge. This amplifies the oscillation and makes it more difficult to settle down. Each turn gets more wobbly and it looks ugly. If your going to fly pulleys, it's best to keep your hands close to the risers.
With free brakes, we can reduce the effective input to the entire trailing edge. Acro glider brakes have very long cascades and short mains. With arms out and hands spread wide, the majority of the input is directed to the center brake cascades and work as a fine input since the center is rotating at a slower speed than the tips. After initiating the first rotation from deep stall, I immediately felt more control matching my bodies rotation speed to the gliders.
I still need more practice but definitely feel this equipment adjustment was well overdue.
Ryan
I've been struggling to correct the oscillations from initialing entering into to heli. The positive side has to accelerate and begin the rotation. Your body always lags slightly behind and as it tries to match the speed of the wing, an oscillation begins. If you don't dampen it right away, it continues to build with more amplitude until finally the glider collapses.
Generally you see the pros hold their hands out when they heli and make slight adjustment, so that's what I've always done. With pulleys attached, each movement of the hand initiates an increase or decrease on every upper brake cascade. The first oscillation makes it difficult to hold your arms steady and induces input to the entire trailing edge. This amplifies the oscillation and makes it more difficult to settle down. Each turn gets more wobbly and it looks ugly. If your going to fly pulleys, it's best to keep your hands close to the risers.
With free brakes, we can reduce the effective input to the entire trailing edge. Acro glider brakes have very long cascades and short mains. With arms out and hands spread wide, the majority of the input is directed to the center brake cascades and work as a fine input since the center is rotating at a slower speed than the tips. After initiating the first rotation from deep stall, I immediately felt more control matching my bodies rotation speed to the gliders.
I still need more practice but definitely feel this equipment adjustment was well overdue.
Ryan
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