Learning how to 3D part 5

Since there are many of you on the Internet that are getting too good too fast I’ve been forced to write yet another article on 3D, this time part 5! Throughout this article I’ll take you through all of the really advanced maneuvers in detail, I’ll try my best to explain the maneuvers as clear as possible so you can fully understand what they look like and how to do them. Some of the things are hard to explain because the sticks movements can be very easily confused with other maneuvers. In this section you will learn how do perform the piro or 4 point tic-toc, the piro leap frog, piro funnel, and some nice low 3D ground work.

The Piro or 4 point Tic-Toc

This is the most simplest maneuvers out of the four that we’ll go though which consists of a normal tail down tic-toc, a nose down tic-toc and both positions of the knife edge tic-toc. First you should be able to do all of the tic-toc motions or positions in a stationary position, if you can not do so, you will need to learn how before moving on to the 4 point piro tic-toc. To begin this maneuver start with a normal tail down tic-toc (or whichever tic-toc position you feel most comfortable with, but I will use the tail down as the example) We’ll call this the north position. After you get into the groove of doing them turn the nose left (left stick) so the model is now in a knife edge (western) position but make sure not to add any cyclic movements until the heli is perfectly 90 degrees in position or the maneuver will drift. After the model is in the knife edge position start your knife edge tic-toc using left and right cyclic, you can do the tic-toc once before switching, or as many times as you wish, but I think it looks better if you only perform one tic-toc cycle at each position. Then quickly turn the nose or body of the helicopter left again 90 degrees, the nose is now facing right towards to the ground (south) quickly proceed to do your nose down tic-toc, it is important not to lag between pirouettes since this will cause a decrease in altitude. Next use left tail rotor stick to turn the body of the helicopter another 90 degrees, this time the nose will be facing east, just like the two previous tic-tocs. There should be no hesitation between the piro and the tic-toc portions. Finally the last point of the maneuver, just like before, turn the nose its final 90 degrees to complete its whole 360 degree journey and do the last northern tic-toc (whew) and finally exit the maneuver however you feel! You’re probably sick of the word “tic-toc” by now, so plug in your TX and go try it on the sim!

Pirouetting Leap Frog

As discussed in “learning how to 3D part 2” is the simple yet at that time challenging leap frog and leap frog launch. Now comes the exciting part, almost any maneuver can be improved upon or changed in some way to make it look more extreme and this is why the pirouette is now added to the leap frog. Before attempting this you should already be able to do a good kaos, be able to hold it in one spot, and also move it around however you want. This skill will help you big time during this maneuver. Assuming you know how to move the kaos around means the trick will be no big deal. You simply start off in a hover doing a medium speed pirouette then shoot into a piro flip, but make it as though it is going to be a very, very slow loose one. Instead of keeping it over one spot you want to make it leap across the flight line so you’ll use full positive pitch to do the first arc. The model should be traveling in a straight line while vertically moving in a dome shape motion, the tricky part is to keep a somewhat slow but constant piro rate when going from full positive to full negative to complete the second arc. To keep the model tracking in a straight like you may even have to stop the pirouette for a very, very short period of time while you pump the full negative in. Complete this process until you feel the helicopter is far enough away, normally 3 or 4 leaps or arcs will do it for me when using full positive and negative pitch.

Pirouetting Funnel

This is one very challenging maneuver! It is one of the hardest for me to keep tight, it is easiest to keep in form if you do it big and fast. I find it is relatively easy to get bent out of shape once the model is put into a tight funnel with a fast pirouette rate. Like the kaos and piro flip you are stirring the sticks, but in a slower motion. For this example I’ll use an inverted tail down funnel to start the maneuver, do about one 360 degree normal inverted tail down funnel, then you start the pirouette but you must do the funnel with fore/aft cyclic (depending on which way you are doing it) until the heli passes through it’s knife edge position, after this the nose will be facing the ground and the inner part of the funnel, you will use opposite (left or right) cyclic from how you started (will be like a normal nose down funnel for this short period of time), as the model turns around and enters it’s second knife edge portion you’ll use once again fore/aft cyclic (will be opposite from what you used for the first portion of knife edge) now it will finally come around to the tail down section, the same position as you started.

Low ground work

While this sort of combines all of the 3D maneuvers, it is not one set maneuver or any certain sequence of them. Doing some manouevres low really grabs the audience’s attention, things such as low flips with a 180 degree pirouette each time it goes vertical and then pulling out very low really gets people excited! A set of skid touching flips is hard to get down pat, but if you have ever seen Jason Krause do his set of skid touching flips and rolls you’ll see how much people like it. While adding some small tight turns or a quick change of attitude during really low flying will improve your 3D, it will also sharpen up your reflexes.

Even though I can’t explain to all of you how to do this, it is really not very complicated at all. Bringing your stuff down lower is a bonus and appears a lot better than having your model a little dot in the sky! I think that flying off the deck shows that you have complete control over the machine and good judgement as to what is going on. The only way to learn takes time, you will just have to start slowly bringing your stuff a bit lower and lower. Over a period of time you’ll notice yourself doing radical stuff just feet off the deck! But remember….unless you have complete control over the machine up high do not attempt bring it down too low during the learning curve!