Hey Gino, you did a nice job in the bumps! But if you dont mind me analyzing your technique versus the technique I use, here it is: If you have electric trim on that wing, you should consider trimming it slower and then pulling back more during flight. Pulling back will create a “self stabilizing” grip, whereas holding exact neutral or forward will cause a destabilizing effect. In other words, when the bar moves sideways and you are pushing you will naturally help the bar continue to move UNTIL you manually use your muscles to counter the bar movement. Judging by your flexed forearms you were doing a lot of that. Besides wearing your arms out, your “equal and opposite” bar pressure puts a side force into the carriage that your passenger feels much differently than when the bar moves on its own. I call this “Bobble Head”. This means your passengers head will not move side to side no matter how bad your wing gets “whacked” by the turbulence because you are in a pendulum. The only side load the passenger will feel is pilot side load on the control bar, hence bobbling their head side to side when you make side to side corrections. But back to the flexed forearms for a moment. Heavy dead weight in your hands without using your muscles is the way to dampen the control bar’s side to side movements and then ONLY when the front strut banks should the pilot correct. Correcting the control bar is the equivalent of a Baja racer trying to stop his suspension form working instead of focusing on driver inputs based on the attitude of their truck chassis. It is the carriage that I correct for and not the wing. this will eliminate a high percentage of corrections altogether as well. Now, in order to get your hands heavy without pushing down in the first place, as mentioned you are always going to fly faster than your trim speed and drop your elbows (more) which can really only be accomplished by removing your thumbs from the bottom of the control bar. This allows your wrists to rotate about 60 degrees and aligns your elbows to hang vertically with gravity. Lastly the correction for the banked front strut is done by using your “high hand” (same as spiral dive recovery) and pulling your hand towards your same hip. This is commonly more effective than moving the bar sideways (depends on wing) but without the “Bobble Head”. Video record your passengers head using both techniques to compare.
Hi Larry. Thanks very much for your advice on technique. I will go up and give it a try. Anything that can make flying in rougher conditions easier to manage and more enjoyable I am all for! I will keep you posted on how it goes. Thanks again!
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Hey Gino, you did a nice job in the bumps! But if you dont mind me analyzing your technique versus the technique I use, here it is: If you have electric trim on that wing, you should consider trimming it slower and then pulling back more during flight. Pulling back will create a “self stabilizing” grip, whereas holding exact neutral or forward will cause a destabilizing effect. In other words, when the bar moves sideways and you are pushing you will naturally help the bar continue to move UNTIL you manually use your muscles to counter the bar movement. Judging by your flexed forearms you were doing a lot of that. Besides wearing your arms out, your “equal and opposite” bar pressure puts a side force into the carriage that your passenger feels much differently than when the bar moves on its own. I call this “Bobble Head”. This means your passengers head will not move side to side no matter how bad your wing gets “whacked” by the turbulence because you are in a pendulum. The only side load the passenger will feel is pilot side load on the control bar, hence bobbling their head side to side when you make side to side corrections. But back to the flexed forearms for a moment. Heavy dead weight in your hands without using your muscles is the way to dampen the control bar’s side to side movements and then ONLY when the front strut banks should the pilot correct. Correcting the control bar is the equivalent of a Baja racer trying to stop his suspension form working instead of focusing on driver inputs based on the attitude of their truck chassis. It is the carriage that I correct for and not the wing. this will eliminate a high percentage of corrections altogether as well. Now, in order to get your hands heavy without pushing down in the first place, as mentioned you are always going to fly faster than your trim speed and drop your elbows (more) which can really only be accomplished by removing your thumbs from the bottom of the control bar. This allows your wrists to rotate about 60 degrees and aligns your elbows to hang vertically with gravity. Lastly the correction for the banked front strut is done by using your “high hand” (same as spiral dive recovery) and pulling your hand towards your same hip. This is commonly more effective than moving the bar sideways (depends on wing) but without the “Bobble Head”. Video record your passengers head using both techniques to compare.
Here is a clip of my technique and lack of attention to the control bar in turbulence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEfLodyQ7Z4&t=50s
Hi Larry. Thanks very much for your advice on technique. I will go up and give it a try. Anything that can make flying in rougher conditions easier to manage and more enjoyable I am all for! I will keep you posted on how it goes. Thanks again!