hello Shug here and today we are going to talk about our control line airplane handle now the
handle is the lifeline to your plane mine's hooked up to my p51 right now normally i would
be holding it about like this and by raising or lowering my arm i can get down or up or i
tend to sort of use my wrist more but if you're new you might want to just stick with this a bit
all right i raise my arm and i get some up lower my arm and i get down elevator up flaps down
down flaps up elevator down arm up arm down
or we use wrist what i have on this because i've got a os46 the lines i'm using for this plane
i'm at about 60 feet i'm using the .15 by 19 strand stainless steel cables
um
now this is a hardpoint handle that i've been using it's a raikou by hardpoint meaning there's
no cables and i have my spacing probably at about three and a half inches and that is set
up right there for my electric p40 and if you'll notice right there his spacing is very tight
meaning he doesn't need a lot of control for that plane and if you were to move it out these line
clips right here you get a lot more line control and yes we're required to use a safety thong
in case you uh lose your handle while you're flying it'll just crash your plane but no one
will get hurt you know a lot of this stuff on your handle spacing and how you're going to use
your handle is how well you set your plane up when you first build it or assemble it if it's an arf
but if you can have your plane trimmed out really well on the ground before it ever takes
off you're going to have a lot less struggle flying it now if you're a first-time flyer
control line is going to break your heart you'll probably dog it in now you probably won't ruin it
but be prepared for crashes and accidents and uh that's just part of the hobby so go ahead
and buy yourself a lot of cyanoacrylate glue and epoxy and get good at mending
now you have your line spacing right here so you have several options with all your holes
in order to get that closer or wide and also with this kind of handle this metal part will move out
or back so you can make adjustments sometimes if your elevator and flaps are not quite lined up
so you can see there's a bolt right there where you can move this metal part out and the same
right here so they will adjust out and back and you get a lot of adjustments out of that handle
you know how i was talking earlier about if you're gonna fly control line that you're gonna crash
look at this i was out flying the panther and i have one it's kind of that
that thrill of knowing it could happen is what makes this hobby exciting for me and
when it does happen it's not a great feeling always a little disappointed in yourself
now here's john's handle he also likes the bias this is the part it's a hard
point where the lines attach and you can see the handle kind of leans back
it's a very personal thing which you put in your hand to fly that plane now there's
another one of tom's little handles now you can't very well adjust your spacing here
but you can adjust your line length back and forth the the spacing the cable lengths a hard point
the shape of your handle is kind of what this hobby is it seems simple oh but it ain't
the old prowler always always rocks steady so now for the prowler i used to be my plane
of choice and i keep bringing it out of retirement but i have a this is a brodak
control line handle it has adjustments so you can space this bar out or in or lean it
you have your line spacing done a little bit of a different way i'm always at about
three and a half inches and this is your cable handle so i know i'm for this plane i'm about
60 something feet so i normally walk out about 22 steps
all right that puts me at 22 steps and now i'll roll the lines out back to the plane
and clip my clip
this ought to put me pretty close to my
plane near perfect
so i take this little little line clip right here which is a scissor clip that's my preferred
and i will hook that up to the line on here that does not have a clip on it on the lead out
and clip that on this lead out has the scissor clip and this one coming from my handle does
not so then i just clip that in there and i always leave one on the plane one on the handle
that way i know what's up what is up that up is up and down is down
right now that i got these hooked up i'm gonna do what's called walking my line
normally i do this two-handed but i'm kind of just spreading it out between my fingers and i'm gonna
get the kinks out of it and just walk it slowly there'll always be a couple of twists in the line
and you get out to your handle and yep see there's
just a couple of twists and i'll just let the handle unwrap itself here
now my twists are out i can put my handle down double check to make sure up is up and down is
down now you can see i have my safety thong on here which is a requirement for flying at our
fields with the insurance and everything and you want to kind of be standing with
your elbows slightly bent and try to get the handle center in your body as you can
alright so i'm grabbing the handle here get my safety thong on checking my up and down
i'm checking to make sure everything is is good here on my connectors i give tom the go sign
all right we got to take off on the prowler now
and i'm a left-handed flyer though we still go the same direction
and when you're new now the wind is heading toward these trees and it is coming from
the airport so when you're new you want to start kind of flying it up about this high
and get too high here we're at about 45. we're bringing it down
right here i'm kind of looking just to the tops of those trees i'm passing all right
now i'm downwind i'm coming up wind and now that i'm up when i'm just going to start bringing the
plane up then bringing it down so it's into the wind this is the way you start kind of
learning to get a little control just a little bit at a time now i'll go for some loops
and i'm making them really big and i'm giving some up put while i'm there
now i'm going to unwrap my lines by doing some outside loops
we won't even get to that yet
all right so when you get to your loop you want to bring it up high and you don't want to turn
it really tight like that see how my plane sort of stalled out you want to open it up
and i'm giving it up i'm holding it and as i come through a little more up so i can fly out level
do that again making it pretty high and i'm coming out so i got plenty of room
you could even get up here that's a pretty tight loop
we're gonna un unloop it a little
now once you get your loop down another maneuver you're gonna learn to do is a
figure eight
so i'm doing a loop i'm inverted now i'm giving down now i'm giving up now
i'm inverted and i'm giving down and you can make these long and now i'm giving it down
and this is a really good way eventually you're just going to start going inverted now when you're
inverted keep it a little high just notice my handle is sideways i have that habit it reminds me
that i'm flying upside down and now down is going to bring me up so i'm going to give it down input
all right now we're back to level flight so you're going to come around with the wind at
your back give it a little up do a partial wing over as you go into the wind come down
the river swing over come around i'm going to do a straight over wing over
cut inverted i give it down try to come back over in the same path give it up
so let's get back to the loop you're going to play it high sort it to your treetops give it up
let it come around and remember to give it up as you come to the bottom
so i'm giving it up and give it some up try to fly out straight
give it some up give it some up bring it through give it some up
remember again don't try to don't give it too much
up and stall the plane see how it kind of bounces around there
here's everybody's planes today in their field box the fuel box is real important because you've got
all your tools and your propellers and your lines and your handles and your starters and your windex
and your sunscreen your tachometers and your fuel and your your little tools and your starting panel
here's mine where i carry part of it out i got my panel right there got a little box i can take off
my other box with my fuel pump and my my glow plug battery i used the big super shot 2 my starter
my finger flipper which goes on my finger for for that sv 11 he doesn't recommend a starter so you
got to have some protection because those things will bump you and they will cut you
now this is my field kit and this part will come off so i can carry it separately hook back on
and i got uh my timer for time and laps i have my tachometer my fuel pump here's my fuel right here
various things i got notes the panther that i crashed today there's some notes on it
little drawers full of batteries and weights and glow plugs and tank stoppers and
little tools and needle valves and pliers and bolts and cutters and some very important
thing is your loctite thread locker so all your little bits and bobs that you need for the day
you