Apropos the lower cortex of the brain, have you tried flying a different mode
when you are well used to one of them? I had always flown mode 2 until not
too long ago I tried flying a swift slope plane on mode one. The owner, a
very generous guy named Chester Tai, offered his plane to me to fly since I
didn't have one at the time. But I've never flown mode 1, I said.
Awww, you won't have any problem, Chester said, and he put the plane up about
three or four mistakes high and handed me the transmitter. I had to
consciously make my left hand do what was necessary to control the plane for
mode 1, but my right hand unconsciously made the movements that would have
been correct for mode 2. My wife and I laughed as we watched my right hand
moving the right stick for mode 2 independently of any conscious thought
process on my part (thanks for the line, Tom and Ray) while I was wrenching
my brain to make the plane do what I wanted with my left hand. Chester wasn't
laughing. It was his plane going through those gyrations. I stayed at least
two mistakes high, however.
Bye and bye my brain got with the program, and got the plane flying okay, but
the mental work was exhausting; before long I gave the Tx back to Chester. He
was relaxed now or very polite, and he invited me to fly it again. What a
guy! I thanked him, but my brain needed a rest. Even later when he offered
again I was satisfied with the experience for that day.
I wonder if there is anyone who has trained himself to fly both mode one and
two interchangeably (?). I'd suppose it would be possible just as some people
can switch languages in mid-sentence.
The mode 1 experience reminded me of what it was like to learn to fly R/C in
the first place. It is abe so easy to the experienced and so difficult to the
beginner. Flight simulators and foamies are great inventions for reducing the
necessity for repairs.
And gyros are neat for DLG. They are 'way faster than the fastest lower
cortex, or at least mine.
I always enjoy your posts, Tom, and thanks for the invitation,
Al Nephew
Duluth, MN
Tom Nagel writes:
>> On the way back to the boat ramp, my neighbor Paul and I cooked up a
scheme for an entry in the 4th of July Doo Dah Parade, which runs past the
house in my neighborhood. We would round up a bunch of folks with RC cars,
decorate them, buy some Fezes and go as the RC Shriners. And so it came to
pass.
Paul had his little Radio Shack RC car decorated with Godzilla holding
an American Flag. Rick had an electric 4x4 with a big flag on it. Wiese
wimped out. We only had three entries. The kid and I stuck and EPP pillar
into the cockpit of his car, and velroed a stuffed Flamingo onto the top of
it, with the legs dangling.
We checked for TX interference, and headed out for the parade, joining
up with the other entries (The Marching Fidels, the Starbucks Stormtroopers,
the Dick Cheney CPR Drill Team, the Chuy's Bar float, where every Wednesday
night is President's Daughter Night, and so on.)
And this is were the RC soaring connection sort of sneaks in. When we
got the parade master's command "Gentlemen Start Your Flamingos!" the kid
immediately had no control over his RC bird. He couldn't drive it at all.
Turns out we'd checked to make sure our TX did not interfere with Paul's
Godzillamobile, but we hadn't checked the other way around. Godzilla was
jamming the heck out of the Pink Flamingo.
So the kid gave me the TX, and I wound up driving the Flamingo. " How"
you say, "if there was all that interference?" The answer is that I am not
really sure. The throttle made the Flamingo turn sometimes. Sometimes not.
The steering was sometimes effective, and sometimes it worked like a
throttle, or reverse. But without really thinking about it much, I was able
to veer and swerve the Flamingo down the parade route.
Thinking about it later, I decided that RC pilots don't really think
about what we are doing. Our fingers get wired to our eyeballs in some
route that doesn't include the cerebral cortex (certainly not for Gordy or
me anyway) and we twiddle the sticks mostly by reflex. I couldn't explain
to the kid how to drive the Flamingo with all that interference, but I could
do it myself. I think that's how we get after flying a while. You can't
explain what the expert flyer did to save his plane after half his stab blew
off, or after he lost half of one wing in a mid air. You can't explain to
the new guy how to move the sticks to do a roll or to set up a landing. But
after flying for a while the new guy will get his fingers wired to his
eyeballs and get RC reflexes just like the rest of us.
I hope you all had a fun 4th of July, and that you will join us in the
RC Shriner's marching unit next summer.
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