Hi Bartman,
I'm still learning this maneuver really great that you guys give this information. Once again thanks guys.
The Rolling Harrier
- Thread starter gyro
- Start date
I'm still learning this maneuver really great that you guys give this information. Once again thanks guys.
Decal Dennis
TEAM EP&G
I didn't have anyone around to teach me how, so this is how I taught myself how to do the rolling harrier in 4 parts, the goal of doing it this way was to learn it in increments (not to overload your brain and fingers
), then seamlessly blend it all together once you are comfortable with each part.
Keep in mind........this WILL NOT look pretty or cool at first, but in the end, once you have mastered each step, it all comes together
First, but not part 1 is radio setup: I set all rates to permanent high rates(max throws, the more the better!), this is how I normally fly anyways)- except for aileron, I set them for high(3D), medium(faster roller) and low(slow roller) throw rates at 70-75% expo, I use this expo setting on rudder and aileron also. You may need to play with the throw settings, depending on the roll rate of your plane.
Part 1: Master the harrier, power (throttle) management is key here! I normally do this with full up or close to full up elevator and keep/control the pitch of the plane with power (throttle) management, at this point.....you are officially a throttle jockey, bad ass right?!?!?!, don't forget to use aileron to keep the wings level laterally. Some planes will more wing rock than others.
Start with doing harriers in a straight line, once you are comfortable with that, you can start steering yourself around with the rudder. Pretty cool so far! At this point...you are performing a 3D maneuver, sweeeeetness!
Practice, practice, practice!!!
Part 2: In this part you will only be using rudder (for pitch control) and aileron(for roll control, pinned) to perform the roller, this is where it won't look very pretty at first and you will see some phugoid and non axial stuff going on....don't worry just yet!
Flying right to left and 4-5 mistakes high, aileron set to medium or low rates (desired roll rate)......while in a harrier (part 1, remember power management!), start a roll (I normally roll right), once the left wing tip is near the top of the roll (belly to you), you will feed in left rudder (keeps the pitch up), as the plane continues to roll, start releasing the rudder, the rudder should be neutral as the wings level out, as the right wing tip approaches the top (canopy to you) of the roll, feed in right rudder (keeps the pitch) and so on and so on throughout the roll.....depending on your forward speed and roll rate, you will need to adjust how much rudder throw you put in. Don't touch that elevator just yet!!
Keep practicing this until you have mastered and are comfortable with all the stick movements and can you keep it in the rolling harrier using this method. You may finding yourself going in circles while doing this, but that's ok for now.
Again......practice, practice, practice!!!
Part 3: Similar to part 2, in this part, you will only be using elevator (for pitch control) and aileron (for roll control, pinned) to perform the roller, this is where it still won't look very pretty at first and you will see some phugoid and non axial stuff going on....again, don't worry just yet!
Flying right to left and 4-5 mistakes high, aileron set to medium or low rates (desired roll rate)......while in a harrier (part 1) (remember power management!), start a roll (I normally roll right), once the belly is near the top of the roll (right wing to you), you will feed in down elevator (keeps the pitch up), as the plane continues to roll, start releasing the elevator, the elevator should be neutral as the wings level out, as the canopy approaches the top (left wing to you) of the roll, feed in up elevator (keeps the pitch) and so on and so on throughout the roll.....depending on your forward speed and roll rate, you will need to adjust how much elevator throw you put in. Don't touch that rudder!!
Keep practicing this until you have mastered and are comfortable with all the stick movements and you can keep it in the rolling harrier. Again, you may finding yourself going in circles while doing this, but that's ok for now.
And again.......practice, practice, practice!!!
Part 4: This is where your brain may go into overdrive and burn out!
, but still remember to be 4-5 mistakes high!!
While in a harrier (part 1), again right to left flight.....start a roll (again, right roll in this case) and start to mix in parts 2 and 3.......left wing tip approaching the top of the roll, input left rudder (keeps pitch) then belly approaching top of roll, input down elevator (keeps pitch) then right wing tip approaching top of roll, input right rudder (keeps pitch) then canopy approaching top of roll, input up elevator (keeps pitch) and so on.
As you practice this, your rollers will start to look more axial.....NICE!!
You still may find yourself going in circles, it's ok for now, keep going until you are comfortable with mixing all the stuff you just learned. When the time comes, you just add in or subtract some input to keep the plane going in the direction you want it to.
When I mastered my process, I was actually able to do rolling harriers with this plane:
Hope this helps some of you learn the rolling harrier
Decal Dennis
), then seamlessly blend it all together once you are comfortable with each part.Keep in mind........this WILL NOT look pretty or cool at first, but in the end, once you have mastered each step, it all comes together
First, but not part 1 is radio setup: I set all rates to permanent high rates(max throws, the more the better!
), this is how I normally fly anyways)- except for aileron, I set them for high(3D), medium(faster roller) and low(slow roller) throw rates at 70-75% expo, I use this expo setting on rudder and aileron also. You may need to play with the throw settings, depending on the roll rate of your plane.Part 1: Master the harrier, power (throttle) management is key here! I normally do this with full up or close to full up elevator and keep/control the pitch of the plane with power (throttle) management, at this point.....you are officially a throttle jockey, bad ass right?!?!?!, don't forget to use aileron to keep the wings level laterally. Some planes will more wing rock than others.
Start with doing harriers in a straight line, once you are comfortable with that, you can start steering yourself around with the rudder. Pretty cool so far! At this point...you are performing a 3D maneuver, sweeeeetness!
Practice, practice, practice!!!
Part 2: In this part you will only be using rudder (for pitch control) and aileron(for roll control, pinned) to perform the roller, this is where it won't look very pretty at first and you will see some phugoid and non axial stuff going on....don't worry just yet!
Flying right to left and 4-5 mistakes high, aileron set to medium or low rates (desired roll rate)......while in a harrier (part 1, remember power management!), start a roll (I normally roll right), once the left wing tip is near the top of the roll (belly to you), you will feed in left rudder (keeps the pitch up), as the plane continues to roll, start releasing the rudder, the rudder should be neutral as the wings level out, as the right wing tip approaches the top (canopy to you) of the roll, feed in right rudder (keeps the pitch) and so on and so on throughout the roll.....depending on your forward speed and roll rate, you will need to adjust how much rudder throw you put in. Don't touch that elevator just yet!!
Keep practicing this until you have mastered and are comfortable with all the stick movements and can you keep it in the rolling harrier using this method. You may finding yourself going in circles while doing this, but that's ok for now.
Again......practice, practice, practice!!!
Part 3: Similar to part 2, in this part, you will only be using elevator (for pitch control) and aileron (for roll control, pinned) to perform the roller, this is where it still won't look very pretty at first and you will see some phugoid and non axial stuff going on....again, don't worry just yet!
Flying right to left and 4-5 mistakes high, aileron set to medium or low rates (desired roll rate)......while in a harrier (part 1) (remember power management!), start a roll (I normally roll right), once the belly is near the top of the roll (right wing to you), you will feed in down elevator (keeps the pitch up), as the plane continues to roll, start releasing the elevator, the elevator should be neutral as the wings level out, as the canopy approaches the top (left wing to you) of the roll, feed in up elevator (keeps the pitch) and so on and so on throughout the roll.....depending on your forward speed and roll rate, you will need to adjust how much elevator throw you put in. Don't touch that rudder!!
Keep practicing this until you have mastered and are comfortable with all the stick movements and you can keep it in the rolling harrier. Again, you may finding yourself going in circles while doing this, but that's ok for now.
And again.......practice, practice, practice!!!
Part 4: This is where your brain may go into overdrive and burn out!
, but still remember to be 4-5 mistakes high!!While in a harrier (part 1), again right to left flight.....start a roll (again, right roll in this case) and start to mix in parts 2 and 3.......left wing tip approaching the top of the roll, input left rudder (keeps pitch) then belly approaching top of roll, input down elevator (keeps pitch) then right wing tip approaching top of roll, input right rudder (keeps pitch) then canopy approaching top of roll, input up elevator (keeps pitch) and so on.
As you practice this, your rollers will start to look more axial.....NICE!!
You still may find yourself going in circles, it's ok for now, keep going until you are comfortable with mixing all the stuff you just learned. When the time comes, you just add in or subtract some input to keep the plane going in the direction you want it to.When I mastered my process, I was actually able to do rolling harriers with this plane
:Hope this helps some of you learn the rolling harrier
Decal Dennis
Last edited:
Suds
50cc
I didn't have anyone around to teach me how, so this is how I taught myself how to do the rolling harrier in 4 parts, the goal of doing it this way was to learn it in increments (not to overload your brain and fingers
Hope this helps some of you learn the rolling harrier
Decal Dennis
Thanks Dennis - appreciate you sharing your approach. I was kind of headed down the same path - currently using rudder only for a few rotations. I will start trying elevator only next and hopefully finally blend them together sometime this year. Also repeating four point and medium slow rolls to get the hang of the 'stir'.
Bartman
Defender of the Noob!
Suds, you and I are probably at about the same point with this. I'll try to keep up!
pawnshopmike
Staff member
Decal Dennis
TEAM EP&G
Lol...ya, took me awhile to think and type that out!!!
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pawnshopmike
Staff member
I bet.
Xpress
GSN Sponsor Tier 1
As Kyle Woyshnis once told me... Don't get into a rhythm, just correct the airplane as it rolls around. That was the hardest part for me is figuring out how to break my rhythm and just actively correct the airplane as it rolls around on the deck. When you figure this out, the airplane looks so much smoother rolling around. I didn't believe him until I was actually able to do it myself first hand, now everything makes so much more sense. Throttle is no longer being pulsed with rudder inputs, it's instead being managed as the nose of the airplane rises or drops in conjunction with elevator or rudder inputs.
Don't worry if this isn't something you'll pickup in 1-2 flights. It's taken me literally thousands of flights and countless hours of trying to figure out how to make the airplane roll how I want it to. Aside from certain vertical rolling maneuvers, the rolling harrier is probably one of the most complex maneuvers out there to perform, let alone make it look good, so don't get discouraged if you aren't finding yourself getting it down quickly. I started by doing slow point rolls with the nose in high alpha. That will train your thumbs to the inputs required to keep the airplane in a continuous rolling motion.
I would say the best thing to also do is practice rolling on both directions. Get some height and make yourself do a rolling circle to the right, and then go back and do it to the left. Otherwise you'll spend years re-learning how to roll left instead of right (or visa versa)
When you've figured it out, it'll look something kinda like this.
Don't worry if this isn't something you'll pickup in 1-2 flights. It's taken me literally thousands of flights and countless hours of trying to figure out how to make the airplane roll how I want it to. Aside from certain vertical rolling maneuvers, the rolling harrier is probably one of the most complex maneuvers out there to perform, let alone make it look good, so don't get discouraged if you aren't finding yourself getting it down quickly. I started by doing slow point rolls with the nose in high alpha. That will train your thumbs to the inputs required to keep the airplane in a continuous rolling motion.
I would say the best thing to also do is practice rolling on both directions. Get some height and make yourself do a rolling circle to the right, and then go back and do it to the left. Otherwise you'll spend years re-learning how to roll left instead of right (or visa versa)
When you've figured it out, it'll look something kinda like this.
HRRC Flyer
GSN Sponsor Tier 1
. . . . . . . Part 4: This is where your brain may go into overdrive and burn out!
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but my brain went into overdrive and burnt out just reading the first part. . . . . . . . .
Bartman
Defender of the Noob!
As Kyle Woyshnis once told me... Don't get into a rhythm, just correct the airplane as it rolls around. That was the hardest part for me is figuring out how to break my rhythm and just actively correct the airplane as it rolls around on the deck. When you figure this out, the airplane looks so much smoother rolling around. I didn't believe him until I was actually able to do it myself first hand, now everything makes so much more sense. Throttle is no longer being pulsed with rudder inputs, it's instead being managed as the nose of the airplane rises or drops in conjunction with elevator or rudder inputs.
Don't worry if this isn't something you'll pickup in 1-2 flights. It's taken me literally thousands of flights and countless hours of trying to figure out how to make the airplane roll how I want it to. Aside from certain vertical rolling maneuvers, the rolling harrier is probably one of the most complex maneuvers out there to perform, let alone make it look good, so don't get discouraged if you aren't finding yourself getting it down quickly. I started by doing slow point rolls with the nose in high alpha. That will train your thumbs to the inputs required to keep the airplane in a continuous rolling motion.
I would say the best thing to also do is practice rolling on both directions. Get some height and make yourself do a rolling circle to the right, and then go back and do it to the left. Otherwise you'll spend years re-learning how to roll left instead of right (or visa versa)
When you've figured it out, it'll look something kinda like this.
Tanner,
Would you agree that being rhythmic about it is an ok strategy for people that aren't flying as much? I know what you're saying though, sometimes when I'm flying more frequently my brain just starts doing things without me having to think about it and it all seems a lot more natural.