*** Welcome to piglix ***

3D Aerobatics


3D Aerobatics or 3D flying is a form of flying using flying aircraft to perform specific aerial maneuvers. They are usually performed when the aircraft had been intentionally placed in a stalled position.

In its most basic sense, 3D flight is controlled flight beyond the stalls critical angle of attack (AoA, or alpha) aka post-stall. Because the model is stalled and has little natural airflow across its flight surfaces, most 3D maneuvers require very large control deflections to vector the propeller thrust and change the models attitude.

3D aerobatic flying is a typically performed by model aircraft which have been configured with a higher thrust-to-weight ratio of more than 1:1. In fixed wing aeroplanes large control surfaces assist the aircraft on performing radical maneuvers which allow the aircraft to turn in tighter than conventional turns. This is achieved by having larger control surfaces; rudder, ailerons, and elevator and having greater amounts of throw applied to these control surfaces.

Depending on the type of competition, a pilot may compete in Set Manoeuvres where a pilot can choose from a number of manoeuvres from pre-published set of moves or Freestyle, where pilots must show their skill within a predetermined environment in a free format. The Extreme Flight Championships (XFC) is a large international freestyle competition.

Pilots often train moves using PC simulators such as RealFlight or other RC flight simulators. This allows the pilot to practice and hone their skills before using the real RC model which may be costly exercise in the event of a crash. Pilots have the ability to plug the controller used to fly the real model to the PC and simulator via a USB link cable thus giving the pilot a better response to the real world controls. Famous pilots include Quique Somenzini, Andrew Jesky, Jason Noll, Frank Noll, Chip Hyde, Mark Leseberg, Gernot Bruckmann.

Source: www.aircraft-hobby.com Source: [1]

There are a multitude of Hobby Grade Model Airframes that can perform 3D manoeuvres. Many of these models are designed after full scale airframes with slight modifications to accommodate thrust to weight ratios, control surface sizes. Some of the most popular scale models are below:

Extra Aircraft: Extra 260 Extra 300 Extra 330S


...
Wikipedia

...