Inverted Flying and Muscle Memory Fail

I have been flying RC aircraft for almost two years now, and have begun to think I’m getting pretty good at it. However, over the last few months I’ve experienced more crashes than normal, even for me. At first I thought it was simply the over confidence we all feel as we come closer to mastering a new skill. You know, that dangerous point when you start to think you may know what you are doing. Maybe it is in part, but why? A pattern developed fairly quickly that makes me think something else is happening - Muscle memory.

First victim: Over the head in wind and the wrong move left me three feet short of enough altitude. 

Muscle memory is that often elusive occurrence that makes us good at something physical. Musical instruments, dancing, sports, typing on a keyboard (I’m still working on that one) and of course flying our RC aircraft.

‘Practice Makes Perfect’ is what I heard growing up, but it just means that the more you do something, the better your muscle memory becomes. Your body learns what to do before you tell it. In the case of RC aircraft good muscle memory means you only have think what the plane (or quad) is supposed to do and it does it. Your fingers do what you’ve taught them to and the plane does what you think it should. Left, right, level out, up, down, roll. It’s all there in the fingers ready to go as you think it and it works well. It’s amazing how well. After about two years it’s working pretty well for me anyway. Enough to gain the confidence that I can take off, fly and land in one piece most of the time. At least, up until now. 

Just dayum.

Recently I’ve been trying to learn to fly inverted. Seriously, the cool factor of cruising down the line upside down and only a few feet off the ground is something we should all experience. It's going to happen, all it takes is a little practice, right?

Glue drying, but the nose was completely off here too.

Last Saturday I attended a small ‘After 6’ glider completion. Not yet owning a pure glider, I’m snagging winch cables and trying to help out. At the end of the competition, It's time to my modified Super Cub into the air. The Cob isn't pretty, but has ailerons, flaps and a straight carbon reinforced wing and it flies pretty well. I’m at altitude inverted and circling the field downwind and it’s time to bring it back. So, spur of the moment while remaining inverted I drop altitude and come up the line. It’s down to about 10 feet and that’s good enough, here it comes and I’m thinking ‘Cool! Check this out!’  It passes perfectly level and in control. Then… Disaster! What I remember is thinking ‘time to gain altitude’ as my super cub immediately nosed over directly into the grass with a very loud thump. It was a surprise, a shock, I didn’t see it coming! The chorus of ugh’s and ooof's from directly behind told me I had indeed gotten everyone’s attention.  Sigh… What happened?

This was becoming habitual!

I have badly broken four aircraft recently, one twice, and it took to this last for me to put it together and realize that all of them were during inverted flight, and all of them occurred as I relaxed enough or found myself in a confusing situation where my muscle memory took over to do the *wrong* thing. Saturday I was distracted in the situation, knowing people were watching, trying to hold it steady and do it right and simply forgot my fingers. My muscle memory then became a problem. My fingers did exactly what I’ve taught them to do over two years, ‘to go up, pull back on the elevator’. Ouch.

 It will buff out. The others did.

So this little story is a reminder to caution, to be aware that getting better is a continuous effort. When you think you are, maybe it’s time to be extra careful. Unlearning muscle memory may be more difficult than learning it.

Or, maybe we should simply remember, as Raptortech posted, When flying inverted down is up, and up is expensive.

Hey! Watch this…  Oops!