I am a beginner into RC.I was at Airoli this Saturday along with Sandeep. There were a lot of experienced flyers, Praveen and others. I noticed that all flyers did their circuits only in one direction. That is go from left to right and take a left U turn go to the far left end and come back.( Clockwise from below). Although they did a lot of Rolls and falls but the path remained the same. I noticed this flying pattern on many you tube videos as well. Is this just because you get habituated to a pattern..or is it very difficult to change this flying pattern while you are in the air?

Shreekant

You are tack right! its like Right-Handers and Left-handers! in a clock wise direction, our brain has to do less processing to translate the orientation and you can use that 'cool' (from lesser processing) when you finally crash  (is that true for Right handed people, lefties, please revert)

I am not sure if in 'Pattern' flying one has to come out from this comfort zone to score marks!

You start at rate of 5 crashes per minute on the SIM but slowly, you don't notice when you acquired that 'orientation reflex' , just like one learns to ride a Bicycle all of a sudden! Still it takes a little more while to learn orientation on complex maneuvers.

Welcome to the world of RC Rooster!

Let me try to put Ujjwal's brain talk is layman's lingo

The *natural* "figure 8" circuit is when you make left turns when the aircraft is moving away from you on your right side, and make a right turn when the aircraft is moving away from you on your left side.  This motion avoids the aircraft coming in a nose-pointed-at-you position WHILE making the turn. But it does come with the nose pointed at you AFTER the turn is made, but our brains can deal with that much easier

The problem is when people only do that all that time, and do not try to practice and use both ways of making circuits / figure-8s.  It is always recommended that you train and put in practice figure-8s in both directions, but also just doing circles both ways in front of you, so that you can truly master all orientations of flight. 

And when you think you have got that down to an art, kick start your brain by doing those same things inverted

  Anwar bhaii !! We beginners take things one by one!! I was quiting what was recommended by local flyers to beginners like us, and it worked for me! Otherwise I was trying to fly in both sides and not making much progress on the SIM.

And when you have mastered that too, move on to helis and  try doing these same things flying backwards (both upright and inverted).  That should keep you busy for a little while

In most fields, the pit and car park is on one side of the runway. You should never fly over the pits and endanger people, always fly in front of you. So one leg of the pattern is over the runway and the other further out and parallel to the runway. The direction over the runway is set by wind direction. You always take off and land against the wind. This pretty much decides the circuit pattern. Wind changes direction twice a year, so half the year you'll be flying clock wise pattern and anti clockwise the rest of the year. When there are multiple planes in the air, not conforming to the same pattern will sooner or later cause a mid air collision. Even if it is rare, most pilots would not want to fly and risk their planes when chaotic flying is going on. Flying a pattern is just being considerate to your fellow fliers.

The direction of flying based on wind is applicable at take off and landing. But after take off and before preparing to land, it is at the sole discretion of the pilots. True that with multiple planes in the air, everyone following similar circuits does help, but I have seen a lot of people who just fly in their "comfort zones" only even when the field is free (taking same turns all the time). 

Not sure which of these was happening there.

In many fields (with enough space), people move to different sides to have some of that "private space" (so one guy keeps his aircraft mostly on the right end of the field, someone in the middle, and another person mostly on the left end).

Thanks Anwar ujjwaana and others. I think this has made it fairly clear the pattern to train oneself on the SIM.

Shreekant

Shreekant

DON'T train yourself to fly in only one circuit pattern. Get used to both left and right hand circuits.  Many modellers have a problem with right hand turns also.