ADVANCED DUAL RATES AND EXPO
Expert pilots are often asked to name their favorite aerobatic airplane. Frankly, once a person graduates to flying Edges, Extras, Sukhois, and the like, they are all equally capable, and any differences that are not setup-related are barely noticeable to all but the most expert fliers. The real question is: Will your airplane be set up to promote maximum success?
While not necessary for precision aerobatic flying, a computer radio with dual rates and exponential is required for 3D flying. That’s because the large control-surface deflections required for 3D maneuvers would cause an airplane to be far too responsive during normal flight. Dual rates allow a pilot to achieve optimal control response for different modes of flight. For example, high rates allow maximum travels for 3D flying, whereas low (normal) rates provide optimal control for precision aerobatic flying, takeoff and landing. To help you stay focused on flying and not on flipping switches, it’s recommended that you put all your dual-rate and expo settings on one switch.
On high 3D rates, a plane will be too sensitive and hard to control between maneuvers, so 30- to 50-percent exponential is used to reduce control sensitivity through the first third or half of stick deflection. Expo will therefore allow you to fly with the “feel” of normal rates when the stick inputs are less than half, but then rapidly ramp up beyond that. However, to develop the precise timing required to fly aerobatics well, it’s important to maintain a close correlation between your inputs and the response of the plane.
Therefore, the ideal low/normal rate settings should provide a comfortable control response with minimal use of expo. In other words, if the plane is touchy on low rates, before you start adding expo, you should first try reducing the low rate percentages.