Page 1 of 1

different way to fly

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 1:18 am
by jdevorak
I had my first Dragonfly lesson today. Bill and I are out at Forbes to do some hanger work. In the early part of the day, when the winds were still light, I tooled around the paddock for about an hour. The first lesson is always puttering around similar to ground handling on a hang glider. It was harder than you might think. That is because you use the hand for acceleration and braking. Left hand throttle gives the engine gas to move and reduce throttle to slow. You don’t set the throttle and drive around at a constant speed. Ground seed is faster downwind but too much throttle upwind and you might take off! You use the feet to steer. Left foot moves the rudder (and tail wheel) to turn left. Conversely, right foot is used to turn right. So to summarize: hands to go and slow, feet to steer.