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How to Explain RC Plane Mixing

Radio-controlled (RC) airplanes use the same basic set of control surfaces as full-size models. The elevator is located in the horizontal stabilizer and controls pitch, or the up and down movement. Ailerons are housed in the wings and enable a plane to roll, or bank, so that it may perform a turn. Finally, the rudder is used to control yaw and is responsible for making minute correction to the planes course, which is especially useful on landing approaches. Since RC aircraft are much smaller and lighter, it makes them extremely sensitive to pilot inputs and other forces acting on them. Mixing gives pilots some built-in automated control and smooths out unwanted flight characteristics.

Instructions

- 1
  As its name suggests, mixing allows two separate control inputs (such as elevator and throttle) to work together in order to make the plane more controllable through the air.
- 2
  Most modern RC transmitters have a mixing function built-in and can be used to program a variety of control surfaces to work together under certain conditions. For example, almost all RC planes will climb under full power. To offset this tendency, you can use the mixing function to add a predetermined amount of down-elevator when throttle input is more than 75 percent to maintain level flight.
- 3
  Many RC pilots use mixing when performing a variety of aerial maneuvers. Adding a small amount of automatic rudder input when the model banks is useful for smoothing out turns. Models equipped with flaps -- which are useful for slowing down landing approaches -- balloon upward without a certain amount down elevator input. Instead of increasing the pilot's workload at this critical point, mixing is able to maintain predictable and stable flight. This is especially useful in high performance models, such as jets, or 3D capable aircraft.

Aviation