Flying F3A. Is it a Physical or Mental exercise?
Flying F3A Pattern has been an enriching experience giving me much satisfaction. In my experience while flying a good round my thoughts are so concentrated on the task at hand that virtually everything else is put out of consciousness for the 7 minutes or so I am up there with my plane, and a great sense of satisfaction is realized after a really good flight.
For those of you that haven't experienced this sort of thing while flying F3A or any other type of R/C let me tell you that the feeling can be amazing, but the state of mind required for this to be possible is not easy to get to. When you have been there even once you know it and you want to get back to it every time you have a flight. One could say it is like being on a high. I wish there were a simple recipe for making it happen time after time on demand. It is said that all top performers in sport are able to "switch it on" when needed. I suppose that I am among the many who journey toward the time when this level of concentration can be automatic and I can switch it on. To my mind after acquiring the necessary technical skills, focused concentration is the biggest secret to doing well in F3A Pattern, and also the key to achieving the greatest sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that comes along with this or any other sport.
On competition day your caller places your plane on the field, you take a deep breath, bring up the throttle and you are in the air. Every muscle in your body is tense and every movement you make is second-guessed and corrected. Some of us start to shake. If I'm not careful, "Gee, I wonder what's for lunch" is usually what pops into my mind followed by "hold on, keep your mind on track man." The inner dialogue continues, and this is about the worst thing you can do to yourself. Lately I have learned to battle the inner conversation simply by repeating one word or a simple useful phrase. What works for me is the word "breath" or phrase "check level". Just repeat it over and over again the whole flight and focus on the meaning. When you choose your phrase, make it short and meaningful. I chose "check level" because level flight is at the root of any good manoeuvre. It is always good be very aware of the planes attitude and correct if possible. I've found that repeating it over and over to yourself forces you to check and re-check. It also helps me concentrate and drowns out most other random thought. A good pointer that my dad gave me also is that under stress one tends to tense up and not breath properly. This is something so simple, but something valuable to keep in mind.
It is interesting how negative thoughts and fear of a difficult or demanding sequence can prevent proper concentration. Take any difficult manoeuvre for example. You choose. Now say you know this manoeuvre very well having done dozens of perfect 10 examples of it in practice. One day for whatever reason, you develop a fear of it for some reason. This will cause great inner conflict preventing you from concentrating properly. You will think (especially when it comes to competition time) I can't do this. That is all it takes. Little do you know that you have just defeated yourself and you will not do well in your flight. If you do not overcome your concern about how you feel towards this manoeuvre, then it will not only effect your concentration for that manoeuvre, but probably effect manoeuvres well before and after it in a sequence, again especially in a competition situation. These are things to be aware of and to work on.
Knowing the manoeuvres is a very good beginning. Having a positive confident mind-set towards your program schedule is crucial. This confident feeling about your program and manoeuvres are transmitted to the audience in the process of your flight. In other words, when I watch someone fly a full sequence I am able to guess how a pilot is feeling. The audience is able to gather emotional impression and will be able to tell if the pilot is nervous and unsure or if the pilot is confident and in control. The judges will get this feeling and see it as well. When you stitch together a long sequence of stand-alone manoeuvres the resulting flight will have a mood. It should convey to the judges a sense of constant control. Some keys to having a confident looking flight would be to convey everything confident like:
Smooth control, take your time and don't rush, use your whole box. Let one manoeuvre flow into the next with a nice relaxed break in between manoeuvres. Don't shortcut, rush or cheat in the tricky parts.
Briefly having discussed some ideas in the above paragraphs we see that competitive F3A pattern flying has very little to do with physically guiding a model airplane once you have reached certain proficiency. What it really breaks down into is being a challenging mind game that you play with yourself. I see the challenge being more of a constant inner struggle to keep a positive outlook and a concentrated focus. What results is feeling great when you are able to overcome all of the barriers.
Dez
