Flying Lessons - jumps

[Ashlandchris]

Yesterday I raced at Batley and noticed that though my car and driving was approximately on the pace in the windy stuff and the straight, there were a couple of parts of the track with jumps of differing size. I tried different lines and approach speeds but found that if I tried to jump at a reasonable speed I would either nose dive or cartwheel on landing. If I tried to take jumps steady I could get consistent lap times and stay on my wheels but ended up being approx. 3-5 seconds a lap off the faster chaps.
Are there any good tips for jumping? I know I hear about "plip the throttle" and "use the brakes" to "balance" the car in flight, but how does that work? The only thing I know is that if I open the throttle in flight then my car back flips rather than nose dives, so clearly there must be a happy medium?
My car is a Yoke YZ-2 and drives like a dream when wheels on ground. I also can't blame the poor jumping on the car as it is clearly my driving, but just asking for help and advice

[Karting]

If the nose is dropping off the jump, then the rear of your chassis could be slapping the top of the up ramp causing the rear to kick up.

But basically practise on the mid air control, throttle brings nose up, brakes drops it down again

[ralphee]

What kind of ballast and damping you running Chris? Have yo say, i put very little input on my YZ2, since running some weight that is, kit spec was awful and very rear heavy!

Lee

[ralphee]

Ok ive time for a better input! Last Friday i ran kit springs, 450wt front, 400wt rear!
20g at the servo front, 50g shorty weight, and rear brass hangers, which equates to an extra 18g, and im jumping flat and level, super neutral, larger jumps to kick the front up some, so i dab a brake to drop that in!
Im running 10% drag too, which helps me TBH!
Even running rear purple, i still get a nice level take off, i find it now more stable in the air than my XMW, which was pretty wicked on jumping!

Lee

[Fozzy1989]

It's all dependent on the type of jump to the way you approach it from my experience. Which ones are you struggling with at Batley?

Cheers
Chris

[Ashlandchris]

I have got a brass weight up front and also in my bag I have the under shorty wt, but not used it yet (handling didn't feel like it was needed).

At Batley, the far left double with drop off seems to have caught me a few times - last time in the slight damp I had slightly more traction and seems to get a better line into it to jump flat. Yesterday, my car set up was same, but due to the dry sand on the approach bend I presume I had different speed at take off and I flipped out a few times, to the point where I was taking it much steadier simply to make sure I didn't lose time on my roof.

I think similar was the case for each jump, because the layout varies each week I hadn't struggled before, but yesterday I just seemed to crash a lot so ended up slowing down due to lack of confidence on the jumps.

[cjm_2008]

I'm no expert, but this is what I use:

Left stick up = nose pitch up
Left stick down = nose pitch down

It's the reaction torque that induces the pitch change. It's a good idea to take charge of this.

I'd like to thank Craig Harris and Caldicot RC racers for teaching me how to take jumps & providing some epic Friday night rampage from which to hurl my car and practice these effects

[Fozzy1989]

Originally Posted by Ashlandchris

I have got a brass weight up front and also in my bag I have the under shorty wt, but not used it yet (handling didn't feel like it was needed).

At Batley, the far left double with drop off seems to have caught me a few times - last time in the slight damp I had slightly more traction and seems to get a better line into it to jump flat. Yesterday, my car set up was same, but due to the dry sand on the approach bend I presume I had different speed at take off and I flipped out a few times, to the point where I was taking it much steadier simply to make sure I didn't lose time on my roof.

I think similar was the case for each jump, because the layout varies each week I hadn't struggled before, but yesterday I just seemed to crash a lot so ended up slowing down due to lack of confidence on the jumps.

The key to the far left is being committed and keep the throttle the same mid air as take off. Plus if you actually look at the face of the jump the outside part of it has a steeper take off and is the better part of the jump to use. That's just from my experience with the new track.

Cheers
Chris

[Neil_H]

The far left double I find if you just hit it straight you are generally OK, its when you hit it at a slight angle it gets messy.

I generally don't have an issue with the front or rear comming up on that one as its quite shallow, but that means you need abit of speed to clear it. This is obviously easier said than done as the short run up is directly after a sharp corner, so tricky to get it straight. I've started taking the corner leading up to it abit wider to get a little bit more time to settle the car and line it up.

I'm running the front weight, and both under lipo weights, I've also been adjusting my ESC timing and turbo so a can just blip abit of throttle to get over it. I don't get it right every time but when I do it feels great to land perfectly straight on the down ramp and carry the speed onto the straight.

[J77MYF]

I was on standard springs and the brass weight under the lipo. Car felt very balanced and good. It was breezy yesterday which never helps.

[Ashlandchris]

Hmm, think I may add the under lipo weight for next time and see how that feels. I'd been loathe to try it is car felt so good on ground. Will also try to have a practice at some point just doing the jumps. Need to learn the reactions to blip with a wheel Tx as that never feels as easy as with a stick

[ayske1]

As someone has said I think approaching it straight is important so that the push off of the last wheels is even. Not sure if this helps but when I hit my triple I need full throttle and when it's about time to land on the down ramp I go off throttle to nose down - this is with a trimmed wing that's about 2/3 cut. When I had it uncut with full throttle at the jump it would nose up and I'd have to touch the brakes to bring it down on the down ramp.

Hope this helps. But I think the biggest thing is approaching the jump cleanly and straight and assuming you have high power to clear it.