darticus

Is there a difference in these types of planes? Are the Twisted Hobby planes in these categories? Is it better to buy a certain type of plane? Ron

birdDog

Alot of variance in airfoils, control surface sizes and throws, power systems, fuselage designs etc. It all depends on how you want to fly. 3d planes can be somewhat lacking in aerobatics due to thinner airfoils. Precision aerobatic style (not the brand) planes tend to have less than the massive control surfaces and throws of 3d planes etc, etc, etc. There are many differences.

Edit: Here is something I picked up from another forum which pretty much sums up my impressions.
"3D (acrobatics) is flying on the motor, whilst aerobatics if flying on the wing."

Nutball

3DHobbyShop planes are very light weight and flop around with little effort. A normal 3D plane should be able to do a rolling harrier in my opinion to be called 3D, that stunt is a good test for it since you can hover a trainer sometimes. A pattern plane is aerobatic, but couldn't do 3D. Planes related to high and low wing trainers can do aerobatics, but not as well, and what I'd call normal planes.

pizzano

And the point is.....?...........3DHobbyShop mis-representing craft performance or not what you personally anticipated........

fhhuber

Planes designed for extreme low speed aerobatics (3D) tend to be very light for their size and have high power. 3D is generally doing aerobatics at or below the airspeed where the wing is stalled.

High speed models will have high power but less wing area compared to weight. You want minimum drag so a thin airfoil is better. While sweepback makes it look fast, sweep actually doesn't help for speed and can actually slow the model down. But sweep adds some stability so it may prevent the need for larger tail-planes and thus end up saving some drag.

Precision aerobatics models need a moderate setup for good weight to wing area and high power for the maneuvers performed while in vertical climb. Thicker airfoil than a speed model and may benefit from added drag to help prevent the plane gaining speed in a dive.

Many more aspects come into play... but that should be enough to point out that a plane good for one purpose is often marginal at best for other purposes.

ability to do the rolling harrier will be a combination of factors including CG, control surface area, power to weight, light weight for the aircraft size, good side area...
A plane that would be a good choice can be set up wrong and seem bad, especially if the pilot is not really up to the task.

birdDog

Actually, 3dHobbyshop and ExtremeFlight are arguably the best 3d aircraft manufacturers in the market. I'm guessing you misunderstood the post you quoted.

Nutball

I meant 3DHS planes are a very good example of 3D planes because they are so light and maneuverable.