Les 1 van Phil Barnes
The most important thing to practice is the ability to hook up with lift and then stay in the lift. You should make some attempt to read the air prior to launch and then throw/fly to where you think the lift is. Once you get a nibble or some lift indication then try to center up in the lift. If the lift is not where you thought it was then fly straight lines until you fine some somewhere else. Assuming you have got the model centered in some lift then you should work the lift for a little while and try to stay with the lift as it drifts. There is no sense in hooking into monster lift and climbing to speck height. There are no useful contest skills to be gained by spending an hour doing acrobatics at speck height. So as soon as you have centered the lift tracked it downwind while climbing then it is time to work on some other useful contest skills.
So bail out on that thermal and come back upwind and look for another one. You should pay attention to the wind shifts and come upwind on the side of the field favored by the current wind direction. Try to hook up in some new lift and center up again. If you find only sink then relaunch and go where you think there might be lift. Never spend more than three or four minutes on a flight unless you are bailing on thermals and relocating new ones. Don't bother spending more than two minutes in easy lift. Fight out a three or four minute flight in spotty difficult lift if you find yourself in that situation but don't waste time doing lazy circles or skyrocketing upward in easy lift.
If you practice like that then you will get plenty of launch practice. I hardly ever do catch and fast relaunch practice and I don't think beginners should bother with that at all. Do as Denny says and make safe landings near your feet or just catch the plane by it's nose and set the plane down. Then pick it up for the next throw. Wing tip catches are of no use to beginners and even intermediate level fliers. For the experts, a wingtip catch and relaunch might improve their round score from the 980s to a 100 at best, it is virtually never the difference between winning and losing a contest. The beginner and intermediate level pilot needs only to be able to land thge model at his feet or make a nose catch to be competitive. The thing to avoid as a beginner is landing 100feet away and spending time running after the plane.
I use the timer on my transmitter to time flights. I just have a switch that I throw at some point near the end of each launch. This starts the timer and I typically try to fly two minute flights or I'll fight out three and four minute flights if the air is difficult but the longer flights are doable. I then usually catch the plane by its nose, set it down, reset the timer and throw again. I don't practice landing to a count down. I don't think experts need much practice to do that effectively. Beginners need only to be able to land somewhere near themselves and no more than maybe five seconds over the target time.
By the way, are you flying with thermal flap setting all the time right after the launch (I do) or you fly fast and change the flap setting when you are in the thermal?
I only put the thermal camber in when I think I'm in or near to lift. If I launch into nice air then I'll immediately switch on the thermal camber, otherwise I tarnsition into glide and keep the speed mode on. I'll cruise to where I think the lift is or in some blind search direction in speed camber. Once I get the first thermal indications I'll switch on the thermal camber, I think I can read air better in thermal camber. There are exceptions to the rule though:
If the conditions are just launch and float conditions or conditions where the lift and sink are very gentle and subtle then I'll immediately switch to thermal or float mode right after launch. In those conditions I'm in maximum "air reading" mode immediately after launch.
Then there are the opposite conditions. If the air is real "sporty", that is to say breezy and turbulent I might just leave the plane in speed mode even while thermalling. In those conditions I want to always keep my airspeed up to avoid upsets. The small loss in climbing ability will not matter since in these conditions the lift needs to be strong to be usable anyway and so the plane will climb as long as you get to the lift and avoid being thrown out of it when you get there.
Do you do full power launches every time or try to practice sometimes from low altitude?
I almost always do full power launches. You can do low power launches if you are concerned about wearing yourself out. That's never a consideration for me, I'm always full bore all the time. There is no need to do low power launches to practice low saves or low thermalling. You'll get plenty of practice with that when you launch into bad air or if you practice as I suggest and bail on lift to come upwind looking for new air.
And what do you do if you are really high but you should land? Do you just push down the flaps or do some "crazy" stuff?
I hardly ever play around with that but when I do I just do a vertical dive with the airplane in speed camber. I might do some fast low passes before throwing out the flaps to slow for the catch.
That's an interesting thought, to find a thermal for your next launch. Seems very obvious, but never occured to me before. Hmm.
This is one of the most important skills to learn if you want to be an expert level pilot. You find lift, center up in it, climb for a while, then bail out and come upwind to find lift for the next throw. If you have climbed above launch height then you should come down to launch height, slow the plane down to a normal thermal search speed and search the air within range of your throw. Use your air reading skills to look in the most likely areas for lift. Look for other planes in lift or read the wind shifts for clues. Now you see why I pratice the way I do.
So you guys have almost no camber when you search for thermals?
You should not have camber on if you know that you are not in or near lift. You want to move quickly through that air on your way to better air. If you can read air while flying fast in speed camber mode then leave the plane in speed camber until you get to lift. If you are like me and you can read air better when flying slowly with camber then flip to thermal camber and slow down at the first lift indication or when you reach the area of sky that you really want to search.
