Crashed the Heli yesterday

[SlowWhite]

Well after 2 days of working out problems I finally had a good day of flying today. Finally felt comfident enough with the heli not doing something stupid on me that I started to try entry level 3D flying today.

Basic Rolls, Loops, and minor tail first flying around. And the last flight of the day I started throwing in some tail spin menuvers. (but doing everything real slow just in case something went wrong)
I started doing inverted flying around as well and inverted hovering but at height. I'd say I'd take a picture for you guys of me doing an inverted hover but I'm still not at the point where I'm 100% comfident with bringing it closer to the ground where it would look much cooler.
Still like my buffer zone just in case as yesterday I had a crash coarse in having to do Auto's twice, once while luckly finishing up a barrel roll going back to upright.

The clunk in my hopper tank didn't have free movement so I couldn't get fuel when inverted. I'll see if I can get someone to take some pictures tomorrow but I'll be pretty high up.

[Onefast99gsx]

Hi Brian-

Glad to hear you got it up and going. I just crashed my heli yesterday. First crash that actually did a little damage. I had a bent flybar and decided to take it outside anyways and put it into the ground about 8 feet up. Shattered both blades, wrecked the canopy and the flybar case. About $20 damage. Nothing too bad other than the downtime. I'm getting pretty good at hovering and basic flying around. The collective pitch takes a little getting used to. Way different than my fixed pitch heli but way more fun with a real heli now.

I've been downloading a lot of videos off Bob White's helifreak.com site. Great site with alot of info. It's more geared towards the Align heli's but my heli is real close to the Align trex 450.

When learning 3D stuff, which is probably the easiest trick to do, rolls ??

[SlowWhite]

Yep the Align products seem to be the new "Raptor's" - relitively cheap and great flight characteristics.

3D:
make sure you are in Idle up (if you have idle 1 and 2 make them both the same set up incase you accidently switch it to far) and that the throttle curve is set up so that you'll maintain head speed during inverted flight. Basically looking at a "V" throttle and "V" pitch curve.
Meaning if the stick is exactly center the pitch on the blades should be Zero. when you are full stick(ie: up) your pitch should be somewhere between 10-11 degrees Positive, when you are full negative stick should (ie: down) be between 10-11 degrees negative pitch.
Throttle curve in Idle up 1 and 2 should be so if you are at full negative stick you are at 100% throttle, 1/4 stick you should be at 75% throttle, at center stick or Zero pitch I run 50% throttle, 3/4 stick i'm back at 75% throttle, and full possitive stick I'm back at 100% throttle.

To start doing 3D: just get some pretty good height incase something goes wrong you'll be able to hopefully recover, and some really good forward speed and then pull back on the stick. (don't just yank it, but actually try to do a big loop) when you get the the top where you are now inverted just bring the stick down into the negative pitch, and as you come back down you are bringing the stick back to positive collective until you finish the loop.

Basically unlike a plane where it's constantly getting pulled forward, in a helicopter you have to use the Pitch of the rotor blades to make the helicopter keep moving.

And at first I do recommend finishing the loop and not trying to sustain inverted flight, if you have a fuel issue it'll happen when you are inverted. So continuing the loop will bring the helicopter back to the upright position and if you have to Auto you'll at least be upright again and have a better chance at saving it.

Keep trying them and if you aren't experienceing any motor issues then when you get to the inverted section of the loop you can actually then try to sustain inverted flight for longer periods of time.

Next would be Rolls, they are personally IMO easier then loops but at when first starting out do Loops because you are actaully climbing rather then staying in a straight line, and that climbing gives you an even greater "cushion" incase something goes wrong.

anyrate rolls: start with fast forward flight and then you just push the aileron stick to one side or the other. (normally its easier / more natural to move the sticks to the outside of the radio not inward) meaning if you are coming from the right heading to the left you'd move the aileron stick to the right which would normally pull the heli away from you. And basically just like a loop as you are coming around during the roll you have to give collective Pitch inputs try to be at Zero Pitch when the heli is on it's side then you just give it negative pitch when upside down and then as it's rolling over again to up right you give zero pitch and then back to positive pitch and continue on as if you are in forward flight.

Honestly a Simulator is your best bet at learning the stick movements. But don't expect your heli to react exactly the same as the simulator. You basically just use it for muscle memory.

Hopefully in learning loops you'll get used to the collective inputs of going to inverted and those same collective imputs are the same for rolls or any other trick you learn.

Hope that helps. (there is a fun fly coming up in WI on the 24th I think) it's listed on the Helifreaks website and also RCuniverse. Might be some guys there that can help, etc.

[Onefast99gsx]

Hi Brian-

Thanks for the great tips on where the sticks should be for doing some 3D stuff. I appreciate it. I still haven't gotten the simulator yet because I'm still
learning basic flight with it. My parts won't be here till probably Thursday. I ordered all kinds of stuff this time around. Even stuff I don't need. I think on my next order, I'm gonna get some carbon fiber blades. I was up in the cities last weekend and stopped at a Hobbytown USA. Nice shop. Wish we had a good hobby shop like that around here.

Anyway, my radio is the one that came with it. The throttle & pitch curves are all preset. It's not as fancy as something like yours or a Spektrum Dx6 or 7 radio. However you can easily throw one of those in mine. Probably best this way when it's my first collective pitch heli. I don't wanna have to learn to program the radio & fly at the same time. I think my curves are the basic/most common "V" You'd think that this brushless motor doesn't make much power but beyond 90-95% throttle, she starts to generate some serious amount of wind.

I only have just the 1 idle up switch. What's the difference between your idle 1 & 2? I can tell you that at mid stick, my pitch is zero and low stick is -9* and high stick is +9*. Which is just a bit low to what you're running. My book actually shows 7* as the high. Bob White from heli freak said he likes 11*.

I just need to get mine fully trimmed in. We got a shitload of snow here in central WI and the only decent days that i've been able to take it out, it's been a bit on the breezy side. Every time i make some fine tunes to the swash, it's affecting my pitch of course so my main concern is to just get it fully trimmed out. Can't wait till spring. I did take the training gear off it the other day. Last week I was actually flying around normal in 3D mode(but not doing 3D stunts). It's alot more fun because it seems more responsive. One thing you have to train yourself is to NOT treat the throttle stick normal or you'll come slamming to the ground with the negative pitch. You knew that of course. Not that I did that or anything but I just have to keep it in mind when in 3D mode.

Do you have any current pics of yours? I want to get a pic of my 2 heli's side by side once I get the canopy painted on my new one and get the parts of course.

I can't seem to find any info on that fun fly on the 24th in WI. Are you sure? Unless it's the 24th of a different month because we got alot of snow here.

Later.

PS- You're sig says you're in S.C. So you left MN again?

[SlowWhite]

Well since you asked I just got my new canopy and fins today and couldn't resist putting them on and taking some pictures I have a lot on my myspace profile and will upload some High Resolution ones later tonight, still on Dial up (Been sick so I had to push getting High speed back till March 7th...aarrgghh I want to play Call of Duty Damit!!!)
Honestly learing to fly a fixed pitched heli then trying to transfer to one that isn't, is very hard, because with a fixed pitch you have to use the throttle to hover. where as with a non-fixed pitched you don't it's all about the collective. Like you said fixed pitch you have to bring the throttle down to get it to land well doing that (at the same rate of speed) with a non-fixed pitch will definetely slam it into the ground Something you'll have to get used especially when you are in 3D/idle up mode where you'll be maintaining your engine rpms regardless of pitch.

Well so far this is all I found for the event in wisconsin.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/event.cfm?eventid=3180&begin=90&end=05/21/2008&cobrand=1

I swear when I first saw this it said there was going to be flying, maybe I miss read it or it changed due to weather?

Anyrate 11 degrees is perfect - also this is just a starting point on my heli I remembered bobby took out some of the Positive pitch and put more in for negative because it would climb really fast when up right but not at the same rate when inverted. Basically you want your rate of climb to be as close as you can get it both upright and inverted. Getting everything to be equal is pretty much the key with heli's at least that's what's been my experience.

Anyrate I'll stop this novel short - here's some pictures of the canopy