bdavison
Posts: 3318
Joined: 8/23/2004 From: Warner Robins,
GA, USA Status: offline
|
In the beginning of the video, right after take off, it was going up and rotating in a piroette at the same time. While it looks really hard...its really easy. Just bring the heli to a hover, get it as stable as you can. Now give it a little throttle to make it climb at a decent rate and at the same time give it full right stick input on the rudder. When your done, let go of the input. (and of course dont let it run into the ceiling). Its that simple. It will freak you out the first time you do it, because it looks like its whipping around really fast. Dont worry about it. It will stop rotating on a dime. As long as you end the piroette with the tail facing you, your right back in the same hover you had before. The key with it is NOT to give ANY cyclic commands while youve got the rudder in. If you do, it will starting doing a circle in the direction of the cyclic input. Which brings us to the other part of the video. See the XRB's rudder turns better to the right than it does to the left. I think its due to torque. If you give left rudder input, it will slow the blades down a little. This will require you to give a little throttle to keep rotor speed up. If you rotate to the right, it doesnt affect the rotor speed as much, so its far easier to do a maneuver with right rudder input than left rudder input, because it wont change the rotor speed and altitude as much. With this in mind. Get the heli in a hover with tail facing you. Hold full forward cyclic. While you do this, start feeding in just enough right rudder to make it turn. Keep holding the forward cyclic. Eventually it will do a regular forward flight circle. Now to get to the more wild part. As it comes back around the circle, feed in more right rudder. It will spin out of the circle and into a piroette(dont forget to let off the forward cyclic). Now wait till the tail is facing you in the piroette, stop all right rudder input, and give it full backward cyclic, now feed in right rudder again to make it do a rearward circle. Now vary your throttle while doing the above, and make it do the circles up higher, then decending as the circles get tighter and tighter until they end in a piroette a ft off the floor. It really sounds far harder than it really is. The biggest hurdle is just getting rid of that "its gonna roll over and crash" feeling. I learned how to do this kind of stuff in about a week of flying everyday. I wouldnt say any of that stuff is really hard. I know no ones gonna believe me. Im being dead seriously honest. I never flew a heli before I got the XRB. That video was shot one week after I got it. I flew about 5 flights a day with it during that week. Like I said the biggest hurdle is not learning how to fly it. The biggest hurdle is putting that fear behind you and just shoving the stick in some direction. Do it inside a gym. Dont try that stuff in your house. Inside a standard basketball court, you shouldn't have any problem. Its hard to explain. Its like it just clicks, you will be flying along, finally get over your fear, and try something, then you will say "that was easy....lets see if I can make it even more wildr" Honestly, there is only two ways I can think of that you could crash it. 1 . Running into a wall or the ceiling or something. 2. Pulling off too much throttle and hitting the ground. Here's the steps I would recommend. (remember dont do anything unless your comfortable doing it, but dont let fear keep you from trying something) First get comfortable hovering. I mean really comfortable. You should be able to takeoff, and maintain a hover at any altitude. It should not move more than about 6" in any direction while in a hover. Next, while in a hover, give it some forward cyclic as it moves forward, change it to rearward cyclic, and make it come back to you. Then do the same thing in left and right cyclic, until you get really used to it. It should not drift off course. It should not gain or lose altitude. Next learn your piroette. Just get it in a hover, and give it full right rudder. Do NOT input any cyclic commands while its spinning. Its better to whip it around fast your first time than slowly. If it goes slowly, you will have a short amount of time that its in nose in flight. If you whip it around fast, it wont be nose in long enough to make a difference. Like I said, it will freak you out, and you will probably have the jitters, but then you'll realize that it was a piece of cake. Get comfortable doing this. Start with one single 360 and progress to multiple 360's in both directions. You should ideally be able to have some one next to you while your in a hover, and have them say "piroette" and you do it right then. You shouldnt have to "prepare" for a piroette. You should be able to do it at anytime at any altitude. This sounds much harder than it is, once youve done a couple..its really easy. Next try a forward flight circle, Put in forward cyclic, and start feeding in rudder to make it turn. Get comfortable doing this in both right and left directions(remember to increase power on left input circles(traveling right)). Once you get good at doing circles, you should be able to fly around in any direction. Now learn to do circles with right and left cyclic. So that the nose is always facing inside of the circle, and outside of the circle, in both right and left. By this time, you can go nuts. Each of those lessons will probably take about 4 or 5 flights to feel comfortable doing it.
_____________________________
teamflyingcircus.com
|