RE: DF Spool up - NEWBIE pilot...!

RE: DF Spool up - NEWBIE pilot...!
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RE: DF Spool up - NEWBIE pilot...! - 8/2/2007 5:55:53 AM

Posts: 1514
Joined: 12/3/2005
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Status: offline

I have looked into using a neck strap but I also like to hold the Tx freely in my hands. I just use my thumbs on the left and right sticks.

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Up there, you don't have time to think, if you think, you're dead!
Never mess with a pilot having more rotors than you!

(in reply to BB_DF)

RE: DF Spool up - NEWBIE pilot...! - 8/27/2007 6:07:14 AM

FL_PI

Posts: 84
Joined: 5/30/2007
From: Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Status: offline

quote:

I have looked into using a neck strap but I also like to hold the Tx freely in my hands. I just use my thumbs on the left and right sticks.

Well, today I am back and with today's practice I have also turned this flight practice stuff into a blood sport!

After all that studying, and whatever practice I have been able to get in the past few weekends, right now I am thinking that I *may* be doing a little bit better by using this process as you stated, Sky High. For a while I *thought* that I may use the thumb and forefinger on each control, but I wasn't real "comfortable" with that grip, so I am back to just thumbs on the sticks for now.

As for the blood.... I was sitting on a five gallon bucket with elbows on knees holding the transmitter and the DF got a bit too close to me and since I couldn't easily MOVE, I reached out to grab it like they do "in the movies". haha! cuts on my right forearm and knee.
THEN... as if THAT weren't enough, while the DF cooled its motors for a battery change, I was flying the CX2 to keep up my "practice" and while again sitting on the same five gallon bucket, the CX2 got too close and when I tried to grab IT, got about a two inch cut on my LEFT Knee!
GeeZ! I'd better keep it further away from me and land it out there on the deck!

Other than all that, I do feel I am making progress. Not so good as all of you guys yet, but I am gaining some ground and definitely gaining in the education department, both in flying AND in the mechanics of these machines.

Thanks for all of the support! I will get there someday!

Ed

(in reply to Sky High)

RE: DF Spool up - NEWBIE pilot...! - 8/27/2007 7:34:43 AM

Posts: 267
Joined: 4/21/2007
From: Huntertown, IN, USA
Status: offline

Wow! Sounds like a chapter from "Attack of the Killer Choppers".

I've been wondering about how you were doing with your flying. Sorry to hear about the injuries but you know the rule; once you fall off a hourse you have to immediately get back on and ride.

Mike

(in reply to FL_PI)

RE: DF Spool up - NEWBIE pilot...! - 8/28/2007 4:17:21 AM

FL_PI

Posts: 84
Joined: 5/30/2007
From: Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Status: offline

quote:

Wow! Sounds like a chapter from "Attack of the Killer Choppers".

I've been wondering about how you were doing with your flying. Sorry to hear about the injuries but you know the rule; once you fall off a hourse you have to immediately get back on and ride.

Mike

Hehe! It prolly was much funnier had anyone viewed it.

I usually bring a chair out and sit over to one side near a corner of the carport. This day I just grabbed a five gallon can instead of going back inside for a chair. Due to some old fire department injuries I tend to like sitting MUCH better than standing on pavement for very long, but once seated the ol' man doesn't get up to move very well or very fast.... hehe!

So, when the df came at me, I just grabbed it by the bottom plates like they do in the "movies" from DF Industries, but I guess I wasn't prepared for the forward momentum and it kind of twisted in my grasp getting me on the back of the right forearm and the right knee. Thankfully I have the "folding" blades on it still. Curious though why even though I had shut the throttle completely off as I grabbed it, and the three motors that were blocked by my appendages or one was blocked by the folded blades, but the fourth was screaming wide open. I double checked the throttle and it was completely down, but the one motor screamed wide open for, dunno, maybe five, ten seconds or more then shut down. Nothing hurt on the machine, and just enough blood to see where the blades made contact. I set it down and straightened the blades, and went through a new "arming" procedure and it fired and went up just fine! I was kind of fearing a blown fuse with the one motor running wide open and the others jammed stopped.
The CX getting me was more my fault than the other. I had it hovering nearby and did a no-no. I think I took my eye off it fer jus' a minnit! Next thing I know it was practically in my lap, I grabbed it just in time, but a blade got me on the inner thigh just above the knee. Again, a mark about two inches and just enough blood to see where it hit.

But all in all, I am gaining confidence little by little. Prolly a big joke to the rest of the guys because I am so "slow" in making progress, but it is tough when all I usually get to "play" is if I can grab some time on Saturday and again on Sunday if I am extremely fortunate. Like this past weekend, I got time for one battery on each machine just before dark on Saturday. Thank goodness for the leds on the DF and my pauper markers, I could hardly see it in the growing dark. And then Sunday I got a full three batteries on the DF and four batteries with the CX2. It was my most fulfilling day of practice so far! I finally got to feel a little like maybe there is some chance I'll catch on to this after all....Hehe! But the "injuries" came about midway in practice, so I was immediately "back in the saddle".....

So with that forward improvement, I will be really looking forward to next weekend! I mostly need (I think) to get the fine movement of the thumb on the aileron/elevator control. I end up "chasing" the DF rather than HOVER with it. I definitely hover better with the CX2. The df is ready to go whichever way and I am definitely making much too large and gross movements with that control.

But I am having a great time!

Have a good day!
Ed

(in reply to Old Man Mike)

RE: DF Spool up - NEWBIE pilot...! - 9/10/2007 12:50:26 AM

FL_PI

Posts: 84
Joined: 5/30/2007
From: Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Status: offline

quote:

I end up "chasing" the DF rather than HOVER with it.

Greetings and Salutations!

Well, I am continuing my journey working on this DF and learning all I can. While I have not had all the flight practice I would have liked the past couple of weeks, I made a startling discovery, at least to me it is. Nothing so glamorous as all of Old Man Mike's wonderful works, but an eye opener for me none the less.

Some of you may remember that I have a DF Pro V TI that was built as a SAVs without the camera and camera mount and double receiver. Other than that, from all I have seen, mine is practically a SAV. Mine came with the "upgrade" to the folding blades, so it would be easy to use the travel case I purchased at the same time, and I have been using the folding blades all of this time since I got it.

Just like I said before in the quote above, my flight practices have been instructive but challenging.

I had purchased a set of of those clear blades that BB_DF recommended but had not installed them, keeping them for "when I learn to fly better". The folding blades worked real good when I whacked stuff, they just folded up like they are supposed to. But the blades are not straight, they curve UP from the screws to the outer end. Since I am still very much a newbie, I figured that is how they are SUPPOSED to be....

Today, though, for some reason I decided to replace the FRONT set of folding blades with the one piece, and I struggled through a battery charge in one flight practice and let it cool while I ran a flight with the CX2.

When I swapped machines again, just for giggles I swapped out the rear blades for the one piece also, thus now having the new clear one piece blades on the front and rear motors and still with the folding blades on the left and right motors.

BUT!!!!! When I flew it this time, it was like flying a totally different machine! I could actually hover it about 500% better than I had been with all folding blades in all positions!

So..... My question this week is.... is this the NORMAL discovery when swapping out blades? Is there REALLY that much difference in the blades?

Is it perhaps that the folding blades are bent (curved) or is the one piece blade just better performance wise? Should that curve to the blades make ANY difference?

I can hardly believe the remarkable difference. Unfortunately I ran out of "practice" time and had to get on with other things today, or I would have swapped out the left and right blades also to see what else may transpire...

Something to look forward to I guess..........!

(in reply to FL_PI)

RE: DF Spool up - NEWBIE pilot...! - 9/17/2007 1:39:10 AM

FL_PI

Posts: 84
Joined: 5/30/2007
From: Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Status: offline

quote:

When I flew it this time, it was like flying a totally different machine! I could actually hover it about 500% better than I had been with all folding blades in all positions!

So..... My question this week is.... is this the NORMAL discovery when swapping out blades? Is there REALLY that much difference in the blades?

Well, I was HOPING for someone to proffer an answer to my query last week.

I did change out the blades this weekend and (to me) it is unbelievable what a DIFFERENT machine it is to fly. I can hardly believe that it is the same machine, save for the blades.

Also this weekend, I did try using a neck strap, and it was ok for a while but by the time I got to the third battery pack it was getting annoying so I took it off. It may have been ok if I had been wearing a shirt with a collar....

And in my studying of the hand position holding and using the transmitter, I am still playing with that.
One guy at a LHS tells me that "80% of all fliers use just the thumbs on the controls".

In another forum for helicopters I have seen the statement that "if you are NOT pinching the controls, you will NEVER be a good pilot".
Don'cha jus' LOVE those all inclusive statements?

So, I am back to using the thumbs for the most part, with a little use of the forefinger for assist, especially on the throttle. FOR NOW it seems to be working FOR ME. When I advance more in experience, perhaps I will modify the "grip" more.

Has ANYONE else noticed such a remarkable difference in just changing the blades? But then, most of you are practically PRO's (compared with *me*) and may not even consider such a small thing.......?

Have a great week!

ED

(in reply to FL_PI)

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