Sbach342Guy

I finally decided to order the new Co-Pilot II. They won't be shipping the second run until mid-May so I have awhile to wait. Has anyone gotten theirs from the first run? Impressions?

OldScaleGuy

My Feedback: (2)

The first run is due to ship the week of April 12th. I don't think any one has one yet. I ordered mine early on so hopefully it will come during that week.

TTMT

My order is in the first batch too. Nothing till after April 12th.

jetaddicted

My Feedback: (5)

If anyone is looking for the FS8 version of the co-pilot I have one new in the box with the software to hook to the PC. PM me if interested.
Jeff

TTMT

Yes, I've received mine. I've been waiting to comment on the system because I don't feel I've had a chance to giveit a thorough test yet.

First impressions ... I'm not as thrilled with the system's performance as I hoped I would be. Most of my testing has been in a small back yard area, and this is why I've been holding off on my comments. Idid test the system at a field, but the wind was too strong, so that testing was pretty limited.

On another trip to the field, it was overcast and the system would not operate because the conditions were poor for it to work. The remote unit tells you if conditions are good for the system to operate.

In my back yard, I think my home and a surrounding wall/fence plus some trees are negatively impacting the system. I can see it take effect, but it is slow and will not hold the heli in one place - taking too long to make corrections. The wind will blow your heli out of position - which is expected - but the system should keep the heli level if the wind pushes it out of level.

I'm going to the field on my day off this morning to test it again. I hope conditions are good for flying so I can providemore meaningful information. I really hope it makes a significant difference in flight stability.

I've seen the FMA Direct videos on the CP II. They're pretty poor footage, particularly the footage of the system recovering the heli from inverted, but it appears to work.

I've seen the Robbe system on videos and it is extremely impressive, but that system sells for around $525, so it's a non-option for me. I'm hoping that open field conditions will allow my CP II to perform with similar effectiveness to the Robbe system. If it doesn't, I may contemplate returning it.

I'll report my experience at the field later today.

Sbach342Guy

I actually got mine several weeks ago. I started off trying to set it up in my back yard. Too many tress and houses I guess. Once I got it to an open field I was able to get it working correctly. It really does work the way FMAstates. Simly center the cyclic stick and the CPII will put your heli in a hover. I had several good lfights with mine doing things I had never done before. Unfortunately I only got to fly for a few weeks with the CPII before my radio crapped out on me. I had theRDS8000 from Airtronics. It decided it no longer wanted to bind to my receiver. I had to ship it off to Airtronics to be replace. So now I'm playing the waitng game.

TTMT

Glad to hear you've had a good experience.  I just got back again from a local field and, again, the system said "poor weather conditions" and wouldn't work.  I'm home waiting for a few hours so the temperature differential (sky vs. ground) increases, then going back to try again.

So far, for me, this has been pretty frustrating.  I hope my experience, assuming it works, is as good as yours.

I'll report back later today.

volvoc304

Hi TTMT,

I'd really appreciate an update of your experience with the CoPilot 2. I'm thinking of getting the Combo 3 for my Beam E4 heli. I'm pretty much a beginner and need all the help I can get, so the CoPilot 2 looks like it'll fit the bill!

Thanks and regards,

Steve
KL, MALAYSIA

Sbach342Guy

I'd consider the CPII a "must have" for noobs. But, before installing the system you need a heli that hovers well. The CPII cannot fix problems in your setup! You need to be fairly familiar with how a heli hovers so you understand how to do the CPII setup. It's not a 100%simple plug-in-play device. You might need to tweak flight angles to make it hover correctly.

volvoc304

Hi DonLEmmel,

Thanks for the advice. I put in my order for the CPII, and now begins the long wait!

I'm still at the noob stage, and my current abilities are just decent tail-in, and both side-in hovers. I anticipate the CPII will help me tremendously when I progress to nose-in hover and FF. I'm definitely using the CPII as a recovery aid, and not a crutch.

Billville

I'm working through fuel airplane mounting requirements one by one and I'd like to know where other plankers mounted the sensors. I think I need to call Howard on this one. I sure loved my other Co-Pilots. Can't wait to get this new generation CP sorted out.
Bill

Billville

I'm having a challenge mounting the CP2 on my fuel plank.

Sensors must be 6 inches from servos, 6 inches from tail feathers, 12 inches from motor, away from exhaust. Both sensors must be mounted similarly - that is if on is mounted on a flat surface so it "sees" only half field, the other one must be mounted on a flat surface - one cannot see an unobstructed view and the other see a half view, they must see the same view.


I'd like to find a forum specially for fuel airplanes, as they have unique mounting parameters. Bill

ilikethatsite

Just some inputon the co-pilot II.

I have been flying now for about 2 week with it and so far have nothing to complain about

I was flying on fathers' day and a breeze (well a gust) of wind blew me over and into the top of a cottonwood tree. I clearly remember in slow motion seeing a wall ofleaves flying everywhere and my heli somewhere in the middle of it. Any other day my heli would have been a hood ornament on the top of the 50 foot tree. Somehow the copilot kept me in the air. Even better the copilot helped me get it to the ground. I was shaking so bad from the whole situation I am not sure I could have pulled it off!!!!No damage to anything. I even got anew paint job out of it from the leaves. I now have greenrotors and splotches of green on the canopy

Yes, it's pricy, but it just paid for itself and I can borrow some money from the heli fund to go buy some clean underwear!!!

Billville

You can get some new green camo shorts to match your tree trimming heli with all that money you saved.

I'd say these co-pilots are cheap, even if they were Three Hundred bucks.

Bill

mappe

Hello, I must be very stupid but I can´t figure out how to connect the servos to the Co-Pilot II computer!!! I have a Raptor Titan and if anyone knows what servo, (the RCV1 to RCV3 input) to connect I would be most happy. Since the instructions only mention 3 servo CCPM should I only connect ailerons and elevator?? Thanks and hope for a quick help.
Anders L

Rhizzlebop

Wow, I just discovered this Copilot II when I was on the FMA site ordering a battery connector to hook to my cellpro charger.

I have a blade dual rotor heli that I'm learning on still AND a Honey Bee CP2 Heli.

Anyway, I've only gotten a few inches above the floor and struggling mightily with the single rotor heli. I have noone to teach me, no club or group around here that I've found, and this copilot might be just the thing to help me get going.

TTMT, you been back out testing the copilot II and got any further info?

I tried getting into a basic airplane, but I have since discovered that my vision isn't nearly good enough for that. At the very best, I see about 20/45, and that means, when the plane gets just a small distance from me, I lose sight of whether its going up, down, left, right forwards, or backwards.
For perspective, if I walk into a fast food restaurant, and stand at the counter, I have to almost lean towards the counter a little (and be right up at it) to even read the overhead menu at all and still can't see the small text. I've been to several eye doctors, and they havn't figured out why, but it just is what it is, and isn't getting any better, or worse.

So, anyway, I'm interested in this copilot, but don't wanna waste 200 bucks.

Also I'm not even sure if the HB CP2 has an extra channel to put the copilot onto. Any help or advice is appreciated

TTMT

Rhizzlebop,

I've been trying to learn to fly a fully collective pitch heli for a long time now. Istarted with a fixed pitch model, went to a counter-rotating model, bought a Thunder Tiger Mini Titan collective pitch model, bought an SRB Quark and, finally, bought a Thunder Tiger Innovator MD 530. It's been tough for me to learn the skills. If Iwere to suggest my path for learning, it would be:

[*]Buy a good flight simulator like Real Flight. The later versions are very good visually, but they demand a very powerful computer and video card. I started with version 3 and I think that's adequate to learn the basic skills with. If you can run version 4 or above, it is quite good, and there are a lot of models made by other users available for free download. You can really diversify your choices of models to learn with using these.[*]Practice orientation - tail in, side in (left, right) and nose in - using your counter rotator. It may get a little boring after awhile, but getting this orientation down will be really helpful so you don't have to spend time thinking about how to correct flight behavior. When you move on to single rotor models, you don't have the time to consider what the model is doing, figure out how to respond and then do it. You need to be able to react intuitively. The counter-rotator will give you the thinking time you need to develop this skill because it is so forgiving. A flight simulator will really help with this too.[*]From the counter-rotator, I would move on to a Quark or an Innovator. Moving straight to an Innovator would get you to a fully collective pitch model and save you the cost of going to a Quark first. On the other hand, the Quark is very durable in a crash and replacement parts are cheap. I've only had to replace blades and, once, a tail rotor. I've stocked-up on them and you can balance and replace them very easily. Both of these models have stability designed into them. From my experience, they are much easier to control than a standard collective pitch heli. I plan to go back to my Mini Titan after Ihave a lot of flight time on my Innovator.[/list]As for the CoPilot, it wasnt' the right choice for me.FMA wasvery pleasant to deal with. They tried to help me get the CoPilot II working on my Mini Titan, but Ihad a lot of trouble. I live in an area where overcast skies are common at times during the year, particularly in the morning when I often try to fly at a nearby field. When the sunlight was gone and the temperature of the ground and sky was too similar, the CoPilot would not activate properly. FMA was very understanding and took back my CoPilot. For a user in better weather conditions, I think it may be a good choice. Idid get it to activate at times, and I could see it applying correction when I tilted my model around in my hand. Ihave to add, though, that it still didn't seem to work as effectively as I had hoped for. I'd ask other users to get a better picture of how effective the CP IIhas been for them. I may be the exception.

I hope all this helps. Enjoy flying.

By the way, I believe a Belt CPis collective pitch.

Rhizzlebop

Thank you sir. I was leaving work when I posted that and got home to realize I actually have a honey bee cp2. I remember going through a ton of research and forum posts before buying the honeybee. I had all sorts of discussions about whether to buy a fixed pitch first or not. Seemed like there was something unique about the honey bee cp2 as I normally don dive in too far over my head on things.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.

TTMT

Sure.  Good luck and practice a lot.

Rhizzlebop

does anyone know if the HB CP2 even has an extra channel to use the device with? I'm not sure myself and I own it.

ilikethatsite

Rhizzlebop,

I bought the co-pilot II as soon as it was released and I don't regret it one second. The number of times it has saved my butt it has paid for itself a few times over. I have not crashed my heli since it has been installed. Granted I am not a 3D flyer.

There is no need for an additional channel to operate the co-pilot. The additonal channel is only needed if you want to turn the unit on and off remotely, otherwise it is on all the time. For a pilot with not a lot of experience that is a good thing.

gmrviper

My Feedback: (19)

Looks like a great deal!

i_fire

Greetings,

Any one knows How to install Co-pilot CPD4 on a 4 cyclic servo's ??


Thanks,

Rafael23cc

My Feedback: (6)

You can't use a CPD4 on a CCPM helicopter.

Rafael

i_fire

Thanks Rafael,
I just ordered the Co-pilot II, then we will see how it will work on my bird!
And may-be I will create a camera mout stabilized with the CPD4 instead of gyro's!

Any way, thanks alot for your help!


Cheers ,,