Airplanes400

My Feedback: (349)

Ahh ... you macho jet guys are all washed up with your ideas of gyros, powerboxes, back-up batteries, high-torque servos, s-bus, fancy 18 channel 2.4g $2000 radios, dual receivers, 12 channel receivers, and all that other crap. You don't need any of that stuff if you just stick with the basic control line method. Then, your only worry would be accidently letting go of the line or getting dizzy.

Pepperpete

I tend to fly by myself way up here in Northern Canada so I'll admit I get nervous at the big jet events. It affects my comfort level. Things I usually breeze through get a bit difficult when the pressure of 100+ people behind me all watching comes into play. So I'm going to use a Cortex to take some of the edge off. I completely understand that some "veteran" pilots think of this as cheating but frankly I'm not out to impress. I'm out to fly and enjoy it. End of story.

I just picked up a Cortex for my F-16 1/8th Tams and I was hoping you guys could tell me what kind of gain you are using on your cortex to start out? I'm using a Jeti DC-16 radio as well. Just a baseline so that I can get used to it would be great. Thanks for anything you can tell me.

paulhat

I think for the reasons mentioned by PepperPete and others, there is a good market amongst jet flyers for gyros.
This has to be a good thing for the hobby. The more innovation the better.

Just look at RC helis. It would be hard to find a top end flybarred machine these days.

I have never used a gyro as the planes I fly dont need them. Never say never though

Paul.

paulhat

You make an interesting point Airplanes400.

I like all the fancy stuff you mention, but I guess everyone has a technological comfort zone they sit in.
I am still trying to work mine out




Paul.

essyou35

My Feedback: (11)

Bob,

Thank you for helping out good ole "one eyed Fred". Very nice of you to lend a hand. I highly doubt anyone is going to give "Fred" any grief for using a cortex. Even if he was strutting his stuff, the poor man is nearly blind. Good use of technology to help out a human being. God bless you.

willig10

Well to be honest, I am going to put the Demon cortex in my P-47 (Top Flight Giant scale). Been doing a lot of research and everyone that has one not only on Jets and 3D aircraft are having great success with them. Looking at youtube and flying giants website there are a lot of setup videos and how to's about the Demon Cortex. All of them will tell you that the 3 axis gyro does not fly the airplane for you but gives you a "Locked in" feel and allows the plane to handle wind better and crisp stops when you are coming out of an aerobatic maneuver.

That is if the gyro is setup right. Some pilot's don't like it because they feel that they are fighting the gyro. It is all in the setup of the gains and how you are going to fly.

I personally think that it is way past time for gyro technology to advance to fixed wing aircraft much like they have in the helicopter arena. For those that think it is not needed that's ok. No-one is forcing one on you. But for those that want them more power to you. I myself want one.

Regards
Glenn

BlueBus320

My Feedback: (57)

Has there been any confirmed crashes due to a 3 axis gyro failure? If so, how does it fail, Is there any built in fail-safes where if the unit malfunctions the gyro inputs are locked out & tx-rx inputs are still available? Doesn't sound that hard to do.
I'm itching to experiment with one, maybe I'll put it in a foamy, then move it to my Boomerang, then something nice if I get the warm & fuzzies.

M3Baker

I've been flying model airplanes for a good while. I've been flying jets for a little over a year. I have a demon cortex set up in both of my jets and I'm very happy with the results. To each his own. What difference does it make anyway?

M3Baker

Pepper,
Call Esprit Model in Palm Bay, Florida. Talk to Danny; he can help you. They are also the distributor for Jeti so that will help too.
Good luck.

raubold

My Feedback: (156)

i fly 3axis gyro(s) for a while now, more helpful then a 2800 dollar transmitters, that is for sure. Actually some of them programmed right you would not even need expo anymore and could fly with 6 chanels basic straight forward Transmitters, but always good to have an option to calibrate centers and endpoints to prevent unwanted drifting. I have some good results so far with Acro up to 30cc and i am happy with them, Jet's is not my territory anyways so i cant tell anything there, but learned a lot from flybarless Heli programming and that helped a lot
Some one ask me should i Gyro ?? yupp, why not, what works is always good.

lightningmcnulty

My Feedback: (11)

I think that there is a misconception that gyros take over the job of flying, I'm new to gyros and I can tell you that is not my experience, they have the ability to make almost UN-flyable planes flyable and they make everything more predictable.

If you are against using them for aerobatics then you must also be against any kind of radio mixes, also banning them from competition only forces competition pilots to fly easier aircraft, I'm happy to make the small concession of electronic help to see more unusual jets fly well at all levels, the yak 130 that won jwm was chosen to be modeled because of how well it would translate to our scale in terms of its flight performance and i'm all for that, I will be buying the JL version but I no longer want to see jet competitions dominated by f16's and L39's because its to difficult to make an f18 fly as well.

I'm on here quite often and have yet to read any reports of gyros costing people their planes, I used to ride bicycles quite a bit and there was a rule of thumb that you take the cost of the bike and divide it by 10 and that is how much you spend on a chain, the point being that generally more expensive is better, the same should apply to gyros, if you are flying something cheap/safe that you don't care about go ahead buy a cheap gyro, if your flying something that could potential be dangerous and is expensive think twice about all of your equipment.

Finally there is a certain amount of skill and learning that comes with setting up complex electronic systems, some credit must be given to pilots/builders that take this task and execute it well

gonzalom

My Feedback: (1)

I have been flying with gyros for a long time. I fly 1/4 scale turbine helos with multiblades and without the assistance of gyros it’s very hard to get them fly well and almost impossible with gusty conditions. All my large helos are remarkable how well they fly with the assistance of gyros. They fly like a dream and doesn’t matter that much how gusty it is at the field.

On my jets, I have been flying with simple gyros just for the nose wheel with some great results! Part of last year and this year I decided to fit 3 axis gyros on all my jets. I started with my large SM Viper by fitting the Powerbox Royal SRS in which the iGyro is embedded. The Viper was always a great flyer without the gyros assistance but once I tried the iGyro it was remarkable how well the Viper did, crisp and the pure perfection of flying. I never saw my Viper tracking so well in all maneuvers. Then I decided to put the same PB Royal SRS on my SM A10 which is about 77lbs wet. OMG I never seen flying so well, a pure joy every second of flying. Then I decided to fit on my BVM Bobcat Composite a BD Cortex…. out of this world a pure joy to fly. Currently, I am in the process to try the ET Guardian on my BVM Electra as I flew my friend’s Electra with the Guardian and I was so impress with the Guardian too.

Why I have 3 axis gyros on my jets it’s because it make them fly so well with perfect tracking on all maneuvers and I simply love it. It’s so much enjoyable to fly something that flies like a dream and you are not fighting others aspects such weather or aerodynamics. You need to understand how they work and how to setup them right and you will never fly without them. And yes I can turn off all gyros anytime I want by flipping a switching.

I will fly test the Guardian next weekend!

Regards,

Gonzalo

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

Has anyone seen increased wear or other issues with their servos, especially aileron? Seems to me they are moving 100 times more with the gyro enabled.

stubaz

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Stu48,

I wonder if the 48 relates to your birth year. If so you beat me out of the egg by a year :-) Who the hell cares who uses what. This hobby can allow anyone to have whatever the heck he likes in an aircraft. If someone finds it makes his plane fly better, good on him. My only beef is if they are sneakily used in some competitive flight, but there are people who check the planes before the event I assume. Never having taken part in any events myself.

Let it go guys, the people who don't like them, don't bloody use them. If you like them, tell the world, it's your right. I just don't think anyone should condemn anyone else should they wish to use one. If it saves an aircraft from drilling holes in a runway, great. if it makes a one eyed 80 year old or a 16 year old boy to be more relaxed in his flying, great. Just don't put rules on who can or can't do what with his own property.

If anyone says he's flying without one and he is, so bloody what. Stop being so nosey about other people's business. These "I don't mind if you use one, BUT" people need to remember this isn't a life or death pastime, it's a hobby, they should treat it as one.

I haven't used one as yet, but intend to. Should anyone make fun of me or condemn me for using one to my face. I'd pop one on him on the spot, then laugh and get on with what I enjoy, flying. Not because I have to, but because I want to. You figure out the difference. One thing I've just thought of, whoever I wish to "pop one on" will have to get on his knees, it's awkward trying to pop, in a wheelchair :-)
Enjoy yourselves in a way which you enjoy. Get to my and Stu48's age and you start realising there ain't enough time to be miserable.

Stu49

stubaz

My Feedback: (1)

Mr Matt is right but only if the gain is turned up too high. There's a great video on Youtube with a guy trying to fly a plane with a stabiliser in it. The darned thing is up and down about 30 times a minute. It's a good video only in that it shows the difference between not enough gain and too much. Then again if anyone wishes to burn out his servos, it's OK by me. As long as his plane doesn't hit me on the way down, or my plane.:-)

As for getting upset about the stabilizer getting burned out and the plane crashing, what about a receiver burning out and crashing. The same effect isn't it. I do agree it doubles the chance of something burning out. In almost 60 years of flying I've never had a receiver burn out. Then again for the first 20 years I never had a receiver. I couldn't afford one until I joined the Navy and flying wasn't the done thing.

I spent most of my time on a bloody aircraft carrier and not once did anyone join the ship who wanted to use the flight deck for RC. I now wish I'd been flying. Imagine taking off and landing on a real carrier at sea. I haven't a clue if it would have been allowed???

Anyway, enough of arguing about it. I might just ask my nurse to bring in the Bixler so I can fit a brand new stabilizer I have. It's handy having a 15 drawer cabinet alongside the bed containing a mass of parts. I'm waiting for it to drop through the floor from being overloaded. One drawer for tools, one for charging, and parts in the rest. My wife asked what it would be worth should I decide to kick the bucket, I estimated $4,000.00 and that's being conservative. So if ever you wish to pay me a midnight visit to relieve me of my cabinet, don't bother, the cabinet is too damned heavy, I'm a light sleeper and I doubt if you'd be able to get anywhere near me due to my absolutely evil little dog who'll relieve you of your ankle in seconds. Should you get past her I have a surprise for you, don't ask what it is, but it's definitely not a kiss. :-)
Have fun flying guys.......... Stu

raubold

My Feedback: (156)

That's where programming comes in

raubold

My Feedback: (156)

B.S. you set them to the point where you can take the advantage of them, you're good (actually realy GOOD) , there will be no increased wear on them servos at all, unless you over exsaturate expectoration of the Gyro, they will be your Enemy and kill stuff, just find the sweet spot and it will be a pleasure to get the bird up flying every day like i do

raubold

My Feedback: (156)

Just one thing to mention her to the NO Gyro guy's, ME in 1972 flying a Schlueter 60 size Heli without any help of any Gyro and only with fixed pitch and bell crank tail mix with a Simprop Super 7 AM (no rates) proportional Radio system flying the crapp out of it ?? I did the R.T.F.I like i still do these days and use any help i can get, It works too every time i do that !

gooseF22

actually there is.. with the demon, you just zero the gain, and its a pass thru.. if it ever failed..


I am a convert.. Im flying the demon cortex in all my toys.. You should see it turn off the wind in smaller stuff.. There are also a lot of jets flying them now..

gooseF22

Its more than just about gain for servo activity.. it depends on the latching and how hard and fast it drives, in addition to the sensitivity gain.. having the ability to set that in the software is sweet..

lightningmcnulty

My Feedback: (11)

I would be extremely surprised to find that gyros do not increase servo wear rate, minimally each servo is doing more during a flight than it normally would but with gear sets being around $10 and change time being 20 minutes I don't care, also although I have no info I'd be surprised if it's much of a difference

JK13

I have 3 Demon Cortex's and the quality of the enhanced flying performance is really amazing!
Sooo much fun.

I'll bet you the early hell forums sounded like some of you - now look where it took the hobby!

For me it's all about the fun!



Joe

lightningmcnulty

My Feedback: (11)

sometimes it it seems like we're in the hell forums here

Bob_B

My Feedback: (11)

I was asked how much gain I use. So I attached photo of the servo monitor showing the off/low/high settings.
In the gyro menu the values are off/20 percent and 40 percent I hope this helps.

Art ARRO

My Feedback: (5)

All,
For a good viewpoint on gyros visit: www.franktiano.com and open the link to Top Gun. Then scroll on the left sidebar to GYRO UPDATE.

Rgds,
Art ARRO