Abraxxas

As a plank pilot of 13 years I gave in and got a "roto-tiller" this winter and I must say, I think I'm in love! I got a Rappy .50 w/OS .50 Hyper and Mav pro carbon blades. I managed to get a gallon ran through it hovering and what not in the cold late winter. Just got into FFF by the end of the first gallon, now spring is here and just started the second gallon two days ago and I'm having so much fun that I burned that second gallon up in two sessions. Today I tried my first auto after the club pro tested it out yesterday (big confidence builder seeing somebody do it with your bird) and WOW what a feeling I've done them in AFP but to do it with my bird is uncomparable!! After the first, I did 3 more tanks of just autos... coming in slow, coming in fast and sliding it through the grass like a plane on touch down, dropping in and holding it 3 inches off the ground for 3-4 seconds till collective ran out... I COULDNT STOP!! Man does this thing auto awesome!! What an ADDICTION! The sound of the blades spooling up on the way down, doing autos with my first bird is almost surreal! That was this morning and Im still smiling. All you guys prolly get a kick out of hear this story over and over, but I had to share mine Add me to the list of addicts... cuz man am I hooked [8D]

Happy flyin...
Brian

WhtBronco

Congrats on the auto. I flew planes for 15 years and got an R50. These are cool to fly aren't they!!!!!! Not to say I am giving up my planes though.

I have only done 1 full auto thus far. The plugged burned out in flight and I did an auto, but I haven't had the nerve to touch down since. Inverted, loops, rolls, stall turns etc are no prob. Autos still worry me. I am going flying tomorrow for a few hours and maybe then, but with my kids going with me I may have much time to fly myself.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

It took a forced auto that I got down in 1 piece to realize I needed to get hot practicing them. Now they are a hoot.

I got the same setup, R50 with Mav carbons. Its easier to auto my Raptor than the sim.

Takes a bit of courage to throw that switch for the first time on purpose though.

cgroves

Had an auto for real yesterday. No sweat since I end every flight with an auto. Pays for itself over and over (Kinda like the sim)

WhtBronco

Well I tried an auto yesterday, but I chickened out at the last minute. My field is so rough that I have a hard enough time picking a good spot to set the heli down with power. I have also found that on the G2 sim I do sliding autos much, much better than hovering autos. Maybe next time, but I dunno. Our field has hills about 12� high all over it, holes from animals digging and footprints, soft spots, occasional tire ruts from dirt bikes spinning their wheels and on and on. It’s an old landfill so it settles very unusually anyway. Airplanes are always in the air well before you’d like them to be and all my landings are harrier landings to reduce roll out to next to nothing.

I’ve many times had trouble getting the heli to lift off without sinking 1 corner of the skids into the ground. Now the heli takes off and lands in the taxi lane and not on the runway.

1 thing’s for sure. If the engine ever quits again I will do an auto again. Right now I don’t have the money to buy parts for the heli so I don’t want to risk it.

Mickeymoo

Congrats on the auto Abraxxas! I had about 15 years on the planks before getting my raptor 30 v2 about 2 years ago. I had no interest in helis 2 years ago till I saw how well some of the guys at the club could control them (scale type flying). I figured may as well give it a try while I can get some help. Been hooked ever since. I have yet to do an auto. I've done hundreds on G2 but none for real. I guess I figured it was cheaper to practice on G2. Well, now that I can do them well in G2 I feel like I'm missing out on the fun by not doing them for real . I noticed that you've done some autos by coming in fast and slide through the grass. I thought on grass it was better to slow the heli down as much as possible before sitting it down in the grass. I've always thought the heli could catch a skid in the grass while sliding and maybe tumble during an auto or is this a misconception of mine? Remember I've never done an auto, at least for real

Abraxxas

Mickeymoo ~

I'm sure I'm asking for trouble doing "sliding autos" on the grass, our field is exceptionally smooth with nice thick short grass. The gear on the Rappy seems nice and tall, when I do them like that I keep it very light on the skids, just brushing the grass as I slide, not letting it settle all the way down until its almost stopped. I also keep some back pressure on the cyclic so the front of the skids are up in the air and just the rear of them are in the grass, my thinking is if I do hit a bump it will glide over it rather than hitting it with the sharp bend on the front of the skids. I also have the carbon tail fins which are from my understanding a little taller than stock and Mav blades on the tail, which are a little shorter than the stock plastic one but have a much wider chord. This combination keeps the T/R out of the grass even if I drag the vertical fin a bit, our grass is so short that I still dont touch the blades. Like I said, I'm sure its not the best idea in the whole world... but... it sure is fun and it looks cool too I figure it will cost me a set of blades someday when it bites me, but for the fun factor... to me... it'll be worth it!! ROFL

Brian

ptarp

This is ok for the initial flare before touchdown, but try to release any aft cyclic (and even add a bit of fore) the instant before you touchdown to reduce the chance of a boom strike.

Mickeymoo

I've seen some of the hot shot heli pilots fly at some of the model shows. I noticed that they seem to like to kick the boom around 180 degrees just before they flare the heli and touch down while performing an auto. This allows them to flare the aircraft as much as they want without having to worry about striking the TR on the ground. This would also give them the fore cyclic at touchdown. I'm flying the Raptor 30 v2 and on the 30 when you auto you lose the TR and therefore I can't do this maneuver. On the 50 it's my understanding that you maintain TR control during an auto. I'm sure this would be an awkward maneuver at first and I would practice on a sim before trying to execute .

Abraxxas

Yes, I've seen that too and agree it is probably the safest and coolest looking way to do sliding autos... but, as a rookie that just finished my 3rd gallon of fuel through my little "rototiller"... I have not yet acquired the skills demanded by this method [&:] But I hope to. I also appreciate the advice on the cyclic positioning as far as the boom strike goes, I was aware of that but the blades dont budge when I touch down after I'm warmed up and I dont do sliders untill I've greased a few in to get the feel So much to learn... so much to learn...

And yes, the .50 has a driven tail so you can maintain full control durring the auto, you can also get an upgrade to convert your .30 to a driven tail I believe, think one of my flyin buddies did it to his.

Brian

Mickeymoo

The device is called a slipper clutch [link]http://www.heliproz.com/DBCslipper.html[/link]. I looked at them about a year ago but I think most don't recommend it. There is not much room for error on a 30 size heli doing autos and the slipper clutch will bleed more energy from the main rotor. Once I master autos without the TR I may give the slipper clutch a try

TuNeD PiPe

Well it seems that you guys have had more luck with auto's than I have had with my Raptor 50.I tried to do a complete auto about three weeks ago but unfortunately it ended in a boom-strike, so I have learned it the hard way.
I had practiced small autos from about 2meters high and they were successful but I think the main reason for the boom-strike was because I was still holding in a bit of aft cyclic when I touched down and the fact that it bounced a little on the ground made it even worse.Everything looked alright and the helicopter was on the ground for about a second and then suddenly it beat itself to death,luckily it happened on grass and not on concrete or tar.After a new set of blades,spindle shaft,fly bar,oval link,blade grip and tail boom I am back in action but now I don't really feel like trying it again and besides I'll first get some carbon fiber blades because everyone tells me there is a hell of a difference between them and wooden blades.Suppose it can end up saving a crash as they give one greater margin for error therefore reducing the chance of making a mistake.
I am thinking about getting SAB full carbon blades hopefully they will make autos easier.

I would appreciate it if any of you had any tips on doing autos that are important to avoid boom-strikes, such as...Should I reduce my pitch immediately once I am on the ground or not?etc.

Thanks...

Abraxxas

Tuned Pipe ~ Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the first try... I've never flown a set of woodies so I dont know what that's like with one of these helis, got Mav carbon G4 pros on mine and have had them on since day one. What's your bottom pitch set at in normal flight mode? I have mine set at -3 deg, tried it at 4 and it came down a lot faster, seems to be happiest at -3 and keeps up good headspeed on the way down... if I remember correctly the book says -5, I had an experienced pilot help me set up my pitch curves and he recommended trying -3 first. After I touch down I keep slowly raising collective until the blades slow down enough that it cant lift off again. My thinking in this is that all the pitch will flex the blades up and away from the boom until it has safely settled, Im a newb at helis... but thats my idea anyways. I've been told on here to input forwards cyclic upon touchdown to help lift the blades away from the boom in the rear as well. I would recommend setting the idle on your throttle hold up high enough to help keep the blades spinning a little when you flare at the bottom, but not enough to bring them back up to "hover" rpm. Practice some like that and as you get comfortable bring your hold idle setting down a little at a time so it helps you out less and less until you end up at idle again in hold, this will give you some cushion on the bottom and a little extra time to set it down gently and get the feel for things. If your idle is 0% throttle and your hover is 50%... try setting your hold to around 25% to start. Hope this helps, good luck!

Brian