RCU Forums - View Single Post - Draganfly iv. Anyone flew it?Control?

12-05-2005 | 08:42 PM

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From: Atlanta, GA

RE: Draganfly iv. Anyone flew it?Control?

Learning to Fly the Ti Pro - For the Beginner [sm=confused.gif] & the Frustrated [:@]

After reading every f*****g post in this thread, I have seen that some of you are in parts of the country or world where the weather is just consistently ****ty. So you are forced to fly indoors. That must be pure hell torture and my thoughts are with you because if most of you are like me, which I have seen that you are, you can't stand for a single day to go by without flying! This thing is very addictive! It is truly a unique feeling. Well, I just don't see how you folks that fly this thing indoors do it. I mean, it's all I can do to fly it outside much less in a 10x or 20x room with a ceiling, perish the thought. It amazes me that you all can fly this thing inside. I just cringed when reading posts from people that were only experiencing short flights or crashes because of confined areas. To me, you don't need to be learning to fly when in a confined space if you have that option. For those of you that are flying inside but have the option to go outside, you don't know what you're missing and should take that leap to the wide open skies! If you have concerns about the helo getting away from you outside, as I did, just follow the following tips and you should be flying with precision and control from that point on.

Before getting this helo, I had never had any experience whatsoever with RC devices. I am certainly not a master pilot and I do not have any uses for trick flying. I have become really proficient for what my intended purposes are, medium to high altitude (100'-500'), horizontal range (300'-500'), controlled, slow, extended flight. I have learned how to fly this helo in a very short amount of time, 2 days, out of the box! I didn't master it but could fly it with control. I think it's important to give the Ti circuit with its auto recovery feature the credit for allowing me to do that. Now, you can believe me or not but I wouldn't waste my time writing this post if it wasn't true. I want to tell you how I did it and you can too. I am able to fly just as well as 1videoman1 did in his demo which was absolutely spectacular. I would consider my flight experience to be basic compared to more advanced pilots who fly in confined spaces and/or trick flying. I can't do either at this time but that's not my application or interest.

To learn to fly the DF Ti Pro quickly and efficiently, you need to only fly on a calm day with very, very little to no wind period, no exceptions! I also recommend doing this a couple of hours before dark while using onboard LED nav lights. They will show up in daylight but obviously are much more effective for training and visible right before dark and in the night sky. See the the posts above for day and night flight video demos with nav lights. You need to definitely activate and use the Ti function of the DF. I don't see how anyone flies without it or why. I think most of the posts that I read about Ti issues were because of early versions with issues that have been resolved with the latest boards or just plain user error. I do have to say that I have experienced some strange behavior but have had much more success than problems with Ti. I have to admit that I haven't flown it without Ti yet, only out of fear, but will have to see what my abilities are and to be able to have an accurate comparison. However, I have to say that Ti saved my ass many times when I got disoriented. I just released the stick and it recovered!

If you can, you need to go to an open field, preferrably with a 360 degree 300-500 ft radius. This field should also have low cut grass of no more than 4 inches for rotor clearance. If it has higher grass, you can use a piece of foamcore (office supply stores) as a landing pad. This has two advantages, it is a flat surface and it absorbs shock when landing. Even with a pad in grass over 4 inches you are risking rotor damage and/or a blown fuse if your helo goes down further out. I cannot stress enough the importance and necessity of navigation lights to help you maintain orientation of the helo's nose. Just one or several bright lights on the nose landing strut lets you know unmistakably where the nose is at all times. I think it's the only failsafe solution at any altitude day or night. You can get a keychain LED at any outdoor store for around $5-$10 and simply tape it to your front landing strut. Make sure to get one(s) with a switch that stay(s) on constantly. I use four lights on the front of my Ti Pro, two nose and one on each wing. I know damn well where that nose is for sure which is critical for successful flight. This needs to be a high quality LED to efficiently help you see it. Perform a preflight inspection to make sure all rotor heads are level with the circuit board and tight, all motor mounts are adequately tight, ALL 8 motor magnets haven't slipped, pinions are not bent and all rotor bolts are secure. Anyway, once you get there, follow these steps exactly for successful flight:

1. Secure and plug the battery up to the Ti Pro's board

2. Fully extend your transmitter antenna making sure it is secure at the base and not partially unscrewed internally. ([link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3619212]been there[/link])

3. Turn on the power to your transmitter making sure throttle is down and the trims are centered and Ti switch is ON (helo will not arm if throttle and/or trims are set beyond safe parameters before flight for obvious reasons).

4. Switch the Ti Pro power to ON and hold the helo by it's base and away from your body with the canopy turned away from you and the LED (eyes) vertically pointing up to the sky. Wait about 5-10 seconds if you don't immediately get two solid LEDs indicating good Ti calibration. If only one LED is lit, try it again. If only one burns after the second try, it is either not functioning (very unlikely) or most likely reporting less than optimal Ti conditions. Keep trying until you get two solid LEDs or your flight with Ti will not be optimal.

5. Carefully reach around and press the arm button on the helo without tilting it towards your body or allowing your finger heat to be detected by the IR sensors on top. After releasing the arming button, one or more rotors should slightly jump.

6. Place your helo on the LEVEL ground or pad facing you to see the LEDs, move 10-15 ft away, move the left stick down and to the right to set a level. The LEDs will alternately blink while you hold the stick in that position and will stop when you release or center the stick. This step is critical for level flight!

7. Very slightly throttle up or jog the throttle to see what trims need to be adjusted until almost hovering an inch or so without major imbalance. This is critical for stable flight as well.

8. Once the trims are set, you need to decide if you want to fly with the helo facing you or away from you. If it is facing away from you, all directional control will be as it should be. However, if it is facing towards you, left is right, and right is left as far as turning (yaw) and rolling (banking) and front is back and back is front for pitching (tilting fore & aft ). If you haven't ever done this before, you might want to have it facing away from you so all directional control is true. Choose your orintation and slightly throttle up continuously to achieve a 6 ft height. You may have to goose the throttle a little bit to escape the ground effect. The helo should correct with Ti and you need to be ready to adjust the throttle with a click or two up or down and maybe adjust the trims just a bit. If/when you achieve a stable, level hover, very,very slowly and with your thumb, move the left stick left or right to turn the helo on the horizontal axis then very, very slowly with your thumb apply pressure to the right stick, up for forward motion and down for backward motion. On a calm day with practically NO wind this should be no problem at all. The damn thing practically flies itself and you just tell it where to go. Do not go beyond 15-20 feet from yourself until you get the feel of the steering commands. You will lose orientation and be in a world of s***t! [sm=surprised.gif] The key thing to remember is very, very slight stick commands with your thumbs. If you get nervous and lose orientation, simple let go of the right stick and the helo will automatically recover! In this training scenerio, the wide open field is your friend because it gives you plenty of time to think about your next move. Also, if you are heading for the ground because of diorientation, altitude becomes your best friend! Just release the right stick and throttle up until it recovers to level. As soon as it recovers, immediately stop throttle up let off a couple of clicks as needed. If you don't stop throttling up after recovery, altitude will become your enemy because you now have no choice but to take on something you've never done before, flying overhead, another dimension of orientation. However, if your Ti is calibrated correctly, your helo should just hang in the sky until you give it a command. It is just amazing to watch it do this. At this point very, very slowly reduce the throttle a click or two, wait for 2-3 seconds, then do that again. It is best to pitch forward very slightly while descending to prevent the vacuum effect of your own rotorwash column. You can also very, very slightly move the left stick left or right to induce a slight spin (yaw) which will create drag while descending and break up the pattern of descent. No wind, a wide open space and altitude will allow for longer reaction time windows and train you better for nose-in flying. With a DF Ti Pro with no inherent technical issues, optimum conditions (no wind), wide open space, there is NO reason that anyone should not be able to fly this helo because it literally just sits in the air waiting for a command! Once you can fly and learn orientation, you can then fly under more demanding conditions based on this training. Just take it slooooooow and it will fly beautifully! Good luck!

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