Auto rotation help please
 

Can some one please explain how you auto rotate. Two times now I have lost power at about thirty feet up. I just hold the throttle at up positions. Then I steer it down to a landing spot best I can . Both time I hit the ground hard enough to break the landing gear. The first time I bent the tail boom. What do I do when I loose power.Can I do something different to bring it down softer?.
I think both times maybe I had not charged the battery and was flying with a half charged battery. I will check now every time if battery is charge before each flight.

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

You are best off to practice this maneuver on a sim. With a small electric heli like the Belt CP or Blade 400, they are hard to do at anything much over 15 feet up. Basically you need to do the following (from what the sim has taught me):
1. Be in Idle up mode
2. Loose power (by flipping the throttle hold or having your ESC catch fire)
3. Give full negative pitch to the blades as it falls while doing some forward flight
4. about 4 feet from the ground tilt the nose up just a hair and give it positive pitch. This should slow the heli down
5. quickly reduce positive pitch and control the heli landing.

This is not easy to do. I crashed the first 10 attempts in the sim with a larger heli. Larger birds are easier to do this with and it can be done from 100 feet up or more. I have seen a heli stall inverted and the guy was able to right it and land it. If you loose power with an electric heli, something else is wrong.

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

Thanks I will try that next time I loose power. I have a sim G3.5 I will practice on to.

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

Why are you losing power so often?

Never mind.
I didn't read the last part about battery charging.

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

Here's a link for Helifreak and Bob "Finless". He shows how to do Autorotations in the Sim.
9/2007 - Autos in real life with "STICK CAM" showing the sticks
First up is how to learn to do Auto Rotations in REAL LIFE.
It's how to shoot autos in REAL LIFE and I did a picture in picture showing my sticks while doing them. As you can see jamming the negative is NOT the key as this vid shows.
VIDEO -> Learning to shoot autos on a 450 and showing the sticks (39 Megs)

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

I don't do mine on the SIM at all. I think that it's easier to do autos in real life. You can get a better feel for it when you have the real thing. There are two types of autos that you can do: one in flight and one at a hover.

Hover:
- Get your aircraft in a steady hover about 1-2 feet of the ground.
- As you turn the throttle off, let the heli settle and right before ground contact, execute a rapid left stick up to cushion the landing.
- Make sure you touchdown in a level attitude and ensure that you use all that you have to cushion the landing.

Flight:
- The Key thing is that you make sure you have momentum (preferably forward).
- Cut your throttle.
- Reduce the left stick all the way down to 0 (zero) pitch (whatever that is for your heli) in order to keep the rotors turning (this will ensure inertia on your blades).
- At about 5 ft, conduct a deceleration with your right stick.
- And the rest is basically a hovering auto.
- The key is forward momentum, no load on the rotors to keep them turning, and a good deceleration. The rest is basically a hovering auto.

I've been doing autos since the first time I lifted my heli off the ground. We do it in a real helicopter ASAP, so I figured I should learn it quickly on an RC heli.

Good luck! Practice often and remember to keep the blades turning.

Kenn

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

Are they hard to do on the real thing?

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

The first time you do it - absolutely. The more you do it, the more proficient you become - thus making it relatively easier.

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

Since Ive never done a true auto on purpose Iam not an expert on the subject. I have read alot about the dynamics. I do know that once you lose power whether in a full scale heli or model the same things apply. First off you cant give full positive pitch at the moment of power loss or you lose to much rotor speed.You must allow the rotor to maintain as much headspeed as possible, And in bigger craft you actually have to dive to preserve and increase rotor speed so you have it at the bottom where you need it. hence the higher altitude that was mentioned. if you are giving full pitch or throttle right at power loss your killing your main rotor speed to quick and you dont have enough rotor speed at the bottom to give you any lift to flare and land softer.
If you ever get the chance to see full scale helis do autorotations its really something to see, all heli pilots must learn this to get a license to fly. And it is the only chance full scale helis have to survive a power failure.

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

The neg pitch,throttle back. combined with the fall gives the blades speed and energy.Adding pitch before impact uses the energy from the fall to slow down the descent.Forward flight also adds energy and makes autos easier.Larger helicopters have heavier blades which store more energy during the fall making them easier to autorotate.Been out of helis for a while I had a 60 size nitro that had lead weights in the blade tips to give them more momentum(energy) for auto rotations.It quite on me once at about 50 feet in foward flight,it was my first autoration.The heli actually flared to a very nice touchdown ( in a bean field) I could not beleive how gentle it set down.Not a scratch ,dent or ding anywhere.

RE: Auto rotation help please
 

Very nice and very impressive!