Zort86

Hey guys, I have a new, well it was new Axe CP and I have been practicing every day for about a month now. I am getting a bit better, but it is a lot harder than I originaly expected.
My question is what advise do you guys have to help me along getting this down?
I can get it off the ground and may be keep it in a hover for about 10 to 25 sec and it drifts around, even in light wind. I know it is all practice and stick time, just looking for some advise.
I can tell you that I hve been practicing on the simulator and I can get that to hover and fly it around and bring that to a hover and land, but for some reason I can not get the real thing down.

strat1960s

That is the problem with sims. You're not too worried about crashing a sim. There are tons of things I do on the sim that I don't have the nerve to do with the real heli. As you get better at hovering the real heli, you'll find the nerve to do a little bit more. It's not like you learned to hover today and tomorrow you're ready to fly 3D. You have to use what you've learned and move to the next step. Hovering to forward flight and so on.
I can tell you that if you don't get your heli above 3 to 5 feet above the ground you'll be in your blade wash (turbulence caused by your main rotor blades). Blade wash will toss your heli around like the SS Minow. You know how that story played out........... A wreck.

Keep practicing, be patient and it'll come to you.

Ted

dtacmed

Also I have not found a simulator that reacts exactly like the Heli I'm flying. I think Sims are great for practicing basic controls however each heli flys and reacts differently. I also agree crasing the sim is free. Just keep practicing and all of a sudden things will start to fall in place and all of a sudden it's not as hard as it was to fly. I also agree get a little higher prop wash creates all kinds of problems learning.

MMatheny

Make sure it is set up properly - perfect blade tracking, gyro bias and trim set. I took the time to really set mine up this weekend, and I flew 2 batteries down until it wouldn't lift off and didn't even have to adjust the tail trim as the battery ran down.

USHobbySupply

Took me 3 months, 3 hours a day, 7 days a week to get good at hovering in 3 orientations. Still working on nose in. On a coax, no problem, but on the real deal, not there yet. Just keep at the sticks, then one day, click it happens, you have a hover for a full battery. Once that is conquered you can move on to side hovering.

Zort86

Thats for the help guys, I think now that part of my problem is I am not getting it high enough to get out of the prop wash. Does any one have any links or information on the correct way to get it set up.

jamielt1

you might check with a local hobby store and see if they have electric meets at a high school gym like in my area. we have helis and planes and they are usually willing to help. members of a local club helped with my setup.

RCAV8R50

I'm new to this heli flying too. I'm flying the helimax mx400 and let me tell you with all my experance with flying RC planes, the heli is a challange.

Maybe someone can help me with this question. Rather than posting a new thread I thought I would ask it here.
I have a nice 3 car garage with an epoxy floor and find it inpossible to trim, my gyro works perfect but as the heli gets light it wants to drift to the left, if I trim for that then once I break ground it wants to go right. is that a normal thing for ground effect or prop wash to drift left?

Thank you for any help.

MMatheny

The drift to the left is normal for ALL helis - it is a result of the tail fighting to keep the heli from twisting to the left, and it pushes the heli to the left. A slight amount of right cyclic will help. If you mean it ROTATES to the left, you need to adjust the bottom pot on the 3n1 to get it to quit spinning. And yes, the down wash will cause the left then right effect - once you get about 4 ft high it should be minimal. BTW - I think ground effect and prop wash are fixed wing terms - ground effect is the layer of air that compresses below the wing as you settle in for a landing that makes landing smoother. Prop wash is the backward thrust of the propeller that causes havoc with the tail feathers and planes following closely - I believe down wash is the heli term (someone correct me if I'm wrong!)

strat1960s

RCAV,

As you spin up the main rotors and the tail rotor begins to spin the heli naturally slides to the left. That is the tail rotor doing it's job of stabilizing the heli and keeping it from rotating. When you give it more throttle and the heli is lifting off the ground, again, it will drift left. There are two things you can do to correct this.
1. when the heli starts to drift left, give it a little right aileron (move the right stick a little to the right). This will level the heli out as it is lifting off.
2. give the heli enough idle to get it about a foot off the ground, but do it quickly. Once you get the heli a foot off the ground it won't drift as much.
Now that you're off the ground you get to deal with blade wash. Blade wash is the turbulence casued by your main rotors. The air from your blades hits the ground and bounces back up into the blades. No worries! Blade wash is most noticeable from the ground to about 4 feet above the ground. Like I said in the previous post, while in your blade wash your heli will be tossed around like the SS Minnow. There isn't really any way to predict which way the heli is going to lean and drift. This is kind of good, because it forces you to read your heli and react. Your rotor head will lean left or right or forward and back. It'll lean one way or another and a secod later it'll begin to drift. So, if you see it lean one way you can level it out before it goes anywhere. Another way to deal with blade wash is raise your heli above 4 feet and the blade wash dies down. Keep in mind, it all takes time.

Ted

RCAV8R50

Thank You for your response Its good to know that its normal for the heli to dance around a bit when low. I do manage to keep some what control with about 6" altitude with in a 10' circle but it is swinging back and forth, front and back with contenue input on the sticks. Thank God the Gyro works I couldn't deal with yaw too.

So Let me ask this. will I see a more solid hover at 5' in a no wind day as there is no way I'm going to do this in my garage?

Thank You for your responces

strat1960s

RCAV,

Yes, things will stabilize the higher you are from the floor. Now, just becasue you may not feel any breezes, that doesn't mean things are calm higher up. I fly inside a KC135 hangar. When the doors are closed, there is no wind, but there are drafts and breezes. If you can find someplace indoors to fly the better off you'll be. Not everyone is as fortunate to have an aircrzaft hangar to fly in, but maybe a gymnasium or something like that.

Ted

[]TEX[]

Practice, practice, practice, you'll get there soon enough.

thestratcat

My Feedback: (12)

what he said [8D]

osterizer

Encore . You'll find that the 400 actually hovers pretty well even at low altitudes, close to the ground. The normal reason for sliding around like that is just not being used to it yet-- when you're starting out it takes time to realize how little input is needed to maintain a particular position, particularly if you have a good radio setup. As a result, you'll give it more input than it needs (or hold it longer than needed) so it winds up going back the other way (overcontrolling, same as when you're learning constant speed/altitude with a fixed wing). Practice is the only answer there, but as Tex said, you get there, and then you can't stop grinning about it .

thestratcat

My Feedback: (12)

another thing, the sim may have a gyro factored in, if you haven't put one on your CP that is the difference between you being able to fly one and not the other, the gyro settles things down quite a bit..

RCAV8R50

Thanks for your insite,

I have learned one thing tonight for me anyways, Don't use expo. rates, it makes it easy to over control as center stick doesn't give enough then you increase then its to much. I had much more statsified hover being 0 on the expo and about 80% on daul rates.

[]TEX[]

Beginners should never use pos expo and never put expo on the rudder.

osterizer

Hehe neg expo is a discussion for learning on, too. I learned basic flight on a Blade CP Pro-- twitchiest little b****d in town --and I'm not sure if I would have been better to dumb it down with expo on the cyclic, or with what actually happened, that once I learned to fly the BCPP everything else was easy. Spent a fortune in woodies and spindle shafts, though.

MMatheny

RCAV8R50
What TX you running?

RCAV8R50

Airtronics RD 6000 super

hobby_man

My Feedback: (8)

I prefer excpo over dual rates, duel rates lock you in on maximum control surface travel. I have had aircraft in a situation where I had to flip off the DR to recover the model. Expo on the other hand gives you all the travel of the control surface and yet dampers stick response near the home stick position.

I have a couple 3d planes and 1 heli I would never get of the ground with out EXPO.

I do agree, never use the expo on the tail. Expo on the ail and elv is a the only wat to go.