I've been trying to hover my axe cp for about a month. I can hover it but I can't hover in one spot. It wants to drift. I have use the simulator for a while
and I have plenty of experience in rc. What's my problem .

A lot of folks seem to be using the HH gyro to help them stay in one spot. Frees up your controls by managing your tail. I got mine to stay in a tighter spot by gently adjusting trims as she tracked away. Need a pretty big area to do this. once I got that down she stayed in one spot with a little track from wind. Dont get frustrated over it. Simulations can only get so far.

More time, more batteries, more time, more batteries...then repeat....Doc

As Doc said, you just need more time on the sticks. Your post sounds almost identical to my first on this site, but now I regularly hover in absurdly small spaces, sometimes as small as 3x4 feet. It just takes practice. In a few weeks of flying you'll notice that less and less concious effort goes into hovering and that your thumbs almost move on their own accord. Once you get there, though, you'll find that hovering is boring and you want to move around more[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

Paddle,

A heading hold Gyro will NOT keep the bird in one place. But, It will keep it, mostly facing in the same direction without you having to worry about yaw control (nose drifting right or left). That means that you have less variables to worry about, so you can concentrate more on left or right, forward and back, on the cyclic (or, is it the collective? I never could get that straight.... The stick on the right).

NONE of 'em hover in one place. You need a perfectly balanced bird to get close. and you need to be up about three feet, and no cross wind, and no ground effect, and well exercised thumbs.......

Keep practicing, learn to balance the bird as best you can before takeoff, and don't be afraid to get it up a few feet.

Good Luck.
Splat

Splat - cyclic performs roll and pitch maneuvers (as in the pitch of the blades/paddles cycle as the blades rotate around). Collective moves together to change the blade pitch all at once (as in th Borg Collective!)

Mike,

Roll and Pitch?? Imagine that.... (LOL)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Mike! And the rest of you too.

Splat

OK - left/right or forward/rear cyclic! Better??

Roll is the heli's turning movements on the Z-axis, Pitch is on the X-axis, Yaw is on the Y-axis, and Collective is the vertical movements on the Y. Hope this clears it up. Put more simply, cyclic is on the right stick (for mode 2 tx's) and collective is on the left.

Come on guys! it was just a joke.....

If X axis goes nose to tail, Y axis goes wingtip to wingtip, and Z axis is a verticle line through the junction of, and perpendicular to, the X and Y axis,,, wouldn't ROLL be motion on the X axis, PITCH be motion on the Y axis, and YAW be motion on th Z axis? And Mike, don't even think about asking where the wingtips are on a helicopter (LOL).

Paddle,
Sorry about highJacking the thread, but everybody needs a litle humor every now and then. Like the guys said, more practice on the sticks. Good Luck!

Thanks for the help, and a good laugh. I'll keep practising in y garage.

"If X axis goes nose to tail, Y axis goes wingtip to wingtip,"

looking head on at a heli, or anything for that matter, X goes left/right, Y is up/down and the Z is a to/away..at least thats the 3D worlds standard

Hehe, more specifically, y is down to up, z from near to far.....

For the airplane world, simpler terms, pitch is rotation as imparted by the elevator, yaw by the rudder, and roll by the ailerons. Helis mess it up by having "pitch" be a major flight control (collective), and "aileron" and "elevator" contrived by the cyclic. We just dare to be different, I guess . At least the "rudder" (tail deflection, yaw) is something like what you expect!

...and a partridge in a pear tree...who's on first?

LOOKING at a Computer monitor in CAD

Well,,, that's clear as mud! My brain hurts. I'm gonna go empty that Scotch bottle.


Happy, prosperous, and safe New Year to all!
Splat

Well, now it would seem that we have a fourth line, W, that the heli's collective operates on, because X, Y, and Z are all used up by now. This can only mean 2 things: 1) There is a shared axis (which is a physical impossibility, as far as I can tell) or 2) Axis W is not a rotational axis like X, Y, and Z, but a linear-motion axis occupying the Y-axis' space (only possible in mathematics.... The side of my brain that handles physics is already annoyed) but supplying the physical ability for the heli to move up and down.... Of course, the heli's motions up/down relative to the rest of the universe are indisputably rotational, because the universe itself is theoretically spherical, so the W-axis should be at the central point of wherever the gravitational force holding the heli's vertical motions in a circle is.

Now the question is WHO CARES?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Nobody cares- but model it in a relative frame with a suitable transform and it remains purely Newtonian- velocities and distances are far too low to worry about relativity per se .

Hey - interesting conversation though!

What does collective mean? it means a joint or combined effort etc. Its taking the entire swashplate and moving it up or down evenly and that is the only input it has. Its like holding the heli in you hand whiles its running and all the inputs going on and your hand is the collective. You raise the heli up and you bring it down all evenly while at the same time, all that other stuff is going on.

All helis will not have the same flight characteristics, even of the identical model. This can be easy seen wherever your trim ends up. Full scale is the same way. I recall already having a couple thousand hours in Hueys and Jetrangers before I started flying Cobras. Took about 4 days before I was comfortable and the first day gave me the impression I had never even been in a helicopter.

Just need more time. Gyros help but its not an automatic pilot.

A gyro ain't an auto pilot? Try a gyro on each ......ughhhh.......axis. One auto pilot coming up!

Actually that might be a good training tool.... Has anyone tried it?

There are 3-axis stabilizers out there, but they're expensive. Some people use them and like them, but I think it's better to just practice more. Cheaper too.