snappa

barracudahockey
have you a co-pilot?? or are you offering to fix his heli when he crashes??

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

A copilot will not go as far as a good simulator and a lot of practice.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks for the suggestion on the co-pilot, but it's not necessary. I have a sim and have had lots of practice, just dumb thumbs caused this crash. Snappa, what do you mean WHEN he crashes. I don't plan on going through this again
Before anyone corrects me - in reality I know I will crash again. I just hope it's not for awhile.

snappa

exactly as I said you know the chance of crashing is there,,i have a xtr flight sim and the full co-pilot setup,,,which is more helpfull?? co-pilot by far....removes the dumb thumbs from the equation,,,,,you can also either reduce the throw with co-pilot mines at 70% or if your radio will let you mix the co-pilot control channel with both your aieleron and elevator chanels its explained on the fma site but as you push the stich foward the "help" from co-pilot is reduced to provide better feel,,,but if you get a case of dumb thumbs and centre the co-pilot it may well save that expensive model,,co-pilot is less or about the cost of a new chopper plus its reciever is very good at stopping crashes from someone else on your chanel

snappa

co-pilot also does the following,,,when you switch on the reciever the co-pilot looks for interference on your chanell via the led on the aircraft,,when you switch on the transmiter co-pilot takes a "snapshot" of the frames produced by your unit with all the small differences like time spans ect so it really locks onto your transmiter,, it has been proven that with another transmiter switched on to your chanel it had no effect on control at all,,,fail safe is set to what you want for example mine is set to 100% control, throttle about 10% open and about 1 deg pitch planes would be set to a slow decent in a circle,, it also records fail safes and bad frames, includes a built in volt meter and if you install the recorder it records your whole flight and you can down load the file to your comp including user defined sensors like head speed, engine temp, aux batt volts,,reciever volts are recorded as a standard item,,i feel its even worth it for expert pilots for all its worth

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Snappa, do you own stock in FMA? Sounds like you're really trying to sell me on this OK, so I am considering it. I did some research and found that : "NOTES: 1) The current CoPilot does not handle CCPM helicopters or aircraft configurations that include differential ailerons or flapperons. The CoPilot will only operate in aircraft that use one servo for pitch and one servo for roll controls"
My heli uses electronic mixing. Two servos work together for both pitch and roll. Will it work on this setup? I'm assuming that you use a co-pilot, what kind of a heli do you have it setup on?

snappa

nope I dont actually have stock lol my caliber has electronic mixing you must be looking at the wrong model,, the one you need is fs8cp https://www.fmadirect.com/site/home.htm i am really happy with what the cp has done for me but most "experienced inverters and rollers!!" flyers dont like it as it can make the controls feel a little soggy,, but that is part of the control it gives you,,,as you improove you reduce the help it gives you or if you want switch it off,, if you get in the **** you just flick a switch and its instantly on and saving your ass best money I have spent see here http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Co-P..._684620/tm.htm

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Yeah, I was looking at the older model that they refer to at the begininng of the thread you posted. I see the fs8 does what I want it to, now I just have see if I can come up with the money. It sucks being in college and broke. My birthday's coming up, maybe I can get the g/f to chip in on it.

snappa

I CRASHED MY CALIBER TODAY............................................. .............well actually it was more of a gentle dump than a crash,,,I was up about 8 metres and my motor just died,,instinct took over closed throttle, then a second later when a bit off the ground opened it and landed it on its feet,,I think they call that an auto (my first) the only dammage was one skid cracked and I suspect it was a little weak from wear on the underside some thoughts on this,,,1 using the simulator made the auto become instinctive and certanly stopped me from crashing 2 the co-pilot helped me keep it level as i came down and avoided a tip over I suspect why I stopped was when i refueled just before take off I hadnt waited for the bubble to dissapear from the fuel line lesson learnt cost $NZ30 for a set of new skids.......

snappa

update,,it did it again tonight with just a hard bang on the skids.....I suspect it was more a mixture problem,,,as I had just floored it and was up at about 20 m

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Well, I finally got her fixed. Although it would not have helped in my last crash, I decided I should build some trainer gear for it. I built it out of CF rods and whiffle golf balls. I was planning on just attaching the gear to the skids with zip ties. Is there a better way? I really don't have room to store it with the training gear on, so I was wondering if there is an easy way to take the gear on and off. But, I guess zip ties are cheap. I also installed a remote glow starter since my glow igniter isn't long enough to reach the glow plug with the canopy installed. I decided against the co-pilot for now. My meager funds will not allow it. I know that the co-pilot will pay for itself if it saves a couple of crashes, but since rent and food are more of a necessity, I'll have to put it off for now. I'll just take it slow and keep it rotor-side up. Hopefully I'll have a good flight to report after this weekend.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

I flew the heli today. I'm almost too embarassed to admit it, but I discovered a huge mistake I had made when setting up the heli. I'm assuming that most heli pilots know the difference between 180 and 120 degree swashplates. I didn't know the difference until today. When I flew it again today, I knew that something just wasn't right. When I pulled back on the right stick the heli did tilt back, but it also went up. Not only that, but every change in collective made the heli pitch forward or backward. If you haven't already figured it out, I have a 120 degree swashplate, but my radio was setup for a 180 degree swashplate. Without the benifit of a heli pilot in the club, it took me hours of reading and head scratching this evening, but i finally got it figured out. I'm testing it out again tomorrow and am really looking forward to it. I can't believe I've already flown it as much as I have the way it was setup. At least I have something to blame the crash on. Hopefully I'll have some good news on my next post...

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

One other thing to add. I found that the training gear I built had legs that were either too long or too flimsy. When I was on the ground and spinning up the rotor, I had some bad tail wag. It must have been do to the spring in the gear because it stopped as soon as I lifted off. I've cut about 6" off each leg. There's still a big enough footprint for stability, but there is alot less give.

snappa

we all have made silly mistakes, mine was adjusting the gyro and accidently flicked the reverse switch,,,made a very interesting takeoff,, more spinning top than heli,,,

ngbninja

I too have a Caliber 30 and had the gyro on reverse on its maiden flight after running in but i was lucky not to crash.
i am only 14 yrs old and i have flown my dads shuttle through about 7 or 8 tanks. What manoeveres can i start practising because hovering in general is getting boring for me now!!

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Well, it happened again - this time it wasn't nearly as much my fault. I can't avoid all blame since I guess I should've done a better pre-flight. I have been flying this heli with alot of success since my last post. I got the swashplate figured out and this thing turned out to be pretty easy to fly. Then, on my last flight, I was hovering a few feet off the ground when the blades started making all kinds of noise (like they do when you are making aggressive maneuvers) and it started climbing and banking to the right. I fed in full left - which did nothing and finally I had to just give full neg collective, hoping to slow things down before the imminent crash. It ended up flipping over and landing upside down. It turns out that the cause of this crash was one of the screws that holds the ball to the bellcrank for the ailerons came out. It didn't just unscrew, there was still pieces of plastic in the threads of the screw. It seems to me that this is a pretty crappy design. Am I missing something? Should I have epoxied the screws into the bellcrank? Why do they have bolts and nuts attaching the balls to the servo arms, but just screws going into plastic on the bellcranks? Before I fly this again, I have to do something different. I may just try to buy the bolts and nuts and attach all the balls this way. I would like to get the aluminum bellcranks-they seems like a better option-but I don't know if I want to spend the 70 bucks on them. Does everyone else use the stock screws?

snappa

that is EXACTLY what I did with my caliber no canopy= BOOM!! now you wanna see it RED tail boom, dayglow ORANGE skids, dayglow rubber feet, and the blades....well white with a yellow band on one and a orange band on the other....will post a photo later lol I will never loose sight of it now and if I do........we co-pilot will fix it......

snappa

here with my dragonfly 39 behind

marvin_howell2001

can u help me? i need 550 blades for my caliber 30 which ones and where can i get some thanx want to fly this thing