Super-Hornet

Hi all
I'm new here. I recently bought "GWS Mini Dragonfly" (Electric Micro/Mini Helicopter). I'm being playing it for about a week already but I still can't manage to hover. I think my dragonfly SUX!!! It is toooo damn unstable. Recently I followed a trick from one of the message in this forum about setting the paddle with some AoAttach. Now at least I can fly for a few seconds before I have to make emergency landing or crash onto either wall or my sofa.(I can say it is a lousy hover... I manage to make the Heli afloat but i keep on adjusting the movement. I can't make it float still)

I was wondering whether is it Dragonfly is inheritantly too unstable or my learning curve really SUX.

My friend being thinking of getting one Electric Heli soon. I tell him if he can get hummingbird or thunderbird will be better. By looking at hummingbird and dragonfly... I can see that both are close to identical except that one from Taiwan (GWS) and the other from U.S. (Century) Another different is that hummingbird has a tail boom support whereas Dragonfly did not. Can someone tell me whether are they the same? (I mean are they an identical twin?)


That is all for now. Bye

Hornet

siclick33

I have not flown these little helis but my information is that they are quite tricky to fly. All helicopters need constant inputs to maintain a steady hover but the larger helis have more inertia so it is harder for them to be pushed around.

If you can get a simulator for the PC then that will help. Alternatively try and find someone who can already fly and get them to hover your model. They may be able to 'tweak' it to make it slighty easier to fly.

You can also buy training sticks for these helis now that will attach to your skids to stop it falling over. Learn to hover by lifting only a couple of inches off the ground. If it starts to go wrong lower it back to the ground. This will prevent damage. Keep doing this and you will eventually increase the time you are in the hover until you can do it without thinking.

Keep trying and I am sure you will get there.

ChopperMike

There's no doubt that these micro heli's are the least stable machines out there. I have an MS Composit Hornet and even with all the experience I have flying 30 size nitro heli's have just gotten to the point of being able to hover it. One thing that will help, get it out of the house! Unless you have extremely large rooms to fly in I wouldn't attempt it. Maybe the basement if you have a large unfinished basement or possibly 2 car garage. I tried mine at work in one of the larger areas (on the weekent) and found it much easier to do.

Regards,

Mike

Josephcm

First of all, the Dragonfly and the Hummingbird are NOT identical. I bought the Dragonfly about 2 months ago and have broke so many parts that I decided to buy a bare bones hummingbird and just transfer the electronics. Well, I was surprised, there was 3 major differences.

1. On my dragonfly, the main and tail motors shared electric wires. The black (ground) wire was seperate, but the red (hot) was daisy chained to my 3-1 board. The hummingbird comes with seperate leads for both the black and red wires. This was the first mod, I stripped the plasic off of one of the leads and unseated the tail connector and wrapped the brass connector around the exposed wire.

2. The connecting rods from the servos were different. The hummingbird came with metal wired rods, the dragonfly had plastic. This was an easy fix.

3. The hummingbird does NOT have a box that the controller board can go in. I had to frabricate a mounting bracket for the controller out of spare (broken) parts.

Now, for flying.....

I have not had a successful flight yet. I used to try in my 2 car garage, but I still keep crashing into either the walls, floor, or my snow blower.

If you ever come a cross the secret of these, let me know!

Super-Hornet

Hi all again

First of all... thank for all those advice. Ok I bought the ARTF version of my DragonFly (DF) and it come with GWS Transmitter (GWT-4A). The problem for that model is that it do not support wire connector of any kind for FMS or Simulator. So, using Simulation to practise is out of question to me. Damn!

A few days ago I found another local shop that sell ARTF Dragonfly that come with Futaba Transmitter. That package cost about S$50 cheaper than mine! Behind that Futaba TX got a connector for simulation. Damn I feel being cheated. Well... I guess I bought that Heli out of sudden urge.

I forgot to check what model for that Futaba TX. I remember it got analog meter to check the batteries whereas mine only uses a single LED. It turn from green to red when the batteries reaches 9.1v

About the Hummingbird (HB) that do not have box for the controller board, well from what i seeing in local shop, it does have that box. If you download the exploded parts diagram for HB, u will see that it is similar to DF http://centuryheli.com/support/manua...20instruct.gif
(I can't see the wiring for both Main and Tail rotor motor connector so I not sure about that.

BTW Josephcm... since u owned HB and DF, is it DF is more unstable than HB? Or is it the same?

Bye for now.

Super-Hornet (I wanted to register as Hornet but too bad that callsign already used by someone in this forum)