f9mountainman

Hello all. I picked up my CP and I am following the RADD method of training and he says the tail will move to the right. On my CP, the tail wants to move left. Instead of moving the throttle towards the 2 or 3 o'clock position, I have to move it towards the 9 or 10 position. Do you guys have any ideas what may be causing this? To keep it from drifting left, I pretty much have to have the left skid off the ground. I would sure appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

Gorgok

Maybe the control is reversed?

Which way does giving full right rudder turn the heli? (Left stick to 3 o'clock.) If it turns the nose of the heli to the left then you need to reverse that control. Full right rudder stick should turn the heli nose to the right.

Right rudder rotates the heli clockwise, left rudder rotates it counter clockwise.

tippy

What they mean is, without anti-torque forces (t/r thrust) your fuse (nose) will YAW opposite the rotation of the main rotor (you know ... equal and opposite actions). To keep this from happening a force EQUAL TO AND OPPOSITE the force of torque must be applied to the fuse to hold a steady heading. The key word is equal. Not enough t/r thrust and the heli will YAW nose left (opposite a right turning rotor). On the otherhand, if the "counter" thrust is too much, the heli will YAW right (t/r thrust is overpowering the forces of torque).

Sure, your t/r is trimmed to provide too much right nose YAW. Reduce the amount of thrust producing the right nose YAW. This is what it means when you hear responses that say "you need to trim your heli". If your heli has a tiny t/r motor, then there is usually an adjustment on the speed controller for the tail that needs tweeked. If it's servo driven, then an adjustment in the linkage length is required.

Drifting left and yawing left are two different things. If the drift is minor, then it's probably a t/r side thrust / ground effect thing happening. Does it drift when you are further away from the ground?
If it's a major drift, then the answer is the same, "trim the heli". Adjust your cyclic trim (at the heli) to produce more right cyclic.

Good Luck,
d.tipton

f9mountainman

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I can deal with the drifting since I am taking my time and I havn't got airborne yet, I would imagine the drifting will get better once I decide to lift off with the Radd method. I believe I am over doing it with the power for now.

My main concern is with the yaw. The rudder is turning in the same direction as the rudder instead of the opposite direction. After I wrote this last night, I threw in another battery and the rudder control is fairly good, especially once I get the speed up a little. It's just kind of hard to keep it from drifting left when you have to give it left rudder instead of right. I will play with it later tonight and tomorrow I am going to get a Li-po so I can have more time to work with it. All in all, the contol is getting better but it would seem that the drifting problem would be considerably less if I was actually giving it right rudder instead of left. Thanks again.


One more note. I have been trying this with nuetral trim, so I am pretty sure I don't have to much right rudder trim in.

tippy

Huh? ....

If your stick is centered and your TX trim is centered and the heli wants to turn right then you DO have to much right trim. Again ... I repeat ... again, the trim I am referring to is the heli's trim NOT the TX trim. Besides, if the heli was YAWing right too much, I'd move the TX trim to the left not right.

So just checking to see if the TX trim was not pushed over to the right was a good "quick check" but I was referring to the heli's trim and not the TX trim when I said:
Good Luck,
d.tipton

f9mountainman

Okay, I got ya now. I was referring to the tx trim not the helicopter trim. I will play with the trim on the 4 in 1 tonight and see if that helps. I would think if I had to apply right rudder instead of left it would help with the drifting to the left. The natural tendency of the helo to drift left seems like it would be stronger since I have to add all that left rudder in as well. Am I correct in thinking that adding right rudder (which I should be doing) will help the drift? Right now, the drifting is actually pretty bad since I am having to add all that left rudder in. Thanks again, Brian.

tippy

Again ... when you say "drift". Is it drifting in the YAW axis (nose left/right but staying over the same spot on the ground) or is the whole heli moving left/right (not YAWing by translating left/right sideways).

Rudder controls YAW.
Cyclic controls Translation (fore/aft and left/right motion)

Due to the side thrust of the t/r, there will be a translation tendency but it is NOT (counter) controlled by the rudder stick ... it is controlled by the cyclic stick. If the heli wants to tranlate left (not YAW left), then right cyclic would counter this. Translation is controlled by the cyclic stick. YAW tendencies/commands are controlled by the rudder stick.

You originally posted that the nose of your heli wants to turn right. I responded by saying you need to tweek the heli's trim. A right turning nose has to much right YAW authority at the tail rotor and needs adjusted toward left.

A heli "translating" to the left is expected to a point but major translation needs to have the heli's cyclic (aileron) adjusted more to the right.

Hope this helps:


Good Luck,
d.tipton

VinceHerman

Can't... Help... Myself...

f9mountainman

I like that Vince. Okay, I should be much more clear on my comments. When I said drifting, I meant translating. The entire heli is going to the left which is normal from what little understanding I have. In order to keep the heli from translating left at higher power settings I pretty much have to keep the helo on the right skid with the left skid approx. one inch off the ground. Having to add left rudder (9:00 on the tx), I would think is adding to the natural tendency of the helicopter to translate left. If I needed to add right rudder (3:00 on the tx)(which I understand is way it should be), wouldn't that help reduce the translating towards the left? As it stands now, I have to add left rudder to keep the heli from yawing nose right. It would seem to me that since I have to add left rudder, this only compounds the tendency for the helo to translate left. I will mess with the trim on the helo tonight and see what happens. Thanks again, I really appreciate your help.

f9mountainman

Dis-regard! I started adjusting the proportional mix trim on the 4 in 1. I needed to reduce the tail rotor proportional. The tail rotor is now yawing in the correct direction which certainly helps with the translating towards the left. The tail is now yawing towards the right (nose left). This thing is now almost controllable (on the ground). I just have to get used to adding right rudder instead of left. My li-po's should be here soon. Charging for two hours and running for 9 minutes really sucks. Perhaps then things will start coming a little faster. Now I can actually start with the Radd training. Thanks again guys. I really appreciate it.

tippy

Apparently, you meant YAWing too.
Actually, with the t/r trimmed to far to the (nose) right, it was producing left (tail) all by itself. Moving the stick left (nose left, tail right) would have REDUCED the left translating tendency not added to it.

BTW, while you're still light on the skids and on the ground, you are reaping the burdens of ground affect. This is going to cause your heli to act funky. So if you are trying to get it perfectly trimmed while it's in ground affect, you may find that once you are out of ground affect, the heli my seem untrimmed again. Be prepared for this once you start flying around.

Good Luck,
d.tipton

f9mountainman

Thanks for your help Tippy.

AirmanFirstClass

I've been reading this thread with interest...lots of good information here. I started a thread as well because my honeybee cp is acting similarly to yours.

Is the Radd training the best way to go? It seems to be popular, but I am not knowledgable enough to make that type of decision.