SkyUp

Just ordered a Falcon 3D and a 15C 2200mah Lipo!
Now I just have to wait for it to arrive ... I think they are backordered a couple of weeks ... []

Thanks for the info you've provided, it's been helpful.

Happy Landings,

Dave

SkyUp

Hi Ross,

I see the Falcon 3D...IS... available on 35mhz at http://www.hobbyfly.com/helicopters/...copter_en.html
Looks like Denmark maybe ...

Gary Morris

Looks like people are starting to buy the Falcon, and so far nothing but good reports. To those of you that have never flown a helicopter I would strongly suggest you sit down at your computer and do some serious reading. You need to know how to properly balance the blades, trim your helicopter and setup the gyro. I could take a few hours and type it all up but it would be much better for you all to do the research yourself. As far as one poster said his was spinning, that's due to improperly setup tail and gyro. The Heading Hold Gyro once setup will hold the tail very well which is a huge improvement from a few years ago when all that was available were rate gyros. A rate gyro just tries to hold your tail but it does drift and can really make it difficult to learn how to hover and fly. The most important thing is have the tail servo horn at 90 degrees in the neutral position when you start out. Now move the rudder control full left and right and watch to see if there is any binding at the tail pitch slider. If there is, you need to loosen the two clamps that hold the servo on the boom and move the servo either backwards or forwards til you don't get any binding in either direction. Once you have it where it doesn't bind, tighten up the two screws so it can't move. Your gain setting on your gyro for the falcon has normally been set so it will at least hover and hold the tail. If it doesn't turn it clockwise until it does or it the tail starts to wag. If the tail wags, you have the gain set too high. The Falcon should not wag it's tail and the heading hold gyro should hold the tail rock solid even with full collective pitch added. There are literally hundreds of sources on HOW TO for helicopters. Learn how to balance your blades first off, it's critical in how your Falcon will perform.

Gary

Gary Morris

Ok guys, here's a link to balance your blades, this is the correct procedure, it may seem difficult but it's really not and balanced blades will mean little or no vibration, vibration is your helicopters worse enemy! http://www.dream-models.com/eco/Blade_balancing.html

Gary

SkyUp

Gary -

Thanks for the pointers on basic setup and the excellent link on blade balancing!
All good stuff ... I assume that any RTF fresh out of the box should be looked over well and checked for proper adjustments and tweaked as necessary for optimum preformance and longevity.

I can imagine that battery placement/position is critical in assuring a nice stable hover (especially when first getting used to this bird).

Thanks again!

Dave

medic99

Gary and to all,

So my Falcon 3-D is now in a couple of piece's. (Not to worry though I have not given up).. The problem with mine was that the tail servo was not set correctly therefore I could not stablize the heli.. As Gary said you should check this before your first flight..

Happy Flying.. I am grounded till my new get's here.

SkyUp

Sorry to hear about the mishap medic99!
Doesn't seem to have dampened your spirit though ... that's good to hear!

Ya, I'm going to put 'er on the bench and go through 'er from stem to stern to learn and check it all out. I don't have experience with these, but I have done quite a lot of R&D on many things mechanical so I should be able to spot something if it's not right. One advantage of being a draftsman for the last 16 years, I guess.
I know I'll be anxious to get it hovering, but I also know I have a lot to learn before I even get that far.

Good luck when you get the parts in M99!

Meanwhile you can study up and go through the rest of 'er

choppersrule

Medic99,

Well, your not alone, after 4 good flights, I crashed mine too. It wasn't as bad as yours. I only snapped one of the main blades off. It was a windy day and I was practicing hovering in my garage, got a little to close(hit) the leg on my work bench. Waiting for parts, like you.

I only needed a set of main blades but I decided to order extra parts, just in case.

I ordered two sets of main blades, tail rotor grips, tail rotor blades, main blade grips, rotor head set, swash plate, tailfin set, ball link ends and pushrods and tail pushrod for right at $80.00. That's pretty reasonable..

If you remember, in one of my posts, I was able to fly it out of the box with just some trim adjustments. I wasn't totally happy with that, so I did go thru the whole process of checking everything. I found three screws that were not tightened down properly.
Also, the heli, even with alieron trim almost to the far right wanted to go to the left. So I adjusted the servo linkage for that and it's now almost a hands off hovering.

I'm extremely happy with the Falcon. I know in awhile, I'll be able to have a ton of fun with it.

Give us a shout if you need any help. Glad to hear you not discouraged about your crash.

I couldn't even imagine how much I've spent in the last 6 months or so on this hobby, but it's a lot less expensive than some others.

Dave / Choppersrule

medic99

Thanks again for the help. I figured that I might as well get a new one considering I cracked the tail boom..

Choppersrule,

Just out of curiosity, the servo on the tail boom controls rudder function.. To what degree does it move the tail rotor.. I think the problem was that mine never worked.. I could never get the heli off the ground without it spinning constantly. I worked back through it today and the servo is not moving the tail bar.. It is actually not even moving..

choppersrule

Medic99,

I just now verified on my Falcon, that viewing the heli from the left side. Throttle down and moving the left stick to the left, the tail servo arm moves to the right about 30 degrees. When moving the stick to the right it moves about 45 degrees to the left. It returns slowly to center position, I'm guessing this is because of the head-holding gyro.

Hope this answers you question, any more help just PM me.

Dave / Choppersrule

choppersrule

Medic99,

Save you crashed Falcon, it has a ton of parts for future use.


Dave / Choppersrule

medic99

Dave,

Yeah the servo never moved a degree. I think I got a bad servo connection out of the box. Oh well my fault for not checking. I am def going to save the old.. That was my thinking, I know I will crash again. On this last crash I did alot of damage to parts that are out of stock and I want to start flying again ASAP.. When I get the new one I will shoot you a PM for some more info..

Until then safe flying and be safe..

Curry

Gary Morris

Here are some pictures of my carrying case I made for my Falcon 3D. I used a Stanley tool box, cost $24.95, some automotive headliner, $6.00 a yard, and the packing material from the original box, what do you think?


Gary

SkyUp

Fits like a glove ...
... good protection measure ...
... now, if we could only keep the toolbox around it while learning to fly it ...

.. I can see it now, a toolbox with training gear, a hole cut out of the top with the colective and blades protruding ...
... oh ya, and an antenna extension through the end ...
... and ducted ports off each side of the tail roter ...

Man they'd sell like hotcakes ...

Avi__

Hi.
I am interestend in bying this helli. Have a few questions:
1) I understand that the gyro is a heading hold one. Does it have a normal mode?
2) I am not familiar with electric equipment (flying x-cells). Does the electric speed controller keep constant RPM, or is it regular pitch/throttle mixing?
3) Following (2), How many flight modes are there in the TX? Are they programmable?
4) Would it work with a futaba transmitter?
5) Following (4), if not, can the receiver be replaced, or is it an integrated unit with the gyro/ESC?
6) Is it CCPM, I couldn't tell by the head, seemed like it is not (which I prefer)?
This helicopter looks promisig, but I couldn't figure out these detials.
Thanks,
Avi.

Gary Morris

1. Yes the Gyro has normal mode, it's accessed by switching the channel 5 switch on the transmitter.
2. The speed controller uses preprogrammed pitch and throttle settings, it's a standalone ESC so you could use it with another transmitter.
3. There are two flight modes, normal and 3D , they are not programmable.
4. Yes, it would however you may have to change the receiver since I'm not sure if it's positive or negative shift.
5. Yes, you can replace the receiver with your own.
6. It's Mechanical CCPM.

Hope this answers your questions!

Gary

choppersrule

Gary,

Just an absolutely great carrying case, you are one of detail. My carrying case is with my right hand.

I crashed the other day and broke a main blade and that's all, waiting on parts. Ordered 2 sets of blades and some other parts for back-up.

I too, have a couple questions:

1) You mentioned that the Gyro has a nomal mode accessed by switching channel 5 on the TX, which direction is the normal mode forward or back of the TX. Which is better for a new flyer?

2) The two small knobs, on front of the TX, just below the antenna are labled PIT and PLT. I adjusted each one, just out of curiousity and the heli had different flying characturistic... which I expected. What does PIT and PLT stand for and what does each control.

I'm on a learning curve and anxious to learn all I can.

Thanks for all your help,

Dave / Choppersrule

SkyUp

Hi Choppersrule -

I asked Gary the same question regarding the two knobs.

He said the knobs are for Pitch (PIT) and Throttle speed (PTL) and indicated that a good place to start with these is to set the PIT at 10:00 Oclock and the PLT at 1:00 Oclock.

I gather they are for obtaining the correct Pitch and Throttle curves as (somewhat) explained in the manual.

Oh, and he advised not, repeat not to change to 3D mode by the switch on the top right. (While learning)

Hope this helps some, maybe Gary will chime in and explain it better than I can.

Avi__

Hi.
Thanks for all the information.
I am not sure I got it right, though, about the ccpm. My transmitter (Futaba 8UAH) does not have ccpm mixing. Would it work with the heli?
Thanks,
Avi.

Avi__

The knobs you are mentioning allow you to change the head speed. While hovering, increase pitch and reduce throttle to get a lower head spee, or increase throttle and reduce pitch to get a higher head speed.
Higher RPM will make the heli feel more crispy, and less prune to rev problems with pitch change (though the heading hold gyro should take care of that anywya). The rotors will also have more energy, wihch means you can have nicer autorotations.
Lower RPM will be the oposite, but you will get longer runtimes.

Avi__

And yet another question...
You mentioned the Thunder Power 2100ma pack, and said that it was tight. This pack measures 4 x 1-1/4 x 3/4". Was is tight on the length or width? All in all, what are the maximal measurements for a battery to fit in?
Thanks allot,
Avi.

Gary Morris

Wow, so many questions, but here goes, the switch for heading hold is forward on channel 5, or towards you as your holding the transmitter. I wouldn't push it back because it then becomes a rate gyro which won't hold the tail nearly as stable. As far as setting up the helicopter with another radio I haven't done that but it shouldn't be a problem since many helicopters use mechanical mixing for collective pitch mixing. I beleive as long as you have a 6 channel transmitter you could probably get it to work as long as your radio has the ability to mix channel 6 to throttle. As far as the two knobs, the one on the left controls pitch, the lower the setting the less pitch you have, the second knob sets pitch in 3D mode, same thing applies, you can adjust them to your tastes and likings. As someone said I run mine at the 1:00 o'clock and 3 o'clock position. Hope all this helps!

Gary

Gary Morris

I forgot to mention about the TP battery, it will fit inside the frame only if you turn it on it's side, it's a tight fit but it does fit and it will balance the heli very well. Here is a picture of the battery location.

Avi__

Ok, then it's CPM and not CCPM. Good, since my transmitter does not have a CCPM mix.
Anyway, thanks for all the information.
Avi.

Avi__

I tend not to agree with you about the HH mode for the gyro. I use to fly larger and heavier helis (nitro and gas) and love the feal of a bird that alligns when the air flows on the fuselage. It's true that for 3d HH is a must, but when flyind circuits, and basic FA3 aerobatics, rate mode gives the heli a more "natural" behaviour.

Anyway, judging by the video, the heli seem to behave like a larger bird than it actually is, which means more stability, which is as important as manuverability, and also means allot more graceful flight. This is an inherit problem in many of the micro helis (they fly like flies, not like a helicopter), and is also the reason that I, like other nitro and gas flyers, never got a micro heli (yes, there is the t-rex, and shugon but it's way too expensive for a park fly).

Forgive me Gary, but you just seem to know much about the heli by now... What is the weight of the wooden blades? The carbon? Would other after market blades for the shugon/t-rex fit?
Thanks again,
Avi.