Hey guys,

years ago I remember seeing a video of Curtis Youngblood flying an Xcell 60 custom with a modified JR radio converted into a single stick radio....inspired by that- I took my own JR 347 radio and got a stick gimbal and converted my own radio into a single stick setup- it worked perfectly. I enjoyed using my converted setup but sold it to a buddy. I now have a Futaba 9CH and was wondering if anyone knows where I might get a suitable gimbal to convert my own radio into a single stick setup? Has anyone else tried this? With the JR all I had to do was dismantle the radio and solder the new stick connectors into the adjustable pots the JR radio had- it worked perfectly and responded 100% to the digital programming inside (this tells me the travels matched perfectly internally)....


...I felt better with nose orientation with the SS setup and even bought a 8SS Heli radio Futaba made (big/bulky silver box-anyone have any for sale???)...i'm in no way a good flier but really enjoyed this setup..the only problem I had was that I had it setup where the SS knob was on the left side and throttle/collective still operated as usual- as opposed to Curtis Yongblood and the Futaba 8SS radio where a sliding switch was used on the right side of the radio to control throttle and pitch. If anyone has any info on where I could find a gimbal suitable for my new 9CH or a clean Futaba 8 SS radio for sale- i'd be thrilled!

Anyone here prefer single stick radios but feel forced to fly sticks as that's all that offered????

[email protected]

Hmmm, that's interesting. I didn't think anyone would want to do that anymore. Curtis does it because when he started flying that's all there was. I guess the good thing is that no one will ever ask you to fly your heli.

I would just buy a pot and build one myself. You are going to have to recalibrate the radio, though.

i have a nice clean ss8 tx that i got to have radio south morph into a single stick 9z for me, they used to morph 8u radios into single stick as well, so ya might wana try them for morphing the 9c.
if ya have no luck elsewhere finding a suitable gimble, i could probably be talked into selling the ss8 i have.
and rs2k, 2 stick radios have been around longer than single stick, CY made a concious decision to fly single back then, like a lot of the rest of us, as it is a lot more intuitive.

Single buttons lead to switches which lead to single stick and switches which lead to dual stick from what I understand.

I learned to fly with a single stick radio and would love to have a new one. The feel of it was great and I miss flying that way. Those that haven't flown with a single stick don't know what they are missing.

2 years ago I was at the IRCHA Jamboree in Muncie and ran across a guy there that had converted a 9Z WC2 to single stick. He had put a pot on the right stick so when it was rotated it worked the tail. The left stick was locked so it only moved up and down for throttle and pitch. He said that it was an easy conversion and if I recall he used parts from old Kraft single stick. Unfortunately I neglected to get his name.

I may know of a guy that was there and might have more information. I'll email him and see if I can find out more as I think he had the guys name that did the conversion.

I've seen a few like new single stick non computer radios go dirt cheap at swapmeets and sometimes think about picking one up. With heading hold gyros and governors one could get by without a computer radio fairly well.

Here is the link to information on the radio that Curtis uses.

Curtis Youngblood

His Radio

RS2K, just how old do you think Curtis is?

Older than me!!


Why do I make him sound old?

Well you're talking about Walt Good, not Curtis.

??????? I'm pretty sure I'm talking about Curtis. Why do I sound like I'm talking about someone else?

Thanks for all this great info guys.

I'm a little worried about doing the surgery myself but will do it if I have to- if there's a service being ofered by someone to do it- i'd prefer to pay and have it done.

Is Radio South a radio modification place? I'll do an internet search and see what comes up- if anyone has info on this company- please post it here.
I'd like to set the radio up as I see CY's radio done with the left stick just controlling throttle/collective....

what a dream setup- it seems more natural to control the rudder with a steerable wheel...........maybe I should modify my RealFlight sim radio 1st to make sure I still have the touch- anyone modify their RF sim radio?

Thanks guys
(don't forget- post any modification info here)
(and who's doing it)


again thanks for the info.

I think it would be real neat to make a VR booth to fly a heli! Mount like 5 cameras on your heli and hook it up to a fake heli cockpit with real controls hooked up to a radio. Maybe I can attatch it to a motion simulator and make a living by giving people rides.

"I'm chronologically challenged"

It means if we have a meeting at 9:00 AM I'll probably be seeing you at 9:05PM.

"Single buttons lead to switches which lead to single stick and switches which lead to dual stick from what I understand" It means that you have linked Curtis to a timeline that happened 30-40 years before he was born.

No, no, no. I was replying to Mongo's post about single stick radios. That post had nothing to do with curtis, it only had to do with the timeline of R/C radios. I have trouble seeing curtis doing a chaos with 2 button radios!

I only meant that single stick TXs came first because of size and cost, then the 2 sticks came around, and then the single stick heli radios came around. (No, I'm not an expert in "vintage" RC equipment but I'm pretty sure about this)

Maybe I should rephrase my first post:



Hmmm, that's interesting. I didn't think anyone would want to do that anymore. Curtis does it because when he started flying that was the best around I guess the good thing is that no one will ever ask you to fly your heli.

I would just buy a pot and build one myself. You are going to have to recalibrate the radio, though.

as one who lived thru the time line, it went

single button, escapement type radios

mulitple switches, reeds- right bank of controls, and left bank of controls, you could only use one control function from a bank at a time. this is the origin of mode 1 and mode 2

propo 2 stick
what we have now without the puters

propo single stick

then single stick stuff got too expensive, so the mfgrs droped it.

puterised propo

along in there about the time of prop appearance, we had galoping ghost, a mix of escapement and propo. lotta fun actually

Be carefull of what you wish for.

http://www.ifcrc.com/index.htm

Nice! Thanks for the link!!

Dang, that's expensive! I built a flight sim using a Piper Tamahawk cockpit for a lot less than that!!!!! Not counting the 4 PCs that ran it of course. :stupid:

Thanks for the info, guess I was wrong.

The reason for the single stick use by CY is that in FAI (especially) you don't get a throttle/collective input when you make a tail input...


Very logical actually...

I too started with a two stick airplane radio ('75) but was talked into (thankfully) by Don Chapman, getting a single stick Variant (the first electronic heli mixing radio produced)...

I would think mode 1 would work better for that.

No, then you would be getting a L-R cyclic input with your Th-Col input (or vise-versa)... The idea is to isolate ANY control input from Th-Col...

On the cyclic/rudder stick (on a SS set-up) you COULD use slightly stiffer springs to help eliminate "cross inputs"... You can't do that on the throttle, so you isolate it...

Mongo,

What was involved in converting your SS 8 into a 9Z by Radio South?

Expensive ??

Thanks,

George