what's in your opinion the maximum safe wind speed to fly a raptor 30, i went to the field today with winds of about 40km/h and i hardly kept a stable hover.
one raptor crashed because of this wind.

if the wind is stronger the your fastest forward speed, that might cause trouble...

I prefer a wind of around 10 mph. 10 to 15 is ok to fly. Wind above 20 flight it possible but the fun starts to diminish.

Rick

There's a minimum? hehe

whats wind?? I flymy heli at the bluff whille the guys cant fly there slope soares. wind is not a factor with aheli unless your a newbee and or eight up.

Not sure if it is a problem with RC heli, but primary limiting factor for full scale heli with tail rotor is cross wind component which if excessive could cause loss of tail rotor effectiveness.

Sunday before last the wind was gusting to 30+. Amost no one flew a plane until the wind died down some right before dark. I tried the Morris the Knife i had with me, it was knocked around quite a bit and I had to make several trys before I was able to land, but I said " this isn't so bad", and up went the Raptor. Several times after making an upwind turn, the only way I could get any penetration was to put in so much forward that the heli was in a slow dive. Just had to wait and see if it got back to me before it ran out of altitude. It made for an interesting flight. There can be a limit to how much wind you can fly in, if the wind is faster than the maximum forward flight speed of your heli, you had better be comfortable with nose in, and hope the wind doesn't increase.

Flying-Cowboy, wind is a factor regardless of what level of flying you are, unless you know a secret I don't...

i don't have problems flying it, i'm only having problems getting it down, because when i get gusts the heli starts climbing without my control and i panic.

I order to be able to fly you need wind no more than you maximum FFF speed and without gusting. What makes your life difficult is gusting.

In general helis like more the wind than airplanes do. A heli hovering in a windy day is more stable than hovering in the calmness.

god, i wish i would live wher you guys live, perfectly steady non-gusty wind! a dream; regardless more than 20mph and i am out windsurfing, gusts or not
itsindilas, my hovering is way more stable on a calm day (i guess because we have gusty winds), but it's real good pratice to fly in these winds, it makes you a better pilot (or windsurfer)

For 8 years I was flying in Crete, a Greek Island where the average wind is 15 knots. I know what gusting and no gusting means. Aerodynamically the heli is easier to hover when the day is windy. It needs less power to take off and less power to be kept in hovering. If the day is calm and you hover in Ground effect then heli is unstable, the same doesn't happen when the day is windy cause the heli, even if it hovers, it is like being in Forward flying.
Moreover the rotors plate reacts like an airfoil producing more lift so less collective is required to take off and hover. Furthermore, the required rudder to keep the tail straight alined is less. If yo use a HH gyro then you have no problem but if you use a conventional gyro, and th revolution mix is already set up during a calm day then you will have to take in consideration the following.
Suppose that you take off during a windy day. You will take off and hover in a stick position lower than the half stick. Immediately the lower stick position gives you less rudder, so if your rev mix is perfectly tuned your tail will stay straight alined more or less but if your rev mix is not set up correctly then the tail will tends not to be centerlined.
At the end it depends on the wind strength and your heli's aerodynamical shape how much it contributes to the yaw stability. The most possible is your tail to tend to stay leftside because your vertical taili fin (Rudder) will be effective and it will contribute to the tail stability but in the other side your heli is setup to apply a certain ammount of tail pitch to compensate main rotor pitch. So you will have an offset position for the rudder in hovering whenever the wind is stronger, what you will have to do is to apply some rudder trim.
Moreover, some forward pitch trim have to be applied in order to compensate the heli's tendency to go backwards due to the increased drag caused by the strong headwind in order to maintain the same hovering position.

That's all

I am going to use an analogy created by my flying buddy Chad (closell).....flying a heli in the wind is a lot like a typewriter. When you fly into the wind, it is like when you are typing, and when you fly with the wind, it is like hitting the cairrage return key. Tick tick tick tick DING....tick tick tick tick DING! They really move when flying with the wind!

NO crap, but this was taken in 20 knt winds today. Yes the nose drops some while in forward flight but who cares if your having fun. The nose will do the same in fast forward flight with no wind. If you want to get good you have to take what you can for conditions and enjoy. I live in northern California (up state) where the weather sucks and I fly almost every day.......... Just crash and burn rebuild and fly. Remember it's only money.

I was flying helis, gliders, and driving nitro r/c trucks with flyin' cowboy today, and he is telling the truth.... sort of.
He was doin ok, but my raptor 50 was kickin his butt in races and 3-d. He did do a little lower inverted hover but his craptor is a pile and he always crashes.

Not only 20 knts but turbulence off the trees too.

I out ran a sport plane with an os .46 on a downwind drag today, and he had a flying start!!!

I'm the true best there ever was!!!

JT THE BIGGA FIGGA Can fly ok but just ask him about his pile of an HPI he tries to drive j/k atleast he knows how to spend money. yes that 50 walks all over my32 but i dont care we have fun. Wind is a factor, just adapt to it......we flew heli's, powerplanes, rc nitro cars, and we went to the bluff for a good day of combat then we came home and did a night flight, all in a days work. It's hell not being able to work. If I knew I could have this much fun I would of broke my back years ago. NO not really, being in pain every minute of the day sucks.



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its fun fun fun till your mom sees hoh much u spend

Found my max safe wind speed yesterday....

was trying to fly planks (wind was too strong at altatude for my little trainer) so I brought out the heli to practice my turns...

well brought it around a few time then went a little higher and the wind got it.... dropped it like a rock.... was able to save it pretty good (although a little low) ok.. no prob.. just keep it lower out of the higher wind...

did a few more then during a left turn on the left side (away from me) I caught a gust and now my nice bright orange nexus is pointing at me... now I had full right cyclic but it still turned left... so I must of had a really wierd air current there..... so anyway..now I got this nexus... just about head level (staying low to avoid the high currents) coming at me full tilt

nailed the collective and pulled the cyclic back and let it go over my head and stopped it (better then cutting to the side and loosing control and crashing near the pits or the ball park) it cleared me by a good margin (20-30 feet?) but still was kinda scary...

well I brought it around and landed and killed the engine no more flying in high winds for me (at least until I improve a bit)

now that I think of it I think that that was the best stop I ever did (was having a bit of trouble dropping into stable hover after forward flight) I had it stadning on the tail and as soon as it stopped it didnt move an inch side to side or back maybe I just have to try and kill myself everytime I want to stop ... or maybe some more practice

Unstable-
Atleast you are getting out there and trying, while others just rather sit and complain about wind. Keep up the good flying!

Jason

thanks man!!!

i went out to fly today in strong winds and it's not so bad after all.

I want to just say that I took a flight to a airport on the coast today and I threw my Raptor in and while I was waiting for the costomer to get back from his meeting I flew my Raptor next to the runway and it was kinda windy so I went inside the airport office and the wind was 32.2 knots. I flew inverted within 6 inches off the deck, and did loops, rolls, and flips to show off for everyone hanging around the airport. I really paid closs attention to how it reacted to the wind and I noticed it was no different then flying in hardly any wind except you have to be on top of thing's. (be on the sticks to counteract) I hate to say this but if you are complaining about flying in the wind, you must not know how to fly very good. Well I am not good in any means, I have only been flying heli's for 4 months. Like I said before, you must be a die hard r/cer and take any condition's that you can in order to get good.

HEY-

I wonder why JT THE BIGGA FIGGA isn't as low as me inverted. Maybe he is a whoosie or he just doesn't have the cahonas. J/K Jeff Just remember someday you will grow up to be like me, BIG cahonas and all.