Hi there,
Awhile back I had gotten into helis and picked it up in no time. What took me the longest was learning how to set it up properly as I had no one around to help me out and I had never heard of this forum or anything like it before. Anyway, I made it all the way to comfortable forward flight, nose in hovering, blah blah...so I decided to try some basic aerobatics. Again, I had no one at all at my field that even flew choppers so I was entering new territory. All I had was a book that briefly described the setup as far as idle up, neg. pitch, and when to use it. SO I figured the first thing I will do is a roll because if I want to bail out I can just split S out. SO wayyyy up I go, roll over 180 and zoom away...ok cool...now a full roll...wayyy up I go...roll over, go to neg pitch, get to about 190 degrees and it just stops rolling and falls out of it like a dead bird and flops to the ground. I tried everything to get it out..first thing I did was go back to pos. pitch when it was up right for about a second but nothing could recover it. Ok so after a few repairs and some more flying around I decide to try it again but this time its going to be a loop. Up I go, adding neg pitch at the top..it kind of waivers then flies out of it. Cool! Ugly, but cool...ok so try it again...hauling butt...up..neg pitch...stops...then plummets to earth like a rock. After another repair...I realize I cant keep doing this so I just stick to forward flight and eventually I lose interest and it goes to the shelves.

So now I have been on rc universe for awhile and decide to learn what I can about helicopters. It seems to me that maybe I lost rotor speed. Maybe my idle up was not high enough? A governor sounds like a good idea but it seems like it can be done without one. I think I remember my pitch being something like -9, 0, 12. I cant quite remember. I was flying a Nexus with a skysport 6h at the time.

These days I have quite a bit more money and a 9zap. I want to buy another heli and master some basic aerobatics. It drives me nuts that I am not able to do it when I know I can, I just need a little help. I hate to say it but my plankers are getting boring.


Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thank you.

A4HawkPilot: Good to see you hanging in there....First thing you should do is get help locally from an experienced pilot to look over your heli and radio setup, even if this means that you travel a few hours to meet up with someone. Getting the proper help initially will save you a ton of money and frustration. You can search for pilots in your state thru the Pilot Locator Website .

Until you get help with heli and radio setup...stick to basic upright maneuvers like figure 8's out from you and also turning into you, circuits, hovering practice, flying straight and level parallel to flightline...stuff like that might sound boring but control and precision will allow you to have more fun later. You can also order a book from Heliproz called Ray's Authoritative Helicopter Manual that can help answer questions in regards to setup and some good practical theory. Another book that is also really good is Curtis Youngblood's R/C Helicopter Book of Questions and Answers..Heliproz has that book also. Getting both books or even one will be very helpfull but will not be a substitute for having local help initially. One more thing that has helped many pilots including myself is a simulator like RealFlight G2...it's a great practice tool when used correctly and can really save you money on crashes...just keep in mind that the sim is no substitute for burning fuel. There are also some good setup videos available...off hand I do not know names but i'm sure if you were to call Heliproz they would sell you the correct video. Again...getting local help once, twice or a few times will be the most important thing to do at first.

Let me know how it goes...Just Hang in there!

I have g2 and have spent countless hours flippin', tumblin', and inverted hovering inches off the ground. Will I just go right out and try that with the real thing? No. I will try and find some experienced pilots.
Thank you.

set this for idle up pitch +9,0,-9 throttle 100,75,50,75,100 and u r good to go !

Hey A4hawkpilot, where you live. I'm in North Idaho and would be glad to help out. If your near Spokane, Wa I could stop by when I'm headed to Deer Park to fly full scale sailplanes. Pretty much just need to find out where your at. Your sim training should really make your conversion to reality a snap. I doubt, I would ever have had enough money to master inverted with out the sim. I don't know what 125 sets of rotor blades plus tailbooms, etc would have totaled too? Now the brain is wired up solid its really almost as comfortable as right side up. If your interested in meeting just reply.

Hey there, I was just at deer park for a pylon race at the barons model club a couple weeks back. I remember watching the sailplanes there at last years race.
I am actually closer to couer d'alene. I live in tensed if you know where that is.

I live in Bonners and its about an hour drive down to Farrgut State park if you wanted to meet there sometimes. I used to fly planks there for years but havn't been there in couple years. Just busy. I would be glad to give a hand if you need it. Probably my only day is Sunday now. Tow plane is almost fixed so its glider flying every Sat. Larry.

I have to second the question on getting the heli all the way through the loop. I have my pitch setup correctly and my rpm at 1800 (gv-1), she goes up nice but stalls at the top, added full negative when she started to fall but she rolled off port and I lost orientation since I can't hover inverted.

Yes, the sim will be here monday from heliproz, but I'm just curious what stick movement I'm missing.


thanks
joe

22 degrees of pitch travel on a Nexus??? Your pitch settings sound a little off Unless you did a bunch of modification .The best a Nexus could do for me was +7 -5.Not much good for any thing but forward flight.If you were to buy another heli lets say Raptor 30V2 you would have been able to accomplish your goals easy.
Keep at it sounds like you have the skills down just need the right heli.

set ur pitch according to my post but if u have a nexus. try 7,0,-7

for the loop. fly forward flight fast. pull back elevator slowy when the heli is at the inverted position add negative pitch.(still pulling down on elevator) when the heli turn over from the inverted postion add positive pitch.

just read through the section on loops in ray's book again, I think I stalled it by pulling too much negative too early. Actually I think I've been using way too much negative in my loop attempts. Next weekend "by the book".

Mine is an R50 which I have set for -9/+10. Perhaps setting a flight mode with the lower 1/4 stick dead at around -2 ro -3 will make this easier.

I still remember my first stalled loop....my R50 flying at 4000ft alt (we have less power up here) and I had a 3AH battery strapped to it. Man did that thing stall and it had nothing to do with the sticks. Recovered that one though, she came across the runway at about 90mph only 3 feet off the ground, but she lived.

joe
joe

This is the method for the easiet loop. I would suggest having at least 1700 headspeed. What you do is keep full power all the way through the loop. The only thing you change in the cyclic. When you are going to do a loop gently ( I mean gently) pull back for the first third of it. After the last 2/3 of the loop pull all the way back. This is a simple loop with no fancy setup that looks as good as if you add negative pitch in the loop after you get some practice.

I thought I would just update ya'll on what happened. Well, I ended up buying a hawk sport. I got everything setup and I was back into the swing of things in no time. I have been doing alot of forward flight and an occasional stall turn. I set up a 3d curve similar to the one mentioned on this thread and flew that around for a bit making adjustments here and there. Well this evening there were no more excuses for not trying aerobatics. I decided to try a loop. I switched to the 3d curve and went way up into a stall turn then came down at full bore and uuuuuup into a loop I go. Oh crap..stalls and stops at the top completely upside down but hardly falling. So I bring the stick farther back into neg. territory and up it goes. I continue pulling back and it just flips out of it. I flew around a bit after that to just slow my heart down and decided to try it again. Same thing except now I am expecting it so I just flip out of it. The third time around I decide to just stay stationary and flip it over backward. Sure enough, it looks cool as hell. I can do it! But I just can't get it to do a nice round loop. It looks like a forward moving backward flip. The pitch curve is +9,0,-9 and my throttle curve is a big V. The engine rpm seems to keep right up with the pitch and vice versa.

SO what am I doing wrong here? Its not going to stop on me if I try a roll now is it? I decided to call it a night and see what ya'll think.

Thanks!