NeilS

Hey,

If been making good progress with my 22e. I went from the normal crash, crash, small hover then crash to being able to hover for a full battery cycle. I can now hover the heli with ease for a full pack and with good control. I even hover inside the house within a small area and can keep it from hitting anything.

Outside I'm starting to hover it well above my head.....

I'm keen to start trying FF and some small turns....But each time Ipush forward it takes of rather quickly and I'm worried I'll loose control and start the crash cycle again....Ican hover side in on either side, but nose in is a little daughting...

So my questions is this...Whats next.. DO Itake the leap and persist with FF and small turns until this feels comfortable? or continue with controlled hovering?

I've been hovering for the past 3 weeks without a single crash, on week night Iget 3 flights a day and prolly 6 or so during the weekend so Ido have a reasonable amount of time under my belt...

Any advice to progress would be appreciated...

I'm also looking at getting a heli that has a belt driver tail as I'v found the tail on the motor driven heli's have less then responsive tail movement...I'm looking at the Beli CP v2....

Thoughts?

N

gnd2

Never leap unless you want to start crashing again It should always be a slow progression. Well, going inverted the first time is a bit of a leap, but that's still a ways down the road yet

Have you read Radd's School of Rotary Flight? If not, do a web search, it's easy to find. It gives good advice on progressing.

Once you get hovering tail in down, next step is to slowly slide the heli left and right while tail in. Do this VERY slow and controlled, stopping at each side before returning the other way. As you gain confidence you can slowly speed up, but you should always be controlled.

From there, start using the rudder to turn the heli a little bit as you're sliding left and right, pointing the nose more towards the direction you're going. Again, go very slow, start out with just a little bit of turn, and slowly work up turning more and more until you have the heli flying forward.

When you feel good with that, you can start doing figure-8's, still going side to side but making smooth turns at each end. There's two directions to go with figure-8's, one will be much more difficult than the other. The way to start is to make a left turn when going left to right, and a right turn when going right to left. This will always keep the nose away from you, going the other way will bring the nose towards you which will be uncomfortable until you have nose-in down.

Practice doing figure-8's slow and smooth. As you become more comfortable with them, you can slowly speed up, but again always maintain control. Slowly round them out more and more so the nose is pointing more and more towards you as you come through the middle.

One way to learn nose-in hover is to round out your figure-8's until you're completely nose-in as you come through the middle and slow down to a hover. Slowly work up to going slower and slower until you're pausing briefly, then when you start to lose it continue with the figure-8. Over time you'll be able to hold it sill longer and longer.

I never quite felt comfortable learning nose-in that way. What worked for me was to start over learning to hover just like how I learned tail in hover. Set it down on a smooth surface nose in, start out scooting around on the ground to get a feel for the controls and work up to hovering just off the ground...

You'll have to decide which method is better for you, everyone is different.

When you start feeling good about nose-in hover, you can do the reverse figure-8's which brings the nose around toward you each turn and away from you as you go through the middle. Also work on left and right circuits (plane old ordinary circles). Believe it or not, a simple circle can be much more difficult than it would seem, at least they were for me [:'(]

NeilS

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Without realising it I had already started to do some of what you suggested. Going a little forwards. then back, left and then right. Its very quick

I'll try some circles.......

I'm not really interested in inverted, well, I say that now...It seems so far off, but I would like to at least be able to head down to the park and fly it around....That would be kewl

Again, thanks

N

earthb67

Hi NeilS.

Please tell us... How are you progressing? I am at the point of moving from hovering to something else. I don't have the LSI / RSI hovers down yet though! I am swooping side to side, turning mostly in the direction of flight. I have had a few 'moments' where I went too high / too far away, and lost orientation. It was only luck that prevented a crash.

It has certainly drilled home the need to keep it in control. Don't let the speed build up too much because then you start to get translational lift, and before you know it, you are way up high, and too far away.

Cheers.

Adrian