380/420 Blade 330x First Flight

[Fastfreddie]

today I finally got my blade 330x off the ground and what a difference from a micro Heli. I was playing it safe because I had no idea what to expect on how it would handle so I had the d/r set at 70 for all 3 channels and the expo set at 30. I will definitely adjust it to be more responsive but I needed to start somewhere.

I had the gyro set at 65 because I seen Tony say in one of the setup videos that would be a good starting point but I did notice the tail was wagging back and forth just a little from what it looked like to me was maybe two or three inches mostly in forward flight like it was looking for center but it wasn’t doing it at a very fast rate.

To correct the tail wag do I just turn the gyro down a couple notches at a time till the wagging stops?

 

[D.O.G.]

That's great Fastfreddie. Yes, as you move up in size, you will notice the difference. Take your time, get the setting correct and you will be wanting a bigger heli like a 450 before you know it. Always remember...

 

[Tony]

If you are using a newer Tx, you will need to set the tail gain a little lower. I suspect you saw a DX6i video where the gain is from 0 to 100 with 50 being the midpoint. On my DX8 and on my DX9, it goes from -100 to +100 with 0 being midpoint. On the first, 65 is where I suggest people start. On the second, I suggest 45 as a starting point.

 

[Fastfreddie]

Ok my tx does go from 0 to 100 so I started at 45 the last time I took it out and tail wag got a lot worse and lower didn’t seem to have any difference. I started out late in the evening so the sun was starting to go down so I only had time for one last short flight so I tried it at 60 and it was the best setting so far as in there was very little wag but still just a little bit so I guess I’ll have to try a couple up or down from there next time.

 

[Tony]

If it goes from 0 to 100 then you need to start at 65 and test there. On your Tx, 50 will be center or no gyro. anything under 50 is rate mode, and anything over 50 is heading hold mode. You want to be in heading hold at all times when flying. You say you tried 60 and it was better so the 65 may be a little too high. I don't like going down to the 50's, just not enough throw in the servo down that low. If you are having to go down into the 50's to stabilize the tail, you may want to look into a faster servo.

 

[Fastfreddie]

The blade 330x has a body length of 25.8” and a Rotor Diameter of 28.4” compared to the trex 450 at 27.7” length and 31.6” rotor diameter so would the blade 330x be considered closer to the 450 class.

 

[Tony]

Actually, that helicopter is a true 325. Not sure why they call it a 330... So yes, it is exactly the same size class helicopter as an Align 450 which also swings 325mm blades. The 450 designation was done back in the day for motor size and for some reason Align is still following it. Not sure why though...

 

[Fastfreddie]

Ok so today I went for a flight and I set the gyro to 75 and the tail was solid as a rock. Now it was my understanding that the gyro should be set to the lowest setting that still holds the tail steady but I looked up the settings for this Heli in the manual and it shows the gyro at 85 for normal flight and 75 for stunt mode I feel 85 is a bit to high. Also they’re suggesting what seems like some weird throttle and pitche curves to me but I only know of what I’ve been reading online. I have my pitch curves set as
Normal mode 44-47-50-75-100 with a linear throttle curve. In mode stunt 1 and 2 I have a linear pitch curve with throttle settings at 75-70-65-70-75, 95-85-80-85-95. Now I have not yet tried flying in 3D mode yet as I have only made a total of 5 flights with this Heli and I’m still getting used to the feel of this machine but I thought I should start out at a modest throttle setting even though my settings are much higher than the stock recommended settings. So in closing I’m going to post a pic of the factory settings and if anyone could please let me know if the settings I have made are in the ballpark of where I should be or should they look more like the factory settings

 

[Tony]

Actually you want the gain as high as you can get it for a more solid tail. If you start to get wagging, back it down a couple points and try again. And they are giving you settings that are right there on the edge. More than likely in FFF it is going to start wagging, but will stop when you come into a hover. And the reason for the different numbers is because of head speed.

To me, the factory settings are just a bunch of numbers someone put on a piece of paper. It worked for them, might work for you, but I always make up my own numbers for what works for me. So if it is working for you, that is all that matters.

 

[murankar]

As tony stated the higher the better. Generally you would want to start at a high point like 85 and go fly. If the tail scares the crap out of you dial it down to 80 and fly again. If it still has jitters or violent wagging then dial it down again to 75. When the wagging starts to mellow out the just do a 2 point adjustments till the tail is solid.

Lower numbers makes the tail soft on holding and higher numbers gives a more rigid hold.

 

[Fastfreddie]

Well today ended in disaster. I went out to fly today with my gyro switch settings to 85-80-75 I started out with 85 and as soon as I was airborne the Heli went right into a clockwise spin i was trying to battle with it by countering my rudder but it seemed totally out of control and by now I was filling my pants up so I just tried to keep it high in the air as I thought I would be able to get it under control by switching down the gyro to 75 but no luck it was like something was fighting me for control over it. So after what seemed like eternity which was probably 30 to 45 seconds all I could do was try to land and minimize the damage as much as possible. I was able to bring it down fairly soft but the tail ended up in the dirt luckily I only broke the tail housing and a few minor scratches on the main blade tips as it was spinning and tipped over on landing.

I have no idea what went wrong today but I’m just glad the part is only $8 to replace and another mystery to me is how the tail blades didn’t even get a scratch on them.

 

[Tony]

Sounds like your tail gyro was reversed. Even though the main blades barely touched, you need to check the main shaft, feathering shaft, tail boom, tail shaft and so on. A light hit can cause a lot of damage. Sucks about the crash though.

 

[Fastfreddie]

How does one reverse the gyro because if I did do that it was by total accident and I need to correct the problems before the next go at it

 

[Fastfreddie]

Uppers feathering shaft bent like a fishing hook but everything else checks out ok

 

[Tony]

You just have to go into your gyro and reverse it.

 

[Fastfreddie]

My radio does not have reversing under the gyro menu also I have taken the tail assembly off and the gyro and servo seems to be working fine now. I know the belt was tight because I just checked and adjusted it. I just flew this thing two days before and had a perfect flight so idk what happened but I will be sure to do my preflight checks throughly from now on and keep up with maintenance and checks because today I just cranked it up and took off thinking everything was alright since I had just flown it 2 days prior.

 

[Tony]

Not the gyro menu, the gyro itself. You don't want to reverse anything in the Tx if your tail is moving the way it is supposed to with the stick. There will be a setting in the gyro to set the correction direction of the tail gyro.

 

[Fastfreddie]

I have no way of even changing anything on the gyro itself. It is a spektrum ar636a it has no dials on it at all you are supposed to do the adjustments with an app and I was unable to connect with it using the app spektrum has because I got some message saying something was outdated when I tried too. The only thing I did was to change the gyro in my tx from 75 to 85. The only other thing I changed was my expo from 25 to 20. So I don’t know how anything else could have been changed since the last flight.

 

[Tony]

Have you done any work to the tail? The only other thing that can reverse the correction direction is by reversing the tail blade rotation.

If you do need to work on the gyro to reverse it, check out the manual linked below. I wish I could be of more help, but I can't see the helicopter and I have never worked on that gyro before.
https://www.spektrumrc.com/ProdInfo/Files/SPMAR636-AS3X_Programmer_App_Instructions_Manual_EN.pdf

 

[Fastfreddie]

I did nothing at all to anything on it flew it 2 days ago everything was fine then today this happens. Now you have to understand I am totally new to this Heli I only have experience on an Xk k110 micro Heli. I will say before I took off I gave it full left and right rudder and it seemed like it was going in one direction more then the other but I assumed nothing was wrong because I had already gotten the blades moving a little and when I’ve been spooling up the blades the Heli tail does seem to move a little clockwise before the blades get to about half stick which is 50% throttle. Is that a normal thing for the Heli to move while spooling up?