General DX6i Pitch Curves: Blade 450

[Zadren]

As I'm still learning how to keep my Blade 450 hovering in one place, I'm having to 'chop the throttle' quite a bit to keep the heli flying all over the place (specifically, into my head!). What I've found is the heli drops to the ground quite hard, and it worries me that something's going to break if it keeps driving into the ground like that. (I already snapped the training gear hub like this)

I have the pitch curves set up as per the Blade 450 manual as such:

L: 45%
2: 51%
3:60%
4:73.5%
H: 91%

Now please correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it 50% pitch on the DX6i = 0 degrees of pitch on the blades, so at 0 throttle, I have 'some' negative pitch, which is pretty much pushing the heli into the ground? (I could be WAY off the mark here!)

What would be nice is if I chop the throttle to zero to quickly get out of trouble, I have a little bit of positive pitch so the heli floats gracefully to the ground rather than slamming onto the skids like it does. With this in mind, what would be a good pitch curve to have?

Thanks in advance

 

[callsign4223]

You want to have a little negative pitch, otherwise in windy conditions your heli will never come down due to the translational lift of the wind moving across the rotor disk.

 

[murankar]

If you have the 10 to 11 degrees neg. pitch then you could up it by 1 or 2 percent. Other thing is to learn where the throttle cut is and use it just prior to chopping the throttle.

My curve is:
44%
47.5%
50%
75%
100%

this gives about -1 degree of pitch. This also allows for easier lift offs in windy conditions. Now the throttle cut plus positive pitch will allow for a softer landing, bu then again there is this thing called wind. Translational lift may keep you from actually landing. There is a fine line line with pitch curves, to much and you will surely destroy the bird and to little you will never land. play with it and find what works for ya. Let us know how this works out for you.

 

[Lee]

Mid stick should always be 50% 0º Pitch then below that you want just a touch of negative to be able to come down in wind and to hold the hell down while spooling up in wing too. So 1/2º negative will be fine about 46%. Above mid stick should be linear so 75% 100%.
So 46,48,50,75,100 would be a good setting. If you're finding the helicopter is bobbing up and down, try to flatten out the throttle curve. This will give you a more stable bird. Something like 0,60,80,80,80. So at hover the only thing changing is the pitch while the throttle is stable.
Good luck

 

[Zadren]

Thanks guys.

If mid stick should be 0 pitch (50%), why does the manual say 60%? This seems a little odd. The heli does bob up and down quite a bit (to the floor, actually. Unless I give it a handful of throttle) but the manual throttle curve (which goes with the above pitch curve) is:

0%
56.5%
72.5%
72.5%
72.5%

Also, I'm having some strangeness in the throttle curve, in that low stick, which should be 0% throttle actually spools my head up. It's not problematic since I'm careful in the use of throttle hold, but odd nonetheless.

While we're at it, D/R and Expo seem a little strange by the book too: 50% +7% for aileron and elevator and 77% +0% for the rudder. I was flying in some gusty conditions yesterday and found that I was making big stick movements (and probably over-controlling) to keep the thing in roughly the same area of sky and off the ground. That said....I find the heli doing that a bit when it's calm, too.

If I could keep the damn thing stable in the hover, then I could move on to actually flying it. But at the mo, it's like trying to ride an angry bear. :/

 

[murankar]

The settings re based on one person flying it. The settings should be based on the person flying. The manual gives starting positions not exacts. The pitch for ID1 should be 0, 25, 50, 75, 100, throttle for ID1 should be around 100, 100, 85, 100, 100 or 100, 90, 80, 90, 100.

 

[Zadren]

I don't fly in 'idle up' mode Murankar.....I'm nowhere near being able to

 

[Lee]

That throttle curve is fine Zadren almost the same as i said. For the expo i would reduce that by quite a bit. 70% means you need a tonne of stick movement before the helicopter will do anything. Most people start off at around 30%, but put it at 40% first and see how you like it. The rudder i never used expo for it. But as you're used to 77% i would drop it to the same as the cyclic and see what that does. Eventually you'll find the way you like the sticks to feel. My first attempt at flying a 450, my settings where 30% Expo 0% DR on Cyclic and nothing on Rudder, but each to there own.
Good luck

 

[murankar]

When setting up a heli you will need ID1 mode. once it is set then every thing else will fall into place. It took me a while to figure this out.

 

[RMB677]

I've had the Blade 450 3D for a couple of weeks now and started with the intermediate settings in the manual. I've had good success other than the sometime up and down bounce without any throttle input. I'm going to have to try flattening the throttle curve a bit as suggested since things happen kind of quick as the rpms go up. Other than the 450 having a bad gyro out of the box the setup seems good to me, though I'm a newbe and can only compare to a Honey Bee King 4 that was very unstable.

 

[Zadren]

Ah, I see what you're driving at Murankar. I had it set up that way for the set-up
Lee, I maybe should have annotated that a bit better. The D/R for the cyclic and rudder is stated as 50% and 77% respectively. The expo is +7% for cyclic and nil for rudder. Not 70%.

 

[james609]

im having some trouble with my 450 also. i had to reverse the swash mix in the radio to make the swash plate work normally. i shouldnt have had to do that. what might be the problem?

 

[RMB677]

In setting up my Blade 450 I noted that the swash plate moves in the opposite direction than other brands. It moves up when others would move down. I also had to reverse some setting. I'm not at home so I can't say which one.

 

[james609]

i had to totally reverse all the swash settings in the radio. it still wont fly, im gonna have to take it to hobbytown and have them fix it for me, i know nothing about the heli. it used to be a 400, but it was converted to a 450. it has a 2800 rpm head speed.

 

[yippiedoo]

You want to have a little negative pitch, otherwise in windy conditions your heli will never come down due to the translational lift of the wind moving across the rotor disk.

This happened to me yesterday, it was a pretty windy day, I went to test the main gear in a small park with houses around. The wind got under it and up she went, there wasn't enough negative pitch and panic set in!!!!!