450 Maiden Hover Today 27 June 2020

Alex Evans

Member
Well good people, I did it....
2 x 5 minutes hover exercise, some 30 minutes apart to calm my nerves.
It is clear, hovering takes more battery juice, there is no airspeed to produce lift, both battery 6S packs went down to 43% capacity left in them.

I am happy that I had a training skids on, I did have a few "Landings" that without them it will be a crash... Upon close examination of the machine after the 2nd time:
1) I had chips on both main blade tips
2) The tail skid had a clear cut in it and one of the tail blades showed a small chip. Is it possible that my travel setup goes too far?

I have no doubt that the Simulator sessions I had at home help...

On my first attempt, I had 25% Expo set on Ail, Ele and Rud, 2nd hover I increased thos to 30%, it seems still not enough. The "Hover" was not at all in one place but wonder around in front of me, in most cases the tail was my way, in some cases I was about 3 feet high...

The machine was drifiting left and forward, not sure if it was the light wind or my Beast v5 can be better set. I did NOT attempt any trim on the Tx to correct it but rather operated the sticks.

Will be glad to hear any comments.

Thanks again
 

Smoggie

Well-Known Member
Congratulations, a lot of people dont make it as far as two hovers with the heli intact, so you did good.

5 minutes flying is a reasonable time for the average electric heli, so not really any surprise that you took over half the capacity from the pack. You can probably increase flying time to about 7 minutes but that will be the limit.

As for the chips in the blades.. How do you think that was caused? It should be physically impossible for the main blades to clip the tail blades. If they can touch then the blades are too long, period. If you were flying over a hard surface then chips on the tail blades are almost inevitable when you are learning, so if that's the only place you have to fly use cheap tail blades. Chipped main blades are usually due to the heli tipping and clipping blades on the ground, or clipping the boom in a hard landing. I'd expect you would have known if that happened. Best advice for learning is fly over grass, it's a lot more forging of minor ground contacts.

Id not use much more than 30% Expo, maybe 35% max. If it still feels to twitchy after that you could reduce rates in the Tx or adjust the agility (or whatever it's called in the Microbeast) in the FBL.

As for the drifting.. They all do that but, you have to constantly correct, especially so with smaller helis. However if it's consistently drifting in one direction (and it not just due to the wind) then check that the heli is properly balanced and the swash is dead level. DO NOT use trims on the Tx if it's flybarless.
 

Admiral

Well-Known Member
Congratulations it's been a long haul, I have seen tall blade chip the vertical stabaliser, especially if they are too loose, it normally happens on spool down when the inertia of the blades moves them forward of straight.
 

Alex Evans

Member
Congratulations, a lot of people dont make it as far as two hovers with the heli intact, so you did good.

5 minutes flying is a reasonable time for the average electric heli, so not really any surprise that you took over half the capacity from the pack. You can probably increase flying time to about 7 minutes but that will be the limit.

As for the chips in the blades.. How do you think that was caused? It should be physically impossible for the main blades to clip the tail blades. If they can touch then the blades are too long, period. If you were flying over a hard surface then chips on the tail blades are almost inevitable when you are learning, so if that's the only place you have to fly use cheap tail blades. Chipped main blades are usually due to the heli tipping and clipping blades on the ground, or clipping the boom in a hard landing. I'd expect you would have known if that happened. Best advice for learning is fly over grass, it's a lot more forging of minor ground contacts.

Id not use much more than 30% Expo, maybe 35% max. If it still feels to twitchy after that you could reduce rates in the Tx or adjust the agility (or whatever it's called in the Microbeast) in the FBL.

As for the drifting.. They all do that but, you have to constantly correct, especially so with smaller helis. However if it's consistently drifting in one direction (and it not just due to the wind) then check that the heli is properly balanced and the swash is dead level. DO NOT use trims on the Tx if it's flybarless.

Lucky me.... the blog here does't have a camera, otherwise you could have seen my face, RED from shame... I found "Just" 4 wrong things:

1) The tail roto hub and fin were NOT tight and tilted to the left - not completely vertical.
2) The Beast unit was connected , but probably with the wrong tape. Will go tomorrow to get some double sided M3 tape
3) The swashplate was not completely levelled , it was tiletd in mid stick a bit backwards, but I would have expected the heli to drift towards me, not forward????
4) The feathering shaft was loose....

Not sure if any of that was a result of my hard landings or was it from the start...

Will report back after my next attempt

BTW - my throttle curve is 0,25,50,75,100, should I set it now to : 0-65-70-75-80 from now on?

Thanks again
 

Alex Evans

Member
I am using a 100A HK ESC and set it to have a soft start.
Not sure what is the Idle Up process, didn't understand the other answer.

On my Trex-600 before the conversion to FBL, I had the pitch curve set as -3,0,+8 for now
I assume that my throttle curve should be set to 0-65-70-75-80, OK?

I just thought, why was the machine trying to run forward... Well, can it be that I have the skids of a 470 instead of the original, causing the heli to be tilted forward and the Gyro "Thinks" that this is LEVEL flight?

Cheers, I am going to sleep now
 

Smoggie

Well-Known Member
'Idle up' is a throttle curve that is close to a flat line, specifically it does not start from zero. To start and stop the motor you just use the throttle hold switch. This prevents crashes caused by pulling back the collective stick and accidentally causing the motor to stop.

The tilted skids make no difference to how the heli flies.
 

Alex Evans

Member
The swash is now levelled.

Can this curve be considered close enough to a flat line?
0-65-70-75-80... i like the idea of having some change while moving the pitch stick.

Where in the world are you located?
Cheers
 

murankar

Staff member
Congratulations On the hovering. Its a big step to get that far.

As smoggie stated check your blade length with your tail blade length. Rotate the blades so that they line up. The head should be in line and the tail nlaee should be mostly vertical. See what clearance you have.

Eventhough you have training gear on your tail blades can possibly rub on the ground. a number of beginners have a tendency to land tail tilted down. There are a number of solutions to fix the problem. The best one is practice landing slightly nise down. This takes time to learn. Especially with your drift.


To fix the drift there should a parameter that can be adjusted simular to trim. I dont know the Microbeast sobi can tell you what to look for. But yes there should be a way to trim out the drift.
 

Smoggie

Well-Known Member
The swash is now levelled.

Can this curve be considered close enough to a flat line?
0-65-70-75-80... i like the idea of having some change while moving the pitch stick.

Where in the world are you located?
Cheers

The curve you mention would be classed as a 'Normal mode' throttle curve, because it fully closes the throttle when you pull the stick back. It will work fine though you must remember never to pull the stick fully back when in flight otherwise you will cut the motor.

I'm in Aberdeen in the UK.
 

Alex Evans

Member
Congratulations On the hovering. Its a big step to get that far.

As smoggie stated check your blade length with your tail blade length. Rotate the blades so that they line up. The head should be in line and the tail nlaee should be mostly vertical. See what clearance you have.

Eventhough you have training gear on your tail blades can possibly rub on the ground. a number of beginners have a tendency to land tail tilted down. There are a number of solutions to fix the problem. The best one is practice landing slightly nise down. This takes time to learn. Especially with your drift.


To fix the drift there should a parameter that can be adjusted simular to trim. I dont know the Microbeast sobi can tell you what to look for. But yes there should be a way to trim out the drift.

Hi Murankar,

Yes, in the Paramater menu setup on the Beast, option A mimics waht a Sub-tream on the TX will do, I will try that.

It seems that the Tail rotor blade got chiped from hitting the grass, nothing to do with the main blades, and yes, I have the tendancy to land tail down... Have a long way to go to learn to fly this...

Thanks
 

Alex Evans

Member
The curve you mention would be classed as a 'Normal mode' throttle curve, because it fully closes the throttle when you pull the stick back. It will work fine though you must remember never to pull the stick fully back when in flight otherwise you will cut the motor.

I'm in Aberdeen in the UK.

At present, I am only using a 2 way switch for Normal and Hold.
I will be careful NOT to pull stick down all the way, in fact, I manage already to make small stick moves.

Thanks again
 

Admiral

Well-Known Member
A bit confusing I know but in Mode 1 which I think your using, That is Throttle on the Right stick.
I use,
Switch "A" has Normal & Hold which refers to Throttle Hold.
Switch "G" should have Normal, Stunt 1 & Stunt 2 or sometimes Normal, IU 1 & IU 2 which refer to the Flight Modes and that changes between your three Throttle curves and three Pitch Curves.
Further to that I use Switch "D" to change Gyro settings I have current setting on POS 1, an alternate setting on Pos 2, and Rate Mode on POS 3.
Switch "E" I use to change iKON/BRAIN Banks.

On most helicopters that is all I need

Other people will use different switches to me, but that is the strength of these Transmitters your selection of switches is personal choice.
 

Alex Evans

Member
Hello again,
Nothing is confusing. At this stage of my learning, I only want to learn to hover confidently.
For this stage, I need only setup for hover or hold.
At this stage, the only think confusing for me is being told what are all the other options for...
Cheers
 

murankar

Staff member
The grass didn't chip the blade it was something in the dirt. Some people will shim the back of the landing gear to tilt the heli forward. Another thing is to use skids from a 700 class heli to raise the heli also. I still have issues with digging the tail rotor on landing. Thank God for throttle hold. I use thrittle hold to land. That way the tail is not under power when it digs dirt.
 

Alex Evans

Member
The grass didn't chip the blade it was something in the dirt. Some people will shim the back of the landing gear to tilt the heli forward. Another thing is to use skids from a 700 class heli to raise the heli also. I still have issues with digging the tail rotor on landing. Thank God for throttle hold. I use thrittle hold to land. That way the tail is not under power when it digs dirt.

This heli is a Trex-450, skids of a 700? too big.
I purchased skids of a 470 which fit perfectly and have the back lifted.

I have to learn to land forward...

Cheers
 
Top Bottom