450 This is getting really frustrating.

[Nitropropane]

I know that this hobby demands time and lots of money, but is just getting a heli in the air without consequence too much too ask?My first attempt I accidentally tapped the aileron stick and it tipped over. Honest mistake and lesson learned.NEVER touch the aileron stick while still on the ground. Luckily a linkage only bent and the blades broke. Now today i had my second attempt. Well after gaining the courage to get it in the air i landed it pretty rough and the tail gears were stripped. I had to land it because like last time it was drifting to the side.Now I know this is normal to an extent but this is just ridiculous. Its like someones trying to mess with my heli and make it drift to the left really fast too.So two questions.HOw do I fix the drifting issue and why did my tail gear strip?

 

[Nitropropane]

After doing some research, ive come to the conclusion that landing hard on grass will often strip tt gears.Well i guess ill be flying on concrete from now on.Still would like to know if i can get rid of the drifting though?Is it my swash not level?I seriously doubt that because I used a swash leveler.Is it okay to turn the left aileron linkage up until it stops or will that create more problems?

 

[wolfman76]

i think sometimes wind can cause the heli to drift have not had too much luck either

 

[Derek]

I can certainly understand your frustrations. RC heli's are just a "different kind of animal" all together. There are several things going on at one time. You have the torque from the main rotor head turning one way, the gyro senses that movement and activates the tail to spin. The spin that you get from the tail pushes the tail into a position and holds it in place. Every RC heli will tend to drift to the left, especially when close to the ground. Once you get about 3-4 feet high, out of the "ground effect", your heli won't drift much at all (depending on the wind, of course). So...to fix your heli drifting...I'm not sure there really is much you can do except to get the heli out of the "ground effect" (the swirling wind that your blades create under the heli).

You said that the heli was leaning to the left. Are your sub trims zero'd out? if so, it's quite possible that you may just need a bit of "right aileron trim." I had to do the same with my Trex 500. Actually, I had to do all of the above to my 500. Spin it up....get it up and out of the "ground effect" and then add a bit of "right aileron trim" and now it hovers very well.

As far as the torque tube.....well, I can't help you much there. My 500 is belt driven. I've read that belt drive tails are more forgiving than TT tails and belt drive tails are more recommended for beginners. Beginner = Me.

I hope I was helpful...maybe a little bit. I can understand and relate to your frustrations. Rc heli's are tricky....no doubt.

If i didn't help you out much...I'm sure someone else from the forum will be along to post their thoughts and suggestions. There are many many people on this site that are much more knowledgeable than I. Good luck buddy!!!

Oh...here's a thought that would help us to help you. if you can....take a short video of your heli and what it's doing. Upload it to YouTube, then post the link here, in your thread. These guys on this site absolutely "feed on" videos like that and it will help them to help you.

 

[murankar]

Cement, grass or sand you touch the tail first those gears are going to strip. That is why going belt as a beginner bus recommended.

There is hope though. With time you will get better and add some training gear to it. That should add some clearance.

 

[Nitropropane]

About how fast is it normal to drift to the left?It seems like mine is going really fast and i was already 4 ft in the air.Idk what u mean by subtrims zeroed,i just 90ed them as best i could.Which is better to adjust the aileron linkages to trim or to use subtrimms?

 

[Westy]

Hey There Nitro! Sound like you are have the same issue we all have at the beginning of our heli addictive lives.

Make 100% certain your swash is level .... but as Mountaindew has pointed out. ALL helis drift .... even the real ones .... I too have suffered your demise......

Here is what you do .... once you have confirmed your swash is perfectly level... and your servos are all set up mechanically correctly... then as you get light on hte skids, add about 3 - 5 mm of right aileron as you take off and then as it comes up .... if you have too much ... ease off and you may have to give ... left or front elevator or rear elevator ... that is all the fund of it you need to watch carefully when the heli starts to drift in one direction or another and then add the opposite control .... and the moment it stops oving in the initial direction .... release the cyclic and wait for the next direction drift and count that ... and so on and so on...

a great site you go and get some discipline lessons and insite on how to safely learn to fly and not crash ..... GO HERE - To Radds School of rotary Flight

 

[breeze400]

Has stated above with a TT tail if you strike the ground with it the gears will strip! I did not catch witch Heli you has but align has come out with black gears for the 600 and up size helis. If you can use them they are much more durable than the white one are.

All helis drift. Even real one do!!! So that is what you have to learn how to do on flying the bird. It's just hard to do! So get your self a stash of Spare. parts and have at it. Important thing is don't get frustrated. I did and it cost me a year and a half in my learning curve!

Also look into a flight controller like the Ikon. So much better than a stock gyro in keeping the Heli stable!

 

[Westy]

also .... add 30% expo to your Aileron and Elevator and perhaps .... reduce you DR on Aileron and Elevator to 70% to tame the beast! I sure you have already done this ... but just in case.

 

[Nitropropane]

only on aileron so far.Sadly i cant use the black gears as i have the 450 pro v2.Also, the flight controller,is it similar to 3 axis gyro that they use on multirotors?I dont see an advantage because the 3gx is 3 axis too.Is there something you can do with flight controllers that you cant with 3 axis gyros?
I would also like to know whcih is the best way to trim.I heard ur not susposed to use the button stick trimms when using 3 axis gyros so i assumed you had to adjust the linkages.

 

[Tony]

Have you went completely through the 3GX setup? If not, it's imperative that you do so. Make sure that your trim tabs (next to the sticks on the outside of the Tx) are centered and NEVER move them on a FBL gyro. You can use sub trim (in the program) to 90º the servo arms to the links, but that's it, you will never touch another trim again. If you have to, it's something with your setup.

Next, make sure to go into DIR mode, and MAKE SURE you have 0º pitch at mid stick in idle up (blades removed and motor unplugged) and 10º at full positive AND full negative. If positive and negative are not the same, make them the same. It will take about an hour to set the head up completely, but it will be worth it, trust me.

Once you are done with that, go through the setup with e-rev, e-lim, a-rev, a-lim, THEN do the tail setup again. If you need instruction on doing this, watch teh video below and follow it to teh letter.

But you MUST go through the setup on the head to get the correct pitch. If you are running 2.1 or later on the firmware, make sure you have EXACTLY 8º of cyclic pitch on BOTH aileron and elevator. And I mean exactly! The gyro requires this.

After you are done with that, plug it into your computer and set your pots on the gyro to 110 on both the aileron and elevator. Again, this is imperative that you do this step to make sure you are where you need to be with the cyclic gyros.

After all of that, your drift should be gone. The gyro will still drift the heli a bit, but that is because it's not a GPS gyro like the IKON or something and it can't detect the movement. But, it should be a very slow drift at first, enough that you should be able to control.

Go through that and let us know. I HIGHLY suggest that you get a fixed pitch like the mSR or the like (you may have one and I forgot) and get used to flyign that thing around and then move on to this one. It can get expensive very quickly, and it takes a long time to get the hang of it, but one of these days, something will just "click" and you will say to your self, "Oh I get it now!!!" and you will be flying around without thinking of it.

Watch this video and set your heli up as I have in this video.
3GX Setup Part 1 Complete Initial Gyro Setup - YouTube

 

[stokke]

• Check mechanical setup
• Check 3GX DIR setup
• Check Expo, D/R and pitch curves

If you're taking out tail gears on landing - you may have too much negative pitch.

 

[Lee]

if its your first hovers, then use training gear.
Buy a cheap table tennis ball, cut a slot in it and stick it on your tail fin. That will give you more tail height and protection.

 

[RMB677]

I agree with Lee as to training gear, it buys you time to make a control move. I used it till I felt comfortable lifting off and landing. A cheap set can be made using ping-pong balls, bamboo skewers, and a piece of balsa wood, saves $$ on blades. I found that sometimes a bit of adjustment of the link rods can do a bit better than the TX settings. To my limited experience it seems that my helis may need a bit of tweeking to the swash even after leveling.

 

[murankar]

Other nice thing about training gear is that once your light on the gear you can scoot around. This will help you get a feel for the controls. This technique is best done in a parking lot.

I used my for a few months and they took a beating. I would fly around just off the ground in case the heli tipped, the gear gave me reaction time to make any corrections.

Good luck.

 

[breeze400]

I would go with a piece of wood myself. I tried a ball once. I got a vibration going and the ball ended up in my tail blades! Not good!

 

[Westy]

I used dowel and 4 Golf training balls and hot glued them on. worked like a charm. I agree with one of the other fellas talking about do your training on concrete or smooth ashfelt tarseal .... or a sports arena Lol....

 

[Derek]

I had training gear on my 500 for nearly 7 months....mostly due to the fact that my work schedule wouldn't allow me flight time. The use of the training gear will give you quite a bit of reaction time and it will let you see what the heli is going to do, then you can learn to react. I've used dowel rods with foam balls on the ends and I've also used carbon fiber arrow shafts.

 

[murankar]

darek loves his arrow shafts, they are cheap if you get them used. I bought mine from xheli and replaced the orange balls to the training golf balls. eventually the training gear broke and I learned to fly with out them.

 

[Nitropropane]

Ive done the gyro setup and zero pitch already i and i ve flown fp helis for some time now.I guess i will set the gyro to 110 because i havent done that yet.I also like the idea of a tennis ball on the tail. Thanks for all your guys sugestion.
ps I have the digital align pitch guage.the ap800.Do i zero it sitting on the blade protion or the screen portion?