You Tube may just save my bank balance!!

[Crashalot]

Thank you to Tony for the heli set up with the DX6i You Tube videos, it may just appease my bank manager! I have just made the leap to CCPM and I've had my Trex 450 Pro FBL in the air for about 10 secs. To be fair it seemed to fly OK...kind of... and then I put it down rather more heavily than I would have liked...and tail in! Result...stripped gear and bent boom. Ordered and replaced said parts and gave it a 'ground run'. It tipped up and stripped the same gear again. Ordered another 4 replacement gears (3 extra spares!) and on replacing it today noticed a link missing from the swash plate, I've no idea when I lost that!. I learnt a valuable lesson, always check everything before spooling up. Whilst waiting for my new part, I found the DX6i and CCPM full set up guide by Tony on You Tube and already I've found 1 or 2 or maybe a few more major, or more precisely, fatal errors in my setting up. The 6 videos are exactly what I need, thank you very much once again Tony!

I think I may have an issue with my rudder because when I move the stick left or right and back to the centre the blades stay over and do not return in either switch position (they do if I flip the rate/hold gyro switch on/off). The rotor shaft may be slightly bent. I need to watch the videos again and watch the behaviour of my rudder movement more closely before I can explain the problem more fully (with the correct terminology). My gyro is the Align 3G.

So as a result..I've signed up to RC-Help, i think I'm going to need it!

PS I don't know whether you are wanting PDF manuals as I have a couple of CX2 manuals a 40A Platinum ESC manual and I can PDF my 3g Flybarless manual.

 

[Tony]

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for the kind words. I'm glad that I could help you out.

As for your tail, when your gyro is in HH mode (head hold, or heading hold) it will not return back to center. You have given the helicopter an input to move a certain degree, and it will give it more and more rudder until it gets to that position, or heading.

Heading hold mode remembers where the heli is. Think of it this way, you have your heli on the ground, and there is a degree wheel under it at all times that the gyro is reading. When wind or whatever hits the tail, if the heli was facing 200*, and it's blown to 180*, the gyro will return it back to 200* on the scale.

Rate mode is kinda the same, but it will not return the heli to it's original position. It will just stop the movement of the tail when the wind hits it.

If there is anything else that I can help with, just let us know. We are here to get everyone into the air.

 

[Crashalot]

Thank you for your response and advice Tony. I have now set up the 450 and DX6i as per your videos (apart for the blade pitch as I haven't got a guage yet) and everything is moving in the right direction and as expected. I received a replacement for my missing swash link this morning. The gyro set up was different because it's the 3G unit but your principles stiil could be applied and guess what? It behaves as yours on the video! Why I was surprised I don't know...so the rotor shaft isn't bent (phew) and I am much more confident at trying it out when the weather permits. I have made my training legs (5mm carbon rods and ping pong balls) and on advice from another knowledgeable flyer, I have Trex 500 skids to put on which will give me a more stable platform and bring the heli off the ground a little more to help minimise any damage in my eary stages. I'll let you know how I get on in a few days when I've set the blade pitch and get a good weather window. In the meantime, I'm practicing on the phoenix sim!

 

[Tony]

If you have an iphone, you can set your pitch up with that and the level app. Just set it to +- 11* and you are good to go. And yes, everything will still apply with the 3G, you will just have more pots to turn for the elevator and aileron channels. If there is anything that we can do to help, just ask. And good deal on the carbon training gear, should help you out quite a bit. But, once you can hover and land, take it off. It does make the heli just a little harder to fly, but the benefits out weigh the bad when you are just starting out.

Good luck, and get it on video if you can. I would love to see it.