FBL vs wind

[DanWright]

Hey guys,
I've just looked at the weather for the weekend and yet again its going to be blowing 20+mph winds (probably alot more at the feilds) and I feel I'm not progressing because i won't fly in much more than 13mph winds and that's most the time in Wales.
So if I get a FBL system, will the helicopter cope better and hold its position better in stronger winds?
If it will help I need to decide what heli to put it on. My 450 which I use most and try all new things on,
or my vision that I only fly at the club (I fly the 450 up a mountain behind my house)

[paulsouthport]

Yes, it will handle it better, but still won't be gale proof, especially the 450.
Having said that, I used to regularly fly my 450 Pro flybarred in 20-25mph. It was very tense, but good when it came home in one piece. Now it's FBL it does act more civilised but you still get big altitude shifts which can be interesting.

I live (and fly) on the coast so it's fly in the wind or don't fly most days.

[sunny_manku1985]

As above the 450 will cope, but not aswell as a bigger heli. My 550 was rock solid in 25 mph winds!

[rachel]

A bigger heli will defiantly help in the wind , and I don't mean an expensive 90 size , either, although that's what I pick when it's windy ;-)

I have just got a 550 trex and it's fbl and really copes quite nicely with the wind , however there is only really one option and that's ,...........
Get out there and fly in it , it's a little like a boat on the sea, wind comes in waves and with practice it really isn't that bad although 45 mph plus really is a little bit stupid 25 mph is passable and really good practice.

I am not sure if fbl will be a huge help , it's not an auto pilot ! But if it helps you get out there and fly , go for it .

:-) Rachel

[AcidDrink]

FBL will help a bit, but not much. I fly my mini protos FBL up to about 15 mph, more than that it's not fun (borderline flyable), it's fighting the heli and personally I don't care to be "challenged" by the wind. But I don't care about my "progress" either .

[Sesame]

My 550 fbl is really steady in strong winds far steadier than my flybarred 600, however if your looking at learning, im not convinced fbl will be that much of an advantage. yes it will hold the heli alot more stable but in reality what are you learning if the fbl unit is doing alot of the work.

Before I get linched by the pro fbl lobby this is just my opinion.

as others have said you just need to fly in it, wind is part of life living on this island and if we dont fly in wind when are we going to fly.

[Scotvar]

I went to a local football field last week with my Dad because he had never seen me fly and wanted to watch. Without looking outside I picked up my T-rex 500 which is FBL. As soon as I got outside I realised it was quite windy 20+ mph. If I'd bothered to pay more attention I would've taken my X50 but I thought I'm here now and I'll see how it goes and the 500 flew beautifully in the wind. Was easy to keep in a nice stable hover. Obviously it was a lot faster (and more fun!) flying with the wind behind and was appreciably slower when flying into the wind but for hovering in all orientations, sports flying and very basic 3D it was great. I left the field with a huge grin as always and my Dad turned round to me and said he was seriously impressed and can see why I'm obsessed with helis!
As Rachel said, get out there and try it to see how you feel. Take it easy, just hover to begin with to see how comfortable you are then do some circuits to get the feeling of stopping the heli in the wind. If you're feeling comfortable just go for it!
Personally I'd make the Vision 50 FBL because one of my mates has one and it flies a treat!

Paul

[Nick B]

yes it will hold the heli alot more stable but in reality what are you learning if the fbl unit is doing alot of the work.

How true Tony,you will only get linched by people who have not flown a flybar.

[LipolyGone]

It's weight here that's going to help more than stability. That's why I kept my align 700 just for those days when it gets above 20mph it realy makes a huge difference over my smaller models in a blow. If your hell bent on going flybarless I would go with the Ely q I've tried a 450 pro with a beast x on & in my opinion I wasted my money on it.

[Planehazza]

My opinion is to learn flybarred first to help to learn to correct. Same could really be said about flying in rate mode, but I never did that and I doubt most did either.

Once a confident sports flyer, FBL is great to give you extra confidence and take you further, but I doubt there's anything a FBL machine can do that a flybarred can't.

[trillian]

How true Tony,you will only get linched by people who have not flown a flybar.

The thing about flybar vs FBL in wind is that a flybar is capable of holding a heli very steady in wind but this requires setting it up differently to the approach most take when setting up for 3D (and typically these days most helis seem to have default settings that are aimed at 3D).

[barryorbik]

I remember seeing the F3C competitions at the BMFA national two years ago and the wind and gusts were right on the limit and all of machines were flybarred. Despite the less than ideal conditions, the control those fliers had over their heli's was nothing short of fantastic, so in my book it is all down to the set up of the machine and skill of the pilot.

Barry

[coolice]

Hey.

I was going to say as above and say that I feel a flybarred machine will ride the wind better than an FBL machine. My reason for this is that a FBL system will wait for the models fuselage to be effected by the wind before it can react to compensate, by which time the model is upset by said wind gust.
On a flybarred model, the flybar will deflect with the wind applying a correction to the rotor disk before it hits the models fuselage and knocks it offline. However for all out 3D as we know a FBL machine is more agile and is favoured for 3D, but both will do the book in the right hands withpro's and con's to both setups.
.

[moyesboy]

Wind doesn't tip helis much asking as the head speed is nice and high. The gusts just make it go up and down and the lighter the Heli the more up and down it goes.
After that it's how strong is the wind compared to how fast the Heli will go.
15mph tops for the mcpx.
25mph tops for the 450
Haven't found the limit for the 500 or 600 yet but I gues if it blows over before you spin up it's too much.

[DanWright]

I'll keep to flybar for now then. Like most have said, Its probably better if I learn without FBL then upgrade when I'm looking to make flying more crisp.
I'll try this weekend in 20+ winds but I'll be sure to take a bin bag just incase...