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Hi there, I have followed the lead from last month's edition of MHW and created my own FBL Raptor with some tinkering to the head and the installation of a BeastX unit. I figure if this works then it's a great way to give a new lease of life into old Raptors.
I flew the helicopter with its flybar removed for the first time this morning, and whilst it is still in one piece 3 tankfulls later I wasn't completely satisfied that I was in complete control and I was wondering if anyone here could pass on some advice with the set-up of this unit. The unit was set-up with everything default as per the installation guide, and today's weather conditions were pretty much perfect for a maiden flight.
Photos of my installation can be seen here on our flying club's forum --> Basingstoke Model Aero Club • View topic - Flybarless Raptor
Here are my observations from these 3 test flights:-
1. It was generally quite hard to hover the heli in one place, it would often drift and I found that quite hard to correct on the cyclic. i.e. there would be no way I'd be able to pass my B cert hovering moves with this machine. Is this normal for the BeastX?
2. The aileron response was quite normal I'd say, so laterally it was quite easy to keep the heli in check.
3. The elevator response was very different to the aileron response, there were several things I noted. i) the heli would often either drift forwards or backwards and putting in a small elevator correction didn't seem to do much so then if more elevator correction was put in it would suddenly jerk in the intended direction. This was quite scary and immediately knocked my confidence with the unit. ii) when doing a fast vertical climb the heli would not climb directly vertical (it did some times but most often not the case), the worrying thing here was that if I corrected the non-vertical climb out a small input did nothing then as more correction was applied it would suddenly move too far - again not very easy to control.
I guess in summary the heli felt quite soft in the hover which does not give you the feeling of control and then I had a couple of occasions on the elevator where I almost got into a state of pilot induced oscillation where I was correcting what were previously over control inputs.
Does anyone know why my elevator response could be so different from my aileron response? (CoG was checked and was perfect)
Is there a reason why vertical climb outs are not vertical as intended?
Is the mounting position of my unit causing this, is it too far from the main shaft, would that affect the elevator gyro?
Sorry for all the questions, looking around the forum it seems that quite a few people have this unit so I was hoping someone may have come across a similar experience.
Thanks in advance,
Scott
I flew the helicopter with its flybar removed for the first time this morning, and whilst it is still in one piece 3 tankfulls later I wasn't completely satisfied that I was in complete control and I was wondering if anyone here could pass on some advice with the set-up of this unit. The unit was set-up with everything default as per the installation guide, and today's weather conditions were pretty much perfect for a maiden flight.
Photos of my installation can be seen here on our flying club's forum --> Basingstoke Model Aero Club • View topic - Flybarless Raptor
Here are my observations from these 3 test flights:-
1. It was generally quite hard to hover the heli in one place, it would often drift and I found that quite hard to correct on the cyclic. i.e. there would be no way I'd be able to pass my B cert hovering moves with this machine. Is this normal for the BeastX?
2. The aileron response was quite normal I'd say, so laterally it was quite easy to keep the heli in check.
3. The elevator response was very different to the aileron response, there were several things I noted. i) the heli would often either drift forwards or backwards and putting in a small elevator correction didn't seem to do much so then if more elevator correction was put in it would suddenly jerk in the intended direction. This was quite scary and immediately knocked my confidence with the unit. ii) when doing a fast vertical climb the heli would not climb directly vertical (it did some times but most often not the case), the worrying thing here was that if I corrected the non-vertical climb out a small input did nothing then as more correction was applied it would suddenly move too far - again not very easy to control.
I guess in summary the heli felt quite soft in the hover which does not give you the feeling of control and then I had a couple of occasions on the elevator where I almost got into a state of pilot induced oscillation where I was correcting what were previously over control inputs.
Does anyone know why my elevator response could be so different from my aileron response? (CoG was checked and was perfect)
Is there a reason why vertical climb outs are not vertical as intended?
Is the mounting position of my unit causing this, is it too far from the main shaft, would that affect the elevator gyro?
Sorry for all the questions, looking around the forum it seems that quite a few people have this unit so I was hoping someone may have come across a similar experience.
Thanks in advance,
Scott
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