Heli has a mind of it's own!

[Leebert]

Hi
After spending a few weeks buying various spares for my Honey Bee FP, I went and bought Reflex and a FF7 and practiced. Now I find I can hover the heli over, say, a 3m x 3m square but the heli seems to react and fly differently almost every time - sometimes I have to just land it (or crash) and try again and then it might be fine (or at least better). Question is... is it me being a newbie, are these little helis just like this normally or is it a combination of the two???

It's a little frustrating as I can fly around in Reflex quite happliy but can only just hover using the real thing.

Cheers
Leebert

[mackem54]

in my limited experiance with fixed pitch,i found it almost impossible to control the heli,spent more time and money repairing it than trying to fly it,then i didnt have the benefit of a sim,i dare say you can fly them i have seen a lot of videos of micro f/p helis flying,the best thing i ever did was to get rid off it bought a 30 nitro and sim and i have never looked back,have you got your sim set up for your particular heli, this is only my opinion

[bandicoot]

I fly a micro fixed pitch and have seen guys at a local indoor session fly them all very well. They are however very light and can be unstable.
I can only keep mine still for a short time before it starts to wonder. Other FP flyers seem to be able to hold a good hover for ages. I think a sim is a great tool to learn on but a good size indoor space is the only way to get any good..

Do you use your FF7 or teh one that came with the heli?

[Ade_Law]

it could be a trimming issue or your fingers.

larger helis like the ones in reflex are much more stable and easier to fly.

Ade

[Leebert]

Hi Everyone
Thanks for replying.
In reflex, I fly the Robbe Eleo Sprit but with the swash plate travel reduced to about 70%. It seems to react in a similar way to my Honey Bee. I use the FF7 on reflex only (set for Heli but everything else as it was out of the box) as I bought the radio only and have no crystals etc.
If I let go of the sticks in Reflex (FF7 TX) the model stays put for a bit then wonders off but I can get it back. If I do that on the Honey Bee (E-Sky TX) it's as good as crashed! I have tried it indoors in a hanger and outdoors this morning in the work car park.
I realise that I have only just started (3 hours or so) but it's frustrating!! I guess I need to find a local club and get a pundit to fly it and show me what my little Honey Bee can actually do (or not :? ).
Leebert

[Leebert]

A quick update...
I tried holding the heli by the tail boom and wound up the throttle a bit. It seems that the heli want to rotate (roll) much better to the left than to the right but if I move the servo arm to the next spline over it's too much and the servo tries to lever itself off it's mountings. It also seems that roll left and right are not at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock on the TX. Roll right seems to be more like 4 o'clock. Any ideas??
Leebert :? :? :?

[Ade_Law]

best bet is to get along to one of the indoor flying sessions and get some help.

Ade

[antsis]

It seems that the heli want to rotate (roll) much better to the left than to the right

In general most helicopters are clockwise rotation and the resultant torque makes the model want to go to the left. With the throttle and the mid point, the aileron and elevator servo arms should be at 90 deg and the swash should be level. However, it's not uncommon with a FP to have to put lots of trim in to counter the tendancy for the model to move to the left.

Apart from checking the servo arms and swashplate, make sure the paddles are level. It's very easy for them to get mis-aligned from heavy landings.

[Leebert]

Thanks for that. I'll have a bit of time to check paddles as I broke it this morning!!
I was hovering quite well but it got a bit close to me and I paniced. It was then that I found out that full right aileron is about the same as 1/4 left aileron on the tx. This overloaded my peanut and resulted in a broken main blade mounting hub thingy :cry: :cry:
Happy days!
Leebert

[Made2Fade]

IMO ditch it and get a 30/50 sized nitro heli. I too had one of these helis (well it was a spyhawk but same heli really). There nothing but bother. Everything you are describing are the same troubles i had with mine. They are just characteristics of that particular helicopter. I bet you tail drifts too does it? Mine did and i thought that the gyro wasnt tuned properly. It turned out that the gyro was tuned fine. What was actually happening was as the batteries were getting slighty lower then it was making the gyro drift more and more. I was forever using the tail trim to try and keep it straight. Problem is when your a beginner and your concentrating on the tail too much then you tend to forget about the cyclic. You can see where im going with that one. This all leads to more fixing than flying and is extremely frustrating.
Lee

[antsis]

FP's have their faults, but are very good at teaching you to hover. If you can master hovering an FP, the transition will be a piece of cake. If you're worried about flight time put a lipo on. I found that with concentrating so much, 7-8 minutes was long enough.

[Leebert]

Thanks for the response guys.

It seems the more people that I ask, I get similar answers back - If you've bought a cheap FP (and mine was only 75 - except the spares and the li-po have doubled that figure 8O ) then learn to hover with it then sell it and buy a 30.
I think I'll fix the Honey Bee and sell it in the paper and then go to the Sanddown show in May and see if I can pick up a deal on a 30 kit and get building.

Any opinions as to which 30?? I hear a lot about Raptors - any good for a Newbie??

Cheers
Leebert

[mart1ster]

hi lee there a number of things you could try
making sure you swash plate is level is one, try centering all the trims on the tx then center the elevator/aliron servo horns making sure thay are horizontal at a 90 degre angle then adjust/screw all the ball linkages so that the swashplate is level.

then you could try using the pinch method of holding the tx here a link on this dont overlook this it helped me a lot

http://www.raptortechnique.com/radio_holding.htm

also if it doesn't have one already get a reciver antenna tube having the cable wound round the skids can causes unwanted interference,

dont give up on the micro ep heli's just yet the thing i've lernt is a heli will only fly as good as its setup

if you are going to buy a ic heli read up about them first learning about the radio setup up, pitch/throttle curves ect.... will take time

some peps say that a raptor 50 is easyer to fly then a 30, i've only got a 30 so i wouldn't know

goodluck

[Leebert]

Thanks mart1ster
The swash plate is level with the trims centred and I use the pinch method already.
I think I'll persevere for a while and see if I can master hovering side on and nose in as well. If I can master that with this heli, I shuld be able to hover the shed door!! :lol: It might not survive that long though!
Cheers
Leebert