How do you do a loop? please

[est1976]

I learnt how to hover tail on with a walkera 4#3b (indoor micro fixed pitch) i got that in september then I got phoenix and the blade 400 at christmas and have learnt everything else on the sim. I have done about 6 hover batteries in the garden and that was my 14th battery at the field flying. I have crashed it 3 times but its been 9 batteries since my last crash.

[John G.]

Hi
Have been following this thread with interest. I do my forward loops and stall turns in Phoenix in NORMAL mode (not idle up) and therefore do both without negative pitch but lots of speed.
This can obviousely be done on Phoenix as I don't crash BUT can I do the same in real life with my Blade 400 or is this a situation where the sim and real life don't correspond.
Many thanks for any advice.

[unwind-protect]

Actually, you can usually hover inverted with the helis in Phoenix in normal mode (well, if you have a linear pitch curve you can). The Phoenix helis nearly all have governors of one form or another, and so tend not to close the throttle until you pull the throttle right back.

[HELIMAD]

Is it possible to loop with a pitch range from +3-+11, as long as it is in idle up mode or with a throttle curve of 0,85,85,85,85, thats my setup on my blade 400???

[Steve Ashton]

Hi Mate I see you are a MAC user. Are you aware Arofly Pro is available for MAC great sim and about same price as other PC versions. Mine runs great on mac laptop.

[chopperaddict]

Hi

I really do have to disagree with those that suggest applying NEGATIVE pitch at the top of a loop.

The loop is a full positive G manouevre, and does not require or need negative pitch, just the opposite in fact.

If you apply negative at the top, you simply push the heli up from the ground (I was WRONG with - pull the heli down toward the ground) while inverted. Why would you want to do that as it will elongate the top of the loop ? If you need to do this, you did not have sufficient speed to perform a loop when you entered it.

A perfect loop is a perfect circle in the sky, entering it from fast forward level flight, and hopefully exiting it at that same height perfectly level.

If you put negative in at the top you are going to have something that is nothing like a circle, and you have thrown away valuable height.

As many have said correctly in this thread - Lots of height, Lots of forward speed, and when learning to loop, try bringing the nose up gradually to keep the airspeed going until the heli is approaching the vertical up posiiton, then start to pull it over harder.

It will not be a perfect circle, but it will work prety well. You can then start to enter the true loop earlier and earlier as you get used to them until you reach the stage of making the perfect circle loop as described above.

One other point, you can do loops in NORMAL or IDLE UP mode equally easily, because it is a positive G manouevre.

[unwind-protect]

If you apply negative at the top, you simply pull the heli down toward the ground while inverted. Why would you want to do that ?

Er, applying negative collective pitch while inverted will reduce your rate of descent, even pushing you skyward if you use enough.

Having said that, my loops are far from circular; somewhere between a flip and a loop---a flop if you will

[robgt]

I use a small amount of negative pitch (-1 to -3 perhaps... couldn't say for sure) at the top of a loop to keep the loop rounded.

If you only use positive pitch, you might get around, but do continuous loops using only positive pitch and you will end up doing a figure 9 eventually... if you haven't bogged the heli to crap first.

Figure 9... loop up, over and down into the floor
Cheers,
Rob

[Ashley Davis]

agree with Rob, for a round loop you need some negative at the top or the continued positive pitch will pull you into what looks like a number 9. Basically you feed in about -2 ish over the top then go to 0 pitch for the dive out of the loop and reintroduce positive as you pull through the last quarter of the loop back to forward flight.

[tourerjim]

Started out practicing mine in norm mode & since gainned alot more skills in idle up mode & doing some stunning rolls/loops & now entering some 3D stuff.

[cyclopops]

i did my first 2 loops last weekend, and did three more on thursday

what i did was idle up time, got her to roughly 150-200 foot up, came in with plenty of speed, nose down a little, then hard back on the sticks more collective to get the power through, kept the stick hard back, and came round in a pretty tight loop, much tighter than my previous 2 attempts, so hardly any drop in height were the first two dropped quite a bit. i got this one on my head cam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-C8zzDHf9o