Do You Use Expo For 3D Flight?

[Rotorhead]

Yep, I use it, it removes the natural positive expo that you get from servos if you dont have any programmed in via the radio to counter it.

[LaurenceGough]

I use expo although I don't use 15%, I use about 5%-7%. On some helis I use minus expo (faster for Spektrum/JR). On my Falcon 3D I've gone to -70% or something silly, much better now, can thank the stupidly heavy paddles for that!

[JeromeF]

None on helis, although I did use expo through stages of learning the basics and gradually used less as my skill increased. I tried the same with 3D/Pattern FW and well... I had a big shock! I'm using 50% expo on my Edge 540!!! 25% on my Formosa.

I never felt that cyclic and throttle needed any, IMO in gives a better feel for the heli and can help progress quicker, for some maybe and myself. I did have an issue if I remember on my 500 but was using the Spartan; so I just dialed in points to the deadband.

[Tim Procter]

Never used to but have 15% on the rudder now.

None on elevator and aileron.

[shaun.e]

I am still learning the basics and initially had 0%, I now use 25% on aileron/elevator, none on rudder.

[Mike W]

I use it on cyclics till I get used to the model and the way it handles , then I start to dial it out the more I use the model ... I do use some on my rudder tho ...

[GravityKills]

I had a close look at my flying today (F3Cish, for example cuban eights normal/backwards/inverted etc).

My fingers have developed kind of an "expo mode", where they simply won't do any abrupt moves. Sometimes it's almost scary - for example, the heli is coming too close, but the fingers have a will of their own and refuse to spoil the maneuver. The trick is to tell them when to bail out...

At my current level of flying, I don't think expo would help much. Instead, the challenge is to disguise needed corrections, make them as invisible as possible.

[EtheAv8r]

Yes I use a little expo 5-15% on cyclic and 3% on rudder to keep things smooth around the middle on my G5, but am gradually reducing. On fixed wing I have up to 45% on some.

[trvo]

I use about 20% on my 600e cyclics - it helps when transitioning from fast flight to smooth flight but it's setup pretty damn responsive.

Trev

[Ashley Davis]

I usually have idle up 1 with no expo and idle up 2 with a slower piro rate and about 20% expo. Idle up 1 is used for 3D that needs pop and speed, idle up 2 is used for piro walls of death and stuff like that where the stick stir is very small.

[Made2Fade]

Diffrent for diffrent helis for me... on my 700 i dont use any but on the 600s i use about 10 - 15%. Same on the smaller stuff 450 size down too 250 10 - 15%. 500 i use none also.
It all depends what servos your using/how you fly and whats comfortable for you really. Just set it to what you want for you.

[callum]

Well as a small update, i dont use any expo anymore.. as soon as i took it off it felt much better, after a couple of flights i turned it back on, and didnt like it at all

[trillian]

Yes I use expo,around 25% seems to be about right for me. I'm certainly no Stevie G but when I started to look at the servos as mechanical links,it seems that expo is needed just to keep the movement as near to linear as possible. Without expo in the box the servo will behave like it's got negative expo.

I have thought about this as well. Inevitably there is a span in the centre where the servo arm is moving the link almost exacty as far as it travels but as it moves to the top or bottom the arm is rotating and the geometry changes. So logically the ideal is whatever amount compensates for that.
But then it's a personal preference thing. (and I'm not flying 3D anyway)

[Tolly]

I use 10% on all my helis, it just hides the early flight nerves

[Rotorhead]

Like I said, + expo is already naturally present in the control system, so introducing - expo cancels that out, -27 to be precise.

This is futaba +/- I'm using as an example.

So technically you dont actually get to -10% until the radio says you have -37%

At the moment you're operating at +17% as 0% would equal +27%, again using futaba's notation as an example.