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Thought I’d do a little write up for my first real impressions on going flybarless, and maybe give a little insight of someone taking their first steps into this. Maybe this will enlighten some whom maybe considering going this route..
Well, After months of deliberating on a Flybarless unit, I have taken the plunge on the Mikado VBar with the V4 software. The ‘older’ Silver sensor version came up on the BMFA, and got it for a price that I was fairly happy with, and was already upgraded with the V4 software.
Up to now, the only flybarless unit that I have tried is the Gaui 365, which I had tried on my Beam. This was about 4 months ago, and my initial impressions were not all that good. Although it turned it into something very responsive, and unleashed more power, it was far too ‘squirrelly’ and just found it too hard to live with as an everyday helicopter. There was adjustment to turn sensitivity down, but when this was adjusted to how I liked it in normal flight, the flip rate just slowed down too much. A few experiments with it and I decided to call it a day with it.. Maybe more suited to someone who wants a flybarless scale. (Just IMHO)
I have been offered so many times from friends to try their Vbar flybarless helis, but I sort of have a stigma on flying other peoples helis, fear of crashing it and the fear of wondering into something a bit unknown to me…Well I shouldn’t have worried.
I had a choice of fitting this to my Logo500, but MSH has just released their flybarless upgrade parts to convert the existing 500 rotor head on my Protos, and this came in at a measly £30, rather than the £114.00 just for the parts to convert my logo 500!
Fitting was pretty much straight forward, and also a great help in the Vstabi site, which basically runs you through the complete stage of fitting, configuring, trimming etc…and all in glorious Video! I managed to download someones configuration for the Protos from their forums on the site, and used these as a starting point. A lot of presets can be found in the software for the Mikado range, and also quite a few of the trex helicopters.
First outing with it, and bringing the heli into the hover was pretty uneventful. It lifted into the hover with no unpleasant surprises. There was a small drift, but this would be taken care of in a ‘trim’ flight which I would do later. As you do, I was trying to take things a little cautious to start with. After making sure the tail was holding and everything else felt ok, straight into idle up, and I flipped it over. Basically the thing just flipped in not even a blink of an eye!.. Now to prevent the heli from driving itself into the ground inverted, negative pitch was promptly brought in, to bring the heli into an inverted climb out…boy this thing is fast! Flip back over again, and decide it’s time to reign it in and do some tweaks.
A quick phone call to ChrisB on here whom pretty much knows everything about the Vbar, he advised me on some settings to tone it down. Another flight, and then to the ‘Trim’ flight to get everything smooth…
….what more can I say. The heli has transformed.
The flybarless setup has released even more power on the protos(Not that it was short of it in the first place). The esc was taken down by about 10 points on my DX7, and the battery packs also seem to come down a lot cooler than when it had its flybar.
The heli itself is very stable, and pirouettes right side and inverted, it just really sits there. The tail gyro works extremely well, and all the usual fast backwards flying, funnels, and tail slides does not phase it one bit.
Cannot recommend this enough, and think a Vbar and flybarless head should already be on everyones Christmas list if you are considering going flybarless! Havn’t tried any other flybarless systems at the moment, so cannot comment if there are any better systems out there though
Like to thank ChrisB again for answering all my phone calls of help whilst setting this up!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Well, After months of deliberating on a Flybarless unit, I have taken the plunge on the Mikado VBar with the V4 software. The ‘older’ Silver sensor version came up on the BMFA, and got it for a price that I was fairly happy with, and was already upgraded with the V4 software.
Up to now, the only flybarless unit that I have tried is the Gaui 365, which I had tried on my Beam. This was about 4 months ago, and my initial impressions were not all that good. Although it turned it into something very responsive, and unleashed more power, it was far too ‘squirrelly’ and just found it too hard to live with as an everyday helicopter. There was adjustment to turn sensitivity down, but when this was adjusted to how I liked it in normal flight, the flip rate just slowed down too much. A few experiments with it and I decided to call it a day with it.. Maybe more suited to someone who wants a flybarless scale. (Just IMHO)
I have been offered so many times from friends to try their Vbar flybarless helis, but I sort of have a stigma on flying other peoples helis, fear of crashing it and the fear of wondering into something a bit unknown to me…Well I shouldn’t have worried.
I had a choice of fitting this to my Logo500, but MSH has just released their flybarless upgrade parts to convert the existing 500 rotor head on my Protos, and this came in at a measly £30, rather than the £114.00 just for the parts to convert my logo 500!
Fitting was pretty much straight forward, and also a great help in the Vstabi site, which basically runs you through the complete stage of fitting, configuring, trimming etc…and all in glorious Video! I managed to download someones configuration for the Protos from their forums on the site, and used these as a starting point. A lot of presets can be found in the software for the Mikado range, and also quite a few of the trex helicopters.
First outing with it, and bringing the heli into the hover was pretty uneventful. It lifted into the hover with no unpleasant surprises. There was a small drift, but this would be taken care of in a ‘trim’ flight which I would do later. As you do, I was trying to take things a little cautious to start with. After making sure the tail was holding and everything else felt ok, straight into idle up, and I flipped it over. Basically the thing just flipped in not even a blink of an eye!.. Now to prevent the heli from driving itself into the ground inverted, negative pitch was promptly brought in, to bring the heli into an inverted climb out…boy this thing is fast! Flip back over again, and decide it’s time to reign it in and do some tweaks.
A quick phone call to ChrisB on here whom pretty much knows everything about the Vbar, he advised me on some settings to tone it down. Another flight, and then to the ‘Trim’ flight to get everything smooth…
….what more can I say. The heli has transformed.
The flybarless setup has released even more power on the protos(Not that it was short of it in the first place). The esc was taken down by about 10 points on my DX7, and the battery packs also seem to come down a lot cooler than when it had its flybar.
The heli itself is very stable, and pirouettes right side and inverted, it just really sits there. The tail gyro works extremely well, and all the usual fast backwards flying, funnels, and tail slides does not phase it one bit.
Cannot recommend this enough, and think a Vbar and flybarless head should already be on everyones Christmas list if you are considering going flybarless! Havn’t tried any other flybarless systems at the moment, so cannot comment if there are any better systems out there though
Like to thank ChrisB again for answering all my phone calls of help whilst setting this up!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
E.G.S.
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