Why doesn't my tail wag?

[Mart61]

A bit of a daft question I know but, in all honesty, none of my models have ever really suffered with tail wag, apart from my 600NSP that turned out to have been a dodgy DS620. Sure, on my first few flights I've had to tweak the gyro gain a tad but, apart from this, I've had no real issues with my 250, 450, 500 & 600

I find myself wondering why this is?

• Is it cos I'm anal and use vernier callipers to ensure all my linkages are the correct lengths?
• Is it cos I balance my blades both statically and dynamically?
• Is it cos I have stuck doggedly to the old Futaba GY401?
• Have I just been lucky?

I'm hoping for the same run of luck when my 700LE takes to the sky in a few weeks (or less).

Mind you I've bought a Quark for the 700. Let's hope I don't regret straying from a gyro that's done right by me thus far...

[GravityKills]

sorry to be the bearer of bad news...
it's because your heli is unhappy
Give it some more care and attention and it will happily wag its tail, like a good heli should.

[glen_j]

sorry to be the bearer of bad news...
it's because your heli is unhappy
Give it some more care and attention and it will happily wag its tail, like a good heli should.

i was going to say it was an unhappy heli too. the reason your helis don't wag is because they are set up correctly both mechanically and electonically without too much vibration or any bent parts. don't feel left out because they don't wag thats how they're supposed to be

[spunkmyer]

My Raptor (wears a Gy410 round its neck) does not wag its tail either nor does my Blade 400. How do I make them happy?!!.

Do they sell nitro heli biscuits.

[JohnJ]

Ha Ha - Martin I too was going to mention the unhappy heli syndrome but got beaten to it by several others, instead I guess we will have to agree that maybe you are just a tad anal in your set up and the rest of us just want to get out and fly asap

Seriously though if you've managed to get all you heli's airborne with no wag issues then good on you, it's a pain in the rear when you suffer a mystery wag and several of my heli's were nearly launched on the end of a boot through these issues!

John

[Steve]

With gyros like the Spartan DS760 and the Futaba 601/611 you can set them on the bench to just be pretty much spot on on as soon as their airborne - you can do this with any gyro where you can see the actual gain value at the gyro either on the gyro itself or via a PC interface.

Good mechanical setup always helps a gyro to work at its best but with the 401 you are either just lucky, are setting your gain quite low, or have learnt what value on your Tx generally hits the sweet spot for most helis.

[Tom Burgess]

Your gain is too low

[trillian]

Your gain is too low

The thing about gain is that in reality you only need the amount of gain that holds the tail to your satisfaction for the kind of flying you do.

The other thing is that the GY401 has a pretty wide range in which it will hold well before wagging. Some gyros have to be within a few percent, a bit more and they wag and a bit less and they drift and don't hold the tail.

I have setup and flown 5 different helis with the GY401 and had them all work perfectly (not always the same gain settings due to differences in the heli tail mechanics).

[Dedcalm]

Martin, you did replace an align 760 for a 401 due to a wag that would not go away IIRC.

So you have had 1 happy heli

[Mart61]

Oh yes. So I did! Forgot about that.

[Dannyyy]

Does it matter? If its not wagging then its fine

[Steve]

Does it matter? If its not wagging then its fine

Yes it matters. If it's not wagging then it 'might' be fine but also could be far from it. It could be as vague as a vague thing in a vague place and fly 'orribly.

[Lynx.1677]

Mart, you clearly need a GP780 then. It will wag it's little bearings off with one of those!

[Mart61]

Mart, you clearly need a GP780 then. It will wag it's little bearings off with one of those!

My 401 will do me fine...

[Birdie4x4]

I think if your tail wont wag, then you should stand with your legs a bit wider apart and wiggle your bum!