Ooops wrong switch - a brown trouser moment...

[PeteStewardson]

So I've been out flying the 600 this morning. I asked Dave Fisher about my tail wag, he suggested tail grip bearings were the cause of my slow wag. So changed those and low and behold it's all silky and locked in now.

Anyway I decided to play around with the gain settings and up the gain a bit so I changed the gain switch settings so I could up the gain 10% once I was hovering safe in the knowledge I could drop back down if the tail went crazy. I'm not confident enough not to have that fallback.

So hovering nicely, flick the switch, ooooo ooooo what's going on the heli is falling arrrrggggg panick for a second, then realise I've hit hold and not the gain switch. Flick back out of hold in a panic and she spins back up and starts climbing, quite quick as I've been trying to compensate by adding pitch without knowing I'd done it.

Few, had to come back closer and just hover a bit after that before trying again. Good job it was my 600 as it just sat there while the motor slowed so I could hear it in time to finish panicking and sort it out. Had that been the TT360 I think it would have come down a lot quicker.

So I nearly auto'd into a big pile of logs on my first pack this morning...

Luckily the rest of the morning went with only good stuff, I flew the 600 in some 8's more hovering 8's than when I fly the 360 but we're still getting acquainted. Flew all 4 packs. Luckily I also put the TT360 in the car so I can go out for my 4 flights with that at lunch.

[danch]

Going great there Pete, sounds like your now having fun with the 600, took a trip myself to the heli club yesterday & had a brown trouser moment with the fusion, went into idle up and it started spinning, flicked back to normal landed.
Checked the idle up settings & had forgot to set the gyro gain in idle up..lol, all sorted now.

Are you running 6S on the 600?

Dan

[rachel]

Sounds like you are too stoopid to fly to , lol welcome to the "too stupid to fly model heli's club" I am a founder member.
Oh thanks for confessing :-)
Made me feel a whole lot better
Rachel

[PeteStewardson]

Going great there Pete, sounds like your now having fun with the 600, took a trip myself to the heli club yesterday & had a brown trouser moment with the fusion, went into idle up and it started spinning, flicked back to normal landed.
Checked the idle up settings & had forgot to set the gyro gain in idle up..lol, all sorted now.

Are you running 6S on the 600?

Dan

Actually yes, after this morning I'm much happier with the 600. It does feel a lot bigger and heavier and more stable than the TT360, but at the same time it's a LOT quicker. I think I'm going to struggle to keep the speed down for a while until I get used to it.

Yeah I'm running 6s on it. I know everyone told me this wasn't great, kills packs etc, but I'm only learning right now so for normal sport type flying as I get onto that I'm sure it will work well. It's my first big heli so I just wanted something cheap to get me going. I'm actually going to get a Phoenixtech TT650 once they are available so this is kind of just a stop gap.

[PeteStewardson]

Sounds like you are too stoopid to fly to , lol welcome to the "too stupid to fly model heli's club" I am a founder member.
Oh thanks for confessing :-)
Made me feel a whole lot better
Rachel

Oh cool I get to join your club I'm off to put it in my sig...

As for the confession. Well what's the point in not having a laugh? The reason I decided to do a blog and put everything on it was so it could be useful for any other people thinking about learning to fly, or starting to already. Might as well show the rough times as well as the good, because there's plenty of both.

[muscleflex]

flick the switch??
do you fly in rate mode then and then switch to heading hold?

[muscleflex]

can i join the club too?
i started my nitro plane for the first time yesterday after acquiring a litre of 10% from the LMA show.... and people on forums say just start it backwards against compression which i did... and it started... but it was blowing air in front of the plane.. meaning the prop was spinning backwards. i panicked and pulled the fuel tube out

[PeteStewardson]

flick the switch??
do you fly in rate mode then and then switch to heading hold?

No I have 3 positions on the switch I use for gyro gain, I have different gain settings in them. One for rate and 2 HH. SO when I'm setting gain I'll switch from one to the higher one, then if that's ok change the two settings so the highest is on the first pos and a higher one on the next. I have one setting for rate so I can flick into rate then back to HH before I take off to center the blades and reset the heading in the gyro so the heli doesn't spin round when it gets light on the skids.

[Nick B]

can i join the club too?
i started my nitro plane for the first time yesterday after acquiring a litre of 10% from the LMA show.... and people on forums say just start it backwards against compression which i did... and it started... but it was blowing air in front of the plane.. meaning the prop was spinning backwards. i panicked and pulled the fuel tube out

Not worthy....now if you had tried to fly it then yes,official club member!!!

Chap in our club hand launched a tomboy with the motor running backwards,as soon as he let go it stopped a fell on the floor

Good save pete,just wait till you try a flip in normal flight mode

[PeteStewardson]

Good save pete,just wait till you try a flip in normal flight mode

I see that happen at the field of doom all the time

I'm a long way off being able to consider trying that in any mode though lol I think the skids nearly touched the pile of wood I would have hit had I not realised. t'was very very close eek

[Nick B]

I'm a long way off being able to consider trying that in any mode though lol

Dont be scilly,if your confident to do 8's you can flip it Up high of course

[PeteStewardson]

Dont be scilly,if your confident to do 8's you can flip it Up high of course

Hmmm, I'll wait a bit longer and practice my 8's more first. I'm slowly going to make my FF faster so then I can try a stall turn and loops and stuff. Then maybe flips after that

[danch]

Actually yes, after this morning I'm much happier with the 600. It does feel a lot bigger and heavier and more stable than the TT360, but at the same time it's a LOT quicker. I think I'm going to struggle to keep the speed down for a while until I get used to it.

Yeah I'm running 6s on it. I know everyone told me this wasn't great, kills packs etc, but I'm only learning right now so for normal sport type flying as I get onto that I'm sure it will work well. It's my first big heli so I just wanted something cheap to get me going. I'm actually going to get a Phoenixtech TT650 once they are available so this is kind of just a stop gap.

That's what I have noticed going from the 500 to the Fusion, it hangs a lot better & actually is a lot more stable specially in the wind.

Ahh I see, the 600 looks good, will b good to see their 700 & 650, although I think my senses are tingling for the New Fusion 90 when it arrives next year (give me time ot acquire more batteries & invest in a generator )

Dan

[Paulice]

Good save, Hitting the wrong switch can happen, you could try putting fuel tubing on the switch you need, makes it easy to feel for it.

[Lynx.1677]

Well saved Pete!

Now if you can do something silly/exciting for the camera that would be great!