Horizontal & Vertical Stabilizers ??

[SamS]

How do Horizontal & Vertical Stabilizer fins work, how do they stabilize a RC Heli ??

Thanks

[Stanley Speel]

Im not entirely sure, but I think that horizontal stabilisers are just fbl controllers with accelerometers built in. Using the head gyros it knows which way is up and horizontal, but when the accelerometers are used as well, it can detect how much the heli has tipped, and compensate for this, leveling it.

[Chris Boughton]

How do Horizontal & Vertical Stabilizers work, how do they stabilize a RC Heli ??

Thanks

Im not 100% sure but i think they work a bit like aeroplane wings, wen the heli flys forwards the fins keep the tail at the same heading using the pricaple of the weather **** effect, but nowadays with heading hold gyros and 3d carbon fins tht are made with literially no material realy only serve the purpose of keeping the tai from hitting the ground, and looking kool!! I know longer use the vertical fin as all it does is add weight to the tail. Also i high forward speed the vertica fin can cause airflow problems and make the tail unstable!!
Hope this helps

[Zeeflyboy]

Nope stan, they are just fins....

The bit that points vertically and is attached next to the tail blades is the vertical stabiliser, the one infront of that attached to the boom (and is, unsurprisingly, horizontal) is the horizontal stabiliser.

In flight they don't really do much, especially on a heading hold gyro.

[Stanley Speel]

oops I completely misread the post! :P

[Chris Boughton]

Nope stan, they are just fins....

The bit that points vertically and is attached next to the tail blades is the vertical stabiliser, the one infront of that attached to the boom (and is, unsurprisingly, horizontal) is the horizontal stabiliser.

In flight they don't really do much, especially on a heading hold gyro.

I know nowadys they dont do anything, but i was refuring to wen they were huge back in the day (bit like the f3c ones)!! lol

[Zeeflyboy]

Yeah I wasn't saying nope to you, I was saying nope to stan lol...

They don't really work like aeroplane wings though, they just use drag to weathervane as you correctly said. HH gyros have made them largely redundant for this though as you say and they are more for looks and protecting the tail blades.

[Chris Boughton]

Yeah I wasn't saying nope to you, I was saying nope to stan lol...

They don't really work like aeroplane wings though, they just use drag to weathervane as you correctly said. HH gyros have made the largely redundant for this though as you say and they are more for looks and protecting the tail blades.

O right haha, i thought stan was being serious at first!!!

[Stanley Speel]

I thought the meant the electronic stabilisers! Like the spartan APsomething and helicommands lol

[SamS]

Thanks everyone, it was just one of those things that i never really knew the answer too, now i know !

Thanks

[LaurenceGough]

Nope they don't do anything as of stock, but in the FAI competition class they often use the horizontal tail fin to fine tune fast forward flight by covering the spaces and/or otherwise extending the horizontal tail fin.

I remove them (horizontal fins) myself, pointless drag and weight in my view. Also on some models you're more likely to whack the blades on them in a crash.

Vertical fin is just there to keep the tail out of the ground.

[SamS]

I remove them myself, pointless drag and weight in my view. Also on some models you're more likely to whack the blades on them in a crash.

Thanks, you remove the vertical fin aswell ??

[LaurenceGough]

No, just the horizontal . You need the vertical to prevent tail blade damage on landing .

[Spanner]

My horzontal fin save me a crash once, the boom support came undone and the fin stopped it going up into my blades! Although my N5 has had hers removed.

[SamS]

No, just the horizontal . You need the vertical to prevent tail blade damage on landing .

Yeahh that's what i thought Lol. You said "i remove 'them' myself", so i thought you meant both