Small achivement - First Loop

[highlightshadow]

Cracking days flying yesterday .... plenty of people at our field ...

Was flying a mix of both the Fusion and the 500efl and getting towards end of day with everyone encouraging me and telling me i was more than capable to do a loop .... i finally braved it...

Went in with plenty of height... just did a pure elevator move (didn't yet do any pitch compensation)... was going to be a stall turn but my fingers kept in and over it went...

Wow ... what a rush ... had to bring it straight back into hover cos my fingers was shaking and was totally on edge from the buzz.

Ended up doing about 5 over the next 2 or 3 flights .... but pleased i made the push.... just got to start tidying it up and getting that control over the loop .... can move onto flips too then

I'm happy anyway.... got totally sunburnt though

[milly0812]

Small achivement - First Loop

Well done mate it's a great feeling when you conquer a new move ....enjoy

[vinny155]

I remember my first loop,I can still remember exactly how it looked and the buzz from achieving it,WELL DONE

[Sesame]

Small achivement - First Loop

Very well done, congrats, yeah first time you conquer something it feels great.

Pleased for you

[adrianMS]

After my 1st loop I had to sit down & have a fag, shaking like a wet dog!

[highlightshadow]

After my 1st loop I had to sit down & have a fag, shaking like a wet dog!

That describes the feeling very well
Amazing massive buzz ... maybe more than when you first do an 8 or stall turn.... fingers were shaking, heart was pounding and holding a hover was a challenge

Dunno whether its the sense of achievement or just the relief it didn't slam into ground

[GIR8]

It's an amazing feeling I remember my first loop and 540's with my T-rex450xl. It's just the start of things to come WELL DONE!

[highlightshadow]

Guess i need to start working on variations on loops ... introducing pitch etc

Any tips on what to focus on would be very gratefully received.

[Jamin_00]

I was buzzing like a good un after my first loop. Buzz a lot in the early days the first time you do new things, it is awesome

Enjoy it

[Si_B]

Have you got an idle up curve set yet? That would be the next step with your loops so you can back off the pitch a bit at the top without losing head speed.

[Mike Sanders]

Well done. I remember my first loop. It was a week ago!

[pug907]

Well done mate, once you've set yourself an idle up curve, you'll never look back. Always a brilliant feeling when you "just go for it" expecting the worst, but getting what you were hoping would happen.
I learned to fly in IU and am streets ahead of the 2 guys I started flying with(no disrespect to them of course , they are still tail in hovering and side sliding 3 feet up) all, I think, thanks to the my mate, who pushed me into the scary world of idle up!!! IMO it is easier to control the heli, making it far easier to progress your flying.
I have to stop myself doing flips, whenever I am hovering. They are soooo addictive once you've got away with a few on the trot. Not exactly 3D, but a gateway to something more risky. I am trying to hover inverted at the moment, but numbnutting it, rather than dumb thumbing it. I can do it for ages on the sim and even did my first inverted circle (nose in) last night, but need to grow a pair of watermelons to attempt it IRL hahaha.

Keep it up, there'll be no stopping you in a few weeks (weather permitting )

[mattscupoftea]

Guess i need to start working on variations on loops ... introducing pitch etc

Any tips on what to focus on would be very gratefully received.

Once you've got your idle up set, you'll be in a much better position to control the shape of the loop.

The way I look at loops, you want to treat the entry into the loop in much the same way as the entry into a stall turn. . .
Assuming that you're doing a left to right entry, ie travelling through the clockface from 6 o'clock, through 3 o'clock, then 12, then 9 and back to 6 o'clock for the exit. . .

Approach the bottom of the loop (6 o'clock) with a decent amount of forward speed. . .

6 o'clock: push the collective up to gain upward momentum. Once you begin to climb, ease the elevator back so that the nose lifts with the shape of the loop, and keep it pretty much constant to take you through the 3 o'clock position. If you start with elevator, you will find it difficult to get enough upward momentum in the heli.

3 o'clock: At exactly 3 o'clock position, the heli should be pointing straight up. A good tip from here is to go against what might be intuitive, and keep the collective in the positive position right through to about the 1 o'clock position. (intuition would be to come off the collective once the heli begins to invert, but you'll find that if you do that, the heli will 'skid' out of the circle of the loop due to centrifugal (centripetal? I never remember) forces and lose that circular momentum, and run out of pace by the top of the loop, struggling to make it through the 12o'clock point.)

12 o'clock: By this point, your heli should be inverted level, and have enough forward speed to continue through the loop. A little bit of negative collective may be necessary to give it a bit of 'float' to ensure that you keep the circular shape. Through to the 10 o'clock position, it may be useful (beginning to get vague here! Happy to receive corrections from people who know more!) to bleed in a bit more negative collective to 'push' the heli so as to keep the circle shape from collapsing.

9 o'clock: By this point, the collective should be pretty much at zero pitch and the heli should be pointing straight down. It should feel a little like the point just as you come down out of a stall turn, with a little bit of pace.

9 through to 6: Begin to ease the collective back up to create the last part of the circle.

6 o'clock: You should have found yourself somewhere near the starting point, with a nice amount of forward speed generated from the exit from the loop. Smile smugly to yourself.

Other things to consider:
The elevator input ought to be pretty much constant throughout the manoeuvre. It's a very collective-control based move.
Try to make it a 'floaty', smooth manoeuvre, rather than powering wildly through it. Feel the momentum of the heli take itself through the shape. It shouldn't feel panicky at all if done correctly.
Remember to have a bailout. It's pretty simple really, as you are never very far from upright. The part where you are most likely to feel the need for a bailout is the second half of the trick, as you approach the ground and begin to pick up speed. Remember that all you need to do is give a slightly increased elevator input and you will bring the heli to level upright, at which point you can add collective and catch the heli where it is.
Keep an eye on the orientation of the heli in the roll axis. It can be all too easy to give a bit of aileron cyclic in with the elevator, and take the heli offline. If you don't notice this, it will take a lot more collective to pull out of the loop at the bottom. Be ready with a bailout, or with a corrective input if your inverted orientation is solid.

Hope some of that helps!
Oh, and variations. . . you can try. . .
Enter the loop in backward flight, thus giving opposite elevator input, but otherwise the same collective throughout the manoeuvre.
Enter the loop as normal, but do a 180 degree half pirouette at the top of the loop (best to come off the elevator while you do the rudder, then finish 12o'clock through 9 to 6 as per the tail first loop.
Enter with backward flight, 180 at the top, forward flight out.
Enter with forward inverted flight, pushing nose down into the circle of the loop ('Outside Loop') and exiting the loop inverted.
Enter with forward upright flight, roll at the top from inverted to upright, and perform an outside loop 12-9-6 o'clock exit.
Forward upright entry, but at 12 o'clock, begin another half (outside) loop as if from right to left, climbing again, to make an S shape, exiting the manoeuvre at the highest point, travelling left to right.
As above, but at the top, complete the upper loop, then continue the shape into a figure 8 (ie a loop on top of a loop) exiting left to right at the lowermost entry point.
And so on and so on. . .
Oops sorry got carried away (or perhaps should be. . .)
Matt

[pgkevet]

...and don't forget sideways loops, tail-in , nose-in, clockwise and anticlockwise...can even switch tail to nose in at the top or for real class half-way up the upslope and again on the downslope (actualy haven't even tried that myself.will play on phoenix)

[Streetluge Chris]

Good on you .My first loop went well until I got to the bottom of the loop and the ground moved upwards lol.