What have I done wrong?

[waveydavey]

From the rear of the model and the tail blades upright bend the bottom one out as if it were a rudder on a boat, pick the model tail up and move to the left the tail blade should go the same way and again to the right. If it doesn't you need to reverse the sense direction, it sounds like this is at the root of it. Hopefully not teaching you to suck eggs

[Grumpy]

From the rear of the model and the tail blades upright bend the bottom one out as if it were a rudder on a boat,

The boat rudder analogy is a good one.. might steal that for use when trying to explain this in the future.



To the OP.. if you do find out that rudder is reversed dont feel bad, lots of guys make the same mistake, even those who really should know better. I was at helifest last year and one of the well known main dealer sponsored pilots had just converted his heli over to Vcontrol and was doing the maiden flight with his new setup.. He spooled up and the heli spun like a top... Yup, tail gyro comp reversed

[powelly999]

Thanks all for your patience.
I’ve been through all the setup again and it reacts as it should with regards to the tail slider/rudder movement when rotated etc. Even on the ground when it starts to go light (I’ve got it on a training skid) and it starts to spin you can stop it with the correct stick control. I didn’t want to take it any further as I’m unsure what will happen if it ever got in the air! Just an observation but I think it’s right, I take it the tail curve in my Spektrum should be a flat line at 0%?
My Spektrum now shows a time of 18 hours 22 mins of use and the damn thing hasn’t seen daylight under the skids yet

Regards
Andrew

[trillian]

If it is correcting the right direction, then I would think the issue must be with the gyro gain.

[StreetDragster]

Is the tail belt twisted 90degrees the 'right' way? I.e with the clockwise spining rotor head, is the tail spinning anti clockwise if you look at it from the right hand side?

EDIT- Infact, not sure you need to check this actually, if the correct stick control stops the rotation then it must be right.

Thanks
Matt

[The Tok'ra]

Thanks all for your patience.
I’ve been through all the setup again and it reacts as it should with regards to the tail slider/rudder movement when rotated etc. Even on the ground when it starts to go light (I’ve got it on a training skid) and it starts to spin you can stop it with the correct stick control. I didn’t want to take it any further as I’m unsure what will happen if it ever got in the air! Just an observation but I think it’s right, I take it the tail curve in my Spektrum should be a flat line at 0%?
My Spektrum now shows a time of 18 hours 22 mins of use and the damn thing hasn’t seen daylight under the skids yet

Regards
Andrew

You should not have any sort of tail curve, but a flat line 0% does not sound right either. Can you explain what you have set up, or have a picture?

[powelly999]

You should not have any sort of tail curve, but a flat line 0% does not sound right either. Can you explain what you have set up, or have a picture?

The tail curve in the ‘Function List’ in the Spektrum shows a -100% to 100% graph just like the throttle and pitch curves option. I’ve not put any settings in it so across all of the points available they are set at 0%, hence the flat curve (line).

Thanks
Andrew

[trillian]

I have never used a tail curve myself, so I think you're fine there. Just travel adjust on the stick,gyro gain, then expo for a softer mid-stick feel.

The tail curve in the ‘Function List’ in the Spektrum shows a -100% to 100% graph just like the throttle and pitch curves option. I’ve not put any settings in it so across all of the points available they are set at 0%, hence the flat curve (line).

Thanks
Andrew

[Grumpy]

Tail curve isn’t used with a FBL, it’s for old school rate mode tail gyros to give some collective pre-comp. it should be left at default which must be a 0% horizontal flat line

[Grumpy]

Ps.... are you sure the FBL is set to heading hold mode on the tail?

[The Tok'ra]

The tail curve in the ‘Function List’ in the Spektrum shows a -100% to 100% graph just like the throttle and pitch curves option. I’ve not put any settings in it so across all of the points available they are set at 0%, hence the flat curve (line).

Thanks
Andrew

That's fine. -100% to + 100% is correct. 0% at center stick too. O.K. just wanted you to clarify what you meant. What does the BeastX manual tell you to set the Gyro gain to?

EDIT:- Just looked at the tail curve menu on my DX8. I'm not sure I have ever been in that menu before LOL. But right enough, a flat line, so all good.

[Grumpy]

Just to repeat my previous post, because there seems to be contradictory (and plain dangerous) advice coming though in the thread. The 'tail curve' MUST be a flat 0% line, which is the default. You should in fact never even go into the tail curve menu on a FBL heli.

If you set it to a -100 to +100 diagonal line then the heli will spin when you add collective.. so dont do that!

[powelly999]

Ps.... are you sure the FBL is set to heading hold mode on the tail?

Yes the gain is set to +50% so shows a blue light on the Microbeast FBL unit.

just a thought about another cause of this but I’m sure the FBL unit would sort it is the torque compensation for the main blades spinning. I originally had the end point set at -12 degrees on the pitch curve so it was driving the helicopter into the ground at low speed, I then altered the end point to give me -2 degrees at low stick. This was when as soon as the collective was moved up and it became light it started to spin round. Just trying to run through the steps I took to see if I missed something???

Thanks
Andrew

[Grumpy]

Sounds like your pitch and throttle curves are not well matched so that you have either too much negative or too much positive before the rotor is up to speed.

My recommendation is to never use a 'normal mode' curve. Just use flat line 'idle up' curves and start/stop the motor with throttle hold switch. This separates the collective control from throttle and means you dont get into any of these mis-matched curve difficulties. Spool-up drill then is to simply set the collective pitch at zero and release throttle hold... dead simple and fool-poof.

here's a video I did for my buddy showing how easy it is if you use this setup:

[The Tok'ra]

Just to repeat my previous post, because there seems to be contradictory (and plain dangerous) advice coming though in the thread. The 'tail curve' MUST be a flat 0% line, which is the default. You should in fact never even go into the tail curve menu on a FBL heli.

If you set it to a -100 to +100 diagonal line then the heli will spin when you add collective.. so dont do that!

Grumpy, Sorry if you feel I caused some confusion there. but like I said in my last post, I don't think I've ever actually even entered the tail curve menu, I knew FBL's don't use that function, so I didn't get what the OP meant. Having had a look the menu in my DX8 when I got home, I now see what he means. Nobody said anything about a diagonal line from -100 to + 100. just a flat line.