What have I done wrong?

[trillian]

It depends on what kind of flying you do. I like to dabble around with F3C style hovering, so I use a normal mode for takeoff / landing and hovering, and fly in idle-up the rest of the time.

Yeah, It's just too easy to forget. That's why i just did away with normal mode completly, there really is no need for it these days, apart from when setting up the ESC anyway.

[The Tok'ra]

It depends on what kind of flying you do. I like to dabble around with F3C style hovering, so I use a normal mode for takeoff / landing and hovering, and fly in idle-up the rest of the time.

Sorry Trillian, I was only thinking about sport flying and 3D when I wrote that. Good for scale flying too I should think, and landings and take off on any big heli come to think of it. o I take that back, it does have it's uses

[Grumpy]

Sorry Trillian, I was only thinking about sport flying and 3D when I wrote that. Good for scale flying too I should think, and landings and take off on any big heli come to think of it. o I take that back, it does have it's uses

i still don’t see the point of normal mode, even for scale type flying. Real helis don’t control throttle from the collective lever, so there is nothing ‘scale’ about that setup. If you want lower headspeed then just set a low % flat line for one of your idle up settings.
IMHO ‘normal mode’ is simply a carry over from i.c. power, it serves no logical purpose on an electric heli regardless of flying style.

[The Tok'ra]

All I know is that I've read that Normal mode is popular with the scale guys, why, I don't know, I've never been particularly interested in scale. Don't get me wrong, the workmanship is often out of this world, it's just not my thing, you need a lot of time on your hands to be able to invest in such projects.

[trillian]

Well, I don't see the 'point' of flying mode1, mode 3 or 4, but... ya know, some people like cereal with milk for breakfast, I don't.

i still don’t see the point of normal mode, even for scale type flying.

[hedge]

i still don’t see the point of normal mode, even for scale type flying

Big heavy blades - not those light 700 ones (and 4-5 of them) can tip a heli over during spool up. Using "normal" mode allows you to finitely control the blades until they straighten out. Flicking straight to gov/flat tc is too aggressive. Once the blades are straight then subsequent spool ups - yes these can be gov/flat tc without risk.

[Grumpy]

Big heavy blades - not those light 700 ones (and 4-5 of them) can tip a heli over during spool up. Using "normal" mode allows you to finitely control the blades until they straighten out. Flicking straight to gov/flat tc is too aggressive. Once the blades are straight then subsequent spool ups - yes these can be gov/flat tc without risk.

ive no experience of multi blade scale heads so fair enough. Only thing I’d say is very few of the guys using normal mode are flying that type of head, most are ‘standard’ type helis.
Also FWIW if using governor a normal mode curve doesn’t actually give you smooth throttle control because most governors see anything less than 40% as closed throttle, so you get nothing until throttle passes 40% then the ESC spoils up using soft start anyway. No different to if you used idle up.

[powelly999]

Hi all, quick update. I’ve redone the drive belt and assembled but the long set screw in the tail rotor casing was a pain to remove and the Allen head rounded off so had to carefully drill it out. I reassembled and ran through the set up again. All okay and I tried a run up, it actually got off the ground as expected after my blunder!
Awaiting a replacement set screw from Align and looking for a decent training skid before I venture further though. The one I was using just came unclipped as I set it down, the orange pin pong ball on the one leg jumped up and the main blade sliced it in two, never a dull moment here!!!


Once again, thank you all for your patience and help, operator error to blame and more care will be taken next time, it was 2015 I put it together but no excuse.
Kind regards
Andrew

[waveydavey]

[Mike Sanders]

Awaiting a replacement set screw from Align

Buy a few nuts and bolts from e.g. Modelfixings. They are always useful.

[StreetDragster]

...and cable tie/velcro strap the training gear on.

Good luck

Thanks
Matt

[james_2k]

i still don’t see the point of normal mode, even for scale type flying. Real helis don’t control throttle from the collective lever, so there is nothing ‘scale’ about that setup. If you want lower headspeed then just set a low % flat line for one of your idle up settings.
IMHO ‘normal mode’ is simply a carry over from i.c. power, it serves no logical purpose on an electric heli regardless of flying style.

I'm with grumpy, even with a heavy disk, the spool on the HW for example is so slow and smooth (and adjustable) that it wouldn't make any difference, in fact it would look better from a scale perspective imo.

Every single take off and landing for me is in idle up (1). i like the scaleishness of it too

[p4ddy]

i still don’t see the point of normal mode, even for scale type flying. Real helis don’t control throttle from the collective lever,.

Shwiezer 300 twist grip on the collective lever