Heli setup am I doing something wrong?

[LipolyGone]

Hi guys hope you all had a great xmass.

During my 2 week holiday I've had plenty of time to think about how I actualy set up my machines & was just wondering if I'm doing anything wrong or not.
I set every machine up the same from my electric 450 & 500 right through to my 90 airskipper.

Normal flight mode
I set normal flight mode on throttle to a straight line of 0 25 50 75 100% throttle.
The pitch curve for normal mode is set at plus & minus 10 degrees & the hover point is just over mid stick position in both positive & negative (inverted hovering).
I use normal mode for spooling up on the IC stuff & then just before take off flick straight into idle up one.
Every landing is done by using the hold switch a few feet above the ground & a small auto back to terrafirma.

Idle up 1
Idle up 1 & 2 is set exactly the same on the pitch curve but I tend to set a V curve for the throttle which would normaly be 100 75 50 75 100%
but tailor this to head speed with the governor turned off.

Idle up 2

Funny but I never have found a good reason to use idle up 2
So I just set this mode up exactly as idle up 1.
I just use this mode as a trim change mode for my 450 & 500 which use different weight flight packs & using idle 2 in this way I can get the hover spot on with either set of packs.

Throttle hold
Now this i where I am strugggling big time especialy in auto's.
What pitch curve is best to use for hold?
I set mine at plus & minus 10, the same as I do all other modes.
The problem I have with this is that every time I've had a flame out on the 600 it's ended in a bin bag.
You see I always panick, flick the hold pull full negative & then before I have realised what I have done Ive stalled the head & it drops to the floor like a sack of the proverbial so this is an area I need to improove upon.

Aileron & Elevator
I max these out at full positive & negative pitch & make sure nothing binds at the extremes of pitch.

Rudder
I dont like a powerfull tail so I set the rudder up so that a piro takes maybe 2 to 3 seconds at full stick.

Dual rates
I dont use dual rates at all.

Exponential
I'm a fairly nervous person & my hands shake a little even on a good day so I tend to use alot of exponential as much as 40 % sometimes to help smooth out my nerves.

I think thats about it & would love to hear your cmments on how you set up your helis & if you feel I might benefit doing something a little different please feel free to post as I'm desperate to improve my flying & I feel maybe my setup maybe hindering my progress.

Heres Wishing you all a happy 2009.
I've heard it's gonna be the warmest yet according to some study group. lets hope so

Regards Martin

[Steve]

Normal flight mode - what's the point in having -10 deg pitch at zero throttle?

It's each to their own really - some believe that you should run -10/+10 deg in all flight modes with zero deg in the middle, so that your pitch always stays constant through flight mode changes.

Personally, I only use -10/+10/zero in idle up 2.

Roughly, I go for:

Normal
Throttle: 0,50,100
Pitch: -4,+5,+10
Used for start-up and shut down, hovers at exactly middle stick.

Idle Up 1
Throttle: Governed to 1750rpm ish, or 60,50,100 ish
Pitch: -6,+5,+10
Used for hovering and some flying around, has just enough pitch to stay inverted and head-speed is maintained, upright hover is exactly middle stick.

Idle Up 2
Throttle: Governed to 2000rpm ish, or 100,50,100 ish
Pitch: -10,0,+10
Used for most flying, full pitch range, hovers upright at 3/4 stick, head-speed maintained.

Throttle hold:
Hold at tick-over plus 5%
Pitch: same as idle up 1

Going from idle up 1 to 2 contains a pitch change and a head speed change, so I make this mode change either on the ground at less than half stick, or during full pitch climb-out, when both pitch and throttle are at max and at the same point anyway.

There are obviously some subtle differences for different size models in the hover and at max pitch - 30 size helis hover at about +5.5 deg, 50s at +5 deg and 90s at +4 deg so these considerations also have to be accounted for.

I tend to put quite a fast piro rate on the tail with a little expo to reduce yaw effects during pitch changes (i.e. dumb thumbs) and usually set the cyclic pitch range on the bench to approx 7 deg in all four directions for starters.

When flying a new model, I use the first available very calm day to trim the cyclics for a steady-hover, then go back to the bench and adjust the push-rod lengths to make the trim correction mechanically, and put the Tx trims back to zero.

I tend not to use expo on the cyclics in most cases and have been known to add a bit of cyclic-to-throttle and rudder-to-throttle mixing to help the governor out a bit when loading the engine, but in truth, I've never really noticed much difference, although it does help if you're not using a governor at all and relying on throttle curves. Remember, you've only got one power source (the engine!) and every time you move either stick in any direction, you are sapping power away from the main blades.

Never use dual rates for anything.

I tend to put -/+ 10 deg on all my models for max/min pitch except on my 90 which has -/+ 11 deg.

I run one single gyro gain in all flight modes, where some people fine-tune their gain to be different in each mode - i.e. if you're doing FAI stuff, you might like a higher gain for stationary hovering manoeuvres (i.e. idle up 1), and a slightly lower gain for the fast forward flight stuff (i.e. idle up 2).

Only other thing I do when setting up is go through the whole Bob Finless setup procedure for CCPM, which takes you right through the head and linkage setup process in a sensible order. It also dials out interactions on servo end points and should leave you with quite an accurate and balanced head. This process takes about an hour tops from start to finish once you've done it a couple of times.