Autorotation Advice.....

[Gibbo1974]

Hi Gents,

just a quick one on engine failure, I'm using electric so it's probably more unlikely but as i'm building my next 600 I'm getting a good idea of what things could fail me on power etc....

anyway, I've been practising Auto's (if that the right term) on the sim in readyness for any failure in real life. I'm currently running -4 on my negative pitch. Is that enough for an effecttive auto landing?

I know it all depends on how much height you have at the time but whats the minimum you would run for a good chance of landing.....

Oh and Jamie i'm not going to dial in -15 so forget it !!!!!!!!!!

[Gate88]

The exact amount depends a lot on forward speed, wind direction, height etc, but -4 to -7 is should do.

[davie]

dial in as much as you can you dont need to use it all but then again you might as when a forced auto happens its never where you want it first one i got i would have hit a fence if i didnt have a lot of negative pitch but -14 was enough to float it past it remember its better to have it there and not use it than not have it at all , so its not about what minimum its what you dial in on the stick it will only hit -15 if you put the stick their so get this rubbish too much pitch is not good it is if you need it to stretch the landing away from danger

[Paulice]

-5 is plenty enough for a normal auto, if you go to -15 the blades will not speed up any faster but your decent will then you'll need a lot more head speed to slow it down before landing.
the floating point of each heli is not the same but on my 600 i find about -3 to -4 keep the head speed up and a nice decent speed.

[jamiem]

You could auto on -1 or -14, both will have the same end result of getting the machine down in one piece.

The amount of negative used will affect 2 things. The rate of fall, and the ability to stretch an auto out. Loads of negative will get it down quicker and steeper (and when you flare you will get a bigger increase of hs), less negative will make it a slower decent, and will allow you to glide it out a little more.

Come up the club Sunday morning and I'll go through them with you if you like

[DaveMac]

I run +12/-12 on my 600 and have recently learned autos. I just give it a good bit of negative till I hear the blades spinning back then flare it when nearly down. I do try keep forward momentum as well on way down. I learned with full pitch range I'n all flight modes, no point having to learn things twice.

[moyesboy]

Its important to have the same pitch range in t'hold as you have in the mode you are flying in - otherwise all your t'hold practice will not actually be worth anything when your motor fails and you are in a forced auto!

Losing just power is not so common on an electric, if the ESC burns you probably lost control too - though main gears can strip, and if you lose the tail for some reason and it spins, it will stop when you hit t'hold and still do an auto OK.

I've seen guys hit the tail and lose the tail drive, then send their spinning heli up high and hit t'hold and dive it back down for a perfectly controlled auto landing.

[moyesboy]

Its important to have the same pitch range in t'hold as you have in the mode you are flying in - otherwise all your t'hold practice will not actually be worth anything when your motor fails and you are in a forced auto!

Losing just power is not so common on an electric, if the ESC burns you probably lost control too - though main gears can strip, and if you lose the tail for some reason and it spins, it will stop when you hit t'hold and still do an auto OK.

I've seen guys hit the tail and lose the tail drive, then send their spinning heli up high and hit t'hold and dive it back down for a perfectly controlled auto landing.

[Steve]

I set my throttle hold pitch curves to -5 at the bottom end and +2 more than normal on the top end. So If I have +11 for normal flight, then I have +13 in hold but keep the hover point in the same point as all other flight modes. The right amount of negative helps to give a sensible decent, and the extra 2 degrees at the top end allows you to bleed off just a bit more head speed right at the last few seconds before placing it on the ground.

Also, although you are running electric and not likely to suffer engine failure, you could still get a complete loss of motor power for whatever reason, and could also loose your tail for some reason like maybe a control link coming off. If you loose the tail, the heli will pirouette madly and you won't be able to stop it until you switch the motor off and remove the torque from the system - i.e. you hit throttle hold. At this point it will pretty instantly stop spinning and you should be able to auto it down safely. That happens with both nitro and electric.