550 X Pro Flights
- Thread starter pvolcko
- Start date
Winter weather is upon us here in Syracuse! 
This video is long, clocking in at over 16 minutes. Covers four flights. First is my first cold weather, snow on the ground flight attempt. As you'll see, didn't go so well. Had to bring it in after only a minute or two in the air. Too cold. Thumbs numbed up. Bought a transmitter bag (review with better pics coming shortly) and gave that a go last week on Friday. Put three flights on back to back, no issues. Heli held up good in the cold, too! First short flight in full. Second flight (first with bag) in full. Chopped up third and fourth for time and getting rid of some rambling and boring stuff. Fourth flight was interesting. I was also using this set of flights to see how the batteries did in the cold. On the last flight I ended up having to cut it short due to an odd power sag issue. Don't know if it was the battery being cold, a bit under charged, maybe it's going bad, not sure. Haven't charged it up and tried it again, maybe today.
This video is long, clocking in at over 16 minutes. Covers four flights. First is my first cold weather, snow on the ground flight attempt. As you'll see, didn't go so well. Had to bring it in after only a minute or two in the air. Too cold. Thumbs numbed up. Bought a transmitter bag (review with better pics coming shortly) and gave that a go last week on Friday. Put three flights on back to back, no issues. Heli held up good in the cold, too! First short flight in full. Second flight (first with bag) in full. Chopped up third and fourth for time and getting rid of some rambling and boring stuff. Fourth flight was interesting. I was also using this set of flights to see how the batteries did in the cold. On the last flight I ended up having to cut it short due to an odd power sag issue. Don't know if it was the battery being cold, a bit under charged, maybe it's going bad, not sure. Haven't charged it up and tried it again, maybe today.
Last edited by a moderator:
Flight 80!
I've actually been flying this some since the last post, but this is the first video I've edited and encoded for it in a while. Expect to be seeing more of it. I'm going to be practicing quite a bit with it this season. 300X is going to get replaced with a 300CFX (on order, hopefully get it next week). 300X will be a backup. Most of the parts are compatible so my huge investment there isn't wasted.
Anyway, back to the vid: Testing out new ail/ele travel settings and D/R settings. I've been underwhelmed with the roll rates on this thing since late last season, as I've been improving and trying tic-tocs and piro flips. The piro rate was crazy fast and roll rates pretty slow. With the new settings which send an effective +/-140 to the FBL/Rx unit (7200BX) the roll rate is greatly improved (see second half of video). Lot of gusting wind in this flight so I'm wandering quite a bit compared to usual.
[video=youtube_share;EnDopQUGwXc]http://youtu.be/EnDopQUGwXc[/video]
I've actually been flying this some since the last post, but this is the first video I've edited and encoded for it in a while. Expect to be seeing more of it. I'm going to be practicing quite a bit with it this season. 300X is going to get replaced with a 300CFX (on order, hopefully get it next week). 300X will be a backup. Most of the parts are compatible so my huge investment there isn't wasted.
Anyway, back to the vid: Testing out new ail/ele travel settings and D/R settings. I've been underwhelmed with the roll rates on this thing since late last season, as I've been improving and trying tic-tocs and piro flips. The piro rate was crazy fast and roll rates pretty slow. With the new settings which send an effective +/-140 to the FBL/Rx unit (7200BX) the roll rate is greatly improved (see second half of video). Lot of gusting wind in this flight so I'm wandering quite a bit compared to usual.
[video=youtube_share;EnDopQUGwXc]http://youtu.be/EnDopQUGwXc[/video]
Lee
Well-Known Member
Analysing your piros Paul, this is what a see.
You are giving a good amount of forward cyclic on the elevator, but not enough Aileron.
So its actually more like a quarter piro than a half.
Thats the reason it fall out of the sky so fast, because there is not point between your start and the end of the piro that the heli gets any positive lift to hold it in the air.
If you give it more aileron then pull back on cyclic, the inverted portion will hold it up for a bit longer so you don't have to rush to get it back up right again.
As you mentioned at the end of the video, try to do the piro to inverted and stop. This is the key for you to succeed and move on to the next step.
Hope this helps mate
You are giving a good amount of forward cyclic on the elevator, but not enough Aileron.
So its actually more like a quarter piro than a half.
Thats the reason it fall out of the sky so fast, because there is not point between your start and the end of the piro that the heli gets any positive lift to hold it in the air.
If you give it more aileron then pull back on cyclic, the inverted portion will hold it up for a bit longer so you don't have to rush to get it back up right again.
As you mentioned at the end of the video, try to do the piro to inverted and stop. This is the key for you to succeed and move on to the next step.
Hope this helps mate
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Lee
Well-Known Member
I know what's going wrong. I just need time to practice. Work has been slamming me lately. I'm hoping my recent travel and d/r changes will help me get cyclic feeling right.
Btw, thanks for taking the time to analyze it. Wasn't looking for it but appreciate it.
No worries mate.
Just thought a different perspective may help.
Practice is the key as you say.
Getting 50 flights in last week, certainly helped me
Flight 81
[video=youtube_share;OxwrL1yWGNE]http://youtu.be/OxwrL1yWGNE[/video]
Accidentally flew a storage charged pack, so this one was short. But I got my first attempts at correcting side to side position while in a series of flips/mini-loops. Only correcting while in upright phase so far, but it's a step in the right direction! Also working on rudder expo a bit.
[video=youtube_share;OxwrL1yWGNE]http://youtu.be/OxwrL1yWGNE[/video]
Accidentally flew a storage charged pack, so this one was short. But I got my first attempts at correcting side to side position while in a series of flips/mini-loops. Only correcting while in upright phase so far, but it's a step in the right direction!
Also working on rudder expo a bit.
Thanks guys. Got another one uploading now.
NEed to work on inverted tail in hovering. I have nose in inverted pretty well covered, but tail in still gets me. One of the reasons I'm hesitant to go back to practicing just the top half of the the half piro flips.
My Tx setting changes for roll rate adjustment are doing great. My half piro flips are much more balanced. When I fall through them now it is pretty much always because I don't put enough negative collective in or stay at neutral and let it fall through since I'm concentrating on getting the stir matched up to the piro rate. Prior to the changes I was getting maybe 1 flip per second (actually think it was less) out of it at full stick, yet rudder full stick was easily 2 rotations/sec. Too far out of balance for my stubby fingers to manage. I've got the roll rate up a bit now, maybe 1.5/sec. Have expo set pretty well, still tweaking that. But the better balance has helped my stir vs piro immensely.
Going to go back to the top halfs only, though. Need to get that locked in and get the practice on inverted tail in so it becomes a bit more automatic. I'm having to pre-think the orientation each time and bail from it too easily.
Also liking the small, slow mini loops. It's helping my collective control immensely, the point it is helping my management during tic-tocs and mini-rainbows too. Even starting to pop the stops on them.
- - - Updated - - -
Speak of the devil: Flight 82
A few mini loops. Some big forward and backward loops, care given to completing them rather than cutting short. Half piro flips. And some loops and rolls that were boring and not too well done at the beginning which I cut.
[video=youtube_share;8cx4qdzfKy4]http://youtu.be/8cx4qdzfKy4[/video]
NEed to work on inverted tail in hovering. I have nose in inverted pretty well covered, but tail in still gets me. One of the reasons I'm hesitant to go back to practicing just the top half of the the half piro flips.
My Tx setting changes for roll rate adjustment are doing great. My half piro flips are much more balanced. When I fall through them now it is pretty much always because I don't put enough negative collective in or stay at neutral and let it fall through since I'm concentrating on getting the stir matched up to the piro rate. Prior to the changes I was getting maybe 1 flip per second (actually think it was less) out of it at full stick, yet rudder full stick was easily 2 rotations/sec. Too far out of balance for my stubby fingers to manage.
I've got the roll rate up a bit now, maybe 1.5/sec. Have expo set pretty well, still tweaking that. But the better balance has helped my stir vs piro immensely. Going to go back to the top halfs only, though. Need to get that locked in and get the practice on inverted tail in so it becomes a bit more automatic. I'm having to pre-think the orientation each time and bail from it too easily.
Also liking the small, slow mini loops. It's helping my collective control immensely, the point it is helping my management during tic-tocs and mini-rainbows too. Even starting to pop the stops on them.
- - - Updated - - -
Speak of the devil: Flight 82
A few mini loops. Some big forward and backward loops, care given to completing them rather than cutting short. Half piro flips. And some loops and rolls that were boring and not too well done at the beginning which I cut.
[video=youtube_share;8cx4qdzfKy4]http://youtu.be/8cx4qdzfKy4[/video]