Marius' learning to fly - "video diary"

[stokke]

that I awesome man keep it up and keep the vids coming

keep it up your doing great. I wish I was there.

Thanks guys!
I had four flights today, all good. Some serious banked turns going on now!
I'll bring the cam over there tomorrow. I see the cam is struggling with exposure because of the dark ground in contrast to the bright skies. I'll try to raise the cam a little, see if that helps.

 

[Tony]

You can do a manual white balance adjustment. It will make the ground very dark, but it will shot the heli in the air.

 

[murankar]

The beast way to save that is with a gradient neutral density filter. Those are cost some money.

Another solution is to drop the ISO setting on the camera if you can or use a higher number aperture. Yes the ground will under expose so you will need to find a happy medium that suites you.

Hope this helps.

 

[stokke]

You can do a manual white balance adjustment. It will make the ground very dark, but it will shot the heli in the air.

The beast way to save that is with a gradient neutral density filter. Those are cost some money.

Another solution is to drop the ISO setting on the camera if you can or use a higher number aperture. Yes the ground will under expose so you will need to find a happy medium that suites you.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the input guys! I think the cam has limited customization of the settings, but I will check in to it.

 

[stokke]

Today I did my first f**k-up. When spooling up, I managed to fall of the pad...
The bird seemed to come out of it just fine, the "crash" wasn't that violent - see for yourself in "flight 26".

BUT, I'm starting to really push the bird now - and some problems are starting to show...

When backing up at great speeds, the tail is hopping up and down like crazy.
At some points while doing serious banked turns, the bird just "clicks" out of head lock - resulting in me getting out of focus and having to gain control of the tail. This happens once in "flight 27".

Please advise.


These clips have not been edited yet.

http://youtu.be/J4wQ5cECuQQ

http://youtu.be/UmYDRmJtLKY

 

[stokke]

In the aftermath of the mishap earlier today, I have now dismantled the entire head.
Luckily I could not find any damage

I did find a microscopic oddity in the feathering shaft though. I noticed a tiny sound which sounds a bit "off" when rolling it on a glass top table. My concern is of course that it might have been bent ever so slightly. But after inspecting it for a while, I have concluded it is not of a major concern - not as of right now anyway. Symptoms of a bent feathering shaft should show as vibrations, but I do not have any. But I will keep a close eye on this in the future.

Regarding the "tail hopping", I tried to reduce the elevator gain on my 3GX, but this only made it worse. I guess I will increase the gain tomorrow, and see if that helps.

I have also increased the rudder gain, and hope this helps on the tail loosing head lock.

 

[Lee]

Looks good Marius. You doing really well. Yes the elevator wag looks more like too little than to much. And the tail. just keep winding it up till it starts to wag and then back it off a couple of %

 

[breeze400]

Great flying Marius! I wish I could fly that good! Lol

 

[Tony]

If falling off the edge of that platform is your worst mishap so far, then you are doing great! I agree with everything above as well. I do think you need to start flying in idle up though to keep that motor at one constant rpm. I think it will help your flying out more than you could imagine. Might also stop the wagging.

 

[Adam]

I do all flying in idle up now that I'm used to it the bird handles and responds much better and yes more stable

 

[stokke]

Looks good Marius. You doing really well. Yes the elevator wag looks more like too little than to much. And the tail. just keep winding it up till it starts to wag and then back it off a couple of %

Thanks. I was just out doing some tests, and the tail seems OK. But not the ELE wag...

Great flying Marius! I wish I could fly that good! Lol

Thanks!

If falling off the edge of that platform is your worst mishap so far, then you are doing great! I agree with everything above as well. I do think you need to start flying in idle up though to keep that motor at one constant rpm. I think it will help your flying out more than you could imagine. Might also stop the wagging.

I do all flying in idle up now that I'm used to it the bird handles and responds much better and yes more stable

I feel I'm not quite ready for IU just yet. I need to practice it in the sim first.

----

I was just now out doing some test flights, adjusting the ELE gain in between flights. But I can not manage to get it out... When I increased the gain, it gets shorter and faster wags. When lowering the gain, it gets bigger and slower wags. I feel I have adjusted it where it's the most manageable, but I'm not comfortable doing compromises.

The wag occurs mainly when the bird is descending and moving backwards.

I have now connected the bird to my PC, so I'll try to flash the 3GX to 2.1. See if that helps.

 

[stokke]

I've been out trying to resolve the ELE wag. No progress
I also flashed the 3GX and did all the set-up over again.

I tried adjusting the ELE gain both ways, still no good solution.
I'm beginning to suspect there is a mechanical problem, but I can not find it.

I'll now try to add the extra layer of adhesive tape between the 3GX and frame, if it does not work I'll have to begin looking for minute faults in the head i guess?

 

[Adam]

Ya i'm finding out flying around in idle up doing circuits is great but the fly time is like 7 minutes lol. Just went through two batteries at my bigger flying field and man i love this bird.

 

[Tony]

When you go to 2.1, make sure your Aileron servo is on the right side of the heli and you have a max of 8º of cyclic pitch on aileron and elevator. This is very important on the 2.1 firmware.

 

[stokke]

When you go to 2.1, make sure your Aileron servo is on the right side of the heli and you have a max of 8º of cyclic pitch on aileron and elevator. This is very important on the 2.1 firmware.

OK, good to know. Thanks, Tony.

I have now added the double layer of tape on my 3GX to be sure the issue is not caused by vibrations. I also redid the entire pitch set-up over again, as it seems the values are not the same any longer...? I also changed some link heads, to get rid of some minor slop. The head is now set up super tight, and should be good as gold.

Now I just have to redo the cyclic according to Tony's instructions. Then I will have some test flights tomorrow. *crossing fingers*

 

[Lee]

I have to agree with Tony, that it could possibly be due to a low head speed. As you return you are lowering the throttle therefore reducing rpms in Normal mode. Stunt/ID1 isn't that intimidating as long as your throttle and pitch curves line up at the switchover point, it wont jump or drop. For the first few times do the switch over on the ground. See if this stops the nodding.

 

[stokke]

I have to agree with Tony, that it could possibly be due to a low head speed. As you return you are lowering the throttle therefore reducing rpms in Normal mode. Stunt/ID1 isn't that intimidating as long as your throttle and pitch curves line up at the switchover point, it wont jump or drop. For the first few times do the switch over on the ground. See if this stops the nodding.

The reason I'm a little intimidated of IU1 is because I'm used to go off the throttle when "in danger" - if I do the same in IU1 the bird will shoot itself smack down in the ground But today it's pouring down outside, so I have all day to train in IU1 in sim.

Thanks, Lee.

 

[stokke]

I've just come back from two more test flights, and she flies almost perfect again!

Even though I did do the double tape on by FBL-unit, I do not think that was the real problem. As I posted earlier; last night I redid all pitch settings and head set-up, as it somehow have magically changed since my initial set-up... LOL

I'm beginning to understand that the FBL needs a perfectly set-up head, and good pitch settings to work 100% correct. And seeing my head was far from perfect, the FBL did not work perfectly either. On these last tests I observed some slight nodding when trying to "force the problem", but this is due to still not getting the head perfect.

I'm now going to order a swash leveler, and I'm also considering the DFC head upgrade (as it seems to be even easier to set up than the original FBL head).

 

[heli-maniac]

hey Stokke if you get the DFC head you will love it i have it on all 3 of my 450s

 

[stokke]

hey Stokke if you get the DFC head you will love it i have it on all 3 of my 450s

Good to hear, because I just ordered it
Went ahead and got some stiffer dampeners as well.