Hover Training Video

[Heliman450]

Fingers crossed this works ok first time.


Well at least it's there.

All feedback appreciated.

 

[Smoggie]

Phil, she looks very stable, nice consistent headspeed no too.

The stabilisation on the Spirit obviously works very well, i've not tried it on mine.

 

[Heliman450]

Phil, she looks very stable, nice consistent headspeed no too.

The stabilisation on the Spirit obviously works very well, i've not tried it on mine.

Hi Steve, I'm amazed at how close it performs to the simulator. Since activating the 'reactive' feature in the settings and using some trim on my 'old Tx.' the simulator could be the real thing.

Now I'm chasing down those areas that don't work well e.g. pirouettes. When I try a pirouette, it almost falls out of the sky and runs off to the left unless I correct it. This doesn't happen on the simulator. I've ordered up the new ESC and will fit it with my Jeti sensor and activate the governor feature together with some settings in the Spirit Pro. Currently, I'm using your suggestion with the throttle hold to give me a workaround. I expect the delivery early next week, fingers crossed.

Bye for now.

 

[trainrider06]

That baby is nice and solid Phil! Looks great!

 

[Heliman450]

That baby is nice and solid Phil! Looks great!

I'm limited to tail-in at the moment. The simulator's much easier to do the practise but it has to be transferred to the real heli. I need to spend some time with the Spirit Pro settings to find out what they do exactly and by how much to tweak them to help what I'm able to do at the moment (not much ), but I'm sure that I'll get useful feedback as my practise moves on.

I have to admit that my 450's didn't really work for me so now I know more of the background stuff, that's a project for the future. For now, I'm sticking with my 550 as it's a different league of stability. I was able to do some real-time testing in 24km/hr wind the other day, which was very good. Up to now, I only have 10km/hr set in the simulator.

Thanks for looking in!

 

[D.O.G.]

Fingers crossed this works ok first time.


Well at least it's there.

All feedback appreciated.

Thank you for sharing that video with us Heliman450. Very nice job and the bird looked very stable. When Tony introduce the challenge flight, I really didn't notice how hard it really is to hold a bird steady in one place for a long period of time. Since the challenge, I've went back to basic and been practicing. I found this sheet with your basic maneuvers and then some The RCHN Pilot Proficiency Program - RC Heli Nation that Mr. Derek turn me on too awhile back and it help me out alot. When the sun comes up this morning and when I'm done with my morning chores I'm going to make a video. I wish I had the room that you have to fly but I mange with what room I have.

 

[Heliman450]

Hi D.O.G., thanks for the feedback. Actually, I can now hover for the whole time of a battery (say 10 mins) without touching down but that's of little help for learning the take-off/landing part

It's taken an enormous investment to get to this point (time, research, energy, patience and not a small amount of money, too). 10 minutes of hovering must be the most boring video to watch so my intention is to record sessions of about 5 minutes doing the various exercises I have in mind. Once I've mastered the basics staying within the paved square (6m x 6m), I intend to follow the F3C exercises to progress. Maybe I won't be able to do them all or become world champion but I just need the discipline and precision it demands not to mention the heli to deliver it, too.

Talking of the location, it's the flying club's helicopter area. I needed a place to fly and the only option is to pay and join a club as I can't just fly where I want. Having said that, the guys seem to be accepting a strange person who only wants to fly helis at the moment

I want to cut the grass back by 2 metres all round the square so that I can traverse the square, land and not turn into a RC lawn mower. I need to clear it with the club's leadership first and also the local farmer whose land it is. Not so simple, hey?

Bye for now.

P.S. What was Tony's challenge?

 

[trainrider06]

I'm limited to tail-in at the moment. The simulator's much easier to do the practise but it has to be transferred to the real heli. I need to spend some time with the Spirit Pro settings to find out what they do exactly and by how much to tweak them to help what I'm able to do at the moment (not much ), but I'm sure that I'll get useful feedback as my practise moves on.

I have to admit that my 450's didn't really work for me so now I know more of the background stuff, that's a project for the future. For now, I'm sticking with my 550 as it's a different league of stability. I was able to do some real-time testing in 24km/hr wind the other day, which was very good. Up to now, I only have 10km/hr set in the simulator.

Thanks for looking in!

450's can work, it just can't be too windy.... But yeah it can be tricky with just the basic things as Ivan said....and Ivan is quite the pilot flying around as he does in that tight area that he does, with poles wildlife and snakes and gators lurking about...
Hehe had to give ya a little ribbin there Ivan!

 

[D.O.G.]

Hi D.O.G., thanks for the feedback. Actually, I can now hover for the whole time of a battery (say 10 mins) without touching down but that's of little help for learning the take-off/landing part

It's taken an enormous investment to get to this point (time, research, energy, patience and not a small amount of money, too). 10 minutes of hovering must be the most boring video to watch so my intention is to record sessions of about 5 minutes doing the various exercises I have in mind. Once I've mastered the basics staying within the paved square (6m x 6m), I intend to follow the F3C exercises to progress. Maybe I won't be able to do them all or become world champion but I just need the discipline and precision it demands not to mention the heli to deliver it, too.

Talking of the location, it's the flying club's helicopter area. I needed a place to fly and the only option is to pay and join a club as I can't just fly where I want. Having said that, the guys seem to be accepting a strange person who only wants to fly helis at the moment

I want to cut the grass back by 2 metres all round the square so that I can traverse the square, land and not turn into a RC lawn mower. I need to clear it with the club's leadership first and also the local farmer whose land it is. Not so simple, hey?

Bye for now.

P.S. What was Tony's challenge?

Here you go Heliman450 RCH Friendly Flight Competition Challenges. I think he's going too explain the challenge in more detail. I think Smoogie was the only one to follow directions correctly. When I tried it, the wind was blowing and I just wanted to keep the heli under control. That was hard enough. Trainrider06 did a video also and he had the same situation WIND. Yeah your right about boring to watch some one hover for a long period of time. I'm going to limit my time some where about 2 mins. There's no close clubs for mr to fly but there's a park not far from me that I would like to go to one day. Will see. Either way Heliman450, keep up the good work and remember, Practice, Practice and more Practice.

- - - Updated - - -

450's can work, it just can't be too windy.... But yeah it can be tricky with just the basic things as Ivan said....and Ivan is quite the pilot flying around as he does in that tight area that he does, with poles wildlife and snakes and gators lurking about...
Hehe had to give ya a little ribbin there Ivan!

Thanks Rodney.

 

[Smoggie]

Phil,

It would be interesting to see what the problem is when you do a piro. Some correction when pirouetting is normal. I know that the pros make it look like the heli just spins perfectly on the axis of the mainshaft, but rarely is it that easy. You have to make small cyclic corrections as the heli rotates, more so when pirouetting at low speed because the heli has more time to drift. With a fast pirouette you can just whip it round and make corrections afterwards.

However if it's drifting very badly and always the same direction it's possible that you have pirouette compensation reversed. In theory that shouldn't be possible with the Spirit using V2 firmware, providing that is that you have the orientation of the unit set correctly.

 

[Heliman450]

Phil,

It would be interesting to see what the problem is when you do a piro. Some correction when pirouetting is normal. I know that the pros make it look like the heli just spins perfectly on the axis of the mainshaft, but rarely is it that easy. You have to make small cyclic corrections as the heli rotates, more so when pirouetting at low speed because the heli has more time to drift. With a fast pirouette you can just whip it round and make corrections afterwards.

However if it's drifting very badly and always the same direction it's possible that you have pirouette compensation reversed. In theory that shouldn't be possible with the Spirit using V2 firmware, providing that is that you have the orientation of the unit set correctly.

Hi Steve, thanks for thinking about this for me. I don't have anything major wrong such as incorrect orientation of the unit, that's solid. We've got 3 days of almost continuous rain here right now and I was going out next time having delved into the settings. I'm still of the opinion that it's seated with the head speed as when the tail rotor comes into play it robs the main rotor unless the governor is activated. I can't see any reason why the real heli shouldn't do exactly what the simulator does, unless of course outside forces such as wind speed/direction and gusting come into play. If all's set-up properly it shouldn't need any compensation if all remains equal with the wind.

At the moment, I don't really need to do anything to keep the heli stable, just lift off and it does the rest without stick input once it gets to the set position over the take-off point, only very minor nudges, which you can see in the video. I've done them like that to demonstrate the small movements it needs and probably doesn't even need such twitches to come back.

I've got a piece of video somewhere with the phenomenon showing but it was before using your throttle hold suggestion for start-up. I'll be sticking with that from now on as there is no logic to doing it any other way with an electric motor.

I'd rather tape some more next time out with the latest set-up than dig out the old video.

 

[Smoggie]

Phil,

The tail does 'rob' some power from the main rotor but the effect is relatively minor and wouldn't explain the heli drifting sideways. What does explain sideways drift is that when you add 'rudder' it increases or decreases the pitch of the tail and so increases or decreases the sideways 'push' from the tail rotor. This not only turns the heli (the desired effect) but pushes the heli sideways too (non-desired effect). Piro compensation helps with this (or makes it worse if it's set the wrong way) but it's not perfect so you still need to be prepared to manually compensate with cyclic. Simulators may not accurately model this effect, I'm not sure.

With the old Spirit firmware you had to manually set the piro-comp direction but the new version does it automatically, so this shouldn't be an issue.

One thing that does screw up the piro stability is if you don't have the swash properly levelled, but knowing how thorough you are I don't suppose that's the problem. Some FBL controlrs (e.g. Vbar) have a 'trim flight' option that makes fine adjustments automatically that help with this but the Spirit doesn't have that option that I'm aware of, possibly it does it in the background all by itself?

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Steve, I'll have a look into the settings of both the simulator and the Spirit Pro to see what's going on. Unfortunately, (for me and my hobby) we're having a big get-together with my wife's cousins and she's busy doing preparations for tomorrow's big event, so maybe it would be a good tactical move to wait until after she puts her feet up for the evening today

 

[Heliman450]

Hi all, I'm still doing my background work on this and checked out the Spirit manual to look for guidance on what the causes might be for the failure to perform the pirouettes. I've found some stuff that I can investigate without a test flight as the rain's still too bad to fly yet. Monday's out of the question unless things look better in the afternoon. Why I hear you ask? Monday's a holiday here and as such comes under our club's rules and regulations as a Sunday, so no morning time flying

In the meantime, I intend to remove the back from my Jeti and adjust the sticks to be heli-friendly ready for a crack at Tony's challenge. Yes, I know it's too late but never mind it's all part of the fun of the Forum

Bye for now, keep viewing!

 

[D.O.G.]

Hi all, I'm still doing my background work on this and checked out the Spirit manual to look for guidance on what the causes might be for the failure to perform the pirouettes. I've found some stuff that I can investigate without a test flight as the rain's still too bad to fly yet. Monday's out of the question unless things look better in the afternoon. Why I hear you ask? Monday's a holiday here and as such comes under our club's rules and regulations as a Sunday, so no morning time flying

In the meantime, I intend to remove the back from my Jeti and adjust the sticks to be heli-friendly ready for a crack at Tony's challenge. Yes, I know it's too late but never mind it's all part of the fun of the Forum

Bye for now, keep viewing!

Yulp! Tony's challenge is all in good fun and also good learning experience, I think . I didn't realize how hard hovering in one place for a period of time really was til I gave it a try . I hope you get your situation figured out so we can see your video. Good luck and have fun Heliman450!

 

[Heliman450]

Hi D.O.G., just finished backing off the ratchet on my collective stick so that it's silky smooth now.

Next job is fire up the Spirit Pro and start tweaking a few things. I'll make some screen shots for my records and to share if there's interest in them here.

 

[D.O.G.]

Hi D.O.G., just finished backing off the ratchet on my collective stick so that it's silky smooth now.

Next job is fire up the Spirit Pro and start tweaking a few things. I'll make some screen shots for my records and to share if there's interest in them here.

I'm doing some tweaking my self on the 450. I'm putting new servos on the X3. the servo that was on the X3, I just finished installing them in the 450. I had the chance to get her in the air to get the tail gyro adjusted. I think this is the steadiest I've seen the 450 been in alone time. No wind helps also.

 

[Heliman450]

Hi all! So I managed to get round to the challenge. Not my best ever take-off and landing but no crash is good! Here's the link to the latest video.

Tony's Challenge

 

[Heliman450]

Hi all, I managed to get to the field Saturday morning and record some practise after the grass was harvested. However, the weather broke after half a battery's worth of flight time and I had to make a run for it

I changed my 520 mm blades for the new 550 mm blades and managed a full 11 mins practise this morning. It was amazing how much more stable it was, no bobbing at all . The video's not that great as the sky was very overcast, but I'll publish it if there's any interest.

Steve, I checked the dimensions carefully as you suggested before the attempt and there is a minimum of 2 cm clearance to the tail rotor at its closest point. If there's any chance of collision between them, I'll have much more to worry about so thanks for the offer of the tail conversion but looks like I'll be fine.

 

[trainrider06]

the weather everywhere seems to be an issue! don't know whats going on....my flights have been minimal!