Stompy
Senior Heliman
Location: Northfield, MN - USA
| jamies towing (but mostly everyone else reading)-
I'm a n00b, so don't take this as expert opinion. My heli started the same as yours. I'd push the throttle up, and the tail would not start spinning before the mains. Also, (and therefore) if I picked it up (before the mains started spinning), the tail wouldn't spin up to compensate for the nose turning to the left, either. So just like you, after watching those vids I started to really get concerned about whether my heli was working correctly or not.
Don't worry about it. It might just mean that you need to keep adjusting the Proportional Mix and Gyro Gain pots, but you'll only know that for sure once you start trying to scoot it, and see if the tail is drifting on you or not.
Now that I have my pots and trim adjusted correctly (I think)  , the tail does in fact start spinning before the mains, but that's just the way mine is, and yours might be different. More importantly, it doesn't drift (much) in a hover. Don't forget to bring your throttle trim up to the midpoint before you power up, too, and then make certain you trim it all the way back down if you crash, and when you're done flying. And yes, set it to midpoint EVERY time. Sorry Remyrw, not to argue with you, but I believe your heli should behave the same way every time you fly it. That way, your thumbs learn to fly the heli so that you don't have to think about it any more. It becomes second nature. You don't think drift down-push up, you just see drift down and your thumbs automatically move the tiny bit required to correct. But if you spend half your time with the throttle trimmed down and the other half with it trimmed up, then you're never getting the same response from the heli at a given throttle position. See what I'm saying?
Don't get into the same spiral of doubt that got me. Trust that your heli really does want to fly. It's just up to you to make it fly better. Think about it this way...what makes it fly? Just those two blades up top spinning around at high speed. That's it. Everything else just makes it look like you know what you're doing. It wouldn't be any fun if it just went up in the air, spun around a lot, and then came back down. That's what the rest of the stuff does. If your tail doesn't start spinning until you're 6 feet up (yes, I'm kidding), it doesn't matter, as long as the tail stays put. Don't concern yourself with what it does, just worry about how it flies.
But basically, those two blades spin around, and the thing goes up. So if your blades spin, then it WILL fly. But here's the catch...you absolutely MUST spend the time adjusting it properly, or you'll have nothing but heartache.
It took me a good week of constant adjusting and test flying just to get the pots adjusted correctly. One day the tail was drifting right, the next it was drifting left, then the tail was wagging (the dog)...just back and forth, back and forth. I couldn't even follow Radd's method at first because it was drifting so much. I only very recently started flying with the canopy back on, because any time I looked at the thing funny I had to go adjust the darn pots again. Even after two less-than-gentle-but-not-rough landings. I'll never understand that. But it's worth it. Here's another catch...once you get the pots adjusted so that the tail is mostly staying put, go adjust the trims on your radio.
I've finally learned now that the more out of trim your heli is, the less flyable it is. It's not a matter of whether you're a good enough pilot to compensate for a heli that likes to turn to the left and drift forward and to the right...it actually makes the thing really difficult to control, especially for a beginner. These Blades can be twitchy enough as it is, so there's no reason to be constantly fighting the controls. I let my nitro-flying-buddy fly the Pro model in the PRE-Flight sim, and he could barely control it at all until he got it trimmed out. Honestly, he looked like me in my first few flights...just all over the place. Once it was trimmed, he (and I) really could go hands-off for several seconds. And you NEED that stability.
I know trimming isn't flying, but trying to control an untrimmed heli isn't flying either. You spend all your time trying to make it stop going where it wants, and none of your time making it do what YOU want. Plus, especially when you're just trying to hover, you need to be able to take a little break. I know I'm super huge with giant muscles and all, but even my thumbs get tired from holding them in just the right position with just the right amount of pressure for too long while I'm trying to hover. Honestly? It should be hovering itself. Spending the time to trim it properly will really pay off in the long run. And no, don't try to do it while it's actually in the air. Think of it as good landing (and takeoff!) practice. And CHECK your trims before you fly, too. The crash that cost me a pair of blades and a bent shaft was due to the fact that A) My heli wasn't trimmed properly in the first place and drifted right and B) I didn't pre-flight my trims and therefore didn't notice that my aileron trim had been bumped even further to the right. I powered up, and it prompt dumped to the right. I learned A LOT from that 30 second period of time.
I'm not saying all this to make myself look like I know what I'm doing, because I really don't. But I'm starting to get a good idea of what NOT to do. I'm saying it because we all make mistakes, but the biggest mistake is not learning from the ones other guys (or we ourselves) make. We all crash. Some of us make a habit of it.  Don't worry about crashing. It's going to happen sooner or later, and it might not even be your fault. But you know what? It's not the end of the world. Anything can be fixed. So don't fear crashing. Fear flying the heli into your own face, but don't be scared of crashing. It's no big deal. Put it out of your head and just concentrate on flying. It's easier than you think, you just have to believe in yourself. Really.
Sorry, did I get carried away again? What was the question?  |
