Flyingeye
Senior Heliman
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
| I have used the Co-Pilot quite extensively. In my experience, it worked amazingly well 99+ % of the time. I did experience some rare intermittent behavior that spooked me (and it went away when I removed the Co-pilot) so I'm back to the mindset of "simple is better" at least for me. Yes, I was using a Futaba PCM Rx and yes I was using a buffer on one of the inputs.
I've tried the Futaba PA-2 and it works kind of OK but is very sensitive to the angle of the sun (and the Co-Pilot is NOT). Basically when you turn it on (with the aux channel) it causes the helicopter to "chase the sun" regardless of which direction the nose is pointed. You can trim it out but it's only good for one heading. It is also very sensitive to the light striking the sensor directly. If, for example you are hovering and have it all trimmed out and do a slow piroette, there is a big jump in the servos as the shadows from any of the heli hardware (like the tailboom) mover over the sensor. I only found rare situations where it worked comfortably and wasn't willing to risk the added complexity for the few times I used it.
I'm not criticizing either of these devices, just recounting my personal experience. |
