Someone help me understand a few things please

[mrbassman]

I hear people mention that you should hover at mid-stick...but at what altitude ? I can hover at mid-stick at 6 inches off the ground or 10 feet. What should the copter be set up for ? (Trex 450 HDE). Also, I'm currently running a 15 tooth pinion, for someone just finally being able to hover through a full battery charge, is that ok or not ? I'm running a 430L 3550kv motor with 325 wood blades, and use a 2100mah 11.1 battery. A high headspeed will make the controls very sensitive, but I guess I can set the dual-rates to tone them down. Blade balance and copter balance are fine, everthing is ok there, no vibrations, tracking is perfect after much hair-pulling. Any help would be grateful. Thanks everyone.

[Hotwings]

It seems to me that the 13 tooth pinion would give you plenty of headspeed and not work the heli so hard, and i don't think wood blades will stand 3000+ headspeed.

hovering at mid-stick at an altitude that works for you is ok. when you start to explore flips, rolls, etc you will need to hover at 3/4 stick. inverted hover will then be at 1/4 stick. This gives you the same pitch above and below center stick, i'm sure some others will explain this better, c-ya Ron

[mrbassman]

So which would give a higher headspeed, a 13 or 15 tooth pinion ? I don't want to work the heli too hard, I certainly want to increase flight time from a pack as much as possible, but for my abilities right now I want to keep the heli tame. What would increase flight time, high headspeed with little load, or low headspeed with the pitch proportional to hovering ?

[Hotwings]

for the best flight time use the 11th pinion.

[J4FF]

i hear its 3/4 stick.
I have the same problem of hovering at 1/2 stick,but i think ive rooted the problem which was during set up the servos werent set at 90* with both sticks centred(throtle was down).i wasnt getting the correct pitch levels which made the tx pitch curve settings useless thus causing too much positive pitch at low head speed and therefore hovering at 1/2stick.Ive had a reset and started again and now im getting full movement on the shaft.waiting on a new belt to give it a try.

As for different heights at hover if your 1/2 stick at 6 inch give throttle till your at 10ft the return to 1/2 stick it will still hover the same

[Bryan]

The smaller the pinon #, the slower the head speed.
A lower head speed will tame down the way the heli reacts to stick input.

If you don't already have a pinon set, you can get one of these (http://www.helidirect.com/product_info.php?cPath=78&products_id=378) and try different ones.

I think the 15 is too fast for woodies. 11 should still provide adequate head speed.

As to the stick position, ta hell with it. If you have equal blade pitch at full stick travel, in both positive and negative, then the head speed and weight of the heli will dictate where the stick will be.

As to the altitude, I find that I have to be about 3 feet off the deck if there is a breeze, and about 4 feet in still air (indoors) to get out of the rotor wash.

Just my $0.02 :wink:

[mrbassman]

Thanks everyone for the advice....my radio is being repaired right now, I had the "Optic 6 Glitch" Soon as I get the radio back I'll try these suggestions