decending from atlitude

[efly726]

Hello all:

I've been flying RC fixed wings for years. Recently started with Trex SE and having a great time learning and resisting bad (plane) habits. My question is how do you descend a helicopter from altitude? I learned this AM that it's not about reducing collective. Luckily, my simulator learning kicked in and I saved my self from a very hard landing, OK crash! Of course it looked good and certainly impressed the kids but I don't want to do that again. The scare was the Trex caveatted all over the sky - left, right, tail down, tail down, did I say tail down. I'm sure dumb thumbs and over control was the problem but I'd want to be sure there's not a better way than simply cutting back on collective. Anyway, any tip would be appreciated. Tks in advance.

[WayneBrown]

get a little momentum going, push the nose over a little and fly it down working collective at the same time. Flare and land. Does not have to be FAST, about walking speed will make it feel a lot easier.

[Rcer22]

My question is how do you descend a helicopter from altitude? I learned this AM that it's not about reducing collective

It really is about reducing the collective. In your case ( new flyer) You need about 3 to 4 degrees negative pitch to get the heli to fall from altitude.
Otherwise it will stay in the sky until the head speed falls. Then it really falls and you don't want that. :fly

[Rick Rotorhead]

Don't forget guys, efly726 is learning and is therefore probably in 'Normal' PT setting not Idle up (Are you?) so 3-4 deg -ve pitch means no power and rapidly decaying head speed with therefore slow cyclic response! I'm learning myself and I know its hard trying to keep a level heli when plummeting straight down through your own downwash with a slow rotor. Its not the same as a controlled Auto (my little bird can't auto). Like Wayne says, keep it moving forward if you can, that way you get several advantages for a safe descent: 1) it won't be descending into its own rotorwash, which will be trailing behind the heli 2) you won't have to worry so much about keeping the heli level in fore/aft pitch sense cos its travelling 3) Your brain can much better estimate angle and rate of descent for a forward moving model. 4)cyclic response should be better..... Think of it like this, how would you rather your fixed wing model descended - a 50 foot vertical tail slide or a low power circling glide? When you get good enough by all means have fun deliberatley taking the challenge of vertical -ve collective 'flight', but its better and safer in Idle-up so you can instantly switch that up thrust back on :lol:

[Rickenbacker]

This is why it's a good idea to learn to fly in Idle Up early on. You have the full pitch range, and the headspeed never goes down (until you land and switch to Normal for the spool down).