Tail boom slippage???

[Sgt_BF_Gunner]

Fire up my Titan 50 for the first time today... Having issues with the GY611. When bringing engine up to speed I got the dreaded tail spin. Reverse the gyro, more tail spin.

As I am in the grass and the spin starts once the RPM's are up there before take off, the tail rotor drags in the grass. Each time I had a violent spin and it dug into the grass, the boom would loosen up and then you could hear the tail belt slapping inside. Tighten up the boom and it would loosen at the next strike with the grass.

Ended up busting a tail blade and a chunk went into the main rotor and put a gash in the wood blade.

I thought I had the gyro all set up. Now I'm confused... I couldn't get it in the air in standard mode to hover and set the tail trim... then set the heading hold.

I tried normal and reverse on the gyro, still tail problems.

Anyway, I guess I have a while to work it out while I order new blades.

Just weird that the boom seems to slide into the frame and lossen the tail belt when met with grass resistence. Is there anything I should do to give the boom more grip in the frame (I realize I should not be tail-dragging in the grass).

Thanks,
Gary

[capebob]

You didn't mention checking if the tail rotor servo was operating in the correct direction without gyro input. The tail rotor servo should pull on the linkage with a right tail rotor stick input. Also, the tail rotor turns counterclockwise when viewed from the right side of the helicopter. Once the tail rotor is turning in the correct direction and the servo is operating so as to pull on the linkage with right tail rotor stick input you can then check for the proper gyro setting. Boot your gyro in heading hold then rotate the helicopter to simulate a left pirouette. The servo should pull on the linkage.

Bob

[Sgt_BF_Gunner]

Thanks Bob. I'll have to recheck all that. I followed some's setup videos and set the tail up per their video (already did on one other heli). Thought all was good. Turns out my tail servo still needed to be reversed (stick left, nose left).

Tail rotor is running counter clockwise. Left stick gives left nose, right stick right nose. Just weird, after switching between normal and reverse on the gyro, I figured one of them would hold.

My T-Rex runs nicely with it's GY401. GY611's a different animal? Many more settings.

Thanks again,
Gary

[Lzfalcon]

Sgt_BF_Gunner,
This is an area that had always been clear as mud for me. Until I read somewhere an easy way to setup the tail. It is simple from this point of view and you do not need to start your heli, only power up the servos. Stand behind the helicopter, put your tail blades in the vertical position. Look at the leading edge of the blade. when you give a rudder command to the right on your radio the leading edge moves in the opposite direction (left). The second part is without the radio. With the radio on, once again stand behind the heli with the leading edge of the blades facing you, move the helicopter side to side holding onto the tail fin or whatever. as you do this the leading edge will always move towards you. It's like the eyes in a picture. :glasses2: Hope this helps. I have used this method and it always works.
Good luck

[Sgt_BF_Gunner]

Thanks Lzfalcon, I will give it a try.

I was looking at the tail again and noticed that the 2 nuts for each of the bases of the blade holders were on the outside. This was wrong... I switched them to the other linkage which flips each blade 180 degrees... I would think that reversing the servo would have taken care of this oversite however.

With the nut side out, each blade moves in the oposite direction. I guess that's why my left/right rudder was wrong when the tail slider showed that I had set it up right.

I must have messed it up when I threw in the SS spindle.

I will go through the checking process again while I wait to receive my new tail blades.

Thanks,
Gary

[BarracudaHockey]

http://www.raptortechnique.com has all the pictures and information you need to correctly setup your raptors tail.

Reversing the gyro doesnt reverse the tail function, just which way it compensates for a given motion.

[Rickenbacker]

Yeah, this confused me as well in the beginning. Reversing the servo from your TX reverses the way your stick input affects it, reversing the gyro reverses the way it compensates. Took me a while to realize that these are two completetly different things.