What should a swift weight? & best way to pratice Autos

[frankos72]

Well? I'm gonna weight mine when it's ready to fly tomorrow or the next day. I ask cause I was praticing autos and it seems like no matter what I do, I can't get a real good soft landing like I do in the simulator all the time. Infact I've broken my LG twice now trying. (Sure am glad I'm using emoli's)

Anyway, I've upgraded from 530 blades to 550s cause I understand that could help with the autos but I'm wondering if my heli is just too heavy?

Oh also, I've checked my pitch again today and in throttle hold I'm getting +11-10. I've thought about using Idle Up 3 (I have Futaba9c) to pratice autos but with some motor power running?

So, what should a swift on 7s emoli weight? SHould I be able to smooth auto with that battery? And, what is the best way to pratice autos on this heli.

Thanks!

[NTM]

What's your headspeed ?

7s emoli swift is going to fly best on 515mm blades.

Your swift will be a bit heavier than other helis in that blade class, but you should still be able to shoot autos easily with it.
I had mine on 9 emoli cells and 530s and it would still auto well.

The way to cheat on your autos with an undriven tail heli is to do as you said, use idle 3 and leave a bit of power on to give you tail control when you need it.
The century videos of the pushover autos and what-not with the swift seem to have been done this way.

It won't auto like a .90, but it shouldn't fall out of the sky either.
I suspect your head speed is too low to begin with and you're not starting high enough to store much energy in the blades/head.
Could be the blades too I suppose, decent blades help retain energy and reduce drag :dontknow

[Jafa]

Longer blades will reduce your "wing loading"
but it's harder for the battery/engine to drive them

Blades with a C/G further out from the root aid auto's (and slow the cyclics)
The Zigsaw blades have an outer C/G and still fly pretty good
They are great for autos

I would suspect your technique also
-how much negative do you use on the way down
-how much + collective do you use to arrest the heli on approach to landing
-How much do you lean the heli back to arrest the forward flight at the end

You have to tune into the way your heli flies
in the same way you have tuned into the simular
It's just experience

Get a more experienced pilot to auto your heli and get his comments

[frankos72]

I think it could very well be headspeed. I've never measured it and so I've never maximized it since I'm on woodies. I've got my new optical tach and I'm going to fly now. We'll see what I get and I'll move it up to around 1750 and see where things go from there.

Thanks!

[frankos72]

My swift weights 6.83lbs ready to fly.

I flew it just now and my HS was about 1500-1550 the way I've been flying it. I reduced the pitch and increased the throttle and got it to 1650-1700 around hover. Now the happy space (on the throttle stick) where I'm in a hover with steady altitude is really small. How do I increase it and keep my HS?

I didn't try autoing as I just want to get the HS right 1st.

I'm glitching now too but that's the topic of another thread.http://www.helifreak.com/viewtopic.php?p=305575#305575

[NTM]

My swift weights 6.83lbs ready to fly.

I flew it just now and my HS was about 1500-1550 the way I've been flying it. I reduced the pitch and increased the throttle and got it to 1650-1700 around hover. Now the happy space (on the throttle stick) where I'm in a hover with steady altitude is really small. How do I increase it and keep my HS?



Wow, even your new head speed is really slow, I'd go to 1900rpm at least.
The heli will pick up stability as you increase the headspeed.

To keep a large "happy space" ( :mrgreen: ) you can make a step in your pitch curve so that it is flatter around the stick position where you hover.
You're probably just not used to the heli actually responding to collective though, 1500 rpm on the head would be very sluggish indeed with that much weight on 550s.

Good luck :thumbup: