Autos

[aramsdell]

I'm in ! Sat. I finally risked it and took her all the way down with 5% on hold just in case for tail. First one settled a little hard but I did 6 for 6 with only a bent Deans Whip antenna. Auto 5 and 6 were 0 % throttle, all traveling right to left into a 5 mph wind as I've learned from all the helpful people who gone there before I ended up with about 90 deg right rotation just at touchdown. I'm in! Now if I could hover inverted at 5 feet.....

[zozie]

Good for you :glasses2:
I did my first auto with the swift when my electron esc caught fire. :lol:
Enjoy it.

[aramsdell]

Zozie, That sounded bitter. What size Electron did you flame. The ESC in my pic is a 55/70. This barely gets warm as I have it mounted. The motor fan blows on it and the cooling air hole in the windshield also blows on it in flight. The mount is a thin piece of aluminum angle from some piece of electrical equip . It acts as a continuation of the ESC's heatsink.

I've done a cople of mods to the Swift and am in the process of working up a driven tail. Parts in the mail. Does yours have that annoying sag when sitting on the bench too long? I have a cure that also helps reduce shakes.

[zozie]

It was a 55. It wasn't getting warm at all. I was flying it with 4s packs back then. worked fine for a month and then suddenly. Black smoke :badair:
I autod it but it was still smoking and I thought it was my lipo so I saw it blow up in my mind but it didn't. Glas I was using a separate rx battery tho :glasses2:

[RAV50]

Zozie,

What were the "throttle curve" numbers in your TX with the Electron 55?

[zozie]

I don't really remember anymore but I think I was running 95% flat in idle up and as I said, it was fine for a month I must have flown it about a 100 times and no issues at all and it was cold, then it suddenly got deep dried. I sent it in for warranty and still haven't got it back. Way to go Century :arggg: . I sent it in in July :dontknow

[aramsdell]

I bet you can still smell the majic smoke!

[Chris DeSain]

I know you are hot on making the constant tail drive conversion. Just remember the tail drive sucks a great deal away from the reserve on such a light machine.
I can feel it in the 550 for sure ! I am also running a bigger battery but the difference in auto hang is considerable !

[zozie]

I got a guy at our field doing inverted autos with a hawk sport converted to pro less the driven tail......
I'm ok with inverted autos with my raptor but I didn't dare to try yet with the swift. Plus I'm worried about putting full juive back on once the motor is almost stopped as it may take too long to spool back up or it may chew the gear :roll:
Did that one too :oops:

[Chris DeSain]

Yea the torq tube drive on the hawk pro is really really smooth. It has very little drag at all. I even have the constant and the drag from the tail is minimal.

The belt is far more parasitic on power with the driven tail

[aramsdell]

Chris , Doing the driven tail just because. See link for another just because. !!!




http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/44736f62b03726e8ac84f2b481d67482.jpg
Looks better with a canopy !

That's early Ty-wrap-tor. Fun little rig for the yard ! very quiet. A real mongrel. BCP tower/servos, my stacked frames, pulley from Stock Drive Prod., Night Ranger Brushless/esc, TREX tail.
I had Fun.

[Chris DeSain]

Oh yea nothing more fun than kit bashing ! Making a better mouse trap ! I have somthing or other on most all my helis I have done a one up on the Mfg. Building and experimenting can be more fun than just flying :lol:
Keep up the good work !

[aramsdell]

Chris, that's me to a T.
Starting to layout on paper template new add-on CF plates to lower Trans. case about 7/16" or so. You'll all stay posted. You have the Carbon 550 or 620? How's that in an auto ? My tail is running really smooth right now so it may not rob nearly as much power as a new belt.

[Chris DeSain]

Yea I have the 550 and my plastic belt is way smoother and part for part they are identical so it may need just more runs to loosen up a bit. I am only about 10 flights deep on the 550 due to this nasty weather...

[aramsdell]

3 more autos today. 2 were good......Had to put on new L.gear and gotta balance some new $15.00 blades. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[aramsdell]

About 20 more autos today. Pretty good breeze. Last try cost me more landing gear/boom and blades again but ... hey I'm learning. I had too much forward speed/and rate of decent so my initial flare was probably 2' below ground level. oops. I just read the post on autos in the main section. I need to slow up my forward speed a bit and maybe use even less neg pitch. Those autos that have come down nice and lazy were nearer center stick it would seem. I'll be out again tomorrow !
Practice , practice, practice.... and keep plenty of spare parts.

[aramsdell]

8 more autos on the Swift today. 1st one nice soft touchdown but the craqppy Century L.gear struts broke. Electrical tape to the rescue for the next 7. I got the nads up and managed to do the seemingly impossible. I auto'd the TREX 450 once. Not pretty but no damage. final flare ended at 4 feet. but the field is grass and wet so all is still well with the trex. I won't be doing a lot of them with the rex.

[copterdoctor]

to me two things about flying rc helis that are probably the most important and if thats all you ever learn, you are still waay ahead. nose in hover, and autorotations. one gives you the confidence to fly around and pretty much keep control no matter where its pointed (right side up that is) the other reduces or eliminates your chance of damage if you lose an engine, tail control or anything else an auto can remedy.
i learned autos by cheating. i had the hold position set a bit high so i can get a little help from the engine while i learn flipping the switch and bailing out, correcting bad angles of descent, stretchingand shortening glides, deceleration, leveling and cusionings. once i got the hang of how all that should look and feel, i slowly reduced the hold position of the throttle til i could do one without any help from the engine at all. soon i was killing the engine and doing it with no engine at all. that is the thing that tells you for sure you are there. the 180 autos were learned the same way and dont forget to practice autos from both sides of you so you dont develop a handicap. if yo learn on a 30 like i did, the 50 and 60 size machines will compliment your skills learned. :wink: