totally newbie: How to correct drift

[miminem]

Either on simulator (FMS) or with my walkera 22, when the heli starts to go right, I compensate with aileron to go left. Then I cannot easilystabilise it and it drifts to the left until I compensate to the right, ten to the left etc, etc.
I suppose it is normal but my problem is that the movement left-right-left-right grows bigger each time and it looks like the heli is on a swing and gets faster every time ( until crash on simulator or for real).
What should I do to stop that or at least reduce the amplitude left ride.

thank you for any advise.

[Jafa]

You initially input left aileron,
when the drift to the right stops you have to take the left angle out
by applying right aileron to get the rotor level again

Use small inputs - don't over correct

It takes practice

[j bomb]

It gets better w/ practice, you just have to keep working at it. If your sim allows it, you could add some exponential to your cyclics so that they're less sensitive around center. Unfortunately, I don't think that your Walkera will allow you to do this unless you're using an aftermarket radio.

[TheBum]

You may have to apply some trim if you find center stick doesn't completely eliminate cyclic. I found on my sim that doing so really helps. It will still be a constant battle to keep it steady, though. That's just the nature of the beast.

[miminem]

Thank you,
I guess I have to practice (and crash probably) again and again.

[Bayou Talker]

Thank you,
I guess I have to practice (and crash probably) again and again.

That is the beauty of the sim.....Lots of crashes and no cost and repair time. LOL

Do yourself a favor and don't try to fly your heli until you can at least reasonably hover for a full flight on the sim. It will save you a lot of grief and money. Don't worry, all of a sudden it will "click" and become second nature. The key is very several small corrections are better than 1 large one.

Good luck

[JasonJ]

I affectionately refer to it as "The Pendulum Of Death". You just have to change your way of thinking about it. If it looks like it will drift one way, you give a small input in the other direction. Small inputs are key. Those 22E's are very reactive, it's easy for it to get away from you. I found it extremely difficult to make progress with mine due to the twitchiness and the tail motors burning out so I ended up getting a bigger helicopter that proved to be much more stable.

You also should use a sim if your computer is up to the task. My computer is ancient so I use a small coax helicopter for my orientation training.

[Espeefan]

For sure. Make sure your computer is capable of running the flight sim you are using. There are times when my computer bogs down running Real Flight G3, and that is with all the features turned off. The frame rate can be really slow which means it's impossible to correct because of the double lag time. Once with the natural lag of the heli, and twice with the lag of the computer, computing.

Other then that, yes, just practice. When I first started hovering on Real Flight G3, I was over correcting as well. It'll come to pass.

[dmulligan]

I affectionately refer to it as "The Pendulum Of Death". You just have to change your way of thinking about it. If it looks like it will drift one way, you give a small input in the other direction. Small inputs are key. Those 22E's are very reactive, it's easy for it to get away from you. I found it extremely difficult to make progress with mine due to the twitchiness and the tail motors burning out so I ended up getting a bigger helicopter that proved to be much more stable.

You also should use a sim if your computer is up to the task. My computer is ancient so I use a small coax helicopter for my orientation training.

This is a lot of what I was going to say too. I also wanted to add that with smaller birds on a simulator I was getting the pendulum effect too. What I found I was doing was holding the stick for way too long in the direction I was trying to correct to. Now I move the stick in small quick jabs.

[miminem]

I understand, small,short corrections instead of a single big one.
for the simulator, I turned down already all the nice textures for the landscape in order to keep as realistic as possible and the heli looks very responsive so makes things more real.
And as for walkera,I noted already that its light weight and tail makes it difficult to control so I bought already a Trex450S, under construction.
The usual problems with a hobby, shopping card is never empty

[JasonJ]

You will notice a dramatic difference in stability, not to mention overall quality and reliability. I am currently torn between a Trex and a Mini Titan. Decisions, decisions....

[cbdane]

...when the heli starts to go right, I compensate with aileron to go left. Then I cannot easilystabilise it and it drifts to the left until I compensate to the right, ten to the left etc, etc.
I suppose it is normal but my problem is that the movement left-right-left-right grows bigger each time and it looks like the heli is on a swing and gets faster every time ( until crash on simulator or for real).
What should I do to stop that or at least reduce the amplitude left ride.

Try this. Instead of trying to control the heli for position, concentrate on keeping the rotor disk level. When you first move the stick, you change the horizontal orientation of the disk. If you introduce a small tilt, the heli will start to move in that direction, but not immediately. There is a reaction delay. I think that you are holding in left or right stick until the heli reaches where you want it to be. By that point, the heli is sliding much too fast and overshoots the mark. Instead, use just enough aileron to tilt the disk and start a motion (a short blip) and then let the stick return to center. When the heli is back to the location you want, introduce a small blip of opposite aileron to return the disk to level.

[rdlohr]

Yep, its like these guys are saying. You are just over correcting. Stick time on the sim will cure it.

Good luck!
Rick

[TheBum]

Try this. Instead of trying to control the heli for position, concentrate on keeping the rotor disk level. When you first move the stick, you change the horizontal orientation of the disk. If you introduce a small tilt, the heli will start to move in that direction, but not immediately. There is a reaction delay. I think that you are holding in left or right stick until the heli reaches where you want it to be. By that point, the heli is sliding much too fast and overshoots the mark. Instead, use just enough aileron to tilt the disk and start a motion (a short blip) and then let the stick return to center. When the heli is back to the location you want, introduce a small blip of opposite aileron to return the disk to level.

I find it ironic that you suggested this because I wasn't able to hold the heli in a hover in the sim until I quit watching whether the rotors were level and started watching its position. As I understand it, the heli will have a tendency to move left, which I presume is due to the tail rotor thrust that counteracts the main rotor torque. This means that the heli actually needs to lean a tiny bit to the right to hover. The Phoenix sim models this really well. When I was concentrating on keeping the heli level, it continually drifted to the left. Of course, these observations were only in a simulator and I don't have any real stick time yet to prove or disprove it; I hope to get my first stick time this coming weekend when I should have my Diablo setup finished.

[rdlohr]

I think you took him a bit too literally. Watch the disk and keep it fairly level, but also tip it slightly the direction you want to go. Tip it, but then go back to level. You will constantly be forcing it back to center, it won't stay there on its own. Its like being on ice, once you start moving it will continue to move till commanded the opposite direction. Do small corrections but make them smooth not jabby.

Rick

[rdlohr]

If you fly your just built machine prior to learning to hover on the sim, you will surely be starting your first rebuild soon. It's not worth it, a brandy new heli should stay that way for a while.

Rick

[joehelicopter]

I don't watch the rotor blades unless I am correcting tracking probs.
I don't watch the tail..
I look at the intersection of the main shaft and the Canopy and watch the direction of the NOSE--of the aircraft-just like flying a plank or driving an RC car-and with small Helis you can expect them to slide around in ground effect so it's best to hover at about eye level or above.:thumbup:

[TheBum]

I think learning orientation is the biggest obstacle to overcome and why I would recommend that a newbie start out with a coaxial heli. They're much more forgiving of mistakes than traditional single main rotor helis. That's what I did and I found that I picked up hovering a traditional heli in the sim pretty quickly. Hopefully, I'll get to try my hand at the real thing this weekend.:YeaBaby:

[miminem]

practicing and getting little bitter.
I start to hover on the sim with the heli on its side.