inverting my raptor 30?

[EatMorePizza]

I want to start learning inverted hover, and my question is for the first atempt how do I know how the heli would respond? Basiclly what I mean is would my heli be able to do it? My setup is stock motor soon to be converted to OS 37, 550 carbon blades, JR770/8900 Gyro,Dx7 and stock paddles. Im not looking to go 3d crazy but I really want to attempt inverted. I have a sim which I feel really confident inexecuting inverted flight.

[vandelescrow]

I have not gone inverted yet except on the sim (too chicken), but I have been reading up on it for when I get the courage, so; as long as you have enough negative pitch (I have a Raptor 50 with plus minus 12 degrees) and you dont have alot of slop in your head where the blades will flex down enough to cut your tail off, then you will be fine.

What I've been reading as the easiest way to progress into it is to do a loop, at the top of the loop stop the heli (you will be inverted at this point) wait there for a second and then continue on with the rest of the loop. Keep doing this and keep increaseing the pause at the top of the loop.

[Makoman]

Just make sure you are at a high altitude, gives you enough time if you come unstuck...

[Laurens]

I'd advice -9 on a 30 max, because they're easy to bog. Slop will never cause a boomstrike if your just hovering inverted.Too loose blades can though.

[EatMorePizza]

I'd advice -9 on a 30 max, because they're easy to bog. Slop will never cause a boomstrike if your just hovering inverted.Too loose blades can though.


Youthink I can go inverted without performing a loop?

[Laurens]

A flip will do too. Just do it like you practiced on the sim, thats the safest.

[BarracudaHockey]

The best way I've found to teach people to do it is to do a loop and hold it at the top for a moment then complete the loop. Hold it progressively longer till you are comfortable.

[EatMorePizza]

-9 and 9 should be cool.
btw what should my curves be? I set them but im not sure.

[comeflywithme]

I'd use a linear pitch curve as a starting point i.e. -9, -4.5, 0, 4.5, 9 and go from there. You'll probably find that this will actually work quite well without any further adjustments. You might be able to push it to +/-10deg (which is what I used to use on a Raptor 30 with an OS37) but as people rightly pointed out you might risk getting some more bogging.

I learned inverted hover with a Raptor 30 on similar setup to yours and it should work very nicely - infact I found it to be virtually as stable inverted as in normal hover. If you are competent at it on the sim, the main challenge in doing it for real will be keeping your nerves together - thats the only real difference.

[drmrjon]

Your 30 will go inverted no problem. Loop it, or back flip it, whatever you are used to. I back flip myself. I will tell you to try not to slam your - collective when inverted that caused lots of head bog. You can see some mild stuff with my 30 on you-tube, type in " raptor 30 flying in blythe". I'm running +10 and -10 on mine and the video was made after about 6 months of getting started.
Good luck.

[EatMorePizza]

Thanks guys your motivating me. Its true on the sim a slap any heli around, but as soon it becomes real my nerves activate.

[Ah Clem]

It should go inverted just fine. I was running mine at +/-10 degrees of pitch. With the Thunder Tiger .39, it did not have a lot of guts, but it would do inverted easily.

By the way, other than the control reversals (i.e. down is up on collective, rudder feels backwards,etc.) it is completely stable upside down and handles about like it does upright.

[EatMorePizza]

It should go inverted just fine. I was running mine at +/-10 degrees of pitch. With the Thunder Tiger .39, it did not have a lot of guts, but it would do inverted easily.

By the way, other than the control reversals (i.e. down is up on collective, rudder feels backwards,etc.) it is completely stable upside down and handles about like it does upright.

I take it that your using the second hole for the linkage on the pitch.
I just re-did my pitch and I used the right hole for the link ball and now I recieve full up and down movement. Now correct me if im wrong, I use the pitch curves to limit the deg +/- of pitch of each mode once I see that Im getting full range of pitch from the servo.

[vandelescrow]

"I use the pitch curves to limit the deg +/- of pitch of each mode", yes. Say for normal mode and Throttle hold you want -4 +10 and mode 1 -10 +10, that is done with the pitch curves.

Using the endpoints , ATV or what ever your radio calls it, is to limit travel eliminating binding. Your endpoints should be as close to the same number as possible on both ends (this holds true with all your servos). If not, adjust linkages / servo horn till you get it as close as you can.

[EatMorePizza]

Nice summary thanks

[Deano]

I went inverted for the first time with a Raptor 30. Your nerves will be the biggest obstacle to overcome. Watch out for giving to much input on the stick which is what I did the first severl times and bogged the heck out of the motor and loosing altitude because of it. And be aware of the position of the heli as you flip it. My first time I just continued to flip and actually did a flip and a half because I didn't let off the elevator because I was to worried about the collective. After a few times I'm sure you will get it. On my 3rd attempt I lost to much headspeed and planted it into the field but I have had several sucessful attempts since then. You will need better collective management with the 30 than say a 50 because of the lack of power.

[jgunpilot]

I started inverted by doing a forward flip and stopping inverted. My advice to you is to think of it as a temporary stop - it things are just right, i.e. pretty level and not yawing, then pause and hover inverted, but continue a forward flip if anything gets squirrelly. Every time you do it, try to stay inverted a little longer.

One other thing I'd do is to completely replace all your fuel tubing and clunk lines with new stuff, and fly a flight or two ( maybe do a few loops and rolls) to insure the clunk is feeding right. One of my first inverted experiences was the engine quitting because the clunk line was deteriorated.

[Lottomunch]

Inverted was a huge thing for me and took me some time to overcome. I attribute EVERYTHING to the time on the Sim. So far I've been having great luck by over practicing the hell outta things on the Sim. I crank up the turbulance, speed, radio interferance all in order to get it to a point where its automatic. Find something that is hard to do on the sim and just grind it till its automatic.

Mentally I don't like being on the sim more than 5-8 minutes so I try for at least one quick session before I go to bed every night. you'll have it down in a month or two.

Second thing that was mentioned (can't remember who) was nerves. I was a frickin mess and it was only by my 6-10th hover that I started relaxing and things got really smooth. The skills were there the whole time.....My brain was making a mess of things.

I learned by doing half a loop and stopping. Other than the fact that I was 5 miles up (kidding) my first attempt looked great.....and I owe it all to the practice on the computer.

Daniel

[Ah Clem]

Eatmorepizza,

I used the 2nd hole in the pitch arm (to get the maximum throw).

I also, at the suggestion of another forumite, changed the bell/hiller mixing arms to G-Force arms. These gave both more collective throw and more Bell input.

If memory serves, I set the endpoints for the collective to set the pitch range from -11 to +11 after I changed the arms (I was stuck at -10 to +10 with the stock arms).

The machine is much more pleasant to fly and much livelier, now that it has been converted to a .50.

These are nice machines which hold up very well.