hovering .. swepting and some questions

[GilUriel]

Hi All,

I'm addressing the good and trained guys of HeliFreak:

I'm realy new into heli. bought my 1st one couple of days ago - a 2nd hand Honey bee (the simple 4 ch.)

At 1st my heli came up spinning over itself and a little shaky.
I managed to balance the rotors and controls.

2 problems at the moent:

a. when the heli comes up it like swept backwords.
can it be the location of the battery ?
(It is now under the main motor - see my pic)
http://www.mynetwork.co.il/heli/1.jpg

b. When I'm starting to hover the heli does not stay in one place. instead it moves a little, I'm correcting a little , it moves a little bit more the the other side and we go on.
Can I change the connection point of the servo ? (like my pic)
http://www.mynetwork.co.il/heli/2.jpg
on one side, It should make my changes smaller and smother
but I'm afraid on the other hand - that it will not give me enough control.

??

Thank you all .. :o

[fogger]

To address it drifting back you can add a couple clicks of forward elevator trim, or move the battery forward a little. Try both.

As for the twitchiness, you can definitely experiment with moving the linkages on the servos closer to the center, this will as you predict change the responsiveness (closer = less responsive). I would go in a couple of holes and try it there. The heli will never just sit in one place though, you have to constantly give input to keep it where you want it to be. That is just the way it is...

Good luck,
-Fog

[GilUriel]

Hi Fogger and thank you for the quick reply.
I'll try both of the thinks you said.

"The heli will never just sit in one place though" .. .. I have been watching a few of the heli movies on the web and I saw that many "pilots" manage to lift the heli and stay hovering in one position.
Do they "fly" it all of that time ? (in the simulators I don't realy bother keeping it in the same position. shouldn't I ecpect it in real life ?)

TNX Again

[fogger]

No problem, just trying to help a bro out :)

Unless you happen to have a perfectly balanced, perfectly set-up 90-size machine, you have to fly it with constant, little stick inputs the whole time to keep it hovering in one spot :) The smaller helis' especially have a tendency to wander around.

-Fog

[TheBum]

It's all a matter of experience. When I started, I was like you with the heli moving all over the place. As I got some flight time, my flying became less and less erratic to the point now where I can hold it almost perfectly steady. I think a lot of it has to do with learning to anticipate when the heli is going to stray from your desired path and applying corrections before it actually moves off course. If you wait until the heli starts deviating before making the correction, you'll be chasing it all over the place.

[flyboy320]

I have the very same heli. You should definitely move the battery further forward as I have mine hanging a good inch or two further than yours to get it to balance correctly.

This heli also does not fly very good in ground effect. You will find it steadies out once its a foot or so off the ground.

I find the linkages are stiff and the flybar doesn't move nearly as freely as my Trex which I'm sure adds to it being less stable than my Trex450. If you can fly this heli, you'll find something like the Trex450 much easier....the HoneyBee is a good trainer :)

[GilUriel]

Hi FlyBoy,

1st of all I thank you for your comment. It's an importent one and it explains some of the things this heli does !!!

- I'm not sure which is better - the fact that its a good trainer or that its a hard one to begin with .. but that's what I've gut :-)

- Any other importent advices that you can spare - especialy specific ones for this model ?

TNX

[JasonJ]

As a recent convertee to simulators, I will recommend a simulator if you are serious about the hobby. I resisted using a sim for the entire summer, partly because I did not have a computer with enough power to run one. Well, that situation was resolved last week, I installed a sim this last Monday, and it has already paid for itself in money saved from crashes.

Trying to learn with the real thing is possible, but it will get expensive. I learned hovering with the real thing, but once I tried forward flight, the ground kept getting in the way. I really regret not getting myself into a new computer and a sim earlier. I can say that the sim (I have Realflight G3.5) replicates the real thing very well, enough that I had the same nervousness as flying for real. I have simmed a few hours a day since Monday and the progress is dramatic. I am doing sloppy forward flight now without crashing much on the sim, and I figured out flips as well. Still sloppy, but trying things on the sim means not crashing your helicopter for real all the times. there will still be crashes, but now as many. I can't say enough good things about the sim.. One thing that is true, it is very hard to learn to fly when you are only flying for 6 minutes a few times a day (if you are lucky).

[jgoodwin]

I learned to hover all the way up to nose-in on a Honey bee. I still have it, but it is highly modified now.

- I see your flybar weights are still on, if you are finding that you can hover, but are over correcting all the time, move them all the way in or take them off. Honestly. They soften your moves, but also delay yor input and that is bad.

- to balance your heli, get it like you are just about to fly it, leave the battery on the heli but unplugged. Then turn the flybar so it is across the heli (to the sides) an dthen pick it up/balence it by the fly bar. It will probably tip back. Move the bat forward until it balences. I have clay in the nose of my T-Rex since I can't do that there!

I hope that helps some.

-J

[flyboy320]

If your budget doesn't allow for a flight sim, here is a free alternative. Its not the same as the ones like G3.5/G4 or Phoenix, but the price is right, and it will most importantly help you with orientation when flying the heli.

http://n-old.ethz.ch/student/mmoeller/fms/index_e.html

[GilUriel]

Hi Guys,

I used FMS for an hour or two but while flying the sim, the threeDee model came up perfectly stright, hovered in the same spot , making my life a dream, so I left it.
If you both thing it has added value - I'm back into it :-).
also, I'll try the G3.5

JGoodwin, can you spare a minute and tell me more about the flybar weights?
What are they for ? and what will be the result of taking them off or, on the other hand, adjusting them as far as I can from the heli's body.

- When I bought my heli they were neer the flybar wings and I moved them to the heli. Bad or Good ?

TNX

[JasonJ]

Hi Guys,

I used FMS for an hour or two but while flying the sim, the threeDee model came up perfectly stright, hovered in the same spot , making my life a dream, so I left it.
If you both thing it has added value - I'm back into it :-).
also, I'll try the G3.5

JGoodwin, can you spare a minute and tell me more about the flybar weights?
What are they for ? and what will be the result of taking them off or, on the other hand, adjusting them as far as I can from the heli's body.

- When I bought my heli they were neer the flybar wings and I moved them to the heli. Bad or Good ?

TNX

The weights increase the rotational mass of the flybar. The flybar acts as a gyro on the main rotor. The heavier the mass of the gyro, the more resistance it has to moving out of it's plane of rotation. Take a bicycle wheel, hold it by it's spindle, and have someone spin it. Try to tilt it, you will find that it resists moving out of it's plane of rotation. Same thing goes with the flybar. If the heli tilts, the flybar wants to stay put, which imparts input onto the blades, which helps to make the helicopter more stable. Moving the weights in or removing them reduces the mass, which makes the flybar more receptive to moving out of it's plane of rotation, making the helicopter more reactive (twitchy).

[GilUriel]

Something is still bothering me ..

I saw somewhere that with half thruttle (or so) the heli should be light on the skids but, almost stay in one place. (that is .. without moving anywhere)

Is that so ??

Mine just swept to the sides (usualy to the left)

.. ? what do you say folks ? ..

[flyboy320]

Something is still bothering me ..

I saw somewhere that with half thruttle (or so) the heli should be light on the skids but, almost stay in one place. (that is .. without moving anywhere)

Is that so ??

Mine just swept to the sides (usualy to the left)

.. ? what do you say folks ? ..

That's what mine will do, it will start to feel light, but not enough so that it lifts off. It will tend to drift to the left because of the downwash from the rotors, so thats normal. Just apply some right alieron when this happens and it should help.

[istandalone]

also, a heli that is trimmed, tracked and balanced perfectly will hover way steadier with way less stick input (assuming your indoors or outside with NO wind) then one which is questionably trimmed. it pays to take your time on re-builds and tuning, because there is no substitute for mechanical excellence.