When to use rate and heading hold?

[DrJustice]

I'm just taking up helis again; sometime in the previous millennium I had a Kalt Baron 50 with a mechanical rate gyro back when that was all the rage. I used to set up the revo mix carefully and trim the bird well. I could also switch off the gyro altogether and hold the tail just fine. I only did hovering manoeuvres and forward flight, no aerobatics.

Fast forward to 2008, and there's a new T-Rxe 450SE V2 on my bench which is going to get it's maiden flight sometime soon. In the mean time I'm practising on the Phoenix sim and doing nose in, forward flight, loops, rolls, stall turns, some flips (without idle up, using only rotor inertia so far) and some not so good (yet!) autos with reasonable confidence.

I've found that with the gyro in heading hold mode my flying becomes a big mess, with the heli veering around as I struggle to keep the tail in line. Especially when the heli is far away so that I can't see its attitude well and have to use the trajectory as my reference. With rate mode all is fine. It's not that I can't do a coordinated turn, but with HH mode the tail just seems too stiff for comfort and I lose the natural "flowing feel". At full speed the tail falls in line in the turns, although a bit reluctantly, even with HH, but I'm not always at full speed.

This leads me on to this posting. I can absolutely see the point in HH for some 3D manoeuvres, especially backwards flight which I find practically impossible with rate mode, but as of now HH just ruins my normal flying. So, when do you hot flyers use rate vs HH? Are there anybody out there doing hard acro and 3D with just rate mode? Do you switch modes in flight (between normal and idle ups)? Am I way behind the times and better off just forcing myself to always use HH?

For now I just want to fly normally, but I aspire to learn a few 3D manoeuvres eventually. Your thoughts on these issues will be appreciated.

DJ
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[widower]

I'm by no means a 'hotshot' but I will apply my 2cents. If you plan on doing 3d, I suggest you just get use to HH and learn to keep the tail in line.

I agree that with those old mechanical gyros, it was easier to fly forward flight or hover nose in the wind. It's the dart concept. Throw a dart backwards and it will flip around. With a rate gyro, if you try hovering with a crosswind, the gyro will allow the heli to slowly face into the wind over time. An ideal HH will not allow this to happen.

I'm sort of in the same shoes as you. Got use mechanical gyros and now sort of have to learn all over again. But I think that learning to use HH will only help you out in the long run.

[DrJustice]

Thanks widower!

I suppose I might as well give in and try some more HH. Can't help but feel that it's working against me at the moment - I seem to have muscle memory and instincts that "demand" a rate driven tail. It's hard to unlearn stuff like that. If nothing else I may be able to master no gyro, rate gyro and HH gyro in the end. I'm thinking that perhaps it will be good to use HH mode only in idle up 2 since the Futaba 7C + 401 allows that kind of control. Then I'd be able to fly by the trajectory in normal and idle up 1 when the heli is too far away to see the tail orientation.

DJ
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