idle up help

[shaggybirdman]

just tried idle up for the first time today. i have just 1 question. how do ya stop from driving the heli into the ground when ya get in trouble? i didn't have to do a emergency landing, but if i decide to try idle up again i'd surly like to know the secret to not turning it into a pancake.

i must say though i did kind of like it. :) would a throttle curve of like 100, 80, 75, 80, 100 be a bit better for a no0b like myself? should i tone down my pitch settings as well? i think i have it set at -10 +10 now. would -8 +8 be better for learning?

[toro]

driving heli into ground = lots of fuel.... Stopping further damage once it hits ground = throttle hold

Get to 1/2 stick or zero pitch before hitting the idle up. no pitch/no force on the skids

[Skarn]

The sooner you learn to fly in idle up, the better. I use the full linear curves for pitch and 100, 95, 90, 95, 100 for throttle and love it.

How do you stop from driving it into the ground? Practice! You will eventually just learn half stick lands it. I normally just get it close to the ground and hit throttle hold.

Good luck!
Skarn

[shaggybirdman]

i can see that, but my worry is when i screw the pooch while learning to hover, and need to do an emergency landing/crash. i fly planks, and dumping the throttle has saved me many times, so slamming the throttle shut is going to be hard to unprogram my left hand.

i like the land it in throttle hold though :)

[shaggybirdman]

driving heli into ground = lots of fuel.... Stopping further damage once it hits ground = throttle hold

Get to 1/2 stick or zero pitch before hitting the idle up. no pitch/no force on the skids

i'm not worried about while it's on the ground, but the force of slamming the ground from 3' up.

[toro]

learn your autos too.... This is a good way to help you learn the left stick collective.

Start 6" hit the hold, and hold the heli off as long as possible.

12"

18"

36" and so on, until you get comfortable with timing. Eventually you'll get really high, and just hit the hold for the fun of it. You'll learn to power up the blades with negative pitch, and go back to positive to make a feather soft landing... It gets you familiar with how the heli will react when you go negative pitch too...

[shaggybirdman]

learn your autos too.... This is a good way to help you learn the left stick collective.

Start 6" hit the hold, and hold the heli off as long as possible.

12"

18"

36" and so on, until you get comfortable with timing. Eventually you'll get really high, and just hit the hold for the fun of it. You'll learn to power up the blades with negative pitch, and go back to positive to make a feather soft landing... It gets you familiar with how the heli will react when you go negative pitch too...

great idea, but my learning curve is a brick wall at the moment. autos are cool :thumbup:

[justin keaton]

i flew in normal when i first started to hover then after i got that i started using idle 1 but its pronally better to learn it now. what ever you feel confortable with

[toro]

learn autos with the bigger ships.... the little birds are tough to master on autos...

[rockjock3]

I am a noob so I will answer it from our viewpoint.

When going to idle up/stunt/etc from normal mode what do you do when you want to bring it down in a hurry, and not smash it.

Answer: You have to, as part of the learning curve for helis, teach yourself not to think of bottom throttle as your "SAFE" zone. When you get into trouble your reaction cannot be to drop the collective all the way down as this will kill the poor heli if it is in any kind of idle up setting or high enough in normal mode. I just kept chanting the mantra "altitude is my friend". If you get into trouble going higher is your friend. What you have to teach yourself to do (as an automatic response) is if you get into trouble you either center the stick (or return it to slightly positive pitch) or give it a little collective so it goes up and you have time to recover into a hover with a little more space between the heli and the ground.

Now, I when I say noob, I am talking from under 2 hours of stick time with my heli and no other rc flying experience of any kind. I am still learning all my hover orientations and do all my flying between 6-8 feet up to about 20-30 feet with no training gear.

[Leaf Blower]

just tried idle up for the first time today. i have just 1 question. how do ya stop from driving the heli into the ground when ya get in trouble? i didn't have to do a emergency landing, but if i decide to try idle up again i'd surly like to know the secret to not turning it into a pancake.

i must say though i did kind of like it. :) would a throttle curve of like 100, 80, 75, 80, 100 be a bit better for a no0b like myself? should i tone down my pitch settings as well? i think i have it set at -10 +10 now. would -8 +8 be better for learning?

Small movements on the sticks. Real small movements. You might want to try a flight simulator like Phoenix or Real Flight. They cost less when you crash.
Explanation: As you learn in normal flight mode- there is a tendency to drop the throttle and pitch to ground the bird. It's a bad behavior that you need to break. When in Idle Up, dropping the throttle stick results in burying the copter into the ground.. Bad habits.

Adjusting your pitch curve to less pitch is going to accomplish nothing good for you. It will increase your headspeed and make it more twitchy if anything. And secondly, if you need to pull out - with reduced pitch- it will force you to use more stick. When you adjust those numbers back- you will have to relearn controlling everything again from scratch. You could add some expo- small amount - on your DX7 (right?). However, like changing your pitch curves or throttle curves- you will need to adjust behavior when you take the settings back out. Personally, I don't like adding expo- just learn better stick control.

My suggestion: Flight Simulator time until you get better stick control.

[shaggybirdman]

Small movements on the sticks. Real small movements. You might want to try a flight simulator like Phoenix or Real Flight. They cost less when you crash.
Explanation: As you learn in normal flight mode- there is a tendency to drop the throttle and pitch to ground the bird. It's a bad behavior that you need to break. When in Idle Up, dropping the throttle stick results in burying the copter into the ground.. Bad habits.

Adjusting your pitch curve to less pitch is going to accomplish nothing good for you. It will increase your headspeed and make it more twitchy if anything. And secondly, if you need to pull out - with reduced pitch- it will force you to use more stick. When you adjust those numbers back- you will have to relearn controlling everything again from scratch. You could add some expo- small amount - on your DX7 (right?). However, like changing your pitch curves or throttle curves- you will need to adjust behavior when you take the settings back out. Personally, I don't like adding expo- just learn better stick control.

My suggestion: Flight Simulator time until you get better stick control.

good point, but the main problem was too little space to even think if a lift off.

[hrnet940]

Thanks, I just started to get into heli's last year and had the unbelievable forture to go to an event here in Canada that both Szabo brothers were at and they set up my Trex 450 SE V2. Alan set up the radio with it able to go into full 3D with the mode switch, but I have been wondering when to use the Idle Up (Full 3D) switch. Alan also took it up for its maiden flight and placed it in a REALLY rock solid hover! He has the 3D position with 100% accross the board and something tamer on the other setting. I am getting good at hovering, but have noticed that when I try to control it in the wind, the collective/power left stick gets too sensitive when all I want to use is the pitch and not the motor included. There is still snow on the ground here and will definately add this to my knowledge and try it when I get back flying this season. Thanks Again, Wayne