Switching from heavy paddles to 3d paddles

[AusAnt]

I have had the heavier DX paddles on my 500 3d for learning, and the heli is rock solid and has been perfect.

Lately as my ability increases I have found it to be a bit sluggish in the air for cyclic rates. So I was thinking that must mean I am ready to go to the lighter paddles.

However, I don't know how much of a difference they will make, and thought that if they make it really twitchy, I might have problems on landing for example. I thought I could set up some dual rates so I could add some expo in if I found it too twitchy. At the moment I fly with no expo, and would imagine that I would leave it with no expo in the long term, but would the ability to add in some expo in flight give me a safety net? If I do add in expo, do I add it in individually on the Ail and Ele channels, or in the Swash mix page where it also has an Expo value (all currently INH) - DX7?

Or am I just being overcautious and it's no big deal at all??

BTW I also have the mixer arms set up in the least aggressive holes. Should I change paddles first, test it out, then change these too, or vice versa? I would only want to change one thing at a time.

Thanks,
Ant

[helicraze]

Its not a big deal, choose the aggresive hole and change the paddles. You will want to add about 20% expo on ele and ail, don't worry about the swash mix expo.

[AusAnt]

Thanks Helicraze, I'll give it a go.

Ant

[AusAnt]

I made the changes to the 3d paddles and the more aggressive mixer arm holes, added 20% expo on Ail and Ele, and took her to the field for a test fly today.

Just hovered my first pack to make sure I was comfortable with it. No problems at all. I guess it was a little quicker to move around and quicker to respond, but not twitchy in any way.

Then I did some FF flights. I thought if I was going to have problems it would be in a tight hover, and FF would be fine.

However, what I found is that I fly really high (yep, real high, like double treetop height, maybe 120 feet), and because it rolled quicker into a turn, I lost orientation a couple of times and banked up too much. Luckily all the stick bankging practice on the sim paid off and no real problem, but I was surprised none the less.

I then bought it down to a more reasonable height (say tree top height, about 60 feet) and had no problems any more. Rolls and flips were lighting fast compared to the sluggish feel of them with my previous setup, so that was great. And when I got used to the roll rate in banked turns, that was perfect too.

So all in all great advice thanks Helicraze. I now will just have to get over my fear of flying near the ground, and start flying a little lower. (which would be a good thing)

Ant

[helicraze]

Hi, thats great! I checked my setting and I use 25% expo on ail and elev and 20% on rudder.

All my helis are like that, i set them up as aggresive as can be then add in the expo so it still can be controlled fairly easy when you want or if you push it, it responds fast.

[AusAnt]

I have always set up planks that way too - aggressive then use some expo and usually dual rates. But I was a bit more nervous with a heli.

I'm glad I set it up to be really steady and docile to start with, but now I'm ready this new setup is great.

Thanks again for your help - I don't know how I'd do it without everybody on the freak :hug:

Ant