Scale Flying and Co-pilot II

[Xdrive]

Anyone here flying scale and have the co-pilot II?

Deciding if I should get the co-pilot as a bail out option during flight with my trex500 tow defender. It would be nice to have an emergency button when flying scale since we scale flyers put so much time and detail into our birds.

What do you guys think? Does anyone have it setup with their scale heli and if so, please post some pictures. The concern I have is the sensors have to be mounted outside the fuselage which I am not sure how it will look.

What do you guys think?

[Andy01]

Consider a SK720 if you are either already FBL or going FBL - it does not need external sensors like the CoPilot, which may look out of place on a scale heli. It can be set up for a bail-out self leveling which will work even if a good horizon is not visible, which I believe can be a problem with a CoPilot.

Colin

[Xdrive]

Does the SK720 replace my Gyro and Receiver?

[JoseReyes]

Originally Posted by Xdrive

Does the SK720 replace my Gyro and Receiver?

Yes....
http://www.skookumrobotics.com/products/

[mbutler6063]

if you are FB, you could look at the KDS Flymentor. I'm building a 450 jet ranger. IMO, a FB heli with Flymentor is less smooth that a FBL heli SK720 with self level on, but it's close.

Got the pod and boom flying with Flymentor last night. Gonna put it in the fuselage tomorrow. I also have a T500 and a T550 with SK720s. They will go scale next. The 450 is my first scale project, so it's practice.

[Xdrive]

Can I fly the sk720 with a flybar?

Have not made the switch to fbl yet. The co pilot will work with my fb heli and it is priced nicely at $135.

[mbutler6063]

SK720 will not work with a fly bar at all

[Xdrive]

Okay thanks!

That would mean new main rotor blades that is for FBL w/ the proper placement of chord (I have the asymmetrical FB blades), FBL head, and SK720. It starts to add up quick.

[Andy01]

Not really. I fly standard blades with my SK720s and they fly just fine. There is no need for special FBL blades, especially for scale flying.

A tow defender normally runs a multiblade head, so a SK720 would be ideal for this. So if you want it more realistic, you may be buying a 5 blade head anyway.

Colin

[mbutler6063]

Did the scale body add any additional vibes to the airframe?
Do you fly with SL on?
I've got 2 SK720 machines I want to take scale, so that question popped up in my head

Maidened my 450 Jet Ranger today with Flymentor, all is well

[Andy01]

Hard to tell yet.

My Long Ranger is built into the fuselage, so I can't test the mechanics only as it is not a pod & boom. The vibrations on it are very low - the highest peak being around1.2, and generally reads around 0.1-0.2 as an overall vibe level.

My 4 blade 600 was flown as a pod & boom with a straight boom and I had the Skookum flight log on, then when I installed it into the fuselage with a flex drive for the tail, I used the vibration log, so not directly comparable. I had peaks of around 7 in the vibe logs and around 1.2 as an overall number in the flight log.

I am not flying the 4 blade with a raised TT tail drive (and get peaks of up to 1.2 in the vibe logs and overall numbers of 0.0-0.1), and will be installing it into the fuselage in coming months, so a more direct comparison will be available.

Make sure you brace the fuselage at the top of the mechanics to stop resonance, and it should be fine.

I currently fly with SL on at centre stick (ie. not permanently on), and I am not sure I like it. I may just revert back to a bail-out only.

Colin

[mbutler6063]

thanks for the tip on the brace, good luck