Autorotations?

[Cherokee180c]

Any of you guys big autorotation guys? Having started to fly helis 20+ years ago, I do autos every flight with my Vibe 50 and really love them, and want to start with the 550E. I have saved many a helicopter due to having hit the throttle hold quickly and doing an auto. I am a bit chicken due to the FBL system right now. I really don't want to put it in for no reason. I read somewhere that when the HS slows down, the FBL system can overreact when it tries to put in a command and the helicopter does not respond fast enough due to the low HS. Just want to check with others if you guys are doing lots of autos yet with the 3G550E.

[Jthief]

Not sure, I've heard they auto fine. I had to do one on the 600esp, I was in the top of a loop when I lost all power amazingly enough my first emergency auto was an inverted auto, and landed fine..... WHEWwwww

[Duke600]

I have the Vbar in mine and it autos fine. With flybarless systems it will tend to bob when the head speed slows down. As you land it you need to hold it on the ground untill the headspeed is gone, if you don't it can pitch over to one side. But on the good side you will have better headspeed because there is no flybar to add drag.

[Cherokee180c]

Trust me, I lost a tail on an xcel 60 once inverted and I hit the throttle hold before the Heli did a 180 degree rotation. The key is to roll out, which loses no altitude or speed and then do a normal auto. A lot of new guys don't spend the time learning them like they should IMHO.

[SpeedDemon46]

I practice them a lot in the simulator, but I haven't actually tried one with a real thing yet. Maybe I'll try them with the Blade 400 before I try with the TRex 550.

[Cherokee180c]

Well, exactly what I was worried about happened tonight. I had the best night flying ever and was having a ball for about 7 packs when I decided to try an autorotation for the first time on the 550. Everything went fine until the very end where I held the flair too long and touched the tailblades to the ground. I am not sure If I flared to much, or just waited a bit to long and let the HS drop too low before leveling out, or if the 3G didn't react as fast as I am use to with a lower HS. I broke teeth off the small bottom front tail drive gear. I broke everything down tonight and I am picking up a new torque tube front drive gear set tomorrow. Hopefully I will be in the air again tomorrow. It really did auto nice, just very different timing than my Vibe 50. Next time I will be ready for it and not mess it up.

[halfcab]

Originally Posted by Cherokee180c

It really did auto nice, just very different timing than my Vibe 50. Next time I will be ready for it and not mess it up.

Were you using the stock blades that came in the kit?

[Cherokee180c]

No, I have the Align 550's on mine.

[Epoweredrc]

Originally Posted by SpeedDemon46

I practice them a lot in the simulator, but I haven't actually tried one with a real thing yet. Maybe I'll try them with the Blade 400 before I try with the TRex 550.

on the sim or in real life? God luck either I guess, I do a short foot off the ground with my Blade 400 every flight just about but i have tryed on the similator and wow it just falls out of the sky. I can not do it with any the 450 sized birds only the big nitro ones on Phonex

[floop]

It autos great! I was doing autos with the 520 blades the other day on the FBL model. Plenty of headspeed in the flare. It would have no problem even doing inverted autos.

[Jthief]

Hey floop where do you fly? In Warminster Pa. here.

[Cherokee180c]

Yes, but timing is different from a flybar system. My first auto ended in my first autorotation accident in years, although the damage was minimal. By the way, it was so fast to change the front tail gears on this heli. I estimate 15 minute max and maybe 10min. My biggest issue was figuring out how to get the wires I ran out from gap in-between the front and second serf of screws. Now that I have that down, it is extremely fast to Change.

[Tahoe Ed]

I just had to replace mine and ended up rerouting the servo wires outside the frame to make it easier in the future. I was not able to change the gears without removing the tail servo or popping the receiver tray out. I wish they would have just put the tail servo on the boom.

[Cherokee180c]

That tail servo takes 20seconds to drop out. Pop all four short screws out. The wires are easy to route back around the plastic mount if you just move the assembly up or down as needed to get the posts to an open section (window) in the side frames. Now that I know the trick, it won't take me any time. I did run the 3G Y cable though outside the frames.

[michael88997]

I wish they would have just put the tail servo on the boom.

you will wish that until you crash and your boom gets thrown off without your tail servo being ripped off