Fishing hooks

[Skyranger]

Just got Bee yesterday and working through it, checking everything and have watched all the vids. I had a problem balancing with pencils on the flybar, so I got 2 fishing hooks and tied them to the hooks and hung it on the ceiling fan and it made it real easy to balance...now you can walk back and look at it and check it with a level, both ways.. does it look o.k. ? Dave B.....

[JettaManDan]

wow..that is the extra mile to make sure! good idea though..yeah bud..you are good! even some forward bias is a good thing once you get better...

[oliverdots]

Looks good to me After time, you will get less critical. If it's out a bit, you'll know when it's in a hover and you can trim her out or adjust the linkages. I use different size batteries in my 250. Different weights/sizes and I know I am not "spot on" with balance but unless you are out a lot, you learn to fly with a little input at times. That's why the Bee is a great trainer. The tail doesn't hold great, you sometimes, as the batteries runs down, have to hold in a little rudder. It means when you go to CP and it's not a perfect trim, you are using small amounts of stick input to hold that hover without even thinking. As your experience grows and your skills and confidence, you won't check the C of G, (centre of gravity), much at all because you will handle it. When you flly forward flight and fast forward flight, as long as the C of G isn't miles out, you won't even notice. As you are new to the Bee however, getting everything as near perfect IS good practice

[Viet-Lama]

Just make sure you remove the hooks so you dont walk into them and snag your eye :dance

Does the movie HELL RAISER ring a bell ?

Easiest way is to simply make "fish hooks" JJ with your middle and index fingers and hang the flybar.

[Skyranger]

That would Bee bad. No, I ground the tips off, it works great,as the heli is at eye level,so for me a new Bee I can see where battery placement and such levels the bird, same with T.gear, it just hangs... Dave..making a neat stiffener for the SB EZ blades..

[dayshaddow]

great idea skyranger i can see with your attention to detail your gonna do very well in this crazy hobbie
cheers
antony

[HELIHANKSTER]

I’m with VL
I do it a little differently, but I still just use my hand.
I use my thumb and middle finger of one hand to cradle the flybar about a ¼ in off a level table. Then I make sure the skids and boom are parallel with the table.

But like OD said the more your flying skills improve the less critical C o G becomes

[Luke Warmwater]

+1 (or is it +2)...?

Anyway, I do it the simple hands way. And I agree, it all becomes less signifcant as you improve....

BUT....the better any heli is setup, the better it will fly. Several people at our indoor flying club have tried their own HBFPs and couldn't get on with them...but when they fly mine, they love it. Somehow, I've managed to find a combination of setup and mods that seem to make it very stable. I'd love to take loads of credit for being a "setup guru" (as if!!)....but to be honest its a case of being fussy.....and then having a massive dose of luck in getting the right mods apparently working together.

So, while I don't always take the care that I used to in setting up, I must say, I believe the small adjustments and details can all combine to make a BIG difference.

[HELIHANKSTER]

Originally Posted by Luke Warmwater

+1 (or is it +2)...?

Anyway, I do it the simple hands way. And I agree, it all becomes less signifcant as you improve....

BUT....the better any heli is setup, the better it will fly. Several people at our indoor flying club have tried their own HBFPs and couldn't get on with them...but when they fly mine, they love it. Somehow, I've managed to find a combination of setup and mods that seem to make it very stable. I'd love to take loads of credit for being a "setup guru" (as if!!)....but to be honest its a case of being fussy.....and then having a massive dose of luck in getting the right mods apparently working together.

So, while I don't always take the care that I used to in setting up, I must say, I believe the small adjustments and details can all combine to make a BIG difference.

I say +3 to that

I think the hardest part of getting into this hobby as a new pilot is that the heli need to be setup right to make it easier to learn how to fly. When I first got into the hobby I didn’t have enough experience to know if my heli was setup right or if it was me not knowing how to fly. Once I joined helifreaks and started reading the old threads on different people setups and using that knowledge on my own setup. The different was like night and day.

[FLThreeFiveZero]

I guess Im at +4. What ever length you have to get it setup correctly is the proper length. (I think I should run for office)

[Viet-Lama]

Originally Posted by Skyranger

it just hangs... Dave..making a neat stiffener ..

Originally Posted by HELIHANKSTER

I do it a little differently, but I still just use my hand.

SkyRanger's hangs as he makes a stiffy while Hank simply uses his hand....... I think im in the wrong forum

[Skyranger]

that ain't right ya'll, not enough oil in the gulf... but if ya didn;t know?

[HELIHANKSTER]

Originally Posted by Viet-Lama

SkyRanger's hangs as he makes a stiffy while Hank simply uses his hand....... I think im in the wrong forum

Thats so wrong VL...so very wrong

[JettaManDan]

Originally Posted by HELIHANKSTER

Thats so wrong VL...so very wrong

think we need to find VL a "Friend"

[oliverdots]

Have you seen VL's port folio? When it comes to lovely lady's, he does alright

[Oracus]

Ok I'll be the one here to say that CG might not be to critical on the Bee(but it will be easier to control if its right),but majority of Heli's it is! Improper CG can cause all sorts of problems that would never of happened if it was balanced, plus it only take afew minuets to do.

[JettaManDan]

Originally Posted by oliverdots

Have you seen VL's port folio? When it comes to lovely lady's, he does alright

can't say that i have..only been here for a couple of weeks

but when you are a Jedi master..you can just control the minds of weaker hot women and get them to be with you!

yeah CG is not as 100% important until you get to CP heli stuff..sure it matters if it is way off...but trim can counteract it a bit...

[oliverdots]

Originally Posted by Oracus

Ok I'll be the one here to say that CG might not be to critical on the Bee(but it will be easier to control if its right),but majority of Heli's it is! Improper CG can cause all sorts of problems that would never of happened if it was balanced, plus it only take afew minuets to do.

I see where you are coming from so I will explain my last comments better.

When you first get a heli, you need all the help you can get. So, getting the best set up possible is very important. A "newbie" may feel he needs to spend an hour getting that C of G spot and that's fine. It's not neccessary but it's fine. I spent ages getting my balance right on my V1. Every little helps. Where have I heard that saying before Anyway. Now I can fly pretty well I fly a trex 250. I have 3 batteries I take to the field. One is fairly square in shape and 2 are oblong. One of the 2 oblongs is a different mah to the other. So I fly 3 different battery weights. I don't stand in the field balancing the heli for every battery. They all balance pretty close but not spot on. It doesn't have to be spot on now. I know how far out the C of G can be and still have very little affect on flight charactoristics. That comes with experience. I know when the C of G is too far out but a newbie doesn't. That's why I say, at first get it as close as possible. However, in time you will look at your heli's balance which is a little out and think, "in the old days I'd spend hours getting that spot on but now, I know I don't need to".

I'm not talking about a 10 degree tilt when held by the flybar. I can pic my 250 up by the flybar and if the tail is dropping 5mm I know it's no problem at all.

One final point, look at a nitro heli. The tank is behind the main shaft. It's impossible for the C of G to remain constant, during the flight.

[oliverdots]

Ooops, did a double bubble

[Luke Warmwater]

CoG gets more important the bigger and more complex the heli....and the manoeuvers that you want to do. Counteracting with trim can solve the "problem" for a hover....but try anything much more than gentle FF and you will start to get into difficulty if your swash has been moved away from level to counter drift from incorrect CoG or left drift from the natural movement of the heli.

3D moves rely on all controls being at the centre when hands are off the stick. As soon as you introduce trim to counteract CoG issues, you:
1) Limit the control movement in one direction and increase it in another.
2) Find that upside down, the trim needed to correct the CoG would be reversed...and worse; the imbalance is exaggerated as the imbalanced CoG AND the trim are now both acting in the same direction!

I take the point about a nitro heli changing its CoG as the fuel is used up. I'm no nitro expert, but I would guess that it just par for the course and you have to live with it. Real aircraft get re-trimmed in flight to allow for this. That said, a nitro tank is an near to the CoG a spossible to minimise the effect. Real aircraft select what tank fuel is drawn from to help maintain a correct CoG.

CoG can't always be exact. But that is no reason to ignore it and not take the opportunity to correct it when you can. If the CoG is out, the aircraft is incorrectly trimmed / setup. It will therefore not fly as well as if it was correctly setup. Its little things that come together to make a big difference, so my advice would always be to take an extra 30 seconds and get it right.