How-To: Autos

[klamp]

Good point on air speed vs ground speed.
I'll give it another go.

[Rªzª]

Originally Posted by Ironizer

However, I did have a problem myself with autos and strong winds. 2 weeks ago I was practising autos on my 450, and I did a few really nice ones with soft touchdown, but there were some which didn't go that well. At the last one I lost so much headspeed at 2 meters height that it fell down, and broke the landing gear. And the worst thing is I don't even know what I did wrong, what I did different from the ones that were successful. It was coming down nicely, but it was overshooting a bit, so I wanted to stop any forward movement, so I flared 2 meters high. In the simulator, I can get plenty of headspeed by flaring, and then set it down nicely. But it didn't happen in real life, it seemed that it even cost me headspeed instead of gaining, and I don't know why that is. I swear I'll only do autos in the future when someone is recording it with a camera, so it can be analysed later. Although now I'm somewhat reluctant to try them again. :/

What you probably inadvertantly did was give too much positive when you tried to stop your overshoot. Natural tendency would be to pull up and apply a little positive to slow down the forward momentum. Unfortunately that is an airbrake for the blades and you will lose headspeed VERY rapidly. Always remember you should still be negative a tad or at most zero during your flair or else you'll get the opposite effect you are looking for

[Ironizer]

Originally Posted by Rªzª

What you probably inadvertantly did was give too much positive when you tried to stop your overshoot. Natural tendency would be to pull up and apply a little positive to slow down the forward momentum. Unfortunately that is an airbrake for the blades and you will lose headspeed VERY rapidly. Always remember you should still be negative a tad or at most zero during your flair or else you'll get the opposite effect you are looking for

Yes, that's what I figured too, that seemed the most logical answer, I just didn't believe it. I mean, when you stop the forward momentum of the heli in powered flight, you HAVE TO reduce collective or you will gain height. And this is my experience on the sim too during autorotation. When I flare, I have to further reduce the collective in order to not gain altitude, and in doing so I can gain headspeed. It's only logical, since energy doesn't disappear, only changes, you basicly convert your forward momentum into the spinning motion of the blades. And as far as I remember, the heli didn't gain height when I flared. On the other hand though, it didn't continue to descend either, so I assume you are right, and I didn't apply enough negative. Oh well, I will have to practice how to stop the forward momentum while still descending in an auto.

My last auto was recorded on Saturday, I put it in the sim and skill sticky topic. The landing wasn't pretty but I liked how the rpm was constant during the descent. It was the only auto that I did on the whole weekend and the first since that last mishap, and it was even a recorded flight, so I was pretty nervous, but I thought what the hell, let's give it a try.

[waxman]

Gave it a go on the sim and it has totally changed the way i view autos landing with very little or zero pitch is unreal. will try them for real when i get more confident

[Ironizer]

Is it easier to maintain headspeed with FBL over FB, or not? I'm specifically interested in the 450 class. FBL means less mass, so less momentum, but less drag too, so which one has more influence?

[Finless]

I recently converted my FB 450 Pro to FBL. Auto's are harder. There is less mass in the rotor head thus you can burn off head speed faster.

Bob

[minnzoo]

Originally Posted by Finless

I recently converted my FB 450 Pro to FBL. Auto's are harder. There is less mass in the rotor head thus you can burn off head speed faster.

Bob

I have noticed this too. Also, if you're used to doing autos with a FB when you have to slam the sticks around to get the heli to respond at lower headspeeds, you can't do this with FBL. The FBL controller is going to input as much swach movement as necessary to get the response you input, mo matter what the headspeed. So you need to be more careful on the cyclic when going from FB to FBL autos.

David

[flyoz]

Originally Posted by senone

please post a auto video

What Senone asks video please