Forward flight... ready or not?

millertime_r6 · 02-07-2011, 07:43 AM

Hi all,

Have been flying a blade 400 for a about a month now. I can tail-in hover very well holding it stationary for as long as I want at any altitude, and had been working on hovering with the nose pointing left and right (close to the ground with the training gear). On the sim, I can hover in any orientation like a champ, so on Saturday I finally said heck with it and spun it the last 90 degrees. Wow! I can hover nose-in!

I actually found nose in to be easier than left or right 90... seems to be easier to see what it is doing before its already doing (mainly roll when 90 left or right) it if that makes sense to anyone. Burned about 3 packs alternating between left, right, and nose-in. Anyways, I wanted to see the difference between training gear and not, so I took them off and flew a couple packs without. Ive read about people coming to rely on them, and I dont want to fall into that. Still not confident enough to take off and land in other orientations without the trainng gear, but that may come with time.

Anyway, on to my question. I THINK I am ready to find a bigger area than my yard and start to do a lttle forward flight. As things were going so well on Saturday, on my last pack, I flew at treetop level and got a little bit of speed going forward. Due to the close proximity of trees / houses / etc I brought it back tail-in and landed. Decided to call it a day since I was out of battery power and everything was still in one piece.

So... is there anything that I am forgetting before just letting er' rip in a big area? I flew my last couple packs with a pitch curve of -3/+10 to become accustomed to that. I also have 80% of the "RTF" travel on the cyclic. It seems to be plenty for now since I dont plan to do any flips or rolls quite yet. I guess any advice would be appreciated on the forward flight topic...

Another question. I can hover in any orientation. My nose-in was WITH the training gear. Didn't need them normally, but since my flying area is small, I liked the security of being able to shut it down fairly quickly w/o fear of a blade strike if I did happen to get close to my shop or truck (practice area is the cement pad in front of a 2 car garage since the yard it a snowy muddy mess). In other words, I CAN nose-in, but its not automatic like tail-in has become. Should I continue w/o training gear and practice with some altitude in all orientations (have to go somewhere with a bigger area), or should I slap the gear back on and do some more flying at my house? Its more convenient and I get less flak from the wife if I fly in the yard instead of driving somewhere, meaning I will probably get to fly more often.

Thanks in advance!
Clark

DKS_ONE · 02-07-2011, 11:04 AM

I dunno if I would dive in face first to forward flight so much as start doing simple tail in stuff first. For example, start with heli about 20 feet away from you. Lift off and fly ahead 10-15 feet and bring back to starting point. Then slide left the same 10-15 feet and back to starting point, then right and then backward. Doing this gives a good handle on cyclic response as well as some collective management and keeping tail orientation. If you're already doing this stuff, then ignore this post completely and experiment with some FF but keep it a bit higher to give yourself some recovery time should things perhaps go sour.

millertime_r6 · 02-07-2011, 11:24 AM

Cool. I already do a good bit of that since I am forced to thread my way out between a couple trees to get to some open air. Wow... the wind sure changes based on altitude! I think I was sheltered by the house, and the instant I got above the roofline... it was a real fight for a second!

For forward flight, any pointers or exercises? Tail-in forward and then back first, or am I asking for trouble backin up at if I get going any speed at all? My gentle forward and back, left and right doesn't seem to show any weakness in the gyro system (though alot of people seem to complain about it... I guess I just dont know better yet).

Clark

Crash549 · 02-07-2011, 11:57 AM

I like to do slow oval patterns and circles and figure eights for practice. I would say just watch your forward speed don't get going fast at first. That way you learn to stop the heli from gaining more speed than you can handle.

DKS_ONE · 02-07-2011, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crash549

I like to do slow oval patterns and circles and figure eights for practice. I would say just watch your forward speed don't get going fast at first. That way you learn to stop the heli from gaining more speed than you can handle.

+1 to that, if you feel comfy with your in and out and side to side, then might as well give it a go for some slower circuits. Keep the heli in front of you (bad things happen when they get overhead and behind

) and focus on keeping circuits slow until you get a good handle on the feel of things. Have you been doing circuits on your sim? If so, I'm pretty sure you'll find the muscle memory developed from that to translate pretty directly to real flying. Try to relax and not overthink things, that's another time when things get hairy lol! Overall, it's another step forward so try it out and have fun!!

millertime_r6 · 02-13-2011, 11:45 AM

I went out yesterday and... I can actually FLY! Burned 4 packs doing some circuits and nose in practice. I was amazed what a difference having a big area made in my confidence.

Things I noticed that I didn't really expect:
In "normal" mode, the piro rate was much slower than I expected.
My experience flying planks was more hinderence than help. Bank, then pull back... Hmm, that wasn't exactly what I expected.

DKS_ONE · 02-13-2011, 06:44 PM

Excellent!!

Now it's just refining things and practice practice practice!! Feels good huh?

millertime_r6 · 02-13-2011, 07:20 PM

For sure! Flew 6 packs today! I think I'm addicted! I'm trying to decide on what to do to increase the contrast with the sky... Is the blade 400 e-flight yellow actually really hard to see, or are my eyes just that bad? I remember fluorescent pink being a great color for visibility back in the day on the planks. Will coloring the boom increase visibility or would that just be wasting my time? I know keeping it in close is actually the key, but seems like making it easier to see couldn't hurt...

DKS_ONE · 02-14-2011, 08:46 AM

I honestly haven't experimented enought with coloring to know what's gonna be MOST visible, but fluorescent pink sounds like it would do the trick. I know that B400 canopy is a little less vibrant than it could be. I've seen some really visible green colour schemes and some good vibrant yellow ones. I dunno if I would paint the boom, but the fins and maybe supports would be good accents perhaps, that's just my personal taste though. Likely the only thing that's gonna tell you for sure is experimentation. Kinda sucks, but once you find the right combo, you're in

Just pick something loud to use on the canopy first, if it shows up well, then try using the same colour on the fins if you think you need too or even the boom if you want. Again, it's gonna be preference, so up to you. I would just do it a step at a time until I felt good about it. I'm gonna be trying for a bright orange scheme. There's a user on here named dannylightning in the 500 forums mostly, he's got a really good looking colour scheme that I'm gonna use for the most part. Includes tail blades, skids, paddles and canopy and that makes it stand out pretty good

ARM_Coder · 02-17-2011, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by millertime_r6

For sure! Flew 6 packs today! I think I'm addicted! I'm trying to decide on what to do to increase the contrast with the sky... Is the blade 400 e-flight yellow actually really hard to see, or are my eyes just that bad? I remember fluorescent pink being a great color for visibility back in the day on the planks. Will coloring the boom increase visibility or would that just be wasting my time? I know keeping it in close is actually the key, but seems like making it easier to see couldn't hurt...

I like the Storm 450's yellow stock canopy, it has great visibility in front of various backgrounds.

A good idea to further enhance visibility is to put a different marker on the right landing skid (just sliding one rubber nut to the middle point will do the trick), so when the heli is sideways from a certain distance, you can tell for sure whether she's banking left or right. This really saved my heli from a crash - twice for now.

millertime_r6 · 02-18-2011, 10:32 PM

Good call on making the left different from the right. Nose in seems just as easy as tail in, but either side toward me is a bit of a struggle still. I cant seem to see which way its rolling till its already moving...

freewheel510 · 02-19-2011, 10:24 AM

I have fluorescent orange duck tape from Ace hardware on my landing gear. Helps a ton with sideways orientations. I agree with you, nose in is easier than sideways orientations because you can see everything you need to know. I can only tell my bank angle sideways because of the orange tape on the landing gear.

If you can fly four hover orientations and can land softly, you are done with the training gear. Take it off and forget it.

Small spaces are more challenging, as are small helis so you're not making it easy for yourself -- that's ok, you'll learn a lot from flying a 400 at your house.

Try moving the heli around while hovering tail in -- left, right, forward, back. Next thing you know you'll be flying Finless Challenges #1 and #2 no problem.

Fast forward flight is SO EASY, it's an absolute no brainer, just add collective and pitch forward to go, reduce collective and pitch back to stop. Don't forget to add the collective again to transition to hover.

Happy flying!

02-13-2011, 06:44 PM	#7
DKS_ONE Registered Users My HF Map location Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Edmonton Alberta, Canada	Excellent!! Now it's just refining things and practice practice practice!! Feels good huh? __________________ *Danno* Fusion 50, 600 conversion, 600mx motor, CC 80HV ESC with cap pack, Jolly Bee canopy UMX Carbon Cub SS DX8 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

02-14-2011, 08:46 AM	#9
DKS_ONE Registered Users My HF Map location Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Edmonton Alberta, Canada	I honestly haven't experimented enought with coloring to know what's gonna be MOST visible, but fluorescent pink sounds like it would do the trick. I know that B400 canopy is a little less vibrant than it could be. I've seen some really visible green colour schemes and some good vibrant yellow ones. I dunno if I would paint the boom, but the fins and maybe supports would be good accents perhaps, that's just my personal taste though. Likely the only thing that's gonna tell you for sure is experimentation. Kinda sucks, but once you find the right combo, you're in Just pick something loud to use on the canopy first, if it shows up well, then try using the same colour on the fins if you think you need too or even the boom if you want. Again, it's gonna be preference, so up to you. I would just do it a step at a time until I felt good about it. I'm gonna be trying for a bright orange scheme. There's a user on here named dannylightning in the 500 forums mostly, he's got a really good looking colour scheme that I'm gonna use for the most part. Includes tail blades, skids, paddles and canopy and that makes it stand out pretty good __________________ *Danno* Fusion 50, 600 conversion, 600mx motor, CC 80HV ESC with cap pack, Jolly Bee canopy UMX Carbon Cub SS DX8 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

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02-07-2011, 07:43 AM	#1
millertime_r6 Registered Users Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Wichita KS	Forward flight... ready or not? Hi all, Have been flying a blade 400 for a about a month now. I can tail-in hover very well holding it stationary for as long as I want at any altitude, and had been working on hovering with the nose pointing left and right (close to the ground with the training gear). On the sim, I can hover in any orientation like a champ, so on Saturday I finally said heck with it and spun it the last 90 degrees. Wow! I can hover nose-in! I actually found nose in to be easier than left or right 90... seems to be easier to see what it is doing before its already doing (mainly roll when 90 left or right) it if that makes sense to anyone. Burned about 3 packs alternating between left, right, and nose-in. Anyways, I wanted to see the difference between training gear and not, so I took them off and flew a couple packs without. Ive read about people coming to rely on them, and I dont want to fall into that. Still not confident enough to take off and land in other orientations without the trainng gear, but that may come with time. Anyway, on to my question. I THINK I am ready to find a bigger area than my yard and start to do a lttle forward flight. As things were going so well on Saturday, on my last pack, I flew at treetop level and got a little bit of speed going forward. Due to the close proximity of trees / houses / etc I brought it back tail-in and landed. Decided to call it a day since I was out of battery power and everything was still in one piece. So... is there anything that I am forgetting before just letting er' rip in a big area? I flew my last couple packs with a pitch curve of -3/+10 to become accustomed to that. I also have 80% of the "RTF" travel on the cyclic. It seems to be plenty for now since I dont plan to do any flips or rolls quite yet. I guess any advice would be appreciated on the forward flight topic... Another question. I can hover in any orientation. My nose-in was WITH the training gear. Didn't need them normally, but since my flying area is small, I liked the security of being able to shut it down fairly quickly w/o fear of a blade strike if I did happen to get close to my shop or truck (practice area is the cement pad in front of a 2 car garage since the yard it a snowy muddy mess). In other words, I CAN nose-in, but its not automatic like tail-in has become. Should I continue w/o training gear and practice with some altitude in all orientations (have to go somewhere with a bigger area), or should I slap the gear back on and do some more flying at my house? Its more convenient and I get less flak from the wife if I fly in the yard instead of driving somewhere, meaning I will probably get to fly more often. Thanks in advance! Clark

02-07-2011, 11:04 AM	#2
DKS_ONE Registered Users My HF Map location Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Edmonton Alberta, Canada	I dunno if I would dive in face first to forward flight so much as start doing simple tail in stuff first. For example, start with heli about 20 feet away from you. Lift off and fly ahead 10-15 feet and bring back to starting point. Then slide left the same 10-15 feet and back to starting point, then right and then backward. Doing this gives a good handle on cyclic response as well as some collective management and keeping tail orientation. If you're already doing this stuff, then ignore this post completely and experiment with some FF but keep it a bit higher to give yourself some recovery time should things perhaps go sour. __________________ *Danno* Fusion 50, 600 conversion, 600mx motor, CC 80HV ESC with cap pack, Jolly Bee canopy UMX Carbon Cub SS DX8 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

02-07-2011, 11:24 AM	#3
millertime_r6 Registered Users Thread Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Wichita KS	Cool. I already do a good bit of that since I am forced to thread my way out between a couple trees to get to some open air. Wow... the wind sure changes based on altitude! I think I was sheltered by the house, and the instant I got above the roofline... it was a real fight for a second! For forward flight, any pointers or exercises? Tail-in forward and then back first, or am I asking for trouble backin up at if I get going any speed at all? My gentle forward and back, left and right doesn't seem to show any weakness in the gyro system (though alot of people seem to complain about it... I guess I just dont know better yet). Clark

02-07-2011, 11:57 AM	#4
Crash549 Registered Users Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Raleigh NC	I like to do slow oval patterns and circles and figure eights for practice. I would say just watch your forward speed don't get going fast at first. That way you learn to stop the heli from gaining more speed than you can handle.

02-13-2011, 11:45 AM	#6
millertime_r6 Registered Users Thread Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Wichita KS	I went out yesterday and... I can actually FLY! Burned 4 packs doing some circuits and nose in practice. I was amazed what a difference having a big area made in my confidence. Things I noticed that I didn't really expect: In "normal" mode, the piro rate was much slower than I expected. My experience flying planks was more hinderence than help. Bank, then pull back... Hmm, that wasn't exactly what I expected.

02-13-2011, 07:20 PM	#8
millertime_r6 Registered Users Thread Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Wichita KS	For sure! Flew 6 packs today! I think I'm addicted! I'm trying to decide on what to do to increase the contrast with the sky... Is the blade 400 e-flight yellow actually really hard to see, or are my eyes just that bad? I remember fluorescent pink being a great color for visibility back in the day on the planks. Will coloring the boom increase visibility or would that just be wasting my time? I know keeping it in close is actually the key, but seems like making it easier to see couldn't hurt...

02-18-2011, 10:32 PM	#11
millertime_r6 Registered Users Thread Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Wichita KS	Good call on making the left different from the right. Nose in seems just as easy as tail in, but either side toward me is a bit of a struggle still. I cant seem to see which way its rolling till its already moving...

02-19-2011, 10:24 AM	#12
freewheel510 Registered Users Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Costa Mesa, California	I have fluorescent orange duck tape from Ace hardware on my landing gear. Helps a ton with sideways orientations. I agree with you, nose in is easier than sideways orientations because you can see everything you need to know. I can only tell my bank angle sideways because of the orange tape on the landing gear. If you can fly four hover orientations and can land softly, you are done with the training gear. Take it off and forget it. Small spaces are more challenging, as are small helis so you're not making it easy for yourself -- that's ok, you'll learn a lot from flying a 400 at your house. Try moving the heli around while hovering tail in -- left, right, forward, back. Next thing you know you'll be flying Finless Challenges #1 and #2 no problem. Fast forward flight is SO EASY, it's an absolute no brainer, just add collective and pitch forward to go, reduce collective and pitch back to stop. Don't forget to add the collective again to transition to hover. Happy flying!