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Permalink Reply by Marco Glattfelder on April 21, 2011 at 5:12am

Helis are unstable close to the ground due to the ground effect. It's like balacing on a ball. The jump from coaxial to ccpm helis is hard because coax compensate the tilt attempt with the upper rotor that has no direct control.

I had the same problem going from coax to cyclic helis. Maybe your setup is not ready.

Try to set the pitch at 50% and see if all levers, servo arms and so on are 90 degrees each other. Flybar seesaw with mixing arms should be at same level. Blades should have 0 degrees angle an be exacly the same. I got my first great success following this rule. Use EXPO settings on the tx to make the central part of sticks no so sensitive. 

And try to go at lest 1m/3ft over the ground (DON'T never ever hover inhouse!).

And yes: You should be able to fly an heli and have good control of it before you install an APM. Before that don't even try it. 

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Permalink Reply by Craig Evert on April 21, 2011 at 12:35pm

Marco
Thx. This is exactly what I was looking for
Could you please explain the setup instructions again. Levers at 90 degrees? Fly bar seesaw?

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Permalink Reply by Marco Glattfelder on April 21, 2011 at 1:26pm

I think this can help: http://www.rcheliwiki.com/CCPM_setup

It's not really a t-rex, but the rotor head is the same. Note the zero degrees head setup images. You should have this setup with pitch at 50%. If not change ball-link rods lenght till it's ok. Do not trim with radio before the mechanical setup is ok.

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Permalink Reply by Craig Evert on April 21, 2011 at 9:50pm

Marco,
That should be posted on the main site under builds.
Mine was pretty good but I think I have a bad gyro
It seems to "load up"; repeated movements to one side cause the control to centre to that side. Just stripped my fourth servo hitting the ground. I was using old flight hs55 plastic gears. Will probably need to bite the bullet and get a decent gyro and servos.
Thx again.

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Permalink Reply by Marco Glattfelder on April 22, 2011 at 12:18am

Use always metal gear servos. Even the forcen in flight can strip a plastic gear servo. There are enough cheap gyros that work well. The 20$ HK gyros are quiet good and will do the job.

Don't fly on a hard ground. On some soft grass i ideal. A good setup can hover for a couple of seconds alone, but at leat at 1-2m of height.  A ccpm heli is really sensitive and direct so it will start to drift just if it feels a small air or so.

Always start the tail facing to you. Then train hovering in front of you at 1-2m altitude a couple of days trying to keep the heli in position. You will se that your fingers need to make small movements all the time. You won't notice this after a while and it will became an automatism like learning to ride a bike. After that you ca start to move sideways... but google a bit around. There are a huge amount of sites that explain that.   

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Permalink Reply by Craig Evert on April 22, 2011 at 4:33am

Do you have the APM installed in a heli?

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Permalink Reply by wolfgang on April 22, 2011 at 9:01am

Hi Craig,

Maybe this advice is not appropriate for you, since you apparently hovered already and didnt crash :)
...BUT, imho beginners should not start hovering at 1-2m altitude just to avoid the ground effect; chances for a decent crash are so much bigger...

get a "training gear" and keep the heli close to the ground for the first hovering attempts, until you feel more comfortable and know what you are doing and could trim and setup your machine to your liking

regards,
wolfgang

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Permalink Reply by Marco Glattfelder on April 22, 2011 at 10:23am

Maybe. But in my opinion it's better to avoid training gears if possible. I never used one and quiet everybody I know didn't use it too. The way the heli reacts has nothing to do with the situation without a training gear. You will avoid a crash but the learning effect isn't there so much. Better some sim sessions instead.

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Permalink Reply by 420choky on December 17, 2011 at 10:18am

i love my heli

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