Head Speed?

[Biggie in PA]

What is a decent way to adjust head speed without a tachometer? Wondering
if my head speed is a bit on the steep side.

--

Biggie in PA
sjg1958 at hotmail dot com

[david]

"Biggie in PA" <sjg1958@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:USFVa.788$7h6.474@nwrdny03.gnilink.net...
> What is a decent way to adjust head speed without a tachometer? Wondering
> if my head speed is a bit on the steep side.
>

I would say you can't.

At the moment you do not know the speed. You do not know whether it is too
fast. You do not know how to adjust.

Do yourself a favour, spend 20 quid / 40 bucks and buy a tacho. Then you
will know the speed. Then you can come back and ask whether it is too fast.
Then you can adjust.

The little cheap tachos are great value and once you have one you will use
it a lot more than you ever thought you would!

david

[Beav]

"Biggie in PA" <sjg1958@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:USFVa.788$7h6.474@nwrdny03.gnilink.net...
> What is a decent way to adjust head speed without a tachometer? Wondering
> if my head speed is a bit on the steep side.

Unless your ears are tuned to "the right sound", it's going to be a bit
difficult:-)


--
Beav


Please note my E-mail address is "beavis dot original at ntlworld dot com"
(with the obvious changes)

Beavisland now lives at
www.beavisoriginal.co.uk

[Biggie in PA]

Will a head overspeed cause control problems?
I know an underspeed will.

--

Biggie in PA
sjg1958 at hotmail dot com


"Beav" <beavis.original@ntloxoworld.com> wrote in message
news:R7VVa.859455$Ho4.6221633@news.easynews.com...
>
> "Biggie in PA" <sjg1958@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:USFVa.788$7h6.474@nwrdny03.gnilink.net...
> > What is a decent way to adjust head speed without a tachometer?
Wondering
> > if my head speed is a bit on the steep side.
>
> Unless your ears are tuned to "the right sound", it's going to be a bit
> difficult:-)
>
>
> --
> Beav
>
>
> Please note my E-mail address is "beavis dot original at ntlworld dot com"
> (with the obvious changes)
>
> Beavisland now lives at
> www.beavisoriginal.co.uk
>
>

[Beav]

"Biggie in PA" <sjg1958@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:M8GWa.1845$Wt.1264@nwrdny03.gnilink.net...
> Will a head overspeed cause control problems?
> I know an underspeed will.

Not control problems exactly, but the heli won't fly along the chosen line
quite so well. Usually an overspeed shows itself as a tendency for the heli
to lift it's nose and roll slightly to one side, and although it's not a
lot, it's noticable and a pain in the airse to deal with. Better to have no
changes in rotor speed at all, which is why I run governors in mine now.

Fiddling with pitch and throttle curves is all well and good, but when
you've got a pitch curve relationship which allows a well controlled rotor
speed going UP in a ballistic climbout, it's usually lacking when your
coming DOWN at speed, so that's a good enough reason to go with a gov,
specially when they're cheap as chips these days.


--
Beav


Please note my E-mail address is "beavis dot original at ntlworld dot com"
(with the obvious changes)

Beavisland now lives at
www.beavisoriginal.co.uk

[Mike]

>
>"Biggie in PA" <sjg1958@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:USFVa.788$7h6.474@nwrdny03.gnilink.net...
>> What is a decent way to adjust head speed without a tachometer? Wondering
>> if my head speed is a bit on the steep side.
>

Having read some of the responses, I think I should have committed hari kiri by
now for never having had a tachometer.

If you feel headspeed is a bit high, then wind the rotor blade linkages in a
couple of turns to give yourself more pitch, then go fly!
If headspeed is too slow, the helicopter will start to feel mushy, the engine
won't 'sing' quite as much and you could lose some preciseness in the tail
control.

If it is too high the helicopter tends to react very quickly to your controls
(uncomfortably quick in some cases), you burn fuel very quickly, and the
general sound of it is usually more like a plane than a helicopter.

As with most of these things, you need to experiment with your own particular
helicopter. Slow the head down until it feels and/or sounds uncomfortable, then
speed it up until it feels/sounds uncomfortable, then aim for a speed that is
somewhere in the middle. You can do it by eye/ear with a lot of success.

You may also find you don't need as much headspeed on a calm day as a windy
one.

Watch that you still leave yourself some negative pitch however you set the
blades.