I'm on win 7 and hooked my Turnigy 9x radio through the mic jack with propolus and real flight 4.5, works "ok" it still twitches a little sometimes but hey, it was free... great for learning, I can even do a bunch of 3D stuff on the sim without crashing. Thanks for the compliment BTW :-) PM me and I'll show you where to get the sim software

OK I was messing around with the dark horse calculator you mentioned and it doesn't seem right. The flight time and everything sounds right after charging up my batteries, but it's saying that I'm pulling less than 20 amps average?? Then why is the ESC getting so hot?? By the way since you asked, my AUW is about 880 grams.

Try out the advanced calc, it has options at the bottom for you to put your throttle & pitch curves in. also the motor isn't 90% efficient, none of these cheap outrunner cans are, set the eff% to about 80% for a more realistic outlook. Be sure to press the 'no fudge' button so it will factor in air density dragging on your blades.

Using 880gr, 2650mah 3s, 80% eff, 4400kv, 11t, I set out to find a throttle curve that would yield the most stable headspeed from mid stick to full stick. If you put throttle curve to something like 0/40/75/85/100 and pitch curve at say -3°/-1.5°/0/5.5°/11° (a normal flight set I have seen) with your 4400kv 11t motor you would pull about 15a @ mid stick 75%/0° & a whopping 75a @ full stick 100%/11°. I'm return your headspeed only varies slightly; 2429 @ 0° / 2565 @ 5.5° /2470 @ 11°. The less your headspeed changes the more predictable your pitch and collective inputs will be.

Turning down the throttle and leaving the pitch where it is will reduce the max amp draw. Running 0/40/80/80/80 with the same pitch curve yields 15a @ mid stick & 42a @ full stick. Unfortunately this also reduces the headspeed. Inputs at lower headspeed are more sluggish between input & response i.e. you yank the stick left & the bird leans left.

~psguardian

Originally Posted by psguardian

Try out the advanced calc, it has options at the bottom for you to put your throttle & pitch curves in. also the motor isn't 90% efficient, none of these cheap outrunner cans are, set the eff% to about 80% for a more realistic outlook. Be sure to press the 'no fudge' button so it will factor in air density dragging on your blades.

Using 880gr, 2650mah 3s, 80% eff, 4400kv, 11t, I set out to find a throttle curve that would yield the most stable headspeed from mid stick to full stick. If you put throttle curve to something like 0/40/75/85/100 and pitch curve at say -3°/-1.5°/0/5.5°/11° (a normal flight set I have seen) with your 4400kv 11t motor you would pull about 15a @ mid stick 75%/0° & a whopping 75a @ full stick 100%/11°. I'm return your headspeed only varies slightly; 2429 @ 0° / 2565 @ 5.5° /2470 @ 11°. The less your headspeed changes the more predictable your pitch and collective inputs will be.

Turning down the throttle and leaving the pitch where it is will reduce the max amp draw. Running 0/40/80/80/80 with the same pitch curve yields 15a @ mid stick & 42a @ full stick. Unfortunately this also reduces the headspeed. Inputs at lower headspeed are more sluggish between input & response i.e. you yank the stick left & the bird leans left.

~psguardian

My throttle curve is set like this... 0, 20, 40, 60, 80
Pitch curve is set at 45, 50, 62.5, 75, 100 from 0-10 degrees

9 tooth pinion maybe?? I'm just hovering and going to try some basic forward flight, nothing aggresive for a while.

I wouldn't go to a lower tooth pinion. Higher stable headspeed & expo on cyclic controls would be better. Avg flights on a 450 aren't long, so I wouldn't worry about trying to lower anything. A 2500rpm HS, 0°-10° collective pitch, and 25%-50% expo on the cyclic inputs will be more stable & responsive than with a lower HS.

BTW where is your ESC mounted?

~psguardian

Wow, what a difference!! I guess my head speed was really low! After messing around with dark horse and testing in my living room, WAY more responsive! It's crazy because my pitch angle to hover is only like 2.5 degrees @ about 75% throttle, works way better. Thanks for the help, still needs a little fine tuning but now that I know about head speed, I'll get it dialed in the way I want! Thanks again!! Now to get me some new CF blades...

I'm glad you're gettin' er dialed in. Once you have the Throttle Curve settled so that the HS doesn't waiver more than ~100rpm or so everything you do with the right stick will feel the same, no matter what position the left stick is in. Much easier to predict the helis response to your inputs that way.

~psguardian

She CRASHED!!! :-( it's been dark lately when I get home from work so haven't been able to practice much lately except to hover in the garage. So yesterday I'm off early, wife ad son at the doctors for a physical charged batts and a house to myself??? Off to the front yard for some practice! Been practicing forward flight on the sim, thought I had it down. So after a couple mins of hovering, started some tail in figure 8's, piece of cake! As soon as I turned for some side in orientation, got close to a bush, over reacted killed the throttle to save what I could, and BAM!! Into the bushes she went! Damage report:

Bent main shaft, bent flybar, that's all I can see so far, replacements should be here in about a week... A new hobby store opened close to my house, gonna check I t out after work today!! Oh we'll, no debut tomorrow at the field!! :-(

Aww. a couple of shafts (check the tail rotor shaft, it may be less visible but, it probly took a hit too) not a bad price tag for a crash... Especially early on lol. My first crash was all three shafts, a canopy, canopy mount stud and a fly bar.

Any time you need to buy a crash part, buy TWO packs. Shafts normally come 2-4 in a pack. Buy Align & buy two packs. That way you've got 4-5 crashes before you need to go back to the LHS.

~psguardian

Originally Posted by psguardian

Aww. a couple of shafts (check the tail rotor shaft, it may be less visible but, it probly took a hit too) not a bad price tag for a crash... Especially early on lol. My first crash was all three shafts, a canopy, canopy mount stud and a fly bar.

Any time you need to buy a crash part, buy TWO packs. Shafts normally come 2-4 in a pack. Buy Align & buy two packs. That way you've got 4-5 crashes before you need to go back to the LHS.

~psguardian

Too late!! Ha Ha!! Already ordered a 4 pack of flybars, and a 4 pack of main shafts!

LOL. Now order another pack of mains & two packs of feathering & tail shafts. You'll have enough spares to build a whole other bird in 6mo.

~psguardian

Man, that tail assembly is CRAP!! Metal screws into plastic and vibrate themselves loose and assembly vibrates like crazy. Just ordered a metal one from eBay for $15, hopefully that will eliminate that crap. I had the machine shop supervisor at work straighten my main shaft and she works great, now have plenty of spares! Flying her for real at the park tomorrow, enough hovering in the front yard! Been on the simulator ALOT to practice so i should be ok. Will probably need to order more parts after tomorrow!! Ha ha LOL!!! I'll try to get some video too, wish me luck! By the way, how would I know if there is a problem with the feathering shaft?? I can't see it! :-)

Your blade tracking will shift & hands-off hover will wander in random directions.

GL @ the park tomorrow!

~psguardian

I don't think im even experienced enough to know what the heck u r talking about!! I'm always making minor corrections when I'm hovering, the only thing I don't touch is the tail, rock solid with that $12 gyro and a little ca glue on the tail assembly threads! ;-)