Originally Posted by karlik

Is your linkage in the furthest hole to increase throw or to make the linkage vertical?

I was wrong, it was in the hole next to the end.

And I can't move it in further, because the ball hits the
servo itself.

Moving the balls closer to the servo shaft would tame it down a little.
Too bad it won't work unless I put the ball on the outside,
and that will mess with the linkage geometry.

Does it not need to be mostly vertical?

I know it would work, but you would lose leverage, and slightly change
the pitch curve (if I'm not mistaken).

The elevator servo in the rear would be way out of whack if I put them
on the outside, so it's still a no-go.

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year !
A friend and I went to the local high school ground early this morning and although a little breezy I hovered at about eight feet for a while then flew my first figure 8.
It all seemed to go ok but a bit unpleasant with the breeze.
I'm looking forward to having another go when its calm.
I'll hopefully get a video next time.
My friend fly's an Align 600 with a nice scale Hughes body and 5 blade head... it looks and fly's great!

One of the scale flyers (Jose in the scale forum) is reasonably nearby and has given me a lot of subtle tips and helped with my 450 a bit. Really helps to have an experienced guy watch and either say "you did that good' or "try doing it like this" - and especially when he says "don't so that, I broke mine doing that".
I watch his 550 and 600 scalers with awe. Youtube videos are great, but you really gotta be there.

Flying figure 8s in 5 weeks is fantastic. It took me 5 months just to hover and about a year after that to do figure 8s, and I'm still crashing. ( I never flew planes though)
Great!

I had a small misshap the other afternoon.. I was at the field having a go at a figure 8 and had a little speed on , on the run back it rolled to its left side a fair bit and I couldnt pick it back up with heaps of right aileron.. broke a few things and its basically fixed ready to do the same again lol!
A friend who wasnt present but is a good heli pilot suggested it may be something to do with not enough negitve pitch , or I should be using idle up... ill have to look into that ive currently got -3 / 0 /+10 ( I think without checking it) maybe slightly more negitive...
Any suggestions as to why this happens ? It was just unresponsive to right input ( maybe a bit more throttle may have helped ) my other figure 8's were at a slower speed and more like a run away from me about 80 feet and a slight climb and a 90 deg turn and back to me again.. and it went smooth... now Ill have to have a re think as to what went wrong.. there may have been a very slight cross wind that caught it too.

I don't think it's the -3° - that's only how much pitch you have at bottom stick, it shouldn't change how much "aileron" you have.
You said earlier you reduced the throw to 80%, how did you do that?

Sounds like you broke a servo or link... check it all carefully.

Originally Posted by jasmine2501

Sounds like you broke a servo or link... check it all carefully.

Good theory Jasmine , I did notice when I surveyed the carnage that the right hand aileron servo wasnt travelling as far as it should ( I don't think the HXT 900's are really that good in a heli and I think ill replace them with something better , ive had a few strip gears and not work properly , same with the original servo's in my Titan , branded strangely enough....Titan .

Grant.

Originally Posted by Grunta5

Good theory Jasmine , I did notice when I surveyed the carnage that the right hand aileron servo wasnt travelling as far as it should ( I don't think the HXT 900's are really that good in a heli and I think ill replace them with something better , ive had a few strip gears and not work properly , same with the original servo's in my Titan , branded strangely enough....Titan .

Grant.

Also check for binding, like rods running into the canopy and getting stuck, or perhaps the swash ball needs lube. That it was flying and making right turns for a while and then stopped being able to do it, is cause for concern about the mechanical fortitude of it.

Mechanically it is ( was) good . Its all fairly new but maybe the canopy being light plastic pushed against the rod when the heli was moving forward..? I go over it regularly with a fine tooth comb so to speak making sure everything's ok. Hovering's easy and just slowly toodling around the yard slowly, it's a different story when it starts moving forward at the airfield.
I have just installed Pheonix flight sim to try and have played the same scenario on that . It does seem to roll when in certain attitudes and its a heck of a job to upright it once it tips over with not a great deal of forward speed .. on the sim if I keep it moving quick doing fast runs then pulling it up ( keeping a bit of speed on ) and a couple of pirouettes then back the other way its not difficult but slow it a too much it all comes unstuck... more practice I think..

Well , I sold my helis... then after about 3 weeks, realised I was addicted to them and had to have another so... I bought an HK450GT Pro. What a nice heli and after fixing a few serious issues ( it was second hand) it's now flying great and will hover hands off for a good few seconds.
i spent about a week hovering around my yard until I decided it was too small and have taken it to the local high school field ( in the evening when it's desserted) . the first and second time there I just hovered and went left , right , back and forth and followed it around.
Then tonight I thought what the heck and pushed her into forward flight and climbed to about forty to fifty feet and about 150 feet out then turned and slowly came back , turned around and did it again , then had a perfect landing about twenty feet from me.
I was shaking and my heart was pumping like id just run a marathon but what a sense of achievement! Cant wait to do it again .
To think only a couple of months ago I could barely hover , I put it down to sheer determination lol .
Here's a photo of my $100 heli.
I did try Phoenix sim for about an hour but didnt really enjoy it . I then replaced the harddrive in my pc and it didn't want to run the sim.
Im also not using expo and have it at 100 % travel ( though the rudders at about 85 % )
Im so hooked on this hobby now!
PS: Im still using the training gear.

Originally Posted by Grunta5

PS: Im still using the training gear.

Great looking heli

When you say training gear, do you mean the cross brace with balls on attached to the skids?

If you are then i'd remove them, they make the heli not fly as nice in the air and it doesnt sound like you have any real problems with takeoff/landing.

Ry

Hi Ry , I should but im just a bit scared to in case I have a less than perfect landing.
I just feel more comfortable with them on , I know sooner or later ill have to remove them , and it will fly better too im sure.
And it will look a lot nicer in the air..

Grant.

Hi , it's been a while since ive posted anything here... after a break from the heli's ive been back into it for a few weeks and am now flying confident figure 8's and have had about 5 decent flights where ive been up about 60 feet or more and flown around for a few minutes and so far landed ok ( nothing broken :-) im really enjoying the helis but its really hard on the nerves, im finding im slowing the heli down a bit much and moving slowly backwards sometimes with the tail down,... not a good position to be in, ill work on that.
Im still flying a HK450 Pro which seems to be a fairly good heli, ive taken the time to set it up right and make sure blade trackings spot on .
Ive bought an Align 450 off our local trader site ( second hand and missing a couple of things) and a new Align 450 sport kit to put together.
Getting quite addicted to these heli's , the more confident one gets flying the more enjoyable it is.... great hobby isn't it :-)
I'll get a video of my exploits up on youtube when a friends with me with his camera.

For me, the sim is a big help. It only took me a couple of weeks to go from semi-controlled hover to flying circles around other local heli pilots on my mcpx. Now I am buying a used Align Trex 450 and moving up to "Real" helis.