Hello all,

Let me start by saying I got my hummingbird V.2 yesterday. I got it used but it looks mint. Actually has some upgrades on it likeball is swash, aluminum head, motor heatsinks and has PG-03 gyro and hummingboard.

I have wanted to get into helis for a long time. I have been into rc for years now. Cars, trucks and planes as of late. So my next obvious choice was helis and it I had the biggest hopes for.. People I dont know if my chopper is not setup properly or what but I never dreamed these little choppers would be this hard to handle, what gives

I see people hovering these little things right infront of there face and flying them around there house and if you ask me from just flying mine I would tell you this is impossible. Right now I cannot keep the thing in the air for more than 3 seconds with out it getting out of control What is the proper setup for these things, how do you balance the blades how do you adjust blade tracking and any other thing I need to be aware of to settle this little beast down. I so want to be able to fly this little bird around in my house but as of right now I would not attempt this as I feel it would be to dangerous. Once Im in the air I have to continually fight the tail as it keeps spinning my chopper around and around and I cannot learn to control it with this happening because once in the air I iimmediatley have to focuse my attention on getting control of the tail which is almost impossible and by that time the chopper is all over the place

Can someone tell me how to properly setup this gyro as I would think it should do a better job than what its doing...

In any instance any help you can provide to help me get this bird under control would be greatly appreciated because at this point I really don't know if I can do this.

Thanks
Bryan

Check out this link. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225001

That you should really help you out a lot. It sure did me. I taught myself to fly, and I can hover steady right in front of my face( I don't for safety reasons). I learned to fly in my dining room. The area I had to learn to hover was so little, but I did it. Try practicing with sims if you have one. Just remember that it takes very little stick movements to constantly adjust how the heli hovers. There are a lot of very good tips in the beginners guide, so check that out.


And remember, just keep practicing. The decision to purchase a heli, was more like a comittment. So practice, practice, and, oh yeah, practice.

Good Luck!!

Read RADD'S SCHOOL OF ROTARY FLIGHT?
This will let you learn whant the controlls do without even leaving the ground.

When I was learning to fly my humming bird my first flights where just like you describe I could not cope with all the controls at once. I bought myself a head holding gyro and suddenly I could hover for 30 seconds. I think a head holding gyro might help you I got a csm hlg 200 and it works great.

matt

Guys,
I cannot state this enough:
PLEASE avoid those heroic face flights. The consequences of an RF glitch, a wrong stick movement or a split second of concentration loss and your eyes could by irreversibly injured or your face could be severly disfigured for the rest of your lives.

Please, Practice caution and maturity when flying helicopters of any size.
Remember, the warning which appears on any of the kits you purchase saying "RC helis are not toys" is written in blood.

Only a few weeks ago an 8 year old child got hit in the head by a Radion controlled helicopter and lost his life.

Fly safe
Yariv

Thank you for the wake up call...

yeah..i "could" hover in front of my face but choose not to for the above reasons. A micro heli won't kill you, but it sure could take on an eye. I've seen people catch their helis, which is neat looking...but somewhat risky.

anyway...I think we get the idea.

being a relative newbie myself and having helped others, I have found the single most important problem for a newbie is the setup of the heli. Learning to fly is one thing, but if the heli's not set up right..you have no chance. Just yesterday I tried to help a guy who was having trouble learning. I, nor anybody else, could fly his heli, so what chance did he have.

Once i adjusted the servos / swashplate and the mixing, I could hover it hands free easily. then guess what, the guy was already making real progress flying in just a few minutes.

So..my advice.

1) check your servos and swashplate so that the swash appears to be level for both aileron and elevator. It will still need to be trimmed, but you need to start somewhere.

2) try adjust your mixer and gyro setting so they are spot on. Once again pretty darn hard if you can't hover already as you don't know if it's you or the heli. For the PG03, you should start by adjusting the setup screw so the two lights are lit when the heli is not moving. For the gain, you start at about medium and adjust it so the the tail doesn't "wag" If it drifts, turn up the gain, if it starts to wag...just reduce until it stops.

3) If you can, try find someone who has a setup like yours to trim it for you. This will be the best thing you can do. As you have fixed wing experience you are at an advantage as you already know how things should be setup. But only someone that can hover can really trim it perfectly for you. Maybe go down to a club or something like that.


Where are you ? You haven't got your location posted.

Hey all,

Well Good news I got my heli Friday evening and had trouble flying ever since as you know. I couldnt get the thing to stay in the air no time like 3 seconds. Which is when I posted here and speaking with the previous owner who has multiple helis and a very nice gentleman at that offered his services to help me.


Turned out it was a setup problem! I have the gyro mounted incorrectly and wired wrong (oops!). After a breif chat with him this morning and I reset the gyro location on the heli and reconfigured the gyro per GWS instructions.


This evening I have flew 2 complete packs out with hovering time in the 30 to 45 second range. Of course this was after I got it trimmed out which was a task in itself but I can safely say "shes flying like a bird now"!!:-) The rest I guess is up to me to learn...

I must give one bit of praise on the hummingbird though! ITS ONE TOUGH MACHINE. I have never touched a helicopter before, only on sims however I do fly planes but since I first took off I have only suffered a broken fly bar paddle, one leg of landing gear broke and one busted tail rotor. If you ask me thats not to bad considering every time she lifted off the ground for three days it crashed......that speaks for itself.