pitch angle

[Maurice]

Hi I am new to flying helicopters and am trying to find out the best pitch to set up on my new walkera dragonfly 36.
I have been able to get it a litle of the way off the ground, but it always starts to wonder and tip to the left.Any help with these couple of problems will be greatly appreciated.

[hawkman]

The best pitch for hovering seems right at about 5 or 6 degrees...so this would be the mid stick position...with the stick all the way up you would get about 10 degrees or even 12...I wouldnt put it too far up the scale as it can bog the heli down.

Low stick and you might be looking at zero degrees or even minus 4 or 5 degrees....its quite a subject and flyers have thier favorite setups.

I would err towards low stick being zero...and mid stick at 5 degrees and top stick at 10 degrees and see how you get on.

Headspeed can be another issue too...too low a speed will see a sluggish heli which wont fly well.


Make sure the swashplate sits nice and level to the shaft too...if its slightly off it can influence the heli to move one way or the other.

once you get hovering just be aware that the heli might try drifting off to one side...so you need to lean the heli the opposite way to counter this....its normal and the tail rotor is to blame...it trying to push the heli to one side and the Gyro usually compensates by keeping the helis nose nice and straight.

Take your time and be patient with it all...its hard to learn to fly let alone set a heli up so it flys well at all.

Tip: make a nice plastic hoop...about the same size as the rotor diameter...fasten to the skids using cane and elastic...you will have a nice training base which could save your heli from getting broke...like if it catches on something and tips over.

the palstic like that used for plumbing would be ideal...about 10mm diameter.

Rob

[Maurice]

Thanks for that Rob.
Will get that set and try, don't worry about my patience, like rc cars half the fun is getting things set up right the first time, that way you get the most fun in practice.
will let you know how things get on.
Maurice

[Aztek1701]

Hi Maurice,

Rob is right about ppl having favorite setups... How you set your bird up also depends on what you ultimately want to do with it.... If you plan on flying 3D at any point in your flying carreer then it might be a good idea to consider setting your pitch up slightly differently to what rob suggests.. IE.. Full up = +10 degreees Full down = -10 degrees mid stick = 0 degrees (this is how the machine should be set up mechanically in any case). This therefore pushes the hover point to about 2/3 stick. The reasoning for this is that you dont learn a hovering stick position that later moves when you start flying aerobatics. The disadavantage with this setup over Robs is that you have less stick travel to play with therefore the collective becomes much more sensitive. Both Robs and my ideas for setup work well so how you set up really depends on
A. your preference. and
B. whether you think you'll ever invert the helicopter.

Hope this helps... Azzy

[Maurice]

Thanks aztec both settings for me are very helpfull, but as I am still just starting out I don't think I want to turn my heli into a lawn mower just yet, Iam still having a bit of fun staying up the right way.
Rob tried your settings this afternoon worked great until !!!
Aztec I will try your settings after I put my heli back together again.

Again thanks for the tips and the help
Maurice

[hawkman]

What happened?

do tell

Rob

[Maurice]

was hovering and got caght by a cross wind nose dived, tore up blades, bent tail boom, and think one way bearing on main gears has gone.
So now I am just waiting on some parts to turn up and repair it.
Probably to do it again.