HELP: First Time Lift-Off Problem...

Someone please advise...

I'm a beginner in flying helicoptors and very embrassed to ask for help in achieving lift-off for an smartech aerohawk. I've done the balancing trick and made sure that the flybar paddles are balance... the main blades look ok..... but the helicopter is moving sideways whenever i try to lift-off. what am i doing wrong...

Any advice would help.

Thanks,

Matti...

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

When you say it moves sideways if you put the opposite direction input in does it correct this? What radio are you useing?
Daz,

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

Further to my rather short answer above ( an off day) I would like to say that with Fixed Pitch helis= (FP). they will want to move around when they get light an there skids. The idea is that you get the heli light but not light enought to move around, Then give it another decisive thrust of throttle to lift it off the floor. Idealy you need to get it about 2 foot off to get away from a thing called ground affect.

Ground affect is what we call the air that is moveing around the heli caused by the down thrust the blades make. In this air the heli will drift in lots of diretions and be a lot more of a job to handle than if your out of it.

With Heli flying you have to be ready to add corrections from the time your heli gets light on its skids to the time you land. It very rarely lifts straight up on its own if its a micro heli. you always need to be giving inputs. The bigger the heli the less this is a problem.

Anyway have fun and good luck
Darren

I had that problem too, this worked for me while on the ground, I gave my Helicopter just enough to get it to move to see which way it was moveing,and played with the trim,but when you are ready for lift off,do what D.J says and don't be afraid and give it just a lilttle more trottle to get out of the ground affet.


Good Luck!!!

Keep the shinny side up.

Mike.
A.K.A.
Darkside.

Just to add a bit more. The heli is a bit croocked to the right. Never try to give inputs to make the rotor disk horizontal. If you do this, then your heli will keep on drifting to the left. The reason behind why the heli is always croocked to the right is to counter the torque generated by the rotor.

Good luck and happy flying
Carlou

Matti,

The drift to the left is a product of 'tail rotor drift', in the air it is expressed as a tilt to the right (right skid low), this is quite normal in fact the full size behaves in exactly the same way it will hang one skid low in the hover. You would also get the drift to the side before lift off in the full size if you were on ice which is the equivalent to your model on a smooth floor or when it has it's training undercarrage on. If you try and lift off from a grippy surface like a carpet or you put four pieces of silicone fuel tube on your skids the heli will not be able to slide to the left so as you increase lift it will tip to the left, if this is not corrected with oposite cyclic it will tip behond the point where full opposite cyclic input can't help and the blades will contact the floor, this is called 'dynamic rollover', the full size is just as suseptable to this if miss handled and the whole thing happens in a fraction of a second.


At first it is probably easiest to puch the machine into the air before the drift develops too much but as you get more skilled you will be able to increase the power gradually feeding in more and more right cyclic to stop the drift then as she starts to become airbourne you let a little of the right off, you will find that before she leaves the ground totally you will be able to balance on one (right) skid before lifting completely off and releasing the right cyclic. Of course the model has to be trimmed for the hover which is a bit hard to do if you cannot hover but you will slowly get the feel of what is going on if you keep at it.

Rgds.,

Skeeter Pilot
........................

This is my first post and I am new to flying r/c electric helicopters. so far i have had 9 crashes with 5 lift offs and the longest rus was not more that 18 inches off the ground and ended up hitting the front steps on my house.

Originally Posted by Daz(DJLFlapper)

Further to my rather short answer above ( an off day) I would like to say that with Fixed Pitch helis= (FP). they will want to move around when they get light an there skids. The idea is that you get the heli light but not light enought to move around, Then give it another decisive thrust of throttle to lift it off the floor. Idealy you need to get it about 2 foot off to get away from a thing called ground affect.

Ground affect is what we call the air that is moveing around the heli caused by the down thrust the blades make. In this air the heli will drift in lots of diretions and be a lot more of a job to handle than if your out of it.

With Heli flying you have to be ready to add corrections from the time your heli gets light on its skids to the time you land. It very rarely lifts straight up on its own if its a micro heli. you always need to be giving inputs. The bigger the heli the less this is a problem.

Anyway have fun and good luck
Darren

What is it you want to know Frank?