Fixed pitched 4 channel helicopter flying.... or crashing

[TheFury]

Here is some video of some better flying I did early this morning.

Nice spot landings!

Also, great video quality. What do you use to record?

Ever heard of FPV flight? I think this stuff is sweet. Check the video out below... you mount a camera to your heli (or airplane) and wear video goggles to fly it around. You can see the pilot with his goggles on at one point in this vid. It lets you fly well beyond visual range and the first person view is really cool, but it does look kinda creepy.

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[elgecko]

Nice spot landings!

Also, great video quality. What do you use to record?

Ever heard of FPV flight? I think this stuff is sweet. Check the video out below... you mount a camera to your heli (or airplane) and wear video goggles to fly it around. You can see the pilot with his goggles on at one point in this vid. It lets you fly well beyond visual range and the first person view is really cool, but it does look kinda creepy.

Thanks. I'm getting better at flying it.

I use a little Sony MHS-CM1 camcorder.

Interesting.

 

[seedjar]

Good lord, what have you all done to me? Downloaded FlightGear... haven't compiled it yet because my harddrive is cluttered with movies and sprawling MineCraft saves. Once I burn these movies to disk... well... you might not see me for a while. XD
~Joe

 

[elgecko]

A quick clip of the mSR stability once dialed in.

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[SDCPs]

The Quadrotors and the FPV flight are just amazing.

I have a Mugi Evo delta wing I built...

@ seedjar,

I'm also very interested in robotics and circuitry!

elgecko: great flying!

 

[TheFury]

Ah so you fly deltas... those things are VERY fast, no?

@elgecko, speaking of fast - have you taken that bird outside and whipped it around on the advanced swashplate setting and high rate on the transmitter? The slightest breeze will carry it away, but when it's still outside, I hear the mSR can really haul!

 

[elgecko]

@elgecko, speaking of fast - have you taken that bird outside and whipped it around on the advanced swashplate setting and high rate on the transmitter? The slightest breeze will carry it away, but when it's still outside, I hear the mSR can really haul!

They say it can handle 5 mph winds.
As for the swashplate, it's still on the slower stock setting. I'm still only using the low rates on the transmitter. No way I could do high rates in the small bedroom.
I did take it outside last night to see what it could do, still low rates and got around good. Remember it's my 1st fixed pitched and 4 channel heli.
There was a breeze and it had a hard time fighting the wind. I brought it back inside before wrecking it.
It will be some time before I will feel comfortable to move up to the high rate on the transmitter, and even longer to change the swashplate.

 

[larry]

They've done wonders with them little helicopters! I still prefer collective pitch, better controls than fixed pitch. CP helicopter prices have come down a lot in the past few years, time for everyone to jump in.

seedjar, have you flown helicopters before? Before you think about doing all these mods, you need to be able to fly a helicopter first, one of the hardest things to do. Simply hovering is way harder than people would imagine.

I have this one, have yet to make it's maiden flight.
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[elgecko]

They've done wonders with them little helicopters! I still prefer collective pitch, better controls than fixed pitch. CP helicopter prices have come down a lot in the past few years, time for everyone to jump in.

This is my first single rotor heli. Once I get the hang of it I hope to get a larger one. Looking at this one.
http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFLH1350

I'm sure I could trash it in a few seconds.

 

[TheFury]

I agree that flying is much harder than folks think. A hands-free hover is only possible with the mSR because of the 45 degree offset flybar. Flybars like that or Bell-Hiller heads make the heli nearly inherently stable. But other helis... I'd compare it to balancing a broom on your nose. You reallyhave to stay on top of it to keep it in one place. Before you move up to a larger CP heli I would definitely recommend investing in a RC simulator like RealFlight or Phoenix and putting in many hours before your first trip to the flying field. After all, a crash on a simulator is free; a crash with a real heli can put you out a hundred bucks in spare parts. And you will crash!