Stabbing at the Sticks!

I have made some progress in my flying by concentrating on not "Stabbing at the Sticks". I imagine it is a typical newbe behaviour to overcorrect for heli movements. It seems to take a lot of my concentration to restrain my thumbs and not start stabbing.

Now I think I'm ready to start get some practice flying in other orientations other than tail in. I want to start with RADD's and try and correct some more of my bad habits and prevent others from showing up.

Restrain those thumbs!

Curt

Whats the I hear????

PROGRESS!!!! Keep it up!

Keep us updated on your advancements

My backordered AR6100e is on its way from Atlantahobby! The only remaining pieces to arrive are the servos and the ESC programing card. I should have the EXI servos by the end of the week and I think that Xheli shipped out my Raidens also. It will be a race to see which servos make it to the build first. Nuttcaze did you get a chance to work with the EXI servos this weekend?

The ESC programing card and a couple of batteries, 11.1v 2200mah, are coming from Hong Kong so Lord only knows when they will get here. I purchased them through Ebay from JNS.com, anyone do business with them before?

I ordered a couple of those EXI boxes that you pointed out, Nuttcaze. I think my wife will be shortly loosing patience with all my stuff strewen all over the kitchen counter and diningroom table.

Things are starting to come together for the EXI Squadron build! I'm going to try and take it slow and easy and use as many of the videos here as a guide and also the Finlessbob videos on helifreak. Should get me in the ballpark.

Curt

I would strongly recommend flight simulator to fight your stick stabbing problem. FMS (Flight Model Simulator) is free software and it will work with any controller that can be installed as a joystick in Windows. This includes most modern 4 ch transmitters. All you need is an interface cable. Or you can buy a controller with FMS bundled for $20. Can be cheaper then cable and less problems with setup.

I tried the FMS and was not really excited about it. Tryed the Clearview and liked that a lot more. The sim has improved my stick stabbing but, I think some of it comes from the excitement of flying the real bird which can't be reproduced in the sims.

Thanks for your input!

Curt

One thing that has helped me with flying and orentation more than anything else (and this is probably going to sound wierd) is that I try to put myself mentaly inside the heli. That way when the heli needs a correction, I think of that correction in terms of that movement relative to the heli, not the heli's position relative to where I'm standing. In other words if I'm trying to hold a steady left side in hover and the heli begins to move to its right, or away from me, my mind will say left on stick. Otherwise it is easy to pull back on the stick to try to pull the heli back toward me (of course then the heli would be moving to it's right and backward, and now you're really in trouble). I know that sounds dumb, but it works pretty good for me.

Donnie D

cgetman02 wrote:

I tried the FMS and was not really excited about it. Tryed the Clearview and liked that a lot more. The sim has improved my stick stabbing but, I think some of it comes from the excitement of flying the real bird which can't be reproduced in the sims.

Thanks for your input!

Curt

I know what you mean. However repeated practicing of the maneuvers on simulator will let you develop automatic corrective reaction to different situations you will face with real model and will cut on the amount or crashes. Just don't do it all at once. Do it step by step. Do one thing on the sim, get it right, go out and try it for real while your brain still remembers it. Till it's automatic reaction. Then back to sim while your battery is charging :)

Donnie D,

Everyone develops own mental tricks. Whatever works for you. When I was learning to hover sideways, I was just standing facing the same direction as helicopter with my head turned 90 degrees towards it. Then slowly turning my body towards the heli as I was getting some confidence. It worked for me. Unfortunately I am not an owl and my head can't turn 180, so I couldn't use this trick to learn head in hover this way. So I used simulator first.

Yes, I also orient myself to the heli the same way you refer to as well. That also helps me a lot.

Donnie D

And, in fact, I had some real heli training long before I started to fly RC. Like about 100 hours or so in Robinson 22. Can tell you that real helicopters are much easier to fly then models. Orientation is the major problem. Then the real helies are much slower on control inputs. I can tell you, I was sweating much more learning to fly my my first Concept 30 model then real Robinson

Also talking about Concept - it was 30 size gas heli. Heavy as a brick. I wouldn't care less about the wind gusts. With these small electric jobs it's a new level of challenge.

I follow like DD said about trying to place myself inside the heli and it seems to help as long as I remember to do so. I also do the turning thing too and between the two I'm makin some progress, I think.
I just don't know what I'm gonna do when the thing is overhead!!!LOL

Fatdaddy wrote:

... I just don't know what I'm gonna do when the thing is overhead!!!LOL

This is a good tricky situation. You can't judge the attitude. Best thing is to continue with the same control positions without making any abrupt movements till you can see it from the side. If you really stuck hovering overhead, what is really unlikely, you can just move stick forward for a fraction of a second and then return it back to give it some forward movement.

Well Yea Hanol, I really was jokin!! I've had it overhead a couple times now... And I do that verything, in fact, in order for that idea to work you MUST "see it " that way each and every time and angle and position. !!!

Fatdaddy wrote:

Well Yea Hanol, I really was jokin!! I've had it overhead a couple times now... And I do that verything, in fact, in order for that idea to work you MUST "see it " that way each and every time and angle and position. !!!

I wish we had real 3D vision. Like 3 eyeballs. One extra in your butt. If not... we have to use some tricks to compensate for the lack of it :)

Hanol, I see you live pretty close by! Maybe you will be able to join us for the FF in July.
I think Edison is only bout 2 hr.s north of me. Have you given it some thought?

Fatdaddy wrote:

Hanol, I see you live pretty close by! Maybe you will be able to join us for the FF in July.
I think Edison is only bout 2 hr.s north of me. Have you given it some thought?

If I go to your fun-fly, I will have to resurrect my Concept-30 3D that I didn't fly for almost 15 years or so. And I am afraid to fly it now. My last setup is too touchy. It's when I did rolls and loops with it. But there are no parts for it now and I am not as sharp as I used to be back then. Single minor mistake, and this heli will be a history.

Yea I can see where a 15yr. old heli might be tough. So what is your heli of choice now?

Fatdaddy wrote:

Yea I can see where a 15yr. old heli might be tough. So what is your heli of choice now?

I just got E-Sky Douphin a week ago. Just to fool around on the backyard without terrorizing my neighbors with smoke and noise. Ended up with a lot tweaking up that I like as much as flying. But I am going to resurrect my Concept at least for the last final flight. But this thing needs a lot of space to fly. And my club lost the the field. And I can't fly it legally in the parks in our town. :(

Bud your less than 2 hrs from here!!! Bring it down for the FF.. What do you have to loose? Just a couple gal. of gas!!
I got a couple for sale!!! LOL

Fatdaddy wrote:

Bud your less than 2 hrs from here!!! Bring it down for the FF.. What do you have to loose? Just a couple gal. of gas!!
I got a couple for sale!!! LOL

Can be fun. What's the location and date/time? Just give me the zip code for now. I may have other plans (or my wife can have other plans for me ) Also I have to check the batteries. Didn't use the thing in over 15 years. Not sure it will ever start. And talking about starting I have no starter or glow plug batteries.

And perhaps I can combine it with the trip to AC. :)

Yup I'd be on the way to AC!! Zip is 08343
Weekend of July 17

Fatdaddy wrote:

Yup I'd be on the way to AC!! Zip is 08343
Weekend of July 17

See what I can do. Depends on many factors. In case I will come, have your camcorder ready to film a spectacular crash of the historical helicopter.