Nice... Pretty guttsy to maiden your heli in the garage! Your going to have fun with this heli Beaver...

 

I was confident that the heli was set up properly, otherwise I would not have attempted flying in the shop. It behaved exactly as I expected it would per my FBL settings.
It was a bit too windy outside today. It's fortunate however, that I wasn't outside and at some altitude when the one way bearing slipped. The thing would have dropped like a brick.

 

Nice to see you finally fly! have you solved that owbearing problem?

 

Yes. Within 5 minutes after the flight, I had the gear out and red Loctite in the hub. No slip whatsoever on the second flight.

 

Whooooooo!!! Adrenaline rush!!!
I went outside in the back yard to fly a bit, and made the mistake of punching full pos collective! Not only did the thing shoot straight up like a rocket possessed, the tail blew out about 270°. I went into panic mode, nearly getting too close to a tree or two, but managed to get back under control. Slight tail wagging in steady hover, I think I may need to reduce tail gain a bit, and definitely shorten the collective throw!!!

 

YEAHHH that's what its all about! Great to hear!!!

Now about your tail issue. You should not get a blowout under full collective. Is the tail wag slow at hover? Like a hunting? or is it a fast wag.. like twitching?

If you lower the gain you may loose even more tail control. This blowout can happen because of many reasons.

Usually - without leaving the ground, turn up your gain on your tail setting so the helli just begins to fast twitch! not slow twitch. Once you see the fast twitch you only have to back it off until there is no twitch. Then try it. You want your tail gain as high as possible. You should be able to punch out fully without any tail blowout...

 

It was a rather fast twitch..... say, 4 or 5 twitches per second, back and forth about 2cm both ways. Not bad, but just enough to be visually annoying. That's why I thought the gain might be just a touch too high. I had the collective stroke set way too long.... full pitch was about 15°..... a wee bit too steep. I have it at about 10° now.

 

Ok ...in that case turn it down for sure. Also double check the frequency of your tail servo - make sure its correct in the gyro. Also make sure that the tail is dead centre when first initializing.

What sort of tail blades are on the heli? what length? If your not getting enough holding slightly bigger blades can help.

Sounds like your enjoying the experience.... merry Christmas!!!

 

The tail had been staying locked in up until I pegged the collective full on that one time with way too much pitch. I'm pretty sure that was most of the problem. Tail blades are stock that came with the kit. Servo setup is correct.

 

Ok... 12 degrees max at this stage I would think...

 

I found a handy little app called ON Protractor that uses screen tilt to measure angles. I went back and double checked the pitch settings from before and after. I was guessing before, but still right on by the measurements, using blades turned 90 degrees on grips for a base line with servos active. Ready for next flight!
I also adjusted the settings in the sim to more closely match my 450, now that I have a better idea how it reacts in reality.

 

Fingers crossed!... Let her rip!!

 

So now you are inducted to the world of collective pitch! I gave you some crash immunitys on this heli. Dont use them all at once! LoL

Thats the beginning of a great time. Its an adrenaline sport. Two days ago I almost lost my 570 in an ailron tic toc pretty close to the ground. I could feel that adrenaline rush shooting from my feet to my head! Aaaaaah! But I saved it.

Keep going!

 

Technically not my first CP. TheNano CPx is collective pitch, but very small and doesn't induce the same heart-pounding experience as the 450 did yesterday.

 

Aaaaaaah..... much better! I think I have the bird dialed-in now. Collective is more manageable, no tail blow-out. Tail wag is down to a barely visible twitch of a few millimeters.
Indoor flight of course..... We had thunderstorms, tornados, heavy rain, high wind, that has turned to near 0° Celsius with now impending freezing rain, sleet, and probably snow to begin tonight...... all in the same day, in the same state!!
No outdoor flying here for a few days.

 

At this moment, water and wind damage.

 

Snow and sleet on the ground, I had to do an indoor flight in the shop. I tried to run a stopwatch app this time, but the screen timed out before the flight was done. Last I saw was around 8:30 minutes, I went a little over another minute before I noticed any power fall-off. I estimate just over 10 minutes.....just past what the phone was set for screen time-out. Exactly what I had planned for. I planned the build based on the heavier 3000mAh packs and mounted ESC in rear of frame to balance CoG, which is exactly neutral. Now to order more of those packs.

 

That is a Long time! Be carefull how many heavy batteries you buy however beaver as you might start to become focused on 3d eventually.... I know i did. Having a huge power to weight ratio is critical for this type of flying. So it sounds as if it is flying well for you? How is the responsiveness and stability?

 

Power to weight is not a problem with this one, based on the reaction when I pegged full collective at 15° pitch. Having dialed it down to 10°, it still has plenty of pop, but is more manageable. Cyclic response is good at the recommended 8° cyclic pitch setting. I have the cyclic agility up at about 50% and 20% Expo. I have it set fast enough that it responds more similar to a NanoCPx, but not so twitchy, and I can still hold a steady hover within a small area. I figured I would be taking a step backward if I set it up too mild. I'll be bumping the settings up a little at a time as I get more acquainted with this 450. That's the nice thing about this Kbar..... I can plug in the iCard and adjust things in mere seconds.