Inverted Helicopter Flight... - What is the Trick?

[Champdriver]

Okay, I have to ask. What is the secret to setting up the Radio and FMS for Inverted Helicopter Flying. I know I have seen pictures of ThreeDee in an inverted Hover, Now I am curious, how is this performed? I hope this starts an interesting discussion on how it's done. Champdriver

[solo]

usually with a Tx that has a facility to change controlls for inverted flight---- can be done without it but not my cup of tea atleast!

[Meldert]

There is no trick to it actually... If your transmitter is set to full movement on the pitch settings there is no problem to give a helicopter model negative pitch in FMS thus allowing the heli to fly upside down.

Just fly the heli and do half a loop and then stay upside down and bring the pitch level down to negative, the heli should now fly upsidedown, remember that this will invert tailrotor input, fore/aft cyclic (elevator) and ofcourse the pitch controls.

In the old days real model heli flyers had a switch that inverted these controls and allowing the pilot to fly the heli as if it were flying as usual but today we just learn to fly without this function and instead "invert" our own inputs. This is easier than having to pull a switch every time you flip your heli around.

In FMS there is no way to adjust the throttle in the heli models, its always full trottel. But in real life there is and ofcourse you have to set your trottel curves (on the tx) right to allow you model heli to fly upsidedown, but i guess you don't have a model heli so i won't try to explain it all...

Btw, you don't have to fly half a loop to get into inferted flight (it's the way of the beginner). You can just flip the heli with the cyclic controls (forward, backwards, left or right) when you in normal hover and at the same time pull down on the pitch so that the heli don't move... In this way you can tumble the heli around and around (in all directions) in the same spot if you want to, and you will, as soon as you get the hang of it...

I have been able to do this with all the heli models i have ever tried in FMS but it is ofcourse easier with a heli model that is made for aerobatics, like the ThreeDee.

Hope that this will help you, remember practice makes perfect... It will probably take some time before you get used to the inverted controls.

Please leave a message here if these instructions helped you to get the hang of it... otherwise i will try to explain it further...

[Rockfist Rogan]

Quote:
"In FMS there is no way to adjust the throttle in the heli models, its always full trottel."

Mine works ok...

I have said this before...a SEARCH would have found it.

Set your channels 5 -8 to the same numbers as the first 4
For instance I have mine set to:

Rudder 4
Elevator 2
(Right stick)
Aileron 1
Throttle 3
(Left stick)
(These are AIRCRAFT settings)

Tail 4
Nick 2
(Right stick)
Roll 1
Pitch 3
(Left stick)
(These are HELICOPTER settings)

Note that only the first 4 blue columns actually move up and down when calibrating. Don't worry about it!

Ticking exp (exponential) can help a LOT with helicopter flying <g>
HTH

RR

[Meldert]

OK, this post is a bit off thread but I have to ask...

I quite don't follow you Rockfist...

First you say that the throttle works, then you state that the helis have the following controls:

Tail 4
Nick 2
Roll 1
Pitch 3

Well, I can't see any throttle among these... You do know that model helis are controlled with atleast five channels, don't you? We use seperate channels for pitch (rotor blade angle) and engine throttle (rotor rpm), otherwise all aerobatics maneuvres wouldn't be possible.

I have tried to set my trottle channel to airplane trottle and my pitch channel to helicopter pitch in FMS but this still doesn't give me throttle controls in the heli models, the trottle i still always at full (the sound stays the same to). This for example makes it impossible to simulate autorotations in FMS.

If you have made it work please tell, but I think you have just missed the part about (collective pitch) helis having two seperate channels for pitch and throttle...

This is the biggest problem with FMS and it means that FMS will never (until this is fixed) be a really good helicopter simulator for people that flies real model helis...

[Rockfist Rogan]

You say: "Well, I can't see any throttle among these... You do know that model helis are controlled with atleast five channels, don't you? We use seperate channels for pitch (rotor blade angle) and engine throttle (rotor rpm), otherwise all aerobatics maneuvres wouldn't be possible.

No, I *didn't* know you need five channels...:0

Although I've been flying real R/C aeroplanes for many years, I've only ever flown a helicopter here, with FMS...

However...just for the #### of it, I just fired up FMS, loaded up ThreeDee and, on my second try, managed to fly it inverted for ten or fifteen seconds before the ground rose up and hit me.

Now, I've NO experience of helicopters at all, but I always assumed the motor ran at a constant speed and one varied the pitch to rise, hover, or fall. This is how I've learned to fly them here.
So darn it! I thought I was just about ready to try the real thing, too!

RR

[bobfre1]

[grampa]

I set op my heli as Rockfist did and simply pulled the throttle all the way down in inverted flight it's that simple

[caysifus]

hello,
I just figured out how to use the dave brown box with the fms. And also figured out how to 3d. The heli named 3d is already setup for inverted hover and inverted flight it does not require any setup.
see my posts in the other interfaces portion of the board.

I imagine that when you use a good tx it flys the way you set it up in your radio. I don't know yet though, I ordered the package from virtualflight. I'll make a post when I get the 8103 hooked up. for now the little 3d bird hovers inverted and flys around inverted very nicely.

As far as how to fly inverted, practice, practice, practice.
There are many approachs just be careful in the beginning when you try it in real time so as not to give yourself a haircut.
Blue Sky's
caysifus@yahoo.com