OT: Air Hog helo's

On the larger R/C helicopters there is a flybar and paddles. They call it a Bell-Hiller control system or something similar. Bell used the gyroscopic stabilizer bar arangment and Hiller had the paddles. I think the air hogs heli's are designed so that the flybar will respond to movement in the air and control the main blades to tilt in the opposite direction. In other words, instead of tilting in some direction and flying that direction, it will always try to hover.

I've been playing with / flying R/C Helicopters for many years. It's amazing that the Air Hogs heli's can get a rechargable battery, main and tail rotor motors, speed controls for both motors, and an electronic gyroscope for the tail all in such a small light weight package for an affordable price.

One of my recent model helicopter purchases is a E-Flight Blade 400.

I can't fly like they do in the video but it gives you an idea how far they have come to get this kind of power to weight ration in a battery powered model.

RogerN

top rotor with

arrangement

rotor torque.

Oh crap! Now I gotta forget about the Airhog I was thinking about. Now my bar has been raised, dammit.

I bought two of them for the kids and grandkids to play with when they come to visit about a year ago. The kids had a lot of fun with them. We didn't have any trouble flying two at a time. When the big kids (my grown sons) took them outdoors, they broke some rotor parts. The company wouldn't sell parts. You had to buy a whole new machine. Kinda took the fun out of it. The 2 extra rotor blades that come the set don't last too long either.

A few months later, one kid arrived with a different brand. It was much more docile. Don't remember its name.

Pete Stanaitis

--------------------------------

Wes wrote:

top rotor with

arrangement

rotor torque.

Well, I didn't see that both were on same channel when I bought them. At least they will last longer since they can't practice air combat ;)

I see amazon sells replacement parts for these now.

Wes

top rotor with

arrangement

rotor torque.

rec.models.rc.air is a nice group, if underpopulated. They'd welcome your questions and comments.

(Not that it isn't nice to see them here, mind, just that you may address a larger group of RC heli flyers there).

top rotor with

If you spin it up at eye level (wearing safety glasses naturally) and tilt it, you will see that there's a very long time constant (several seconds) as the flywheel responds to the new attitude. Before that is exhausted, it would exert a restoring force.

Things have come quite far in the last few years in terms of increasing capability and stability and falling prices. The hobby grade ready to fly helicopters are much, much better - in particular they have two servo cyclic controls so that you can move horizontally in any direction, and they have a mems gyro to keep the tail from spinning except when you want it to.

The Blade mCX by eflight is a good recent example - flying weight of about an ounce, stable coaxial dual rotor head, full four channel control, price is the same online or in a store and parts are inexpensive and available. There's a cheaper small coaxial from china by Walkera (who also makes harder to fly models) but that is only available from small online vendors.

things things

I'll be checking that out. Watching RogerN's link to an more capable electric helo has me wanting a new toy. I have not played with rc in years last being a glider.

Thanks,

Wes

Thank you!

I was impressed by the level of sophistication in a 25 dollar walmart toy. Maybe this electic car stuff may actually work some day.

That was fun to watch.

It was an impressive display.

My late father in law built a RC helo that used a small internal combustion engine. Blood sucker husband of his daughter claimed it before the body cooled and promptly crashed and discarded it. I always wanted to try to fly it but the father in law never mastered it and I sure didn't want to be responsible for breaking it.

I was running out of toys to buy. I think I found another. :)

No, I'm not changing my handle to Too Many Toys ;)

Wes

Eflight makes some good stuff, but it's probably better for the new pilot to start with one of their more self-stable coaxial rotor ships such as the CX2 or mCX. These will crash less and (especially the smaller/lighter one) suffer less damage. Simulators should also be considered before taking on a tail-rotor heli.

engine. Blood

crashed and

There are never too many tools or toys. Only those who are not enough man to own them.

And for the cost of a bit more bandwidth, it's even more fun to watch at high quality:

The larger heli's are a lot easier to fly than the smaller ones of the same type. I bought my son an eFlight Blade CX2. It's real stable indoors or outdoors in no wind, but if there is a little wind I have to hold full cyclic control just to maintain a hover.

The link I sent with the video was an eFlight Blade 400. It comes fully assembled ready to fly, I bought mine at a local hobby shop for $420. Comes with a computer radio that is great, the heli has a brushless motor, lithium battery, cell balancing charger, and even AA batteries for the transmitter. As you can see in the video, it is very responsive and can get away from you in a hurry. The parts are available and the heli is a lot cheaper to repair than the larger ones. A crash on the Blade 400 might cost $20 and an equivalent crash on a larger heli might cost $50+.

The larger glow fuel powered heli's are a lot easier to fly. Just imagine wind hitting a 1 lb helicopter vs wind hitting a 11 lb helicopter. The larger heli having more mass responds slower to a slight force giving you more time to respond.

I guess to relate it to metal working, it would be like comparing a sherline lathe with a larger heavier cast iron lathe.

RogerN

Which simulators would you recommend I look at?

Wes

Well FMS is free but it wouldn't run on my computer so I gave up on that.

Realflight is pricey but the demo did run, so I bought that. The demo gives you a good idea of the graphics and capability, but it seems you have to fly with the keyboard. The real version comes with a USB transmitter thingy. Also, while I'm not overly impressed with the quality of the Axe EZ coax heli (my first purchase), I've seen that heli packaged with real flight in a combo deal at a very good price.

There are some others simulators out there at intermediate prices, too.

Thank you for your comments. It has given me a bit of insight into this. Since winter is long I'll do my research on this since my RC knowledge is very outdated.

I'll likely start out with an electric.

Wes

Here's some of my links for info, kits, and parts, etc.

I haven't bought from the following but they looked interesting. RogerN

I found a low priced simulator here:

There's a video on the page so you can see it in action. Doesn't look to bad.

RogerN

I got it to run but only the airplanes like my joystick. USB Satek St290. Flying by keyboard is not realistic.

Wish it was open source, I'd take a stab at figuring out the problem.

Wes

I wish FMS were, too, as maybe I could figure out why it's crashing on startup for me. RealFlight is expensive enough that if FMS looks good, it could be worth investing a bit in a compatible controller. I think there are USB cables you can get that plug into the trainer jack on an R/C controller. You might also be able to use a playstation controller - at any rate, you want two stick for a heli, and you really don't want a spring on the throttle, so something cheap enough to be willing to take apart and modify could be good.