- Buying
- Starter Package
- Everything you need to keep you busy for the first few months.
- Radios
- More stuff to consider before you buy a(nother) radio.
- Rotor Blades
- A couple thoughts on "3D" versus "FAI/F3C" rotor blades.
- CCPM
- Pros, cons, and snobby opinions (mine) about electronically mixed
swashplate control.
- Exhaust Systems
- Pros and cons for mufflers and tuned pipes.
- Bitching about Futaba's
8U
- Politely, though. There's a bunch of things that bug me
about the Futaba 8U radios, and I finally got around to telling the US
distributor about it.
- The invert
switch
- And why nobody uses it anymore.
- PCM vs PPM
- The
eternal debate in a nutshell. Reasons to hate both technologies, and
reasons to hate radio manufacturers for not making either one of them as
safe as they could be.
- Throttle Servos
- A couple of things to consider before emptying your wallet.
- Wireless Video
-
I've been wanting to try this since before I even got into radio
controlled helicopters. It's got a ways to go, but I'm off to a
decent start.
- Setup
- Basic Setup
- Dozens of things to do after you finish building, and before you start
flying.
- The interconnectedness of
things
- Words failed me, so I created this Java-based thing
that explains many of the relationships between different aspects of a
radio controlled helicopter. It ain't simple, and I ain't even done
yet.
- Flight Modes
- It took
me a couple of months to really understand the purpose of the different
idle-up modes. There's a lot of different ways to set them up, and
hopefully my approach will give you some food for thought.
- Dual rate setup
- There's a dozen ways to do this. All of them are equally
reasonable. My approach is more equal than most.
- Head speed
- Picking
the right head speed can be confusing. Getting the helicopter to keep
that speed all the time can be tedious work. This page might help a
bit.
- Cyclic-to-throttle mixing vs.
electronic governors
- Governors can be nice, but they're not
essential and not always appropriate.
- Main rotor setup
- A
few words on main rotor dynamics. This was inspired by conversations that
followed my quest for more cyclic reponse. The closer you look, the more
complicated it gets.
- Heading Hold and Standard gyro setup.
- The tail rotor servo, tail rotor linkage, tail blades, and gyro all
work together to keep a helicopter stable on the yaw axis. Getting all of
the pieces to work together can be a challenge or pain in the ass,
depending on your circumstances. I've created a couple of documents that
you might find useful, depending on which sort of gyro you're using.
- Mixture adjustment
- This is perhaps the single most frustrating task for novices. I know
it drove me nuts. It will probably drive you nuts too, if it hasn't
already. This page might help. A little.
- Futaba 8UH gyro mode
automation
- Thoughtful reflections upon the harmonious
integration of heading hold gyros and
the Futaba 8UH transmitter.
- More Radio Setup
- Other stuff you can do with an 8U, and probably any other
computer radio with a spare channel or two.
- Hacking Futaba
avionics
- Undocumented parameters in Futaba's GY-501 gyro and
GV-1 governor. Use at your own risk. Let me know if you learn
anything.
- Bitching about OS's
32sx
- The OS 32sx can be a real source of headaches when
installed in a Kyosho Concept. I'm told that's due to the Concept's
inverted engine mounting scheme. Doug Adams developed an air bleed
modification that can go a long ways toward curing the rich idle / lean
midrange problems.
- Vibration
- Different types, and how to get rid of them.
- Static Balancing
- Why it's still helpful to use a 'seesaw' sort of blade balancer to
check spanwise balance
- Calculators
- There's a lot of stuff going on in helicopters that's easier to
understand with a little mathematical assistance. I've done some math so
you won't have to.
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- Flying
- Field Tips
- How not to embarass yourself on the flight line.
- 1, 2, 3, 4 and now to the left,
2, 3, 4...
- Aerobic exercise for your brain. Alan Kait and
Mike Davis put this together, I just put it on the web for your
edification.
-
Aerobatica
- Some aerobatic
food for throught.
- Maneuver List
- I have big
plans for this page. But they will have to wait for better weather.
- The Flip Slip
- Why I'm
not quite satisfied with any gyro I've flown to date.
- Don't do this
- Slow-and-low loop in idle-up-zero, before and after.
- Just do this
- More stuff to keep in mind.
- Full scale 3D
- Finish laughing already, and prepare to be amazed.
- My Stuff
- My Kyosho Concept
SRX
- My first helicopter. Crashes cheap. Does well in drag
races.
- My Robbe Futura
SE
- My second helicopter. Crashes not cheap. Does well in
everything but drag races.
- My Bergen
Intrepid 3D
- My newest helicopter. No web page yet.
- Someone else's
Bergen Observer
- It's a long story, but this is in my garage
for now. No web page for this yet, either.
- A resume of sorts
- I want free stuff. This page clearly explains why the heli
manufacturers and distributors of the world should give me free stuff.
Lots and lots of free stuff.
- Miscellaneous
- Pictures
- These
pictures are getting pretty old...
- Video
- I do
have a lot of video clips that you'll probably
enjoy, though. Corpus Christi Texas, Brooks Oregon, Frys Corner Canada,
and maybe more by the time you read this.
- A Roll-Your-Own Transmitter
Project
- I used the term "Project" rather loosely here, as I'm not
even sure I have what it takes to pull this off. Unless maybe you wanna
help out?
- Contributions
-
Pictures sent to me from various folks with stuff they wanted to
share.
- helicopter exhaust
- How to prepare yourself from the inevitable complaint about about the
flying plant food distribution machine.
- Web Links
- Loads and loads of links to other sites.
- Diary
- Diary, 1996-2000
- No
juicy details about my personal life, just my day-to-day (and more
recently, season-to-season) experiences with radio controlled
helicopters, from the beginning.
- Diary, 2001-present
-
Because the first one was getting way too long.
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