What are your goals to improve your flying skills?

[RTRyder]

One of the things that I have a big problem with is nose-in hovering with unstabilized multirotor craft. I can fly nose in, meaning as long as the craft is moving I have no problem with it facing me, it's only when I stop moving and try to keep it hovering in the same spot it all falls apart, the multis are a LOT less stable than a 90 size heli in that orientation. To a lesser degree I want to get to the point where I feel really confident doing aerobatics on multis, I can do most of it but its always a kind of cross my fingers and hope it all goes well sort of thing.

So my first goal for this flying season is to get the nose-in hovering down and I don't mean with the MK which auto stabilizes, I want to be able to hold a solid nose-in hover with a KK quad. I've already begun practicing with the little 350mm quad at low altitude and its still in one piece, so that's a good start!

The aerobatic stuff is a whole different dimension and I'm going to keep working on that part too, I just need to stock up on props and motors.

So what do the rest of you want to work on this season?

Ken

 

[Bartman]

I'm working on ultra-stable flight in preparation for tweaking my video skills and close in inspection of homes and other structures.

I'd also like to do perfect aileron and point rolls with my 50cc gasser this summer (but that's another story for another website).

 

[Droider]

I am definatly with you there Ken.. nose in hovering to start. I have been trying to do at least a couple of packs a night following Recce2 great flight school.
Get it here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D_neH0ttJiPRXg5Uo8s7U95AD6GwlgP6TMd65LmMGyo/edit?hl=en&pli=1#
I keep skipping bits thinking I can do that but in reality I cannot. My aim for this spring is to be able to hover nose in and fly big circuits both with the nose following the direction of flight and sideways. Sideways so I could fly along side something fliming it as it moves forward.. like a bike.

When the good lady is not in and its windy or dark I use my little Blade mCX2 flying squares around my kitchen and for nose in hover.. better than any sim!

I wonder.. may be this is a bit much for my first season of flying RC

Dave

 

[Droider]

Sorry Bart Newbie dave here what 'Perfect aileron and point rolls'?

 

[Bartman]

sounds great Dave. it doesn't matter if it's your first season, just take it slow and try to take small steps as you add to your skills so you don't lose orientation and crash (like I do, it happens so quickly!).
nose in hovering helps tremendously in ways you don't even realize. all the transitions you go through in flying nose forward (like a plane) are multiples easier when you've spent time just hovering nose in. don't ask me why but it helps a lot.

an aileron roll is when a plane rolls along it's longitudinal (nose to tail) axis. a point roll is when it stops the roll at points throughout the roll. a 4 point roll would be a roll with brief stops at 90, 180, 270, and then at level. They're really tough to do while maintaining a level flight path and while staying on heading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXXm46fjsjc


sorry for the thread drift.
Bart

 

[Droider]

Ahh your talking about a thing with wings.... mmmm might have to put me moderator hat on err!

 

[RTRyder]

Went out back at lunch and ran through a couple battery packs working on nose in and amazingly enough I'm now to the point I can hold the little quad up in the air facing me for a good minute or more before I start to lose it and have to fly around a bit before I can get back to a steady nose in hover. The thing I'm having real difficulty with is SLOWLY rotating in to or out of nose in from/to any other orientation, if it starts to drift I can't quite recalibrate my brain quick enough to catch it. If I just hit the yaw stick hard and spin it around I'm fine, but I want to be be able to do it slow and smooth, that's going to take a lot more battery packs of practice.

I think I'm going to need some new landing gear on the little guy before this is over! It does appear to be able to take some good bounces though...

Ken

 

[Cabe]

I'd like to land when I want to, not when something else decides to spoil the fun (note, none of them have been battery related)

 

[Buzzed]

The biggest problem with flying a multi-rotor is that your stick movements need to be automatic and fluid. If you want to move left and you have to think which stick do I move you're going to get into trouble sooner than later. I recommend practicing on a sim or with a electric heli that can be flown indoors.

During the winter I like to fly and MCX to keep sharp on the sticks. Learn to fly nose in and when you need to move left your hand should immediately be adding the correct input to get you there without forethought. You'll know when it's right.

And have fun flying.

 

[RTRyder]

Its amazing the difference a couple weeks can make. Since I first started this thread I've been spending a lot of time out in the backyard working on nose in on both the 350mm quad and, of all things, the Gaui 330X. The little 350 has a KK controller board and it tends to be very "slippery", it doesn't hold a level hover very well regardless of the orientation and it seems to be a trait of the Kk boards as all three that I have do it to some degree or another. Because of that little quirk it actually made a good trainer for nose in as you have to quickly develop the reflex to counter where it wants to drift towards, took me about a week of every day practice plus a couple props and one motor shaft before I got to the point of being able to hold a steady nose-in hover for most of a battery pack.

Once I had that part down it was time to start doing something with it, then I tried rotating out of nose in to side and tail in and with the tendency for the KK to want to slide off level it proved to be fairly challenging. That was the point that I discovered how much easier it was with the Gaui 330. The Gaui I have is a V1 with the pre-Scorpion motors and once I was able to get the bugs sorted so it was a reliable flyer, it proved to be a very docile and stable platform. One afternoon while I was waiting for batteries to charge for the KK quad I decided to give the Gaui a go and was amazed at how much easier it was to do slow rotations from nose in as well as to actually fly around with the nose pointed towards me. In place piro's, slow circles, and just flying around then stopping in a nose-in hover all fell into place quickly after that.

My latest sessions have been taking off nose-in, rotating slowly to tail in, flying away, going back to nose-in, then doing tight slow circles to both the left and right while trying to maintain altitude and level as best I can. So far I've had one or two bumpy touch downs when it started to get away from me a bit, but no outright crashes or broken parts!

Of course this is all good on cheap little quads that are fairly robust and don't get damaged much when dropping from 6 to 8 feet in the air, it's quite another to do it with a multi $$$$ MK or equivalent with expensive camera gear hanging under it. On the other hand those machines have autolevel, so as long as there's nothing close by to bump into, you can simply let the stick center and it won't fall out of the sky while you regain your composure and control, but there's still a big "pucker factor" when trying something you don't normally do with a multirotor that costs a lot of $.

Now I'm interested to see if my new flying skills with the multis translate back into the heli world, time to dust off the old Trex 450 and give that a go before I risk it on the big gasser.

Ken

 

[whoisthedaddy]

The biggest problem with flying a multi-rotor is that your stick movements need to be automatic and fluid. If you want to move left and you have to think which stick do I move you're going to get into trouble sooner than later. I recommend practicing on a sim or with a electric heli that can be flown indoors.

I've never flown MR (won't be too long hopefully) but I have flown planes (electric, diesel and slope soarers). I learn't to fly on a simulator and my first ever flight was solo. (Good for the adrenaline!). I have only ever written off two aircraft with lessons that are not immediately apparent on a simulator (on the first one I learnt that when heading towards the ground you close the throttle!, on the second I learnt that small servos don't have a lot of torque and the gears strip!). I absolutely agree with you, if you need to think about something it's generally too late, flying models needs to be instinctive which needs practice! (especially when they're coming towards you). I practice (read play!) a lot on Realflight and am awaiting Expansion Pack 8 which has a Quadcopter on it!