mCPX Exercises

[wdhunt]

So, I'm a quick soldering job away from being ready to fly my mCPX. This is my first collective (with the exception of some very limited sim time), and I am curious what people recommend for exercises to get into the new control characteristics. Anything that you found especially helpful getting started?

[LN400]

The very first thing I would concentrate on is getting that hover as solid as a rock in all upright orientations. With a steady hover, take off and landings will be far far less risky and rock solid, rollovers will be rare if they ever happen at all. One thing to keep in mind during TO and landings is, while a slight forward motion is acceptable, ANY sideways motion when the skids are touching or about to touch the ground is a Big no no. Backwards motion is a no no too (tail rotor pivoting down and hitting the ground) but sideways motion is an absolute no no.

Once you're there, you can take off and land safely and that's when I'd start to look at other exercises.

[Matiac]

That's well and good, but it seems no matter what I try I still get sideways movement. The only time it remains stationary is if I give a touch of left rudder to keep it from spinning clockwise. Sometimes the helicopter will sit still 'til I'm above 2/3 throttle, at which point it'll start it's sideways slide, tried trimming from the radio, and while sometimes it works, sometimes it don't work. Compared to these C.P. helicopters I can fly my 4 Ch. rigs in my sleep, stick movements are MUCH more sensitive with my C.P. rig than ANY 4 Ch. I have...

[Ff6022]

Hello mate I'm quite new to all this but I found there is a complete new ball game to setting these things up. I had an msr and that thing you just picked up and flew, crashed it and went again. With the mcpx make sure all ur servo rods are straight and that the swash is level. Don't eyeball it, use a swash leveller, it should make it more stable and no trimming. If u already done that then I apologise and the extent of my knowledge is out lol. Also 0 ur pitch at mid stick after levelling the swash. Easy enough to do and video on u tube. If u'd like more positive pitch at this point of learning then 0 pitch needs to be lower than mid.

[Whiskers]

Originally Posted by Matiac

That's well and good, but it seems no matter what I try I still get sideways movement. The only time it remains stationary is if I give a touch of left rudder to keep it from spinning clockwise. Sometimes the helicopter will sit still 'til I'm above 2/3 throttle, at which point it'll start it's sideways slide, tried trimming from the radio, and while sometimes it works, sometimes it don't work. Compared to these C.P. helicopters I can fly my 4 Ch. rigs in my sleep, stick movements are MUCH more sensitive with my C.P. rig than ANY 4 Ch. I have...

These little heli's will spin and scoot around on the ground. They will usually spin CCW due to the main rotor torque, so you'll always have to add a little left rudder at take off. Mine also tends to scoot to the right as well. Easiest thing to do is just get it up off the ground (somewhat quickly, but not violently) at least a foot, then work on hovering.

As far as sensitivity, what transmitter are you using? If its the dx4e, start with the "rate" switch on low. If its a dx6i, I can give you my current settings that have it tamed down a good bit.

2/3 throttle is right about where you should be lifting off so that's fine. Also, GET USED TO USING THE THROTTLE HOLD! If you crash, or think you're about to crash, HIT THE HOLD! It will save you a lot of time and money. You'll be less likely to break blades and other parts if the blades are stopped when it falls.

One last note, the best comparison I've heard is this: Flying CP heli's is like trying to balance a marble in the bottom of an upside down bowl. It's always going to want to roll to the sides or forward/backward. So to compensate you constantly have to adjust the bowl to keep it in the middle. Same thing applies, you MUST be on your game watching it constantly and giving slight cyclic inputs. It will not hover by itself more than maybe a second or two. As soon as it starts to drift, you must correct. (I.e. if it starts drifting left, you add a little right cyclic to stop it. But, if that's all you do, it will then continue going right. So you have to a little left cyclic, etc etc etc)

Good luck man. I'm still learning myself but this is what I've gathered thus far. I was ready to give up the first few days and countless sets of blades, but after a few weeks of practice I'm confidently hovering tail in and starting to work on other orientations. So just keep your head up!

[BrettOssman]

+1 on Whiskers reply

I am new and experiencing the same thing. Apparently this hoo by takes a fair amount of patience, dedication and time.

[jackcutrone]

I want to echo what was said earlier. Level the swash first - that will ensure that when you are spooling up the swash is not tilting the blades in some direction which will cause the heli to move in that direction as soon as you apply throttle. Rakon makes a swash levelling tool for about $15 or so, and that is a lot chepaer than repairs. You adjust that by shortening or lengthening the control linkage rods from the servos to the swash.by taking them off the swash and giving clockwise or counterclockwise turns on the black plastic piece that was on the balls on the swash. I read, and it has been my experience that you need to shorten them somewhat from the factory lengths - though that may have changed.

Second, make sure you are at zero pitch at mid-stick. There are videos posted that show at least two different methods. In one, you take out the blades and gently insert toothpicks into the screwhole in the blade grip. When the toothpicks are lined up and vertical, you will be at zero pitch. On the DX6i, you can temporarily set your pitch curves to 50% at quarter, half and three quarters stick which will result in you being at mid-stick when you get anywhere near the halfway point as marked on the TX.

Third, spool up slowly until the tail is at sufficient rpm to counter the motion of the heli body caused by the rotation blades, as noted in a previous post. Once you have steadied it out, lift off rather quickly as someone else pointed out.

Fourth - do NOT use trim initially. Set all your trims at the neutral or centered position. The heli has the AS3X system built in, which is supposed to sense if the heli is tilting and correct it. That is what primarily holds the heli straight and level and if you have added trim, it will just take that as the neutral position to begin with and compensate accordingly. As I said, it is supposed to hold it straight and level, but it only sort of does that, so as another poster pointed out, it still, lilke all CCPM heli's is like trying to balance a marble on top of an upside down rounded bowl. It takes constant attention.

If the swash is leveled and you have zero pitch at midstick (make sure you reset your pitch curve from what I talked about above before you fly), you can probably hover hands off for a period of some seconds at 2/3 or so stick at shoulder height. But it will not take long before you have to add corrections.

Make SMALL corrections with the sticks. This bird is very responsive and you need to avoid overcorrecting,

There are a lot of good posts on Helifreak and other sites about setting up the collective and radio settings. I am attaching a file which shows training settings for the DX6i for the MCPx. As you will see the travel adjust is set way low and D/R's are high with small expo. If you bird is properly set up, this will give you a very docile flight - almost like your MSR. I am also including a blank form in MS Word, which you can use for your own settings.

There is a guy named John Salt in Canada who has a great website - http://www.rchelicopterfun.com/index.html It has a lot of tips and a flight school course in videos accessible on the site. He also sells eBooks about setting up CCPM heli's (which was just revised to include the MCPx) and also leveling the swash. They are great and while it will cost you a few bucks to buy the books, if you get them you might be saving yourself a lot of expense in repairs due to bad set-ups.

If you are going on in the hobby, (join us RC addicts) you will keep spending money. (How you cover that with your spouse is up to you. If I die, do not let my wife sell my heli's for what I told her I paid for them.) There is always money needed for parts for repairs for those crashes that will come - and they will come.) Your next RC investment, if you do not have a programmable radio, is to buy one. (oops - just looked back at your post and swa you have a DX7) You really do need it to get the most out of your MCPx and for larger birds when you move up. I am relatively new too, having gone from the MSR, to the MSRx, to a Blade 400, and most recently to an MCPX. but quickly became addicted.

Next buy ought to be a sim where the crashes don't cost you time and money in repairs.. I use the Phoenix myself but a lot of people use RealFlight. I am not going to get into the debate about which is better, but will point out that with Phoenix your upgrades are free whereas with RealFlight, some of them will cost you.

Finally, as the New Yorker said to the musician when he asked how you get to Carniegie Hall, "practice, practice, practice."

Hope that is helpful and may all your landings be soft.

[wdhunt]

Thanks for everyone's advice. Happily, I've had no serious crashes yet! One other question: with plates level and zero pitch at mid stick, what is a good pitch travel, pitch curve and throttle curve configuration? Also, how do people recommend setting up pitch in hold (50 all the time)?

[jackcutrone]

See the trainer settings on the PDF file I attached to my earlier post. I am also attaching a PDF for 3D flying with the MCPx which were programmed on my TX by the guy who took second place in 3D competition at IRCHA this year, as well as the blank form in MS Word I tried to attach to the original post.

Oops just realized why it didn't appear when I tried to upload it originally. It is in MS Word 2010 and Helifreak will not allow you to upload that file format. So if you want these in MS Word, pm me with your email address and I will send them to you.

Those eBooks by John Salt in my original post. I highly recommend them. Those books will help you not only on the MCPx but on larger birds as you progress in the hobby.