Critique my flight

[19trax95]

I just started forward flight on my heli (vigor) and want to see if you guys can spot any bad things I'm doing before they become habit. JR Vigor Forward Flight:

JR Vigor Forward Flight (9 min 25 sec)

[ArchmageAU]

Originally Posted by 19trax95

I just started forward flight on my heli (vigor) and want to see if you guys can spot any bad things I'm doing before they become habit. JR Vigor Forward Flight: JR Vigor Forward Flight - YouTube

Hard to see because of fisheye lens (makes heli a almost a dot in the sky) and looks like sun infront (but high) (puts heli in shadow).

This brings me to a first point. Always try fly with the sun behind you. You will see the heli easier. It's not always possible, but if any chance, move so you are largely between sun and heli (should be able to see your shadow if you look down).

You are nice and smooth on collective, and show great control. Keep that up.

You also fly nice and high (a common problem is flying too low). Stay high and you give yourself time to adjust if things go wrong. Good job.

Turns can use improvement. They are not balanced. Too much tail movement for too little cyclic movement. I can tell you had a head wind that day, but ideally, once you get into forward flight, if you want to try keep the boom level with the ground and the nose pointed wher you are going. (no side slipping).

Cannot see any bad habits at this stage. Slow progress is the best progress as you get more flying (less fixing required).

As you are flying a nitro, you will need to learn to auto rotate eventually. Practice this on the sim. Hopefully you will never need to use it in anger, but having the knowledge may save your heli one day. (and flying high gives you time to auto-rotate if in motor failure occurs).

Good job. Keep it up. Fly with back to sun and work on balancing/coordinating those turns. (also video with a zoom lens instead of a fisheye).

[19trax95]

Yeah the sun does kind of hinder the video. The wind was blowing about a constant 10mph (at least) right towards me.

Unfortunately, the way the feild is set up, I'm only allowed to fly facing one way. I have a good pair of sunglasses so I never lost the heli in the sun. This flight was my 3rd flight of forward flight.

I have a simulator but it's old (real flight g2) so it's not the best obviously, but it sort of works haha.

I forgot to remove the fish eye effect while editing, but unfortunately my only camera other than my phone is the gopro.

So basically when turning, should I keep the heli more level and use the tail to bring it around? I'm sort of turning more like I do with planes I think, as I'm banking with aileron and using elevator to bring the nose up then I add some tail to finish. Also, would it help to go slower?

[ArchmageAU]

Originally Posted by 19trax95

...
So basically when turning, should I keep the heli more level and use the tail to bring it around? I'm sort of turning more like I do with planes I think, as I'm banking with aileron and using elevator to bring the nose up then I add some tail to finish. Also, would it help to go slower?

The slower you go, the more tail input you need. Oddly enough, for turns, it helps to go faster. Slower turns are harder.

So yes, you should turn a bit more like a plane (but not as much bank and yank). A plane has effectively a "rate" mode gyro as the tail is dragged to the point of least resistance. A heli with a heading hold (AVCS) gyro so tail maintains a direction so you MUST steer it or slide into the inside of a banked turn.

If you do go faster ensure you have a "flyout" strategy practiced in the sim. The easiest way to stop a turn is add MORE tail in the way you are going and MORE back elevator (then level the rotor disc).

Have a look at lesson 6 in From tail-in to all 8s and funnels in 6 months. I explain A LOT more on banked turns in there.

[19trax95]

That makes sense. And man, that's one complete guide if I've ever seen one. I will definitely be giving that a full read