sk-gps basic questions

[J Amo]

Hello all, I was not sure after reading posts if I could use self level and gps bail out
at the same time on two different switches. I would like to fly with 30% self level
and the hard deck bail out on at the same time so if lose control I wouldnt even have to hit a switch. It would recover and climb to the set deck. another words if I am above hard deck I could fly normaly with the gps bail out activated and I would never know
it until I go below hard deck. Is this how it works ?. It is my understanding that the
helicommand needs to have a switch thrown to activate recovery and can only be turned on at the time of need.

[Groucho_]

No, and yes.

You cannot fly with GPS and SL on at the same time.

You can have them assigned to different switches, so that you can choose to fly with three basic modes. Full manual, Self-Levelling, and GPS.

Furthermore, within the GPS mode, you have a number of options, and yes, one of them is what you ask for - You can fly normally above a pre-set altitude, and the GPS will kick in to take control - stabilizing, levelling, climbing and keeping your heli stationary, only when you breach that pre-set altitude.

The GPS manual is available to download from skookum's website.

[filtr]

I just read the instruction and dose not state that you can not have SL on with the GPS. I was hoping myself to have the best of both worlds at the same time. So for new pilots will have to learn what switch does what with all the other stuff that they are learning. I can see overload.

[Xrayted]

I don't see why you couldn't have both running at the same time. SL is a function in the cyclic bank settings. The cyclic bank settings are independent of the GPS settings, no different than cyclic gain, cyclic accel, etc.

If you have SL activated in the bank you are flying in, then the heli should be flying using it regardless of what your GPS settings are. Georgi will have to chime in, but I seem to remember him saying that the SL was part of the GPS rescue function anyway. The two work together to rescue the heli.

This is a quote from page 14 of the GPS manual:
Cyclic and Tail Settings on the SK720
Changes to the cyclic control-rates or self-level modes on the SK-720 should not have any effect on SK-GPS position-hold performance. However, faster control-rates will allow the SK-GPS rescue mode to level out the heli faster.

Page 15 says this, which indicates SL is a needed function as well:
Note that GPS position-hold and rescue modes rely on the SK-720’s sense of level. If the heli has excessive vibration for more than a few seconds, the SK-720 will turn both position-hold and self-level features off.

[s_linste]

I can say for sure that you can run the GPS and SL at the same time, but I have only used pos-hold, never tried "deck" applications since I have it on a photography ship.

[georgi UK]

=] the 2 gps options that would work well for J Amo's requirements are the hard and soft deck versions, these will allow a SL mode heli to be flown above the decks with gps enabled while flying with the usual 720 SL mode,

any problems at the decks will trigger gps rescues, to return to SL flight the gps will need to be switched off, gain some altitude and re-activated again.

all other gps modes take precedence over SL mode, these are in effect SL modes but with enhanced high tech gps additions, flying in SL mode has no effect to these options, it's full time gps mode override.

[Groucho_]

As usual, Georgi explains it best... Nothing new there...