How-To: Autos

[Finless]

In my opinion all the sims are too easy to auto. The only sim that was accurate was the very old Realflight G2. Thats is what I learned on because it was pretty damn close. After that every sim I have tried the heli seemed to keep head speed to easy and floats too easy, even if you messed up.

Now I am not saying you cant learn them on the sim but don't go out and shoot one thinking you got it down. FOR SURE make sure you can do them on the sim 100% with no mistakes before trying it for real.

Bob

[Hot Air]

Thanks a lot Bob! I'm saving autos for my next challenge. I just did my first ever loops yesterday. I was shaking like crazy but today I did a few more and the nerves have settled down.

[DKS_ONE]

I can do autos from forever away on the sim and land them safely 99% of the time (the other 1% is when I kinda goof off and do something different). I want to do one for real but start off at a couple feet off the deck and just increase that amount a bit at a time. If I can land them quite consistantly on the sim, should I be expecting THAT much of a difference for real? I just wouldn't want to be attempting one and have it feel completely different. Sort of ruins the point of the sim methinks...

[MaSt0RaS]

RaZa can you tell us some things about the Low invert AUtos..

I am doing some but they are not so great...!

Take a look on my video and tell me what is wrong...
This is with my velocity on the Trex 700 and i was thinking it will be easier it wasnt ...
I am doing something wrong

[Rªzª]

Man those are pretty good! The first one looked really sweet especially. The timing on the other two weren't as good, but they were not bad. Looks like you got it just a matter of keeping working at it.

You're further along than I am. I honestly just started for real inverted auto's (decent ones) about a month ago. I'll start getting that low and popping a half flip at the end within the next week or so. It's all about waiting till the last moment in the flair when you still have 0 to +2 degrees of pitch (to build up all the headspeed) then pop it.

[MaSt0RaS]

Originally Posted by Rªzª

Man those are pretty good! The first one looked really sweet especially. The timing on the other two weren't as good, but they were not bad. Looks like you got it just a matter of keeping working at it.

You're further along than I am. I honestly just started for real inverted auto's (decent ones) about a month ago. I'll start getting that low and popping a half flip at the end within the next week or so. It's all about waiting till the last moment in the flair when you still have 0 to +2 degrees of pitch (to build up all the headspeed) then pop it.

I start coming down with 6 or 7 somewhere there with the nose a little down and then i go to 4 , 2 with the blades parralel to the ground and i flip with collecitve and cyclic too...

What do you think??

Thank you..

[Rªzª]

Originally Posted by MaSt0RaS

I start coming down with -6 or -7 somewhere there with the nose a little down and then i go to -4 , -2 with the blades parralel to the ground and i flip with collecitve and cyclic too...

What do you think??

Thank you..

Well with an invert auto you come down with + pitch, but I know what you mean

That sounds great. down to about 2 when you are level with the ground. When you are ready to "pop" give just a tad of negative then immediately to zero pitch as you flip out. As you finish your flip you'll add positive to keep the heli stationary.

[MaSt0RaS]

Originally Posted by Rªzª

Well with an invert auto you come down with + pitch, but I know what you mean

That sounds great. down to about 2 when you are level with the ground. When you are ready to "pop" give just a tad of negative then immediately to zero pitch as you flip out. As you finish your flip you'll add positive to keep the heli stationary.

LoL edited!!!

SOmething i dont know well is when i have to come parrallel...!
One time i did it without coming parralle and i have +6 coming down with the nose a little down and the bird Died i couldnt turn..!

[kouasupra]

Raza, I've been really wanting to TRY autos, but man it's so freaken nerve recking. I get so scare of doing it out on the field that I don't even bother. I can auto pretty decent on the phoenix sim but as finlessbob mention it feels a little to easy. I can't get over the fear of doing one in real life. I feel my helis are just too expensive to risk such a maneuver. Truth be told that my crashes could of been minimize if I knew how to properly auto in real life.

[Rªzª]

how long have you been flying? I didn't start doing real autos until well after a year I started flying.

[kouasupra]

Originally Posted by Rªzª

how long have you been flying? I didn't start doing real autos until well after a year I started flying.

About 5 months now. Do you think that's too early to learn it?

[Rªzª]

Originally Posted by kouasupra

About 5 months now. Do you think that's too early to learn it?

IMHO yeah a bit early. You will get more and more comfortable with flying and your abilities as time goes on. You can force it sometimes, but that sometimes leads to crashes for lack or proper experience.

Just take your time. You'll know when your ready for big autos. For not just be sure to land every time by hitting th. The more comfortable you get with it the more you can play with it and start to take it higher and faster.

[Navigator53]

Jason Krause, no room for error with a 700n

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEq8bk8ctTE[/ame]

Inverted Auto then landing on a table

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC252EXji0s&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

[slamdance]

Just wanted to show off my "humble auto". I think I was inspired by reading all the comments on this string. Not so much all the "pseudo or real theory". Not so much the explanation of the process or steps. That all confused me and eventually inspired me to just do the "opposite" of what I was told. So, I just started to "yank" the stick all over on the simulator. CHeck it. Enjoy

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fazW9mj-JM&hd=1[/ame]

For experienced autoguys, this is more of a fast dive with side lean brake. I finish all my flights with an auto, and I've done this several hundred times now. A few "notched" tail blades and main blades, but no real damage. Thank goodness for belt drive.

[Navigator53]

I think I got lucky yesterday bailing out of 2 auto's in idle up with my 600n.

Both times did some fast piro's after I flipped the Throttle hold switch back off.

So when aborting a practice auto:

1 - We switch back to normal mode .

2 - Then switch TH off?

What should TH pitch curve look like, same as "normal"

So if we're mid stick in idle 1 or 2 to get near zero pitch, should we just leave it about there when switching back to normal to abort an auto then gradually increase power?

Sorry, I looked all thru my Bob videos and couldn't find one on "hold" setup

Mel

Originally Posted by Finless

But depending on how low you got the head speed, bailing out into idle up could cause a boom strike. Like RaZa said, bailing out into normal mode allows you to slowly spool back up.

Bob

[Rªzª]

typically i always tell people to make ALL you pitch curves match. then there will never be any surprises when going from one mode to another.

If you want to bail out in normal mode so you can more slowly spool up i recommend hitting the mode switch to normal mode at the same time you hit th to start your auto...

So when doing an auto you should hit the th switch then immediately hit the mode switch back to normal. Do your auto, but then if you need to to bail out you are already in normal mode so nothing to think about there.

[Navigator53]

Thank you, I'll try that

Practicing these auto's is doing more damage than just going ahead and having the crash

[Finless]

You guys are right I have never done a video on setting up hold. I really should do something on that. RaZa of course in my opinion is 100% correct. The only pitch curve that should not be linear is normal mode. Even then that is for n00bs so they don't drill the heli into the ground when learning to hover in early stages. After that it's a personal choice not to setup normal mode for reduced negative pitch. I still setup normal mode for reduced negative pitch for nitro's as I don't want the rotor to be sucking up dirt from the pad. On a nitro there is no soft start so you HAVE to spool up slowly. Having full negative the rotor sucks dirt up all over your slimey sticky nitro heli. But for all other curves, linear pitch curves is the correct way.

Bob

[klamp]

I tried doing bail-out autos the other day. Maybe it's my ESC (Jazz 40), but it took a long time for my 450 to spool back up. Luckily, I bailed out high enough up that I could recover.

It was also pretty windy. I know you want to be in FF into the wind, but the little thing was having a heck of a time getting any FF. When I hit TH it kind of went from a 45 degree descent to a 1 degree. So, is there such a thing as too much head wind?

[Ironizer]

I don't think so. FF means airspeed, not groundspeed! Airspeed is the speed of the aircraft relative to the air, and groundspeed is its speed relative to the ground. So even if the heli seems to be standing still relative to the ground, there's plenty of airspeed if the wind blows. And translational lift comes from airspeed, not groundspeed.

However, I did have a problem myself with autos and strong winds. 2 weeks ago I was practising autos on my 450, and I did a few really nice ones with soft touchdown, but there were some which didn't go that well. At the last one I lost so much headspeed at 2 meters height that it fell down, and broke the landing gear. And the worst thing is I don't even know what I did wrong, what I did different from the ones that were successful. It was coming down nicely, but it was overshooting a bit, so I wanted to stop any forward movement, so I flared 2 meters high. In the simulator, I can get plenty of headspeed by flaring, and then set it down nicely. But it didn't happen in real life, it seemed that it even cost me headspeed instead of gaining, and I don't know why that is. I swear I'll only do autos in the future when someone is recording it with a camera, so it can be analysed later. Although now I'm somewhat reluctant to try them again. :/