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Post by robc450 on Oct 18, 2009 21:11:21 GMT -5
I spent about 2 hours at the SportsDome today with the radio control club. All went very well, except for a mid-air collision between my brand new X6 and a styrofoam airplane.
I was trying out the GPS hold feature and it was working very well, even indoors. Then along came a foam airplane that flew into the X6's blades. My first reaction OMG(!!), what followed was amazing.
- the foam plane was shredded.
- the X6 was knocked out of position (about 20').
- then the X6 (still in GPS hold mode) returned to its original pre-impact position all by itself!!
It was an amazing thing to see, but not something I'd want to repeat. Checked out the X6, no damage or marks so I went back to flying.
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Post by Rod Dent on Oct 19, 2009 14:37:45 GMT -5
YIKES Robc.....what a close call....
you were very lucky....Never trust a foamy.....
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Post by robc450 on Oct 21, 2009 18:08:50 GMT -5
I'll have to add something to my X6 to make it more visible and get as far away form "the guys" as possible.
Something like a short piece of orange surveyor tape attached to the landing skids, the fluttering from the downdraft should help. Or maybe a piece of yellow or orange foam (kids water play thing called a noodle) on each landing skid, besides the foam will cushion the landings.
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Post by Rod Dent on Oct 22, 2009 8:50:19 GMT -5
Tried that robc....
Cut foam and wrapped the gears....
Worked great.......
But the downdraft on them cause a severe vibration in the camera mount. Every picture had a blur that I could not compesate for in the camera settings or in post production.
Went back to the skids..
Camera is very sensitive to any additional vibration.
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Post by robc450 on Oct 24, 2009 9:21:55 GMT -5
Thanks for the heads-up about the vibration problem.
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Post by Guest on Oct 25, 2009 22:30:16 GMT -5
Just keep in mind that if you start adding stuff to the helicopter like the foam noodles around the skids, you are increasing wind loading on the aircraft. You want the aircraft to be as slippery as possible sooo.....
It is much better to leave the aircraft as-is and become very comfortable with the LED nav lites, or become very well versed with the Altitude, Airspeed, Heading and Bearing information provided through the TX. All the info you need to help you safely fly the aircraft is displayed right there on the TX.
Don't be in a hurry, never let it out of your sight, be smart, take it slow and over time work your way up flying the heli at greater line-of-sight distances.
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Post by robc450 on Oct 26, 2009 3:26:52 GMT -5
Thanks for the info about wind loading.
I agree that it's better to leave the aircraft as-is. I was only planning to attach the foam noodles when I'm flying indoors with the r/c club. The idea was to increase the X6's visibility, so the other guys can easily spot it and stay away.
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Post by robc450 on Nov 16, 2009 22:36:17 GMT -5
Just thought I'd let you folks know my results from the "foam noodle" experiment...
It turns out that attaching styrofoam noodles (for increased visibility) to the landing skids is NOT a good idea. It turns out that the noodles are very "grippy" on astro-turf and even the slightest horizontal movement when landing or taking off tends to tip the helicopter over. They also add extra "springiness" to the landing gear which makes for a bouncy landing, although it may not bounce as much with a payload attached.
I'll be flying indoors again on Sunday with the r/c club. This time I'll attach small glow sticks to the landing struts (not on the skids - no ground contact). The glow sticks are about 3" long, very thin and very lightweight. I got the idea after seeing little kids with them at Halloween.
The strategy this weekend will be:
- use Alt-Hold not GPS-Hold (so I can get out of the way quickly).
- increase altitude if I see anything approaching since an X6 an climb much faster than their aircraft and the down draft may help push them away.
- bring the wife along (an extra pair of eyes might be handy).
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