Tail drift?

[Mik]

I was practicing hovering today at work (we have a nicely sheltered sports fields - flying helis is a sport) and after about a minute, the heli (450 sport) had yawed about 30 degrees from it's original orientation with no rudder input.  Not a real problem; I've already figured out which stick controls yaw. 

Back to being serious - is this normal?  Or -for example- does gyro gain need increasing?  Or is something else not quite right?

Mik

[Guy]

Yep up the gain!

[Gareth]

Mik,

Make sure you are in HH mode, i have had a rate gyro that would always drift. As Guy said have a play with the gain.

Gareth

[Mik]

I'm definitely in HH mode, and I've checked it works by manually yawing the heli with throttle hold on.

So I'll up the gain which currently is at 65% on the DX6i.  (In rate mode, it's at 45%)  Gyro is a GP750.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Mik

[Gareth]

I might be wrong but with the DX6I, do you need to be setting the end points on the gear as I know if i use a 6ch RX with the DSX9 i cant set the gyro up in the normal way.

I hope others will come back with more info and say I'm wrong

[rajiboy]

Did it only happen once ? if so check your tail is not sticking, I seen the gyro try and correct a sticking tail slider. As Guy has said, check your gain, make it high enough till the tail fast wags then start to slow bring it back down again, i.e. the wagging stops.

[Mik]

I've set up the end points on the gyro according to the manual, such that the slider doesn't quite hit the stops at full left & full right rudder.  The tail slider doesn't appear to be sticking, it's nice and smooth.

The yaw develops over a period of time, and is only noticable if I've been hovering in one orientation for 30 seconds or so.  From that, and from what I've then read elsewhere, the most likely reason is that the gyro gain is too low.  I initially set it at 65%, and haven't (yet) tried increasing it until I get tail wag, and so experimenting with gyro gain and practicing hovering is what I'll be doing at the field on Sunday.  I'll also have an ammo box containing five charged batteries :-)

Mik

[Guy]

I'll also have an ammo box containing five charged batteries :-)

At last!!!