Heli-Max HMXE04 v1.1 - Manual (Page 10)

10
Slowly add power and observe the model. If you feel it
needs trimming, do so before lift off. You will quickly find that
model helicopters never allow you to return the sticks to
center. Simply hold the sticks as needed to keep a steady
hover. Please don’t fight the trim too much as it is a normal
thing to experience, Winds have a large effect on model
helicopters. Please wait for calmer days and slowly work
into windy days.
You will notice the cyclic controls lag behind your inputs.
This is perfectly normal and something you become
accustomed to. It is normal to drift around some in a hover,
until you get used to flying the model. The cyclic controls on
the AXE Mini EP RTF are fairly sensitive so only small
movements are necessary.
Hovering
Once the helicopter is in the air simply try to hold the
helicopter in one spot. This will take some practice and wind
has a big effect on the stability of the helicopter. Be patient
and slowly progress, trying to rush the learning process can
be costly.
Landing
Level the helicopter into a steady hover and slowly decrease
power until the helicopter settles onto the ground.
Basic Maneuvers
Once you are comfortable with hovering at different
orientations and landing, it’s time to move on to more
advanced maneuvers.
Slow Pirouettes – Add a small amount of tail rotor (left or
right) and try rotating the helicopter slightly sideways and
see if you can hold it there. If you become uncomfortable
bring the tail back towards you. Once you are comfortable,
try moving the helicopter to the side and turning back. Then
fly back to the other side in straight lines.
You can try rotating the helicopter around 360 degrees,
which is called a pirouette. The helicopter can drift during
this maneuver so make certain you have plenty of room
when you first start practicing.
After pirouettes it’s time to move onto nose-in hovering. The
best bet is to wait for a calm day. Take off and climb to 15
feet, practice half pirouettes from tail-in to nose-in hovering,
and try to lengthen the delay between transitions. This will
allow you to practice nose-in and still give you a chance to
get out of trouble. As you improve you’ll remain nose-in for
longer periods of time.
Now it’s time to work into basic forward flight. Just take the
basic hovering maneuvers listed above and slowly fly out
farther and faster and always bring the helicopter back after
one pass. Practice controlled slow flight in close as well. The
more time you spend practicing here the easier things will
be later on.
Aerobatics
So you are getting comfortable in fast forward flight? Well,
now it’s time to slowly progress into aerobatics. Once you
are in forward flight start using the idle up switch which
raises the rotor RPM for aerobatics and allows the AXE Mini
EP RTF to fly inverted. Also, in wind it may be difficult to
descend to land without the idle up on.
Your first step is chandelles. Fly straight across in front of
you and pull up to a 45° angle. Now at the top, when the
helicopter slows down to a stop, apply some tail rotor to
bring the nose around 180 degrees and continue back down
the 45° angle.
As you progress with the maneuver you can pull a greater
angle than 45 degrees, but 90 degrees would be considered
a stall.
Loops – Once you become comfortable with the chandelles
and stall turns it’s time to move onto the loop. The key to the
loop is to enter with plenty of speed. Start pulling aft cyclic
to enter the loop and as the model transitions to inverted at
the top of the loop pull back on the throttle (towards negative
(-) collective) this will help maintain altitude. As the model
returns back to vertical add some positive (+) collective to
maintain the speed. One of the most common mistakes
made on loops is using too much negative (-) collective at
the top.
Flips – These are a lot easier than they sound. Be certain to
start with plenty of altitude. From a upright hover slowly add in
full forward cyclic and as the model approaches vertical bring
the collective stick back to center. Now as the model continues
to inverted you will need to start adding in negative (-)
collective (or pull the collective stick back towards yourself). As
the model transitions back to vertical again bring the collective
stick back to the middle and start adding in positive (+)
collective as the model comes back to upright.
It’s simply a matter of timing. The most important thing is not
to throw the sticks around as this can cause the head speed
to drop and may cause the tail to drift.
Inverted Hovering – Keep in mind flying a helicopter inverted
is very difficult but can be learned. One of the key problems is
3 out of 4 of the controls are reversed (forward/aft cyclic,
collective and tail rotor). You have to mentally reverse these
while flying. It will take some practice.
Take the loop you learned above and just hold the inverted
portion for short periods of time. As you become accustomed
to the reversed controls, you will extend the time inverted. It is
very difficult and will take some practice. Also, make sure you
have plenty of altitude for recovery if needed.