DIY Network

Radio-Control Helicopters: 3D Stunt Flying From "Radio Control Hobbies" episode RCH-404

With RC helicopters, the power in the fingertips. Or, in this case, the thumbs.

Chris Chianelli, host of DIY's Radio Control Hobbies, visits the Academy of Model Aeronautics in Muncie, Indiana. This is the site for the International Radio Control Helicopter Association (IRCHA) annual Jamboree.

In this segment, Chris introduces the viewer to 3D flying, the highest level of helicopter piloting around. He also meets Zak Johns, 12-year-old ace 3-D helicopter pilot.

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	Zak Johns. Age: 12. Pilot ranking: expert.
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3D Flying: Not Just for Grownups

If you're new to RC helicopters, you may not be familiar with the term "3D flying." That term refers to the highest level of model-helicopter flying and encompasses a variety of amazing aerobatic maneuvers and, in particular, inverted flying. A skilled 3D helicopter-pilot can make an RC model perform feats that a full-scale helicopter could not do.

Chris meets Zak Johns, a 12-year-old 3D pilot who has been flying high-performance helicopters for about a year and a half. Zak successfully demonstrates that age is not a factor when it comes to RC-helicopter flying.

	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

Helicopter Flying: The Basic Controls

RC pilot Jarod Grandso assists Chris in a demonstration on how controls on the radio transmitter translate into the movements and maneuvers of the helicopter.

The right-hand stick (figure A) is called the cyclic. This control feeds in pitch to the fly-bar paddles at a specific area of rotation to make the helicopter go forward or reverse, right or left.

The left hand stick (figure B) controls the yaw, which pushes the tail boom to the right or left. If you move the left stick to the right, the helicopter will yaw to the right, or clockwise. If you move the stick to the left, the helicopter will yaw to the left, or counter-clockwise.

The other controls on the left hand switch is the throttle and collective, which work together. The collective feeds in pitch equally around the entire rotation of the main rotor (figure C). As you add collective, the helicopter goes up. As you pull back on collective, the helicopter goes down.

Those are the basics of how helicopters work. But when it comes to 3D flying, the excitement is in the details.

Figure D

The Science of Helicopter Aerobatics

For the best in excitement, Chris gets a demo from pro helicopter pilot, Jeff Schwartz. Jeff and Chris discuss the Thunder Tiger ®, considered a good helicopter for 3D flying, but also suitable for the beginner RC-helicopter pilot (figure D). It's known as a size-50 machine with a 600 rotor disc -- i.e., the rotor is 600 mm in size.

	Jeff Schwartz

Jeff takes the Thunder Tiger through a series of aerobatic stunts and maneuvers -- with names like side-pitch takeoff, backward hurricane, tick-tock and inverted hover. Using small variations in the transmitter controls, he makes forward and back corrections, right and left corrections and aileron corrections to keep the helicopter under precise control -- allowing it to appear as if it's defying the laws of gravity. He controls the helicopter's altitude through timing, the amount of collective provided and the speed at which he uses cyclic.

One of the most impressive stunts is the inverted hover. For Jeff, the most challenging part of flying in an inverted position is remembering that the controls are reversed -- "up" means "down," and "right" means "left."

The inverted hover, sometimes known as "trimming the grass," is one of the more sophisticated maneuvers in RC-helicopter flying.

In the article that follows, Chris talks with experienced helicopter pilot Jeff Green about the specialized field of scale-model helicopters.

Important: This demonstration shows provides some of the basic information for assembly and operation of these particular radio-control model helicopters. There are variations in assembly for each particular model. Read and carefully follow the manufacturer's instructions that come with yours -- whether it is one of the models featured or another. Thorough information about assembly as well as running, troubleshooting and fine-tuning the model, as well as important safety precautions, can typically be found in the manufacturer's instructions.

RESOURCES :

Special Resources for Radio Control Hobbies, episode 404

Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA)
Muncie, Indiana
Website: www.modelaircraft.org

International Radio Control Helicopter Association (IRCHA)
Website: www.ircha.org

Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC)
Edison, NJ
Website: www.modelrectifier.com

Megatech International
North Bergen, NJ
Website: www.megatech.com