Helicopters C

[calgoddard]

I found this information in my notes from the 2012 season:

- - An FAQ and answer currently on the Nationals web site state:

“What is the required orientation of the flat balsa wood disc?

The disc is to be parallel to the rotation of the rotors.” - -

[jander14indoor]

Reminder, NOT OFFICIAL

While I expect the answer to be the same also, previous year FAQs are no longer official as the rules may have changed.
Though they certainly can illuminate the potential answer...
But the exact wording of the rules is critical, small changes can drive a diametrically different answer. So it is only illuminating if the rules did not change.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[daydreamer0023]

I recently found out that my regional tournament would be running this event in a gym with a large amount of girders... :/

In places with girders, do teams traditionally try to fly their copters with full winds to the ceiling of the gym or do they tend to use dewinds to hover near the ceiling? How much would this affect flight times in the second instance?

Sorry, this was a bit similar to my first question, but thanks in advance to anyone who answers!

[bjt4888]

Daydreamer0023,

Sorry to hear about your poor quality regional site. I would suggest that your coach try to contact the organizers to ask them to reconsider. It would be better for the students to have the competition in the hallway outside of the gym. Girders turn a competition into "who's the luckiest", instead of who did the best job of preparing.

Brian T.

[BananaPirate]

hello! I've just started helicopters and have a few questions that I can't seem to find the answers to...

1. How do I determine the maximum number of winds on a rubber motor without just winding until it breaks? We are not sure of how far we can push our rubber.
2. When doing some testing, we consistently had around 25% of our winds left at the end of each run. Does this seem like too much?
3. We are using freedom flight models and we are a bit confused on where the knot of the rubber band is actually supposed to go. In the text instructions, it says center of the motor stick but in the winding diagram, the knot is next to the bottom O-hook. We have tried it both ways but the knot seems to be bumping into the motor stick either way.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[bernard]

hello! I've just started helicopters and have a few questions that I can't seem to find the answers to...

1. How do I determine the maximum number of winds on a rubber motor without just winding until it breaks? We are not sure of how far we can push our rubber.
2. When doing some testing, we consistently had around 25% of our winds left at the end of each run. Does this seem like too much?
3. We are using freedom flight models and we are a bit confused on where the knot of the rubber band is actually supposed to go. In the text instructions, it says center of the motor stick but in the winding diagram, the knot is next to the bottom O-hook. We have tried it both ways but the knot seems to be bumping into the motor stick either way.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1. Wind until it breaks, then expect other motors of similar linear density (or width and length) to perform similarly. Don't wind to 100%, you risk breaking motors and wasting time during competition.
2. Yes.
3. How tightly are you tying the knot and what does the knot look like? A loop tied like a teardrop shape with the knot at one end should not have the knot bump into the motor stick.

[dreamwings]

I'm new to building helicopters and I'm using the freedom flight models. Can someone please explain how to put the ceiling bumper on? The instructions say to glue over the end of the shaft, but I'm not sure if the shaft should still have room to move, or if the bumper is glued to the piano wire. Basically, should the shaft have room to move for the upper rotor, and if so, how should the bumper be attached?
Also, where should the helicopter be flown? Would a flat hallway ceiling work or does the ceiling have to be higher than that (my gym ceiling isn't flat so I can't fly it there)?

Thanks in advance and I'm sorry if this seems like a stupid question (I just really don't know what I'm doing). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[bjt4888]

Bernard,

Could you please remind me how to post a picture in a message on this wiki? I have done this many times before, but I am not seeing the option this year.

Dreamwings,

The shaft slides into the center tube and is bent 90 Degrees (with a small tang bent at another 90 degrees to catch the edge of the little triangles). Hold the shaft snugly in place so that the tang grabs the edge of a triangle in the direction that the rotor wants to turn and apply a couple small ropes of CA glue to the 90 bent over portion of tha shaft that is lying flat on the spar support triangles. Once this CA glue is completely dry, fit the "legs" of the ceiling bumper centered over the shaft by filing space for the bent over portion of the shaft. Double glue both surfaces with duco cement and then attaché with more duco.

I'll attach pictures tomorrow if I can get instructions as to how to attach.

Brian T

[bjt4888]

"...drops of CA glue..."

[BananaPirate]

hello! I've just started helicopters and have a few questions that I can't seem to find the answers to...

1. How do I determine the maximum number of winds on a rubber motor without just winding until it breaks? We are not sure of how far we can push our rubber.
2. When doing some testing, we consistently had around 25% of our winds left at the end of each run. Does this seem like too much?
3. We are using freedom flight models and we are a bit confused on where the knot of the rubber band is actually supposed to go. In the text instructions, it says center of the motor stick but in the winding diagram, the knot is next to the bottom O-hook. We have tried it both ways but the knot seems to be bumping into the motor stick either way.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1. Wind until it breaks, then expect other motors of similar linear density (or width and length) to perform similarly. Don't wind to 100%, you risk breaking motors and wasting time during competition.
2. Yes.
3. How tightly are you tying the knot and what does the knot look like? A loop tied like a teardrop shape with the knot at one end should not have the knot bump into the motor stick.

Is there any way to reduce the number of winds at the end? What does the optimal percentage of winds leftover look like? I kind of feel like this issue may be resolved if we fix the problem of the knot brushing/getting stuck at the motor stick because then the lift generated by the winds at the end will be used better and the heli won't drop. Not sure if that's the case though.

To make it our "knot", we first took the two ends of the rubber and tied them with a single knot. Then we took the remaining tails and made another knot out of that. It seems the knot we have is pretty tight. We pulled on the two ends and cut the tails off after. I'm a bit confused on what you mean by tying the knot into a teardrop shape.