SETTING
UP YOUR RADIO -
THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST PAGES ON RADIO SETUPS
Radio set up is extremely important to excel in both sequence and 3D flying.
There are many schools of thought on setting up a radio to fly a giant scale
bird. If you are relatively new to competitive sequence flying and are looking
for a better way to set up your radio to be more competitive, we offer the following
suggestions. Tailor them to your needs as each pilot has his or her own comfort
level developed over their years of flying. The following guidelines will give
you a good starting point.
We hope that you have a good airplane. The better the airplane the better you
look as a pilot. Tournament of Champions (TOC) pilots don't fly 40% aerobatic
airplanes because they are hard to fly. It's because they are the easiest to
fly. The contest is how well the plane is flown, not which pilot overcomes the
poor flying tendencies of their airplane the best. A pilot will score better
with an Extra 260 than with a Cub. It's harder to score well with a plane which
exhibits roll or pitch coupling, pulls out on vertical uplines or downlines,
has a high wing loading, or has little vertical acceleration. A better plane
will make you a better pilot faster.
NOTE: When using 2 receivers on one airplane, have one receiver operate the left aileron, left elevator and throttle (and smoke), and have the second receiver operate the rest. This way if you lose a receiver, you should have enough control to bring the plane in safely.
Theory of radio setup:
1) Different flight modes are a MUST. When you fly in a contest you are not
allowed to practice before your first round. When you do a snap, roll or loop
if you need to hold the sticks in exactly the right spots, you won't find those
spots exactly on the first flight of the day in competition. You won't because
your fingers are stiff, your brain is racing, you're at a new field, you're
hoping you pre-flew your plane correctly though you were interrupted several
times during assembly, the sun is in your eyes, you're not sure of the line,
there's someone else flying at the same time right on line with your plane,
and you aren't warmed up at all. The trick is to flip a switch to get you into
a flight mode and the flight mode is set up so that moving the sticks to full
travel gives the desired effect. For instance, what you want to have happen
is that you flip the switch to snap mode and simply push the sticks to the stops
and release for the perfect snap. If you could set up your radio so that for
each maneuver you just bury the appropriate sticks to the stops for a perfect
maneuver, then you would get all 10's. If you have 8 maneuvers to do, each one
would have it's ideal setup for the perfect maneuver. If you could set up your
radio for each of the 8 maneuvers, you could proceed through the sequence very
easily. But wait, it's even easier than that! Fortunately there are only 3 different
set ups required which cover virtually all sequence maneuvers. Perfect scores
are now just a switch away! (However, flying 3D requires more modes.)
2) Keep flipping of switches to a bare minimum. Flipping a switch requires a
2 step process: flip it on, then flip it off. This may sound simple right now,
but not when you're in competition!! Believe it or not, it's easy to forget
one or the other, or to forget what mode you're in and then how to get to the
mode you want next based on what mode you are in currently especially if you
aren't in your "standard" mode at the time. If that sounds confusing
now, what about when you're heading straight down after a hammer and the next
maneuver is a snap on the horizontal and you have a switch to flip?? Think fast
because the ground is coming up in a hurry and the ground is unforgiving.
3) You will need fewer different modes in lower classes vs. upper classes. The
Basic sequence has fewer maneuvers, no unknown program, no snaps, and no inverted
maneuvers. Take advantage of this by setting up your radio to fly the Basic
maneuvers most easily and don't worry about other maneuvers yet. If you set
your radio up with all the modes to fly Unlimited maneuvers and 3D flight right
off the bat, you will find it very difficult to set up your radio because you
won't know what you need, and there will be so many conditions that you'll become
confused easily and make many mistakes. If you can get away with one mode, then
do it. If you really need another, then add it, but only add a mode if you must.
In Basic you only need two modes, a spin mode (if you have a spin) and a hammer
mode. Otherwise, you only need a hammer mode to do all your flying.
Setting up your radio:
1) Decide if you want to do 3D and Sequence flying with the same airplane: If
you also want to do 3D you will need digital servos for good resolution at small
deflections and high holding torque to avoid flutter when at neutral. Set up
the servo arms and control surface horns for as much deflection as you dare
to fly with. There will be much more stress on the airframe from 3D flying so
use the strongest set up you can obtain. Sequence flying will be done with 10
degrees of elevator, 12 degrees of aileron and 45 degrees of rudder. 3D flying
needs up to 70 degrees of elevator, up to 45 degrees of aileron and up to 50
degrees of rudder (or simply as much as you dare to have).
2) Getting a radio: Get any computer radio from JR/Futaba or anyother manufacturer.
Servos are interchangeable for the most part, but receivers are not. You will
eventually need a high level computer radio because to fly at a high level you
need to tailor a computer program to your plane to fly best. Flight modes, flap
switches, programmable mixing curves and independent control of control surface
motion are required. Some of these features are only available on high level
radios. While you may feel better about your skills because you fly knife edge
without mixing by holding some up elevator and a little opposite aileron because
of pitch and roll coupling to rudder, you are not going to compete with someone
who has a plane which trimmed out using computer mixing. You will have to practice
a lot more to be competitive. Put that practice time to better use by practicing
higher level maneuvers. You don't need the challenge of flying without computer
mixing, you'll have enough of a challenge flying a rolling circle with one roll
per 90 degrees with alternating roll directions in front of thousands of spectators
at TOC knowing you have to nail it perfectly because Chip Hyde just got a 9
on his in the last round without adding the challenge of flying the plane without
computer mixing too. There are no extra points for flying a badly designed,
overweight, out of trim plane with a non-computer radio. Get a good radio with
all the bells and whistles because you are now going to need it.
3) Trimming your plane: First and foremost, go to the NSRCA website and get
their trimming chart and trim out your plane. Go to http://www.nsrca.org then
go to the "Technical" menu, then to "Airplane Trimming".
This will take 70 flights or so. This is extremely important to complete in
it's entirety. During these 70 flights you should start to program your radio.
These items should be done simultaneously or you will waste time. You will be
setting up the maximum throws on the control surfaces when setting up your radio,
and you will be setting the mixing and incidences using the trimming chart.
Doing either the trimming or the radio set up first will require that it be
done again (though it's always much easier the second time). The TBM planes
are designed to fly on course no matter what heading, speed, or attitude. You
will fight less with a good plane than with a poor plane even after proper trimming.
The reason is that trimming is often only good for a certain speed or attitude,
so the less trimming required due to the design of the plane and the weight
of the plane, the wider the range of conditions the mixing will be good for.
An example: Mixing a little down elevator at low throttle may keep the plane
headed straight down if it has a tendency to pull out of vertical down maneuvers
but when doing a hammerhead the down elevator is automatically applied at the
top with unwanted results. Of course if the mixing is low or none is required,
that is the best scenario. You can't do anything about that once you have a
plane and it's built as straight as you can build it. Just trim it out the best
you can and be aware of and manually correct the unwanted characteristics.
4) Level flight: You want to pull a little in level flight and push a little
in inverted flight. As you progress up through the classes you will find yourself
inverted more and more often. You want the same feel upright and inverted.
5) Throttle set up: program a throttle curve so that the movement of the throttle
stick is coordinated with engine rpm. This usually requires a steep curve at
low throttle followed by a plateau to broaden the power band followed by a steep
curve a the end. A curve is especially necessary when using canister mufflers.
6) Elevator Deflection: At full deflection of the elevator the elevator throw
will be greater when pushing than pulling. Also the expo when pushing should
be slightly less when pushing than when pulling. Adjust so that the size of
an inside and an outside loop at full elevator deflection is similar and the
feel is the same around center. You'll need an advanced radio to accomplish
this.
7) Switches for Sequence Flying: Have three conditions for sequence flying (and
use the flap switch for landing). One for snaps, one or spins and one for hammerheads.
After time you will decide which mode you prefer for most flying and you will
adjust your flying for that. I usually fly in snap mode, Dave usually flies
in hammer mode. We both use a three position switch for the three setups. The
mode we both fly in most often is in the center position so we don't have to
flip through one condition to another which may cause the control surfaces to
jump unnecessarily. Avoid using the rate switches individually for the rudder,
aileron and elevators or you will be flipping way too many switches into too
many positions too often. Use flight modes. If you don't have flight modes,
simplify the changes to minimize flipping switches. The key is to set the ATV
limits so that you can push the sticks to the stops and get the desired effect.
a) Snap Mode: At the more advanced levels, more and more snaps are introduced
and are very important to do well for high scores. Set the throws up so that
the plane just barely snaps at the throttle level that you are going to snap
at which is usually about normal straight and level flight speed which is about
70% of full throttle or so. The slower and less "buried" the snap
is, the easier it is to stop it on time. A plane with lighter wings will stop
more quickly. A plane with fast and powerful servos will stop more quickly.
Generally the ailerons move more than normal flying while the elevator and rudder
move less. This will keep the plane on track. The speed at which the plane is
flying changes the amount of throw required. It is best to use elevator to start
the snap to pitch a little, then introduce the aileron and rudder while simultaneously
relaxing the elevator to unload the snap, and then ending the snap by releasing
the rudder just before releasing the ailerons. Vertical up snaps are the most
difficult while vertical down snaps are the easiest. Vertical up snaps use less
or no elevator to break or to snap. Keeping up the speed on vertical up maneuvers
is important so the less speed lost during the maneuver the better. Setting
a plane up to snap in any attitude and over a variety of speeds is difficult
and needs lots of persistence and practice to do correctly. A more forward CG
helps the plane to stop the snap cleanly.
b) Hammer Mode: This can be for normal flying with medium rate ailerons, high
rate rudder with expo about 70%, and elevator relatively low. Hammer by going
vertical at full throttle, then cutting the throttle to idle, and just a second
before the plane stops, move the throttle up 4 clicks above idle and give full
rudder. As the plane has safely rotated, release the rudder to a smaller amount
and bring the throttle to idle.
c) Spin Mode: There aren't many spins in a routine so this mode isn't used often
though I like it for flying rolling circles. This mode should have lower rate
ailerons, medium rate rudder and medium rate elevator. More elevator is needed
to get the airplane to break cleanly. A more forward CG helps to get the plane
to break and to stop the spin cleanly. Again, you want to have the plane just
barely spin so you can stop the rotation on time. No flat spins!! That's a 3D
maneuver.
d) Landing Mode: I use the landing mode switch to raise (not lower) the ailerons
(spoilerons) 8 degrees to decrease lift so that the plane will drop during landing.
The TBM planes are so light that they can easily overshoot the runway, so the
spoilerons help the plane to land. Land in Spin mode to have more elevator throw.
8) Switches for 3D Flying: You may need to have a separate plane called out
for 3D effects as you may not have enough modes to fly all the maneuvers. When
sequence flying use the "vonExtra 260" program; for 3D flying use
the "3D vonExtra 260" program. Try to put some 3D modes into the sequence
program to be able to practice both types of flying without landing. In your
"3D" program, one mode should be for normal flying. This should be
the same set up as your favorite sequence flying mode.
a) Normal 3D Mode: Have high rates on all surfaces with the right amount of
expo so that at small stick movements the surfaces move the same amount whether
in 3D mode or the standard sequence flying mode. This will allow you to fly
in 3D mode somewhat smoothly.
b) Torque Roll Mode: This has high rates on all surfaces with little expo. Only
put it in this mode when already in the TR position as it's hard to fly on the
wing in this mode. This gives lots of control surface travel with little stick
movement to help stay pointing upwards.
c) Flip Mode: Have flaperons which act as flaps (not spoilers) for flips, tight
loops, walls, parachutes which stop abruptly and other maneuvers needing high
lift.
d) Harrier Mode: Have spoilerons which act as spoilers (not flaps) for parachutes
and elevators where you want to drop straight down like a rock with wings level,
to stabilize harriers, or for other maneuvers requiring decreased lift.
9) Throttle set up: Program a throttle curve so that the movement of the throttle
stick is spread out around the range of torque rolling and slow maneuvering
to give more control of minor throttle control movements at just above idle.
This usually requires a plateau to broaden the power band followed by a steep
curve a the end. A curve is especially necessary when using canister mufflers.
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