Carbon club start up procedure

[Traveling Man]

Can someone familiar with this AC list out the correct process of getting ready to fly, up to take off. The manual is somewhat weird. Below is what I 'think' are the correct steps. If some are unnecessary can that be pointed out. It seems a lot.

step 1 Install battery (no connect) and do CG check
step 2 connect battery do a control direction test disconnect battery
step 3 Connect battery do a Range Test disconnect battery
step 4 Connect battery calibrate compass disconnect
step 5 Connect battery set virtual fence disconnect
step 6 Connect battery, set home location
step 7 Take off
step 8 land in one piece 😅

it seems a very onerous procedure, especially disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. I am sure there is a more fluid procedure.

really appreciate the wisdom of those more experienced. TIA.

doug

[F22trainer]

Remove the propeller after balancing on a jig.
follow the directions for binding and watch for the indications from the flight controller moving the surfaces during start up.
Watch the videos on UToob- several are spot on.
Now, before you go fly, get someone that knows the airplane and the systems - not just an experienced RC pilot.
If not possible - watch more of the videos and practice “chair flying’. I would leave the virtual fence OFF. And forget about the auto land and hold functions.
Fly it in Beginner Mode - I taught an 8 year old to takeoff and land on his 2nd Flight.

You really need to flow the directions and get comfortable with the power up and initialization before you THInK about flying it, and seriously - get knowledgeable help.:Cool:

[Traveling Man]

Getting the help is what I am trying to do. 😂 went to a club on Sunday, none of them would help me, because the transmitter is mode 2 and they are all mode 1. So that's why I am here.

when you say 'flow' the directions, that was the purpose of my list. But still not sure if that is actually the correct flow process.

[Steelon Steel]

I am a newb myself. That is the plane I chose too.

it is frustrating! More technology than one can intake all at once. The fire hose effect. Even though I read the manual I didn’t retain all of it but worked in training modules.

Your steps sound correct for the first flight but later flights you can drop the compass calibration and airfield modes if you fly from the same field. It remembers them. Well it is supposed to.

On the second flight, turn on transmitter (throttle disarmed), install battery, check cg, plug in battery, rotate upright and let it sit still while the gps finds itself. I do this in the pilot area on a stand. Once it is found, I walk it to the flight Line and hit bind which sets the location home. If you are in flight line protection mode, you must hit an airleron direction to indicate which side is the flying area and which side is the safety area.

Even though these are digital keep to the practice of turning on your transmitter before the plane unless you are following some programming steps. I thought it was not likely to out of control throttle up. I was wrong. Last night juggling my plane and transmitter while trying to swipe at mosquitos I managed to turn my transmitter off. Plane immediately went to full throttle. Turning the transmitter back on and checking the throttle position (it was down) and cycling the throttle disarm 2 position switch didn’t help. Apparently it thought it needed to climb out of something. Pulling the battery was the remedy. Next battery installed and all was normal.

Also i suggest if you start on out on beginner mode 0, and get frustrated with the control limits and switch from Lo rate to Hi rate, do switch back to Lo rate when you move to mode 1, the intermediate skill mode. Hi rate is very responsive, too responsive, on mode 1.

My next change up is going from the Dxe box to my new Dx8. I programmed that but haven’t bound to the plane yet. Programming that was another tech job. YouTube to the rescue.

Good luck from one newb to another.


ETA, at my club, the guys are helpful but had no experience with SAFE tech. Most knew AS3X. I thought everyone flew planes in transmitter mode 2 set up. Is that a European thing?

ps if you use the autoland be careful. Read the directions at least three times! (I didn’t and used glue because of it). Only about one in four auto landings were satisfactory. When you engage autoland put your throttle to 3/4. At this point it is your upper limit for the computer. Set it too low and it will come in short and probably nose over and wrinkle your rudder. Don’t ask me how I know. Your elevator controls now become your manual throttle adjuster. Up elevator will increase the throttle to stretch out the landing, say for a bit of headwind. Lowering your elevator control will decrease your throttle to increase your sink rate. Confusing! My plane damage was done on autoland! Hit the grass short of our geotex fabric runway and flopped right over the nose bashing the tail. First time I cracked it partially and glued it. Another outing after rereading the instructions and giving it a second chance it snapped off above my glue joint. Again, planted short of the runway on autoland.

what I don’t like about elevator being a landing throttle tuner is it inhibits my flare out and my use of full up elevator to hold the tail down to prevent a nose over. You can engage autoland, let it set up the approach, hit the bind button again and turn off the autoland and ease it in yourself. I recommend that.

[Traveling Man]

Steelon Steel,

thanks, that's the clearest and most complete explanation to date. Explains everything perfectly. Thanks also for the tips on autoland. I will beat that in mind.

I was surprised re the mode 2 issue, I am in Australia and from what the bloke said mode 1 is more common. Yet drones are almost all mode 2 here. He reckons he flies drones mode 2 and planes mode 1. That would do my head in I reckon. I will stick to mode 2.

once again thanks.

[Steelon Steel]

Certainly. I am glad to offer what little help I can as a newb.

Happy flying Traveling Man!

[Steelon Steel]

Also on landing without flaps you want to make a realistic approach not a steep stol approach because as set up it will glide too much for that. You can chop the throttle and glide but the glide ratio is generous to make it stol like. I have yet to get this sucker to stall on landing, not that I want to. Trying to come in too high even with the throttle off I tend to overshoot the runway. The down elevator control is pretty limited as you can see when you do you servo checks. Which is reasonable in a beginner’s airplane. I might add in some travel using my Dx8. For now I use a lot of side slipping to reduce altitude on approach if I am high.

By realistic approach I mean have her ten feet or so off the deck some 40-50 yards out. The SAFE tech might pop you up to fifty feet altitude if you do it too far out.


wish me luck, I am going to bind the Dx8 to the cub today.


ETA. I had issues getting a working throttle after the bind. I put in a tech helpline call to Horizon. I started to make a second setup for it in the Dx8 and Sean, their tech, called back and walked me through the set up in the second named memory slot. Not sure where I went wrong and would have to compare the two before I delete the bad original.

[F22trainer]

There are also several other threads on here which discuss some of the control limits when using SAFE modes. Whenever you use two controls simultaneously,like elevator and rudder during takeoff, the lateral control limit is reduced to prevent over control. Meaning if you are trying to use the proper technique for a crosswind takeoff - the rudder won’t provide sufficient directional control.
while I did use the SAFE system and auto land, it was mostly just to see if it work and for demonstrating to he non believers. It always made the runway and came to a stop, but twice it nudged to a stop into the fence. No damage. Now, all of the original radio and gps is in a box. A Spektrum 6 channel in its place. Hi and lo rates + some modified flap settings with down elevator and it is more fun than ever without all the garbage. I also made decent aluminum struts. He wood prop is also a cool touch but the stock propeller works better in flight. She found terra firmamhard a few times but still looks and flies great with a 2200mAh battery for about 15 minutes for touch and goes or cruising 10 minutes doing aerobatics.

[Steelon Steel]

i just copied what another owner did. I drilled holes in the strut fairings and secured them with zip ties. I hadn’t put them on until now.

I am am going to the club to test things out. I am also going to be testing the APC prop. I put the same size and pitch on. It is stiffer so we will see what it delivers. I had to drill out the fitting ring insert on the back of the prop.


TM,

I will have to go through the whole programming with compass calibration again with the new transmitter bind. Yay me.

[F22trainer]

https://youtu.be/IUlXT5TCIyE

[Steelon Steel]

There are also several other threads on here which discuss some of the control limits when using SAFE modes. Whenever you use two controls simultaneously,like elevator and rudder during takeoff, the lateral control limit is reduced to prevent over control. Meaning if you are trying to use the proper technique for a crosswind takeoff - the rudder won’t provide sufficient directional control.
while I did use the SAFE system and auto land, it was mostly just to see if it work and for demonstrating to he non believers. It always made the runway and came to a stop, but twice it nudged to a stop into the fence. No damage. Now, all of the original radio and gps is in a box. A Spektrum 6 channel in its place. Hi and lo rates + some modified flap settings with down elevator and it is more fun than ever without all the garbage. I also made decent aluminum struts. He wood prop is also a cool touch but the stock propeller works better in flight. She found terra firmamhard a few times but still looks and flies great with a 2200mAh battery for about 15 minutes for touch and goes or cruising 10 minutes doing aerobatics.

+1

i had a lot more fun not running into electric fencing. Two nights ago my GPS got wonky and had the right half of the landing strip behind a fence. I landed with a well adjusted approach using the far edge of the strip. I picked up my bird and the throttle went to full. That was the second time the throttle went wild on the ground, the first time was while trying to separate the EC3 connectors on the bench in the prep area, (throttle disarm switch cut and throttle down, cycling the cut switch did nothing so I figure the SAFE tech took control)

My coach, Steve, was not liking SAFE tech. I wasn’t too thrilled either. I guess my teenage years getting all shot up in combat sims and insisting on landing it with half my controls gone or rudder jammed and not hitting reset was good practice to think about what is working.

Yesterday i recalibrated the compass and turned off all the airfield limit modes. Before that it seemed like my circle was shrinking. My original DXe transmitter batteries had some miles on them but were range testing fine. I believe I turned off my fencing before but the setting seemed to jump to the big circle. When I changed to the Dx8 and did the bind it went to airfield fence. I turned it off yesterday and got to enjoy some flying without feeling I was in a box.

i also reached out to Horizon tech support and described my wandering GPS and fence issue and they are dropping a new GPS unit in the mail.

[F22trainer]

Actually, best thing to do is rip out all the existing and put in a basic 6 channel - thanks Tired Iron - and put all the GPS in a box. You only need 4 channels if you don’t want flap option.