Hello everyone. i have been new to the hobby for a couple of years now. Been flying a trainer and another plane.Yes, I understand I am a novice, but can comprehend information in it"s form. Bought this Osprey just to improve my motor skills as a flyer. Right now I can not get it to hover. I have reread the the manual numerous times to see if I forgot a step. It is an RTF version. Everything works as it should and even went through the initial startup letting the plane initialize. Have I missed something? Please advise. Thnanks, Ken.
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Ken, I have gone through 3 of these planes and 1 of the V22's from Eflite. Please don't misunderstand my bluntness for impoliteness or sarcasm. It is not meant to be anything of the sort.
The V22, especially the Banana one is not what I would call a good model for a "novice" or one to "improve one's motor skills". It has an extremely rudimentary flight controller that cannot react fast enough to the changing flight conditions that such an aircraft exhibits from second to second. The flight controller is also extremely prone to "brain farts", which can easily cause the plane to lose control even without input from the pilot. The tail "EDF" is way too small and also cannot adequately provide the necessary input to stabilize the hover. (The Eflite version of the V22 has a slightly better flight controller but still not up to the task.) OK, having said this as an introduction, the next part of my reply will hopefully help you to be a bit more successful with your V22.
First, the manual tells you very little in the way of making this thing hover or fly as an airplane. Here are some hints:
1. Dial in as much servo travel as your TX will allow for DOWN elevator. This plane needs a lot of "forward" when hovering. This means that when you go into airplane mode, you must also switch to a lower rate and high expo for elevator.
2. Increase your rudder travel also because hovering around requires quite a bit of rudder authority to make it go where you want it to. Rudder is not so important when flying in airplane mode. It can be easily and safely "banked and yanked".
3. When you plug the battery in, make sure the model is sitting on as level a surface as possible. Once powered up, DO NOT touch it, not even to move it to another location or to put the canopy on. Let it sit for at least 20 to 30 seconds.
4. When you are ready to lift off in the location where you want to lift off from, with throttle cut deactivated (live throttle), CYCLE your transition switch RAPIDLY between 10 to 15 full cycles, ending in the hover mode (nacelles in the vertical). The nacelles should oscillate and the motors blip ON/OFF TWICE once you stop flipping the switch. If you do it too slowly, you must start again. NOW, you can lift off.
The above MUST be done each and every battery (power up).
5. NEVER try to fly backwards or to even try to hold position if it means using much back pressure on the elevator stick. This plane does NOT like too much UP stick (rearward vectoring) while in the hover. If you attempt to aggressively stop it from flying forward or to try to hold it from going forward when going WITH the wind, it will have a brain fart, rebel and go crazy. When this begins, your only response is to control the throttle to maintain altitude and let go of all other sticks until the flight controller can come to its senses again, IF it will do it at all. You may try to hold a bit of forward to help it (as you should also do when coming out of airplane mode). Depending on your altitude, wind speed and direction, a crash is likely immanent. About the only time that this plane will hover in position is if it's pointed into the wind and you use forward stick. (In essence, it is flying forward, not actually hovering in place. It's the wind that helps to keep it in place.)
6. When hovering, DO NOT attempt to completely trim out any forward movement of the plane. It must always hover with some reasonable forward motion. Remember that any trim you input during the hover will have a big affect on the aileron/elevator when in airplane mode. Take note of any trim requirements when in airplane mode but DO NOT trim it during this phase of the flight as it will affect the trim when you go back to hover. Do your first transition with lots of altitude but not too far away and learn to throttle down a bit after the transition so it doesn't get away from you. Once you land and you're back at the level bench, remember what trims it needed when flying in airplane mode, especially the elevator. Rotate the nacelles to airplane mode (throttle cut ON) and now manually adjust the aileron/elevator rods to compensate for whatever trim it needed when flying. This may have to be repeated a few times to get it right.
The best way is to just "fly" it when in airplane mode and not to worry about "hands off" flight. This is NOT and will likely NEVER be a "hands off" RC model. If you are adept at transmitter programming, you can use flight modes assigned to the nacelle transition switch so that each type of trim will be remembered in each type of flight. If you are not sure how to do this, perhaps its better if you just leave it alone.
Your best hovering will be done with a bit higher throttle and forward stick (down elevator) and controlling the speed with both. Direct the plane with rudder and aileron to make a smooth, slightly banked hovering turn. Landing will see this plane come in and descend with some forward motion, only to halt the forward motion when it's just a few feet off the ground and ready to touch down.
When RC Informer was promoting this plane for Banana, his flight had one of these brain farts but he was lucky that the plane was up high. In the video he made, he was very surprised and perhaps even shocked about what it did. He could never explain it and he never made another video of it since. Quite frankly, this plane flies you. You just do the best you can to control it. A much better plane in this style is the Eflite Convergence but it too, has idiosyncracies that can't totally be overcome. The best of these types of planes is the Flex Innovations FV31 Cypher, but it is discontinued and it was somewhat expensive.
Here are my last two V-22's: (I still have the coast guard one and fly it from time to time.)
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Hello. I am not offended by your comments at all. They are very well described and informative and I am an older guy in the hobby and was taught to appreciate information. The internet is the bible sometimes. I not looking to fly it like a plane anytime soon. Like I had stated this is an RTF kit with a Microzne transmitter and receiver that came with it and there is nothing that shows transmitter setup at all. It does have the wiring schematic which I followed.The manual just tells you the sequence you have to go through for calibration if needed and so forth. I have gone through these sequencess and can not get vetical lift just standing still. Therfore I will just keep working with it when I have time and I am positive I will get it up in the air to hover. Appreciate everything. Thanks!!Comment
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If it won't lift off the ground, may I suggest that you need to do a throttle calibration. It is likely that the ESC doesn't know where zero and max throttle is. To do this:
You should already know what the sounds are like when you plug in the battery. It goes through some beeps, then to end off, it gives you 4 beeps to say that it has sensed a 4 cell battery. Oddly, although this plane is not a true ducted fan, it does benefit from a high "C" rated battery, something that is at least 50C. To balance this plane, it generally requires something in the neighbourhood of around 4000mah weighing around 400g.
If it still will not get off the ground vertically, I would suggest that your transmitter may be the problem in that it can't impart a full throttle signal to the ESC. It is a very basic transmitter and may not be able to do all the things I mentioned. Here is a link to a video that may help you understand some of the things about your TX:
https://www.bananahobby.com/6-ch-mic...ueryId=3016058
Here is a link to the product page for this model from Banana Hobby. In particular, have a look at all the videos. They contain information that is not in the manual and cover some of the stuff that I've already mentioned:
https://www.bananahobby.com/5-ch-bli...ueryId=3016057
Even when you follow everything that has been published about this plane, it is still a difficult plane to master and fly in comfort.
PS. Nothing wrong with being an "older guy". I myself, am an old guy.Comment
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Appreciate the information again. I did watch a lot of the videos you had suggested and will go ahead and do a throttle calibration. Plug the battery in a wait for the four beeps to end and the move throttle stick up and then back down quickly correct.Comment
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DANGER!!!!Originally posted by whipp822 View Post
No, that's NOT how you do a throttle calibration. If you wait till the 4 beeps your throttle will go to max. That will be very dangerous.
To do a throttle calibration..............................
TX ON with throttle cut off (live throttle). Throttle stick to max. Plug in battery. As soon as you hear the first set of beeps (maybe 1 or 2), then immediately lower throttle to min. If you miss it, DON'T move the throttle, just unplug the battery and start over.
My previous post about the throttle calibration was ONLY to show you what the normal beeps sound like. It was up to you to know how to do the actual throttle calibration and to do that you have to know those beeps so you know how they begin. If you are not sure of how to do it, search YouTube for "throttle calibration" (for RC electric). When messing about with the power, you should always remove the props and blades.Comment
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My apologies. I forgot to add the turn on the TX first part in my post. Also I did download the manual for this ESC also. Will read in over carefully before doing anything. The props are currently not on the plane as I do follow that safety precaution. Thanks!Comment
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The important part that I was trying to alert you to was this ............................................. DO NOT wait for the complete set of beeps. That's too late. The throttle stick must be at max when you plug the plane to power. Pull the throttle down to min after the first short set of beeps (1 or 2 beeps). If you wait too long, you will go into ESC programming mode and that can result in some other really bad things going wrong.Originally posted by whipp822 View PostComment
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Additionally, I have never seen a manual for the ESCs on this airplane, so not sure which one you actually found. Generally, ESC manuals do not cover throttle calibration. This is something that RC pilots must do on their own and learn from others or by searches. Each ESC has it's own particular set of beep tones when initializing, so the beep tones of one brand/type will not be the same as those for another. That's why you must know what the ESC on your plane sounds like first. This plane has 3 ESCs, so when they initialize, you may or may not hear them sound off together. They may be staggered so you must listen carefully. If staggered too much, throttle calibration is extremely difficult.Comment
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l will follow your instructions. I see the three ESC's. Each nacelle has a 30amp and the fan has a 20amp. All of them are Hobbyking Skywalkers. Here is the link for the manual.https://www.himodel.com/manual/SKYWALKER_ESC_Manual_20101220.pdf or you can just type in a search for the ESC. Thanks again!!Comment
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It looks like you have the right manual and it does tell you how to do the calibration. Good on you for finding that.
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I "greatly" appreciated you working on this with me today. Learning things as I move along and I am downloading manuals of every planes ESC for reference in the future. Started that today. I am a member of a local club here near by. I live in Janesville, Wisconsin. My club is about 15 minutes away. We have 90+ members. Great bunch of guys, but sometimes you do not see a lot of them to get information. In the future I will keep you in my hip pocket if I have a question if you do not mind. Always nice to chat with expierenced flyers. Thanks again!!Comment
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I am here. Put your questions in this thread and I'll see it. I'll try my best to help.
I belong to 2 clubs - one with over 120 members and the other with about 2 dozen. This V-22 is a unique airplane, very odd in many ways. Very, very few people have it and nobody at either of my clubs have one nor do any of them understand the how and why it works. They just see it and think it's "neat". Same goes for the Convergence - a couple others have it or have had it. Noone truly understands what makes it tick and why it does so many weird things or why these things are so hard to fly and so easy to crash. There are some things you can do with it and so many things you can't and shouldn't do with it.Comment
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