Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Helicopters / December 2005

Only because I never bothered with anything smaller than a 60 size bird back
then.  ;-)  Quite frankly, I'd forgotten about it.  It wasn't a model that
was very common in my part of the world although I did see a few of them at
fun flys from time to time.

Well let's see.  Really great advances that come to mind, in no particular
order and probably doesn't begin to cover the full list:

1.  Heading hold gyros
2.  Governors
3.  Computer radios with enough processing power to fly the space shuttle!
Which either say's a LOT for the radios or not much for the space shuttle!
;-)
4.  Modern servos with centering precision beyond our wildest dreams and
more torque than Carter has liver pills!  How's that for dating myself!?
;-)
5.  SIMULATORS!!!  God, I wish I'd have had one of these back when "I" was
learning to hover!  :-(

I firmly believe that these things, along with the overall improvements in
the quality and precision of the model helicopters themselves, has made
learning to fly much, much easier than it was back in 1982 when I bought my
first model.  The added plus to "that" is that we're doing things with model
helicopters that would have been TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE to do 10 to 15 years
ago.

There are a couple of down sides as far as I'm concerned.

1.  People don't learn how to "mechanically" setup the model as well they
should.  We couldn't rely on that fancy radio programming 20 years ago.  We
didn't have it so we "had" to get the mechanics right or the helicopter
didn't fly for long, if at all.  Period!  I've had people on this newsgroup
tell me I'm just an old fart that thinks because I had to learn the hard
way, everyone else should too.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  If
these folks had seen the number of times I had newbie's approach me with a
problem that they just couldn't figure out only to find some "off the wall"
setup after I checked it out, they wouldn't think that.  Understanding the
basic mechanical setups require a fundamental understanding of the rotary
output of the servos and the relationship of throttle to collective to
revolution (tail rotor) mixes, etc.  Having that foundation makes building
and setting up these birds soooooo much easier and you don't get it by
simply plugging in a governor and HH gyro and going out to play, although
you can certainly do that.

2.  Some folks struggle with these computer radios.  They simply don't
understand what the menus and graphs are showing them.  I had one guy call
me, complaining that he just couldn't figure out his new original version
Futaba 7UHP radio and wanted to know if I could help.  This was the first
one I ever saw.  When he got to the house and we turned everything on, I
moved the collective stick from full down to full up, just that one simple
motion.  The swashplate went from full down, to full up, to full down, to
full up, and back to full down again when the stick reached the full up
position.  It turns out that the radio had the standard 5 program points on
collective and throttle, just like the 9C does.  He had the numbers set at,
Point 1 = 0, Point 2 = 100, Point 3 = 0, Point 4 = 100, and Point 5 = 0!!  I
asked him why he'd set it up that way  and he said that he was just playing
with the numbers and this was what he wound up with.  The poor dude simply
didn't understand what the system was showing him.  When I explained the
numbers should start at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100, programmed that in and moved
the collective stick again to show him the difference, the "light" came on
immediately and he was appropriately embarrassed.  ;-)  I've seen many
situations what were more subtle since then but equally hilarious.  :-D

I'm not trying to put anyone down on this one.  It's just something the new
guys have to learn that we didn't have to worry about back then.  And
learning to get the mechanical setups right means that you don't have to do
nearly as much number tweaking in the radios after the fact.  To me, it's
just easier all the way around and I firmly believe that having that
foundation made my transition into the computer radios that much easier.

FWIW! :-)

Fly Safe,
Steve R.

Well, yeah, absolutely.  If the helicopter has "collective," it's got CCPM
(collective / cyclic pitch mixing) one way or the other.

"CCPM" isn't a term that was generally used much in the 1980's.  It didn't
start appearing in common language until "after" they started "mixing" the
for/aft cyclic servo (elevator), the left/right cyclic servo (aileron), and
the collective servo together (electronically) to produce the swashplate
movements that were heretofore produced through mechanical linkages and
"individual" servos.

These days, at least by my experience, the anacronym (sp?) "CCPM" is assumed
to be electronic unless otherwise specified.

The question originally asked by Paul <paul.smith100@tiscali.co.uk> was,
"Does anyone remember a Robbe helicopter from the late 1980's with CCPM
control ?"

Since all of the Schluter/Robbe machines produced in the 1980's, that I know
of anyway, were collective equipped, I assumed he meant eCCPM.  Otherwise,
given that they did have collective, the fact that they'd have CCPM, the
mechanical kind, is a given.

Fly Safe,
Steve R.

Unless you're my boss..  (Oh sh.t, did I say that out loud!?)

Well Ewald Heim designed it, but it was sold as a Robbe heli, although I
doubt they actually had anything to do with it apart from th marketing.

No, just in CCPM form.

 "Never" heard of that either,

The Scout lives on in the Futura. Exactly the same system which was
originally called "System 88". No prizes for guessing which year it was
introduced :-)

Don't we all?