I too think such a guide would be an *excellent* idea and would be happy to write for it, with the caveat that my Spirit experience is still growing, I'm by no means an expert in the Spirit system itself.
I am enjoying my experience with the Spirit so far. I'd like to see it gain more traction in the community, and a guide such as this would be an excellent way to make it easier for pilots in all skill levels to adopt.
It doesn't have to be a "bible", but even a recommended series of parameters to tune, reasons and moves/what-to-look for's would be a huge start.
I've taken a quick stab at this for two parameters, based on my limited experience across a few types of FBL unit and five helis. I've tried to speak in "Spirit Terms". If this would be better put elsewhere, or there's a better place to contribute this kind of content, please let me know.
------- example of two params, head / tail gains ------------
Cyclic Gain (aka: Head Gain)
The first thing we want to do is make sure the heli feels “reasonable” to fly. By “reasonable” we mean:
- Able to be flown comfortably. Not too fast (i.e: it doesn’t react too fast for you) and not sluggish (i.e: you the pilot have sufficient control and feel OK flying it).
We want this so that the remainder of tuning is possible, and so it doesn’t fall out of the sky
Steps:
1) As per manual set main gain to 55%.
2) Lift into a hover and try some basic aileron and elevator movements.
Moves to try:
- General flying
- Aileron stabs
- Elevator stabs
- Rolls / Flips
What to look for:
- Oscillation: if the heli “wobbles” when you stop one of these moves, the gain may be too high. If this is the case, lower gain by 10% and try again.
- <not sure? input needed>
Tail Gain
Now the heli is generally flying OK from an aileron / elevator perspective, we want to ensure the tail responds well. This is defined as:
- When you ask the heli to rotate (via rudder), it does so in a timely manner
- When you return the stick to centre, the heli stops crisply without “sliding” to the stop, and without bouncing at the stop.
First:
- Set Rudder Common Gain to 1.0x
- Set Rudder Gain to 50%
- Ensure Rudder Gain can be changed via Gyro Channel (set under “General” tab of the Spirit software) or if you have no Gyro Channel assigned, setup bank switching, or finally just land and set via Spirit software.
Steps:
- Get into the air, and into a hover, tail in.
- Perform both left & right piro 360 deg stops. Rotate the heli 360 degrees around using the rudder, and finish up back where you started, with the tail facing you again. Try to make the 'stop' as controlled but as fast as possible, but don’t let the rudder “bounce” back to neutral by letting go of the stick, you’ll see false ‘bounce’ behaviour on the tail if you do that.
- Performing both left & right stops is important because you want to ensure you see the SAME behaviour in both directions.
What to look for:
When you quickly return to the rudder neutral position,
- “Slide on stop”: the tail sort of slowly comes to a stop. It slides into place. As though it were moving through a dense liquid. In this case Piro Consistency needs to be increased. Do so in increments of 5 (up to a limit of 190 - at which point stop). If you need > 190 you probably have a mechanical issue that needs sorting out first.
- “Bounce”: the tail bounces before coming to a stop. <help needed here, I haven’t had this happen on Spirit for me yet>
------------------------