Vario Huey

Scale: Learning to fly the FlyBarless Head!
Dr Timothy Dawson

Biography
Hello All! My Name is Dr. Timothy Dawson; I'm 44 years old with a Ph.D. in Physics. I have been flying Radio Controlled Aircraft since 1968. Spent about a Year trying to fly a HeliBoy in 1972 with very little success! I did find however with the addition of wheels you could land like an airplane. Then in 1982 I built and Flew a GMP Competitor Pro with Great Success!! What a Difference 10 years made. I flew this Heli for about a year and went back to Aircraft.

Then in November 2001 my wife to be purchased a Vario Benzin trainer for me - WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!! This thing was a blast! I could do nose in Hovers in about a week, Loops by the end of the month!! I felt that I finally had control response that was lacking in the early designs. Although I contribute most of this to the Computer Radio's of today. I started Flying Scale in January 2002 with a Big Carbon Airwolf. This took a lot of practice, as I was not aware of the flying characteristics of a Heavy Helicopter! So I contacted Dave Bottita in Las Vegas for help - He helps me to get the setup correct and flying straight ! What an awakening experience. My Next Scale Helicopter was a Huey 205 Gasser from Vario . I flew this at several competitions with good results but it was lacking a cockpit and the Scale head. I decided to finish it out to look like the Huey my Father flew in during Vietnam. Although this paint job was done with a broom and lasted 3 days I had to immortalize the Huey my deceased father flew in.

Vario Huey in flight

Now for the Fun Stuff - The Flybarless Head!

The Ship:
Vario 205 Benzin, 775mm Blades, Carbon Fiber Torque tube w/ 40 Degree Gearbox turning Stock GRP 110mm Tail Blades. Rotor Speed 1150 to 1200 Rpm's. Total weight; 17 Pounds.

After I was quite comfortable with the setup of the 205 with the Flybar Head I downloaded the Program from my JR10x into my Data Safe on my computer. I removed the Flybar Head and installed the Scale (Semi Flybarless) Head. Made sure that all the pitch settings were correct and that nothing had changed from my original setup.

Day One: My first flight was nothing short of horrifying! The Huey was coming back at me, I had the Elevator stick full forward and NOTHING was happening! I managed to get it level and landed it as soon as possible. I took the ATV's from 60% and moved the Elevator to 100% -- This helped but still not enough control so I went to 125% on both Elevator and Aileron. Well at this stage (3 Hours and counting) I decided to go home and think about it a little before changing anything else.

Dr Tim Dawson with the Huey

Day Two: Well things were a bit easier today as I was able to at least keep it in the air - although it was all over the place!! I landed and checked pitch curves and linkages. Went back into hover and checked head speed - 1150 solid!! Everything looked good but I was having a terrible time hovering this thing.

Day Three: I decided to adjust the Exponential - The Benzin liked 60% so I lowered it to 30% to see if that helped. Refueled and took her up to find that there was substantial improvements !! But, not quite comfortable with control. I landed and lowered the Expo to 10% on Elevator and Aileron only! This helped so I knew I was going in the correct direction so I landed and took more - at Negative 10% Expo!! She flies just like the Flybar Head - I had to play a bit with the throttle and Pitch curves to maintain the 1150 head speed but now she is very comfortable to fly ! I spent the next 4 days fine-tuning and making SMALL changes. Flight time is the only thing that will tell you if your setup is correct and if the ship feels comfortable! There is nothing worse than building a scale ship then Not flying her because she is difficult to fly!!

I have over 300 flights on her now without a mishap! Maintenance is a must and I would recommend that you remove the mechanics from your Scale helicopter at least every 10 flights just to Clean properly and check screws, bolts, nuts, linkage for any damage or cracks. Better to be Safe than sorry for not replacing something that you can not see if it is in the Fuselage!! Remember Blue Loctite is your Friend! Overall time to set up the Flybarless head to fly properly was 12 hours (3 hours a Day for a week) So don't give up because it is a handful - I found if you keep at it and play with settings (Low Hover) till it Feels right that you can Fine tune it to perfection!! Good luck on your project!

UpDate:
With some adjustments to the linkages and swash timing I found I was able to do some major radio changes and achieve a smoother flight! Josef from Airstar international (VARIO) mentioned to me at a meet in Los Angeles that if I Lengthened the linkage from the servos and shortened the linkage to the head that I could move the swash plate a little higher to achieve a little more movement. This only took about the last 3 days at about 3 hours each session but the results were positive! Here are a few photos of the JR10x Programming at this stage.

With these settings and the linkage problem I was not aware of the Huey is
now as gentle as a Trainer is!! Truly a Fine flying machine.

Dr. Timothy Dawson

10X Settings (Click to enlarge)

10X Exponential Settings (Click to enlarge)

10X Pitch Curve (Click to enlarge)

10X Swash Plate Settings (Click to enlarge)

10X Throttle Curve (Click to enlarge)

10X ATV Settings (Click to enlarge)