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15 Using the Self-Leveling / Bailout option
WARNING:
Vibration levels must be low for this feature to work. View
several flight logs in the playback software before enabling self-leveling
to check that the red vibration error message does not appear. Ideally, the
vibration level should stay below 7 during playback.
If you use the SK720’s self-leveling / bailout option, there are a few things to be
aware of:
•
The lower your helicopter’s vibration level, the better it will work. Tune
your helicopter to eliminate excessive vibration and mount your SK720
in a way that isolates it from excessive vibration for best results.
•
Watch for vibration warnings where the LED is green but flickers red.
Self-leveling will be automatically turned off whenever the SK720
displays this LED warning.
•
The maximum speed of recovery to level will only be as high as the
maximum control rate for cyclic.
•
The self-leveling system is not an auto-hover feature. It doesn’t know
about wind or location so the helicopter will still drift if left on its own.
•
The self-leveling feature will work from any orientation, including
upside down. But SK720 will
not
automatically adjust the collective.
You will need to manually adjust the collective during a recovery and
the helicopter may loose significant altitude in the process.
•
If you fly extended periods of 3D stunts, the unit’s sense of “which way
is up” may not be perfect. Be prepared to switch back to normal mode
after the helicopter has mostly recovered.
•
If you manually fly the helicopter in self-leveling mode it will feel like
you are flying a coaxial helicopter. To maneuver, you will have to
continuously hold elevator and aileron controls to overcome the
SK720’s desire to self-level the helicopter.
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Self-leveling is enabled by setting a percentage in the
self-Leveling
field on the
cyclic tabs (see Figure 15.1, below). This value sets how strongly the helicopter
tends to pull itself towards level in elevator and aileron. Set the Self-Leveling
value to a higher value (i.e. 70%) in one of the two cyclic tabs to enable a
“bail-out” switch. Activate the bailout mode by switching to that bank.
Figure 15.1 – SK720 Setup Software
Cyclic
Tabs
CAUTION: Ensure that the Hiller, Damping, and Tail drag component
values are identical between the self-level and normal banks if one bank is to
be used as a bailout mode.
