I learned to fly before these were available, so I have never even used an auto bailout. I have some mixed feelings about bailouts anyway. Like...will it become a "crutch" to lean on, and make me lazy and unable to actually fly myself out of a sticky situation? Like you mentioned...will it end up causing a crash instead of preventing it? Or worse...what if it is not set correctly, or does not initialize properly on start up ..and causes the helicopter to go into the spectator area at an event.

I did witness a fellow pilot save his Goblin 500 twice with the auto level in the IKON, but I hope he does not start relying too much on it and forget how to fly out of bad situations. I guess I am just a firm believer in learning to fly my helicopter, rather than relying on my electronics to do it for me. Just my two cents.

 

I bought an Ikon/brain with the idea that the self level would save me.. never used it.. and don't even have it enabled any more

 

I know a bloke who heavily rely's on it. He flies it on a nitro model that suffers from some sort of vibration. When he flicks the bailout the Heli would dive to the left. I have never had one and would may try if on a 450


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Are you talking about me?
Simon

 

Ha, no mate.
Your models don't vibrate

 

There's quite the discussion at my field about what constitutes a bailout system. Most agree the auto-level on the IKON/Brain doesn't count. I bought a Brain for the auto-level but haven't used it yet. One of my flying buddies has the Demon with the Bailout. He hasn't used it yet but does practice hitting it. It's pretty cool to see the heli level and gain altitude.

 

I have had a helicommand HC3-SX on TRex600 since I started flying again.
I very quickly (after 10 flights) completely stopped using the self leveling as even on the lowest (adjustable) setting the leveling was annoying.
The bailout feature (or momentary self level) has saved me from Crash when learning orientations.
When losing orientation, going level & gaining some height (momentary/trainer switch) gave me some time to work out where I was.
This allowed me to push a bit harder on moves that I had practiced in the sim, but was having issues translating into real life..
How many people have given up because they lost confidence or did not want to push themselves because they could not afford to crash?
Now that I have more confidence/skills my other heli's have vbars with no bailout..

Some points I learnt..
If you plan on using it, you should practice/test using it..
You need to understand what it will and will NOT do.
It will not save you if you don't active it or could not save it in the first place (ie momentum)
It probably will not save you from a mechanical issue.
It will only keep the model flying level as it was, if you have momentum it will keep going in the same direction!
If you do not have control of the model & it is heading towards something fast, the ground does not feel pain or bleed.

With the above in mind, I have once deliberately chosen not to bailout.
Throttle hold & trying to save it, still impacted the ground just outside the "safety" limit.

Or allow you to (safely) get into the situation again, and try to learn how to get out of it..
I'm sure in a (good) club situation, if someone was repeatedly making the same mistake and using bailout, another member would step in & help that person.

For those who call it a crutch, what do you call a sim?
A wheelchair?
I'm sure there are a few "old-timers" who scoffed at heading hold gyro's instead of revo-mixing and computer games
(Apologies to those who have to use a wheelchair!)
Both have their place & uses, and kudos to those who did not need this help.
If it bring more ppls into the hobby.. then it can only be a good thing if they progress past the $40 co-ax..

Yak.

 

First of all...I was speaking strictly for myself ,and myself alone. Not once did I say it was a bad thing or that it should not be used by anyone. If you feel you need to use a bailout or an auto level to help you learn to fly, then by all means...use it. I choose not to.

 

Yak is not having a go at people that don't use bail out at all. If I can distill @Yak 's thesis in to a sentence it would be :" Bailout systems can help pilots to learn new moves, know their limitations, every pilot should make their own decision to / not to fly one and mutual respect to all ". I think I encapsulated your general idea Yak? If that's hat you were saying I agree.
Simon

 

For you seasoned pilots who put the hard Yakka into learning the old way . Well Done! I think technology will in the future include not only bail out, auto hover, crash avoidance and return to home making the learning process easier for the new-bee. The question is do we want it? Unfortunately with this technology it will also include "auto crash and fly away " You can't stop progress.

 

Yes, you got the message.
I am not having a go at the people who have done it without this assistance.
They have my full respect.
I am however criticizing those who seemed to frown upon me when I "admitted" that I had bailout.
Fortunately I found the few people who understood that I did not have an unlimited budget/time for rebuilds.
This helped me progress and not give up as I had 5 years earlier.

Yak.

 

I think bailout systems that are simple and effective will greatly assist pilots to learn new manoeuvres. I think bailouts might also be the thing that actually be one of the things that draws more people into the hobby.

However I do see flaws with the technology - not the use of it. The technology is still relatively new. Sometimes people freeze and crash their model even though they have bailout (cant find the switch). Or activate it accidently. I have seen a few people use it very successfully as well.

I was in the same boat as @Geena - I never had the option for a bail out when I started and have not used one as a result. I think I probably would have used one if one were available however.

One reason why many people don't continue with the hobby is due to expense and difficulty in the intial stages of learning. Reduce the initial learning stage difficulty and hopefully we will have more pilots participating which has to be good for everyone in the hobby.

I know that @Crash Heligod hates bailout systems but he has a vested interest. The @HeliGod Father rightfully supports the technology.

Once you get past a certain point, its difficult to use bailout in hard 3d. If you mess up low to the ground, by the time you hit the save button your heli will already be grabbed by @Crash Heligod . But having said that there may be times when a bail out / auto correct/ gps system may still be useful for the experienced pilot as well. IE having taken your heli up to the clouds and you loose orientation or if you fly in the distance perform a manover and loose orientation. Or the helicopter might be heading towards a crowd and you suddenly have a brain freeze.

I hope they keep progressing with the technology to make it safer for pilots and spectators. I wonder if a good feature would be a buddy box activation transmitter, like a remote key fob. So if the pilot focuses on the flying and if his buddy sees him going towards the ground his buddy just presses the remote button.

 

Crash.. I have something to admit.
I need to hand over my "Crash" voucher, as I believe I used it last weekend.
Dumb thumbed throttle hold midair.. Only skids broken.

As for leveling.
I think it would be a good idea to combine the self leveling tech with GPS geofencing.
Hit a switch or go past a certain horizontal/vertical point, the heli should make every effort to level and go back to a predetermined "safe point"
Would love to see this become standard..
Heck, the GPS telemetry unit for my TX only cost AUD$35

Cheers,
Yak.