So I'm making a realistic ultralight helicopter without a gyro and the main issue I'm having is when pitching straight forward it rolls to the left, when pitching straight backward it rolls to the right. I've tried everything I can think of to resolve this but nothing is working.
The centre of mass is fine and seems balanced, it's not drag related because it happens at hover, it's not the tail rotor because it still happens when it's been removed.
I've run out of options so humbly I ask what you guys think?
(btw this is my first proper heli build so I'm a bit of a noob)
The first problem is that it is a H E L I C O P T E R. Helicopters are horrible to fly, and let's say it lives up to the first 3 letters of its name. They are helIcopters after all. What? I wrote a capital I, not lowercase l
@Kimfri helicopter rotor has a fixed position. In other words, we shouldn't bother the main rotor's 'Y' axis (nudge) or your will corrupts the cyclic heading.
Main rotor's blades (2 blades for easy example) must be inline with the body.
Next possible problem should be the tail rotor's 'Z' axis. Don't nudge it. Tail rotor's blades (2 blades example) should heading up to down 90°.
@Monday i should have worded this better, when pitching forward it also rolls slightly to the left, as previously mentioned by rotating the main rotor 20° this has fixed the issue, but i would like to find another solution where i can keep the main rotor straight so the 2 blades are inline with the body for storage purposes. thanks
Tag me there (unlisted post) if you want. I assume your rotor's Y heading was rotated to -90°. Make it 0°.
@Kimfri the sliding occurs when the CoM is moved to a position that counter acts the CoT, this happens when an aircraft is in a certain position for an amount of time, like for example, your flying a helicopter and the helicopter is tail heavy. the helicopter will stay level when hovering but when you pitch forward it will want to make the tail swing to the front, this i like to call sliding because the CoM is basically sliding. The CoT is also the point of pivoting because the aircraft is being held up by the CoT the CoM will move depending on the position or angle the aircraft is at
@OwO hmm, well i rotated the main rotor 20 degrees to the right and it has effectively fixed the issue, however i would like to find a way to keep it straight. what do you mean by the CoM "slide"(ing)?
@Kimfri it probably than has to do with the CoM then, if it does that with out that then that means the CoM may be in a position to "slide" when you pitch, so pitching forward may put the CoM behind the blades and then cause it to "slide"to the side making it roll
@OwO i turned the main rotor torque off to test this but it still happens.
@Sovetskysoyus thanks that works, but is there a way to do this but keep the rotors straight? i say this because i want to mount this heli to another vehicle.
im assuming there is some torque force coming from the main blades, this is why helicopters have tail rotors, the tail rotor is there to help the helicopter keep straight from the torque created by the motion of the main blades