Abras

My Feedback: (1)

After 1 year flying airplanes I bought a Raptor 30.

In 2 weeks I already could hover perfectly.
So I tried to fly, just like a airplane. I got no problems at all, everything went perfectly.

I passed the third week now and I'm still with no crashes.


And you guys? Show your beginner experience!

DebianDog

Well I hope you knocked on wood when you said that.

I will not vote yet I'll let ya know.

Tanner Hall

My Feedback: (1)

what exactly does "start flying" mean? hovering tail-in for 5 seconds? hovering tail-in in a 5-ft circle for a minute? hovering nose-in? able to do FF? in real life or on a sim? my point is that flying means different things to different people.

Abras

My Feedback: (1)

I mean "fly like you fly a airplane", take off and get speed , do turns. Fly!
Not just hover it in front of you. Not just go there, and came back in low altitute.

Sorry about my bad english.

I can change the subject, what you think I should put there?

enrico74

My Feedback: (6)

Guess I voted wrong then, I took me exactly 3 weekend to get me flying around. In three weekends I have done 18 flights. In the third weekend, in my first fligth of that day (Number 16) I took off to hover, got my idle up1 setup all trimmed up, turned the nose 90 deg and With a big "SIGH , what the heck" I pushed forward with 3/4 stick throttle and flipped the switch into a nice 15 deg climb and a quite fast speed for first time. Everything came out great, did few 8`s circuits and came back to land. Also I have to mention that in those 3 weekend week days I had about 1 hr practice in the sim per day. Just to make things clear otherwise it wouldn`t be believable. (also forgot to mention I have 18 years flying airplanes in which 5 I`ve been competing in F3A)

FBaity

My Feedback: (2)

I also voted wrong. Took me about three week ends to push the nose over and actually fly.

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

It took me a lot longer than three (3) weeks to get into forward flight. I suffered four crashes during my learning curve and final graduation to this level. I had very little help other than from books. If the origional poster of this trend did not receive outside assistance to aid in his remarkable progression, I'll be the first to appulade him for his accomplishment.
Flying helicopters and flying fixed wing aircraft are too different animals.

enrico74

My Feedback: (6)

I must agree. Aside of the 18 flights I have on My Raptor 50 V2, it has 1.5 flights more done by a buddy who owns anotther Rappy 50 V2. If it wheren`t for him, guess my progress wouldn`t have been this great.

asteele73

I was hovering with no training gear on my third day and by the end of my first week I pushed the nose forward and haven't looked back since. Here I am 2 years later and haven't had a crash in a year and a half. That crash was due to the fuel line coming out of the engine and I performed a decent auto and only had to replace a $7 part. Of course I spent a solid month on the simulator before purchasing my Venture 30.

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

I hope all the vendors will be impressed. No crashes mean no parts to sell. Why don't you find employment as a JR tech rep!

ez2bgman

My Feedback: (4)

Here's a brief breakdown of my first FF episode. I am really new to helis. I just put together a Raptor 50v2 two weeks ago. Had a very experienced friend help me with the initial set up after I built it. The next day (last Thursday) I strapped on the training gear and fired her up. I hovered through four tanks of fuel and then put her up for the day. I must admit that I have several hundred hours of G2 time prior to purchasing my heli. The next day (Friday) I hovered through a couple more tanks and then met my best friend at a local park. This time I decided to leave the training gear off. While hovering at about 20 ft., a gust of wind blew the Raptor backwards (nose high) and to the left. I leveled her off and swung the tail around and next thing I knew I was in FF. I have been flying planes for about 16 years and said to myself that this wasn't that hard. I flew around for a while doing a basic circuit. Then I brought her back into a hover about 20 ft. high and just in front of me. Then I landed and needed a break. I wasn't ready to do FF, but I handled it and haven't looked back since. I think that I may be getting rid of half of my airplane fleet to support my heli addiction now . Later

RotorNut

I was doing forward flight and backwards flight on my first day. Of course I practiced on realflight g2 before I even tried to hover. When I finally did fly I was perfectly at ease with it. On my first flight I started with the nose out hover for about a minute and was surprised I held it rock solid. then spun her around and did a nose in hover. I was so comfortable with the controls I turned her around and took off into forward flight no problems there either so I tried backwards flight and all went good until I found out cheap gyro's don't hold well flying fast backwards and learned what a tail blow out was. but recovered and landed wiped the sweat from my brow and then tried to get my underwear out of my crack.

Abras

My Feedback: (1)

Simulator!
There is nothing better!

1 Week on the simulator, and I was ready to FF!

floatyboy

I have had my honney bee 2 for 7 weeks now. 2 weeks of which has been waiting for new parts.Never flowen before.......and still can't!!

batfalcon

Well guys, I never had an airplane before and never had a heli before either. My first (hopefully not last) heli was (and still is), this micro Walkera 4 chanell FP I purchased 1 month ago. Have to tell you that ALL my tries were indoors in my living room, which hasn't enough free space. Just 2*2 meters, with furniture, sofas, TV, loudspeakers, etc all around. So for 3 weeks I crashed a million times, usually on the left handle of an old sofa. Nedless to say that if an Apache threw his tomahawk on this sofa would have made LESS damage than those blades. I have replaced so far both skids (and the supporting legs) and one blade. A friend from RCU suggested to get rid of those NimH and get a Lipo, which I did I week ago and suddenly the so far added experience combined with the continous output of the Lipo made their miracle. I managed to control the little devil, go FF and reverse, maintain a standard altidude, go sideways, land from one table to another, but ALWAYS tail in. That took me 4 weeks, with no practice at all on any sim. 4 weeks with everyday indoor practice at least for 1 - 2 hours. Last weekend I took her outdoors, but the strong wind didn't let me to practice. In fact I gave it a try but the gusts led me to a near by wall, so I took her in and continued my flight indoors.

DebianDog

I had accidental forward flight my first time out after I over reacted to the helicopter pitching back in a hover. I got onto the bad habit on the sim of "powering out" of a bad situation. After my "correction" I was like 60 feet in the air. By my 3rd tank I was flying around a bit.

Zephan

I don't understand how anyone can answer this survey. The answer depends on what is meant by "start flying". Hover? Tail-in? Nose-in? Fig-8's? Forward Fligt? Also, how can you measure how long it took in "weeks"? If you fly 4 hours/day, every day, you are going to "start flying" sooner in "weeks" than if you only fly for an hour each weekend.

I'd love to see a survey like this done with a better description of what is meant by "start flying" and the answers in something like "stick time" or "gallons of fuel" or something like that.

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

It appears your question is more in line with what the answers should really be however does it not appear that those with flight simulator experience suffer from no ill effects. Having flown 1/5 scale aerial targets for the military I noticed no difference in ADA (air defence artillery) training for those gunners who used a simulator to track and shoot down air defence threats. Our aerial target damage and destruction rates rates remained the same for those who received simulator training and those who did not. Once the gunners were faced with a real world environment there steril environment in the simulator worked against them.
I have also seen this with fixed wing pilots who have received simulator training. Yes, they can fly around unassisted but they normally can't land or takeoff unassisted.

Fireman131

I can hover after a gallon of fuel. Haven't tried any forward flight yet.

batfalcon

.

Long way to go for us "common people" [sm=spinnyeyes.gif]