I admit that having started out in helis with an Ikarus Piccolo, and then getting my LMH, I've recently been developing an urge to get a larger heli - with collective. I think it's due to the natural urge to advance, make progress, better ones-self, etc

Yesterday I visited my local fixed-wing flying field and, for a change, there were a few visiting heli fliers doing their thing. It was while watching the "big boys" fly that my "Change Of Plan" started to develop. Most of the heli pilots were hovering, tail-in, at around 5 feet above the ground - no circuits, no figure eights, just hovering. Only one guy was doing more than this - and he was good too. He had his heli doing some impressive maneuvers and I was well-impressed. Then he landed as light as a feather, made an adjustment to his Tx, and made to take-off again. But the front of one of his skids got caught in the grass and this tripped the model over. The sound of cf blade contacting alloy boom was not nice at all

It was while I was looking at the damaged heli, and while the pilot was adding-up the cost of this slight lapse of concentration (he admited that he's glanced to his side to check no-one was there, just as the heli was about to lift-off!) that my change of plan started to develop. The guy reckoned it would cost him more to repair his heli than I'd paid for my used LMH . . . . and I don't believe the LMH would even have been damaged in a similar accident either (my heli was tripped by grass during early test hops without damage)

It sure changed my plans! I'm definitely sticking to my LMH now. I haven't been flying it for very long, but I have no fear of flying circuits with it. And I know it's not going to break the bank when my concentration lapses - or when I loose orientation. I'm just pleased I was at the strip yesterday and saw what happened. It killed my plans for getting a larger helli immediately . . . . unless there was a larger LMH that is, I'd definitely go for that!

Tony