I have know real personal interest in helis. They just don't look like as much fun or nearly as pretty in the air to me. I just don't seem to get the facsination. I have the read couple posts above saying that they are no more difficult to learn than planes, now since those statements were made by ppl with much more experience than I have, I will have to except them at face value. I' sure they could be with proper instruction from a qualified heli instructor. which I have never tried. I have tried to play a little on the sim with the helis (not knowing what I'm doing) and with zero to little success[:@]. They certainly seemed much harder to fly to me.

The one thing I do know about helis is that at the particular club field I fly at, they are not very popular! It seems that thes heli pilots while learning have a need to practice hovering a few feet off the ground right smack in the middle of the runway. With total disregard for the ppl who have planes in the air at the same time. I saw a guy have to bring in a deadstick on a runway that is now half the size it usually is, because the darn heli is still playing around in the middle of the runway! End result was a minor crash do to trying to swerve around the heli while trying to get the plane slowed down. I hope if you do go for helis you'll keep in mind that planes need that runway too. If it had been my plane, we certainly would have had a little discussion about common curtesy. I don't contend that all heli pilots do this sort of thing , but I've seen it on a few occassions now from the same instructor & student. That's the scary part, it's an instructor that's continually plugging up the runway with this thing. while we have a control line circle down at the end of the runway & off to the side that gets used once in a blue moon by one person. Seems to me that would be the place to carry on these heli hovering lessons[sm=idea.gif], not the middle of the darn runway!

Having said that, I'm sure that the majority of heli pilots are fine, & curteous ppl.


Mark