r/cheliman, I feel your pain and I cannot argue the wisdom of your decision. This hobby is pretty stupid, if you listen to my wife

The deal is, every time you go up you potentially gamble your entire model. You ante up the whole thing, and the only return is a few micrograms of endorphines which tingle the pleasure centers of the brain.

Whoopie do. Can't argue pulling the plug is a bad idea.

That being said, on to MY RAD FLIGHT REPORT!!! WOOO HOOOOOoooo!!!


I got out to work extra early this morning because it was dead calm outside.

I flew out a pack in the parking lot of a nearby vacant building. Started out slow - spun up gradually and hopped a bit to make sure the Gy240 was enabled. It takes a couple hops before it kicks in.

NO TRAINING GEAR!

I hovered around a bit, then went into some easy left and right patterns. The moves I have been grinding on the sim endlessly.

Then, it got squirrely and I lost control! Dang I hate when that happens. She came at me and I had to boost throttle to avoid getting my head Axe'd.

She flew over me - and right into the bright sun!! I was totally blind for almost 4 seconds! Dang!!

I felt the panic well up and was chanting 'blinded by the sun, blinded by the sun"!

I kept my thumbs locked on the sticks and added throttle - I was thinking that some altitude could mean the difference between recovery and disaster.

When my vision finally returned, she was flying smoothly (thanks Gy240!) out of the parking lot, OVER the fence (thanks to some throttle, she did not crash into the fence!), about 70 feet away from me. Yep - she got that far away THAT fast! Things happen so fast with these small helis. Altitude was about 20 feet.

Whew!! That was all I needed! I pulled into a nice coordinated diving turn (thanks Realflight!) and ZOOMED back into my parking lot. I recovered my nerve, gave a nice flare and eased off the throttle, and came in for a nice landing. Shaken but not stirred!

I chilled out a bit and flew out the rest of the pack. I've got the ability to fly around, but man, do I need practice. I can do it, but it sure looks like a newbie is at the controls. All my landings were controlled and feather-light, at least. No more training gear!

As I finished up, I noticed blade tracking had drifted off a bit - back to the lab bench.

Yep, FF is risky, but you gotta get into it somehow, some way, some when! Its too much of a rush to pass up! It was so cool watching the Axe glide by me smoothly and in control - we were "in the zone" for sure.

~m