Matador,

Another thing to consider when landing is the surface you want to land on. If you have problems landing on grass or dirt use a sheet of plywood. 1/2 inch thick or larger should be fine. Thinner plywood has a tendancy to bend and bow over time. A good thick sheet of plywood will give you a hard flat surface to land on. If you're flying a TREX 450 size heli or smaller a 3 ft by 3 foot squar should be a good size. If your flying a larger heli or if you heli is kind of "all over the place" as you're landing it, go with a larger square of plywood. I've seen folks get all fancy with their plywood and paint it up to look like a heli-pad (large circle with a H in the middle).

Hope this helps some.

Ted