I'm Trying to find out information on the FMA-Direct Co-Pilot. (Both Good & Bad) Does it work? What should a guy watch out for with it? Anyone have one?

Again, Thanks for all your help.

I have seen two people with the co-pilot. One was a beginner and the other is someone who soloed. I will tell you that if you don't have an instructor then this is a must!

BUY IT!

Sorry to jump in on this, but what is FMA-Direct Co-Pilot?

Bo

This is a device that will "right" the plane if you loose orientation.

I saw it at Toledo last year. Some are in use at the local field with good results. Use the link attached for additional information. Bill

https://www.fmadirect.com/home.htm

Futaba sells one as well but I have not personally seen anyone use it.

These are variations on gyros.......no?
Sure hope no begginers assume that they can self teach just by using one! A good instructor will teach you a lot more than just not crashing....
Wonder if FMA,s service has improved?They were terrible at one time.

These are not "variations" on gyros. The FMA unit senses differences in the temperature of the ground and the air. It needs to be installed out of the engine heat to work properly. Other units use light sensing (not sure which ones). Bill

Son of a gun! What will they think of next?

I have a problem with new flyers trying to use one of these things to learn how to fly. The idea is to let go of the sticks if you panic or lose orientation of the plane for the co-pilot to take over. The co-pilot senses that the pilot has given up and corrects the plane back to level attitude. Heres where I have the problem, the co-pilot trains you to let go of the sticks every time you get in trouble instead of trying to fix it yourself! I have found that your fingers get trained to move without thinking by reacting to what your eyes see the plane doing and this becomes a habit. Now what happens if you move on to a second plane that doesn't have the co-pilot and you panic for a sec? You have spent months training your fingers to let go of the sticks when something goes wrong. Now you let go of the sticks and watch your plane go into the ground! OOps! What happened? With a good insructor, you have time to learn what works to get out of a bad situation yourself with out relying on some gizmo!
If you get to this point, you will wonder why you even thought of letting a box take over for you. I know that I won't!

I've been flying for 18 months now and consider myself a decent flyer, I was thinking of getting the FMA co-pilot so I could pratice aerobatic maneuvers with out so much fear. If you get into trouble you release the sticks and all is well. I saw a club member land his plane by just using the throttle in a cross wind, neat Huh? It also lets you fly on those days when the wind may keep you grounded normally, and in Chicago thats alot days.

There is a good article in the June issue of Model Airplane News on the co-pilot. They test it in 2 planes and a heli. From the article, I'd say ...get one, they seem nice.

If I were to try to teach myself how to fly again (yes I'm self taught), I'd definitely invest in one of these. But if I had to do it all over again, I'd probably get an instructor instead...