Hey guys
I am thinking of getting a cheap heli to practice nose in hovering. I don't want to put my pricy .30 size bird at any risk. I know it will be easier to fly the 30 (more stable) but it will also be much less nerve racking doing it with a less than $200 heli!!!

Basically, the only thing that is really holding me back from fast foward flight is the heli pointing at me.

Does a dual axel heli help at all with nose in or is it just to easy?

Thanks
Cameron


BTW, my MAC will not support any high dollar sim
I have got a cable comming so i can run my tansmitter off some of the free online ones.

hrm... that's a hard one.... there is boot camp, but to run any of the decent sims in that you would have to have a screamin machine, so like you said that's probably not an option. The coaxial heli's could give you orientation, but would not really do very well at teaching you balance, since they balance themselves. But since you can already balance the one you've got in flight.. you might not need that training, and the coax heli might be just what you are looking for, especially if you want something to fly inside (and really inside only). If you would like to get a single rotor heli, you might look at the 4ch fp's (dragonfly, falcon 40, and the honeybee, as they are all pretty much the same thing), those can go outside better, but still not great. The other birds I would say you might want to take a look at on your budget are the honeybee cp2 (a cp heli fairly comprible to the blade cpp). If you've got about $40 more, I would suggest looking at a blade cp, or cpp. The cpp is a big upgrade from the cp ($91 bucks I think I figured), but only costs an extra $20 bucks.

On the coax heli's, I would probably stay with the CX2, it just seems to be alot better quality than the rest of the coax heli's out there, plus it's god DSM (2.4ghz that doesn't require a channel, and is alot better at not getting radio interference, and can also hook straight up to a dx7 without any mods, but not a dx6)

Hopefully that helps =)

mrasmm

That is exaclty my thaughts, maybe a coawal will teach me the orientation thing but it is just hard to say, i might just be usless to me. I think i might just put some huge training gear on it and force myself to lurn nose in with the 30.

Cheapest thing I can think of that will save your wallet is RealFlight

The co-ax won't do it. I have a Lama2, and can fly that nose in all day, but I still don't dare try it with my TREX. The co-ax will teach you basic orientation, but not enough to handle a CP heli nose in.

My suggestion would be to get a small fixed pitch heli with tail rotor if you're only interested in using it for a nose in trainer. They're cheap, rugged, and most crashes will only cost a few $$ to fix.... Also, they are VERY difficult to fly, which is good. Once you master nose in with that thing, your .30 will feel like it flies itself

Something like the falcon 40 or Honey Bee would be good choices...

Take your $200, invest in a flight sim. It will take you FAR beyond nose in hovering.

Flight sim was the best investment I ever made. It has helped my flying skill so much that I would not hesitate to suggest it to anyone, ever.

It might seem like a lot of money to spend on what is essentially a game, but the training value of the sim is invaluable, and so is the savings in preventable crashes.

Most modern sims are about as close to real life as you're going to get, which is great for training with your .30.

Some of the best sims out at the moment are Real Flight G3, Aerofly Professional Deluxe and Reflex XTR. All simulate helicopters very well.

Do you have someone in your area with a coax that would let you fly it for a bit? Sometimes just getting your hands on the thing and you'll know right off.

I would say something like the falcon 40 or honeybee would probably be your best option.
http://www.raidentech.com/reracortfdr4.html
is a good place to get it at $85 bucks, and use the code CJFREESHIPPING for free shipping or CJ10 for 10% off, both apply to orders over $50 bucks

They have a weird way of shipping things... they send you atracking number that says it will be there on a certain day, but it actually doesn't get shipped till the day it says it will be there... don't worry... this is just how the place works.

credence, i wish i could buy a sim but i have a mac and as far as i know there are no mac compatible simulators that are any good.

Anyways, i might just get the falcon 40. Looks cheap enough that i could care absolutley less what the heke happens to it.

Looks like my corona might not sell on e-bay either. Maybe i will just buy the parts to fix it and force myself to learn nose in on that concidering i already have it

Well your on the right track. Smart move instead of wiping out a nice 30 size heli or even getting hurt.

I could fly nose in all day on the sim (older version Real Flight G2) but I was TOO CHICKEN to do it in real life with a Collective heli with fast headspeed. So I took a step backwards and bought a Falcon 40 to get me over the hump. I figured it would be more docile since it was a fixed pitch heli, and cheaper to repair as well.

The Sim's just don't provide the "Pucker Factor" that a real heli does, especially in your case, having a .30 glo-heli spinning a set of blades at 2200 Rpm coming right at 'cha!!!

Well, it was the best thing I did. Once I got the nerve to kick the nose around 180 degrees on the little electric heli, the old brain had to get busy and tell those dumb thumbs what to do. After about 10 times, the anxiety level was significantly reduced and guess what, you're hovering nose it and your legs aren't shaking this time!!!

Now nose in with a Trex is no big deal, as well as forward flight. I still fly the trusty Falcon mostly indoors and use it as a skill building trainer, so I can fly from any position comfortably and in control.

Heres a video I shot trying to hone my skils using my Falcon 40. Tough exercise for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNGLy_Iy3zM

Sideways orientation was tough for me if I'm standing at 90 degrees to the helis nose.

practice... practice... practice

Oh, and my next heli... Its a glow powered .30, of course, new, still in the box.

Thats me being a CHICKEN Again!!! [X(]

Hope this helps...

Robo

I agree that sims are excellent training tools for most people, but personally, I find flying the sim so TOTALLY BORING after just a few minutes that it just feels like work. When it comes time for me to learn inverted orientation, I will definitely force myself to practice on the sim as much as I can, but for upright orientation, I prefer to do so on a 'real' heli...

I'm right there with ya CT.

My heli is my sim now, but I too am trying to get the inverted under control on the sim.

I saw a signiture a guy had at the bottom of ever post that read something like:

"When Inverted, Down is Up, and Up is Expen$ive"

Sounds about true to me... I laugh everytime I think about it.

Yep, i am going to end up fixing up my corona and forcing myself to learn nose in with that instead of my $800 hawk pro

Funny, the corona used to be my sweat heart heli. I wouldn't dare put her nose in and risk breaking it.

Know that i have a significat step up I don't think i will worry to much about breaking my corona .

Cambo, not much on Mac speak but I understand you can run XP on a Macand from there perhaps run a simulator.
I know I'm asking alot here since the additional layers are resource hogging but still, could be a way to go.

robotronski: LOL! That's SOOOO true!!!


Cambo: If you have an Intel-based MAC, you can indeed dual-boot it with Windows with no performance hit. I'm not a MAC expert, but am being forced to learn them for my job. I work for a big Software company, and we have started supporting MACs with some of our products. I researched this recently, and found that it can be done fairly easily. You can find detailed instructions in no time with a few google searches....


I have an 8 core Intel MAC coming to me at work that they ordered for my lab. 8GB of RAM also. I'm gonna have FUN with that thing when it gets here

Cambo,

I was in your situation not that long ago. I had been doing figure 8s with my Caliber 30 always turning away from myself for some time. I could not bring myself to try and nose in hover.

I bought a Trex 450. I took it on a 3 week holiday just after I got it and did 70 odd flights in that period. Slow figure 8s turning away from me. With quite a few flights in quick succession I found myself doing figure 8s and turning TOWARDS me.
Then progressed to turning towards me and then flying towards myself.
Before I knew it I was nose in hovering by default. Could not really tell you the day I could nose in hover.

I suspect if I had gone out and said, today im going to learn nose in hovering I would have got disorientated and crashed.

The toy helis your talking about are cheap, but not very useful after youve learnt.

Put the money towards a Trex 450. They are cheap enough to repair if required (hopefully not) yet even onced youve learnt they are still great little helis. Youll find you want to continue flying it as well as your 30 nitro.

Worked for me and now I enjoy flying both. Oh and in case it hasnt been mentioed before, practice on a Sim. (if you find one to run on your Mac).

What sucks is i got the macs just 1 year before the intel based macs came out, figures [:@]. OH how technology changes fast .

Anyway, the corona is super durable but i never pushed myself with it. I ordered losts of spares and new blades. I am going to really push that helli hard and i really don't care what happens to it. If i already have it, why buy something else ?

Should be a fun time next week

Thanks for the help guys
Cameron

You could get a Dynam Hughes 300 FP for only $100. Check out http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id=A1550137