flyingsaucer

I've been training for a while now to fly planes and am gonna hopefully solo soon. I don't plan on getting into the helicopter relm for quite a while. I've been told its better to get quite a bit of flight time with planes before taking the next logical step. I tend to agree with that assumption and will not jump into it. Anyway, I've been studying this forum and have some questions for you chopper pilots.

First of all, what are the main difficulties when learning to fly a heli? Coordination? etc..

I've noticed that quite a few people have problems with motors, bearings, etc wearing out on a regular basis. Is this a very high maintaince situation or just defective parts?

Last but not least, Helicopters are fairly expensive, so would you say that maintaining them tends to eat more money than flight time in the longrun?

I'd appreciate any thoughts and opinions that you might have on the Heli end of r/c.

Thanks!

Robert

astronut30

My Feedback: (5)

Hi, I disagree with the fact that you should get more plane flight time before jumping into heli's. A simulator though would help quite a bit in learning the controls and characteristics of the heli's.

If you go with a brushed set up, you'll have to clean out the motor every so often and change brushes once in a while depending on the motor, some more than others. Brushless equals zero maintenance.

As far as maintenance, it's pretty minimum if you asked me, on the Corona, Voyager E and now Logo 10 I owned, it was pretty much charge and fly. Just a good idea to look over everything once in a while since heli's are a little less forgiving than a plane. Of course if you crash a lot it could get expensive with certain heli's but not the Corona.

If you start with a Corona, you'll be in good shape as it is very crash friendly. Some resulted in no damage at all and one up to $15-$20 depending on how bad of a crash but for me, while learning to hover with the Corona, my few crashes avereaged out to about $4.50 or so per crash.

As far as coordination, I never flown a real life plane, just simulators but forward flight is a bit similar as far as coordination is concerned, except that on the heli, turning the tail also is required and not required on a plane although some pilots do. And of course 3D is totally different as you need to change pitch of the blades as you're doing flips and rolls etc.

As far as hovering, what you're basically doing is balancing the heli and can be very challenging at first, this part has nothing whatsoever to do with how you control a plane that's why I feel that more plane stick time will not benefit you with hovering at all and this of course you need to learn first so you can take off and land, they say you should be able to hover in all directions before you do forward flight but a lot of people start forward flight, hehe, including me without having nose in (heli facing you) down, nose in hovering is a new challenge all together as of course the cyclic controls are backwards.

Anyway, I'd say Take the Plunge! You'll love it, the feeling when you first learn controlled hovering with a real heli is unexplainable and so rewarding, you'll almost want to scream!

flyingsaucer

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep that in mind when I starting looking for a beginner heli.

Robert

astronut30

My Feedback: (5)

Let us know when you do, it's always exciting to hear about new heli pilots experiences. I'll never forget how exciting it was when I got my first controlled hover, then you get that equal excitement when you first learn to "nose in" or get whatever next step you take etc. I know it sounds kinda retarded but only a heli flyer would understand exactly what I mean And hopefully you'll find out soon man!

Simbo

I agree with astronut

I have never flown, RC planes, Real planes, or on a PC sim, but a friend gave me a Feda electric heli, and i love it, as far as being a plane guy, i think you could get the hang of the basic heli controls pretty fast, as astronut said there is some maintance or crash exspences, i have lost a tail motor $12.00, tail blade $5.00, one main blade around $12.00,( but i bought a HB Kit for $80.00 that had all that plus more)


I have about 4 hours of flight time so far and it's a blast, check out some vids i posted in this forum, titled (Love This New Hobby)

and you will see how much fun it can be for under $300.00

flyingsaucer

Thanks, I'll let everyone know when I do get one.


Robert

robthereaper

Hi
I am in the same boat as you. I flew planes for about 6 years and then gave it up and got into sports cars. I have just started again after about a 15 year gap, with a skylark. all the old skills came back in a flash but like the planes expect some repairs and down time. i am now waiting for a new tail motor and tail rotor. Hope you enjoy it as much as i do.
Rob (the reaper)