Hello all,
I'm flying planes now and looking to try Heli's. Does the wind effect the stability of heli's like it does with high wing trainer planes? When I fly my high wing trainer plane in wind say 12 to 15 MPH it's hard to land do to the high lift design, so I may have to wait for the wind to die down or fly another day. Do you have the same problem with Heli's. I would like to know when does the speed of the wind effect the Heli's, I was just thinking if I could at least practice hovering and not be effected by the wind as much. Thanks in advance for you input.

Regards,

Pat

the wind will affect the heli a great deal unfortunatly,the smaller the heli the worse it will be.the worst problem will be that the wind will try to blow the tail round on you,however if you have a good heading lock gyro then that won't cause you a problem because the gyro will compensate for it and will generally make it easier to learn to hover.even so,the wind will generally blow the heli around making it climb and decend when you don't want it to,you have to compensate for this when flying.generally speaking you should wait for calm days when learning to hover.also the wind will make the heli hard to land aswell because it keeps the machine up in the air when you reduce the pitch,and again you have to compensate by putting more negative onto the blades to land the heli

do a search on "translational lift" with regards to scale or rc helicopters (same principle) to get an understanding of why the helicopter climbs when it gains airspeed. (same as hovering on a windy day, its all relative)

The stability of the heli can be greatly enhanced by the design, but which is at the expense of agility. A kyosho caliber 30, has a rotor head design that allows you to select if you want the great stability (trainer) or agility/responsiveness (intermediate).

If the heli is set up well, you should have no trouble landing it on a windy day, in fact you often get better performance on windy days. Constant wind being ideal, keeps the smoke away! Most beginners are reluctant to fly on a variable direction, gusty day, same as plankers.

Use a Heading Hold gyro, and even then keep the nose pointed into the wind for first time hovering. try it on a sim!

Wind/stability

Just thought I'd give my 2 cents from a newbie point of view--just started this spring.

A simulator helps alot, especially if you have a wind option.
Training gear--a must--can cost $50 for rotopod or $7 for dowels, zip ties and wiffle balls--just as good.

I have a heading hold and 30 size chopper--heading hold make wind easy to deal with.

After just about 3/4 of a gallon of fuel, I went out on a 15-20 mph day, struggled, but quickly gained a lot of confidence using collective. I've been out in many breezy days since, and find it a fun, but not overwhelming challenge. I stay home if it's really windy. If you start to learn something new, like nose-in, or your first attempts at forward flight, make sure it's a calm day.

Thank you for all the replies,
What sparked my interest in heli's was a member of my club which took me out on the runway and showed me the principles of heli flight. I went home that night and tried it on my G2 Sim, and now I can't get enough of it. I still love my fixed wings also. I'm looking to get a Raptor 50 with and OS50SX. If you could recommend any other components that I would need with brand names and model numbers ( since I'm real new ) that be great. The only thing I think I need would be a receiver, gyro, and servos. Are there any special tools that I would need other than what I now have for fixed wing supplies, tools, and starter.
Thanks again,

Pat

It's been very windy here today and I couldn't wait anymore so I took my trusty Corona out for a spin in the backyard. winds were 12MPH, gusting to 25MPH but I forged ahead anyway. What an experience! Definitely a white-knuckle ride. It's very hard to hold altitude in the wind with a fixed pitch heli and a gust would send my poor Corona up high very quickly unless I reacted quickly. Only thing to do was cut the power, nose it over and wait for it to start dropping, then power into the wind. A few of the gusts were barely manageable... Full power and nose down into the wind was barely holding ground. I wouldn't have dared to try it with my VE even though it's collective pitch. It would just be too expensive to repair when compared to a Corona imitating a lawn dart.