polyhedron_12

I just ordered a hirobo shuttle and a 9chp radio and i thought that I was going to get away with just practicing on it. I decided that I was not going to get the sim, just take it easy to learn.....

I haven't got my chopper in yet and good thing, i ran across a great deal for realflight and could not pass it up, so I decided what the heck!

I got the program home and fired up the helicopter... trying to take it easy. I don't believe that taking it easy is very easy. Even with the helicopter a few inches off the ground it's hard to control the thing. There's alot to keep track of.

Now two hours later, i can finally hover with the impala, but that's about it. I have crashed probably twelve times by running into the house that is about 100 ft in front of me. Let's see crash kit $58, 12 crashes, that's $696. Thats a whole new helicopter.

I'm glad I found a deal, it saved me much more money than I had ever dreamed of.

polyhedron12
LSU ___ BCS National Champions

ChopperMike

I would think a simulators would be big help, especially when you get to forward flight. I taught myself to fly as did the only other heli pilot in my club of about 100 members. No sims or local help at that time (I've been flying for 15 years or so). When I did finally try a sim I found that it was very difficult to hover even though I could hover out a tank of fuel over a spot with my real heli. The sim was much harder than the real thing! A lot of this is setup of the sim. The default settings are more difficult than the real thing.

The real difference that a sim would have made for me was not learning hovering but FF. I really dragged my feet getting into FF because of the risks. Now I'm up much higher, much faster, much more damage. As I recall, learning to hover cost me 1 set of blades. That was it, no other parts until FF.

The point I'm trying to make is not don't use a sim, I think sims are a great help that wasn't available to a lot of us. Even guys like me that learned to fly pre-sim use them to practice new things. I talked to a guy at our mall show last year who used to fly heli's. When mentioned gyros to him he said he never used one. I can't imagine flying w/o a gyro. The point is, it is possible to learn w/o a sim. If money is not a problem by all means get a sim. Even if you paid full price for the sim, after a couple of crahses it would pay for itself.

Good luck and have fun,

Mike

polyhedron_12

The bad thing about the sim is perspective, It's kind of hard to see what it's doing unless the helicopter is really close. When I fly forward, and the helicopter moves away, it gets harder to distinguish which way it's pointing because of pixelation. I think that it will be simpler in RL.

So far if I keep the helicopter close and I can see it well, I can move left right forward easily (as long as the tail boom is pointed towards me). Seems that if i turn the thing around and face the nose towards me, i somehow gain lift even though i dont mess with the collective and the thing goes zooming over my head and into lala land. I can sometimes recover and bring it back, but I have to have the tail boom pointed my way.

I should get my helicopter tomorrow, I plan on trying flight very soon, I'll post telling my experience between RL and sim

polyhedron12

ChopperMike

Yeah, that's my biggest problem with the sims too. I use Dave Brown 2001 (RF won't work for now, slow computer). It works pretty good, in some respects better than RF.

One thing you can try is go to the view menu and select "Look at ground". Found that out at the Chicago Hobby Show. What this does is keeps the end of the runway in view so when you fly out it zooms out but keeps a ground reference. It makes it easier to tell where you are and what attidued you're at. I too have problems with that with my DB sim. Usually end up crashing into the ground because I don't realize I'm descending.

Once you get your Shuttle ready to go, just take it easy and you should be alright. From what I hear the Shuttle is a very capable machine, as are most of the popular ones out there. I started out on the GMP cricket. What a POS! I advanced more in the first 2 weeks with my Kyosho Concept 30 than I did in 6 months with the Cricket. I currently fly a Century Hawk Sport, which I highly recommend. Do go over your machine and make certain that everything is set up per the manual. If at all possible, find someone to help you. If no one is available, it is possible to teach yourself as I can attest to. Plus, the equipment we have available today is so much better than it was even 10 years ago.

Nice thing about heli's vs fixed wing, which I also fly, is you start low then go high. It's virtually impossible to destroy a helicopter on your first few flights unless you really mess up on the setup etc. Fixed wing, one mistake could be all you get when you crash from 200 feet up.

Regards and good luck,

Mike

Spaceman Spiff

My Feedback: (1)

Try editing the visual scale of the heli and make it twice as big as normal.