chrisb01

I am starting with helis, never flew fixwing or had the urge to. I heard that that is backwards, that I should get familiar with fixwing first and then cross over. Has anybody else out there start with helis? I would like some feedback on this.

FHHuber

There is a "beginner" that lives 3 blocks from me. Never flew fixed wint, and got his Nitro Heli.

First he goofed... and tried with no help. After 4 crunches and about $250 in repair parts... he got some help.

Then it just took him about 2 weeks to begin doing forward flight.
(learning take-off and landing of the heli is the hard part... 2nd hardest is transition from forward back to hover so you can land.)

He's only been flying a total of 5 months now... and is begining 3D aerobatics.

NOW he's talking about tring a fixed wing model.

ChopperMike

It's a common belief that you need to fly fixed wing first, not true. Airplanes and heli's really don't fly the same. The only benefit from fw flying is the familiarity with the radio, engines, etc. Many of the top heli pilots never flew fw. I started with fw and after 3-4 years moved into heli's, now I fly both. The only other guy in the club I belong to (about 100 members) who flies heli's started with heli's and now also flies both.

Starting with heli's will actually give you at least on benefit, you''ll already have the radio. Any decent computer heli radio you'll buy will have multi-model programming and functions for both fw and heli. If you start with fw and you buy a plane 4 ch radio, you have to upgrade your radio.

Bottome line is, start with whatever you want.

Regards,

Mike

Hotshot Charlie

It is my opinion that my fixed wing experience helped in model orientation during flight, but that is about it. I highly recommend a simulator of your choice several months before attempting to fly the real thing. It will save you countless time and lots of money. I used the RealFlight G2, but there are other good ones out there. The cost of a good simulator is about $200, but it will save you many times that in crash expense.

Have fun and stay safe!

wisdom-seeker

This is only true when you are talking about hovering flight. In FF, a heli handles very much like a fixed-wing with the single exception that you control altitude with the left stick. Turning works much the same as does flaring for a landing. The experience is probably best compared to flying without jamming the throttle all of the way forward. In that kind of flight, just because you pull back on the right stick it does not mean you will go up. You have to supply more throttle to overcome the increased drag of a wing in higher incidence.

ChopperMike

You control the altitude of an airplane with the left stick as well. In that respect there's no difference. The difference comes in that with fw you don't have to push forward on the the stick to make it go forward. Pushing forward on the stick of a fw makes it go down very fast! Turning a heli is very similar to flying a fw that requires coordinated rudder & aileron to turn. This is why a lot of fw fliers have trouble learning heli's after airplanes. Most airplanes don't require coordinated rudder & ailerons so they're not used to needing to feed in rudder to make it turn.

The differences all key on the fact the a heli can stop in mid air while upright, a airplane can't.

As far as landing,an airplane on final is at low throttle probably right up to the point of touch down. A heli needs to have power put back in at the last minute to maintain a hover. These are the subtle differences between the two.

I guess my advice would be, if you really don't have any desire to fly fixed wing at some point down the road, go right into heli's. The airplane experience won't do much for you. Especially if you make use of a simulator.

Good luck with it,

Mike

R Rocks

I had always wanted to fly the helicopters, was told all along the way you cant do it, at least with out any help, I did it on my own and now here I am about a year past. Cant say I went with out any problems, but with out the help of this BB and a couple others I would not have had as much success. at this point I have met some other heli guys and every thing just fell into place. I had none or had I ever wanted to fly fixed wing, I was given a J3 piper cub a few months back and have had lots of fun with this plane, My first heli was a ECO 8, second a Venture now I have a caliber 30, Think I will get the R 50 V2 next.

chrisb01

Thanks a lot guys, I've really learned a lot from these responses. I will go on with the heli, that's what I really want to do. Maybe sometime down the road I will try fixed wing.

ausheli

I started with just helis not interest in FW either, just spool it