Mikes machines

I have had this helicopter for 3 years and have not had a lot of sucess. I have crashed everytime I have tried to fly it until now. It has been very discouraging but I finaly made it.Just this weekend I ran out 5 tanks of fuel. WOO HOO!!!! A few things I have learned. 1. Do not buy a used heli for a newbie greenhorn starter, there is too much you dont know that would have been explained in the manual and you would not have to discover and reapair someone elses mistakes. 2. Get a simulator, this saves a LOT of money in the long run. 3.Have someone that knows helis help you get yours set up and dialed in. I did it the hard way and wasted a lot of time and money. At one point I almost sold it and said forget helis. Any how I am now doing figure eights and nose in. Working on form and consistency.Oh yeah DO NOT fly until you understand how your gyro works and how to set it up. I have the GY401 and the instructions arent real clear, of course once you figure it out the instructions are correct just not very descriptive. Of course if anybody has any questions I would be happy to share what I have learned.

-pkh-

My Feedback: (2)

Yep... the key to learning to fly a heli and keeping it in one piece is:

1) Learn to hover in a good sim first (RealFlight, Reflex, Aerofly Pro, etc.)
2) Use training gear
3) Conservative flying

I taught myself as well... spent 8hrs in RealFlight learning to hover first, and then flew about 70 flights with training gear, hovering every which way and then some forward flight, before I took the gear off.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

Could be worse paul, I taught myself 20 some odd years ago, before sims and flew for 15 years without gyros. These things have come a long way!

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Even if it were not for the avcs gyros and computer radios there is just sooooo much more information available now without buying a library of books or pouring over back issues of magazines looking for a morsel of heli info here and there.