starguard

Hi guys

I've been flying fixed low-wing aircraft now for quite a while and consider myself a fairly moderate pilot. I've decided to expand my ambitions a little and try out Heli-flying. Now I'll tell you right up front I DON'T KNOW JACK ABOUT HELI-FLYING WHATSOEVER. Not in any shape, way, form, or fashion. I have a Realflight G2 Simulator that has a few choppers on it and have begun trying to teach myself with it, but progress is moving along very slowly. I went out and bought a 4 channel mini chopper called "The Dragonfly" that I want to use as a trainer, but by this being my very first one, I'm very hesitant with trying to get it in the air right now. Trust me, its gonna sit in the box for a while "that is until I get better with the simulator and all", but until then I could use a lot of advice. What could I do to make myself a better R/C helicoptor pilot?

Charlie

For starters, take that thing out of the box and put some training gear on it and start practicing. The only thing that will make you a better pilot is practice, practice, practice (I'm sure you know that from flying fixed wings).

P.S
Simulators are great for practicing on to, but you have to get the feel of the real thing.

VinceHerman

Take a read through [link=http://www.dream-models.com/eco/flying-index.html]RADDs School of Rotary Flight[/link]
Try it on the sim. Then try it with the heli. Great way to learn with minimal risk to your heli.

WhtBronco

2 things you can do to help make learning helis easier. First use the rudder more on your planes if you don't already use it. Helis require both sticks to be used all the time. Second use the sim more. I've been flying planes for almost 17 years and spent about 2 years on the G2 sim learning to fly helis. When I got my Raptor 50 V2 what I found was that the real heli was much easier than G2 and that I was able to advance very quickly. Like doing loops and rolls on flight #5 and inverted on flight #9.

WhtBronco

2 things you can do to help make learning helis easier. First use the rudder more on your planes if you don't already use it. Helis require both sticks to be used all the time, turns with helis must be coordinated with aileron cyclic and tail rotor. Second use the sim more. I've been flying planes for almost 17 years and spent about 2 years on the G2 sim learning to fly helis. When I got my Raptor 50 V2, last August, what I found was that the real heli was much easier than G2 and that I was able to advance very quickly. Like doing loops and rolls on flight #5 and inverted on flight #9. I now only have 32 flights on my Raptor but I have been doing funnels decently and am working on other advanced aerobatics. If not for the G2 sim I would still be in slow forward flight I bet.

Another thing I learned recently was that flying small electric helis is much more challenging, and much less fun for me, than flying my larger glow heli. I have been flying a buddies E-Flite Blade a bit getting it setup for him and it is much less stable and harder to maintain a stable hover with.

starguard

Thanks Guys