sbstew

Hello All,
I have recently purchased a e-flight blade heli. This is my first heli. I have flown rc planes for about 3 years. I have gotten pretty familiar with the blade now and can hover without touching down in my garage until the battery runs out. I do still have training gear on the skids( two carbon rods about 30" each). What should I do next. I have tried to take it out to a field and fly around but it gets away from me. I was thinking of trying to learn to hover in my garage the same as I have been but turn the nose around to face me.
I am too cheap to buy a sim so I am trying to teach myself to fly this thing. By the way I am having a blast this thing is a challenge but it is a neat little helicopter.

-pkh-

My Feedback: (2)

You got the right idea... you need to be able to hover in any orientation before you try forward flight, IMO.

If you've mastered tail-in hover, proceed to side-in hover, and then to nose-in hover. When you get so you can slowly rotate 360 degrees while hovering within a six foot radius or so, then proceed to forward flight.

sbstew

Thanks , I'll report with the progress.

FrostyTheBeerMan

how's it going ? ...

WhtBronco

As has been said now work on hovering side in and nose in.

Being cheap on the sim will cost you in the long run. Your flying will progress much faster and be more fun after some time on the sim. You don't have any fear on the sim so you can try new things and push yourself.

After using the G2 sim for a long time I got a heli. I was flying nose in first flight and forward flight on flight 3. Loops and rolls by flight 5. Do yourself a favor and reconsider the sim. It'll cost less than your Blade CP did and will save you from crashes, besides you will likely be able to learn something from it to apply to your planes. I sure did, even after 8 years of flying planes. My first heli crash was on flight 38 while practicing aerobatic autos, worst part is that I was already safely on the ground when I had a boom strike, UGH.

sbstew

This is gonna take a while! It's not like a plane where you can trim it out to fly hands-off. With this E-Flight blade if you adjust the proportional pot to fit a fully charged battery it changes as the battery runs down. When you finally get comfortable with it it will start twitching the tail around because the battery is gettin weak. I can hover tail in in a 3 foot circle , but if you turn it around nose in I'm all over the place. I just try to remember those famous words " Patience Grasshopper". Hey I have beat up the ends of the rotor blades just a little. It flies fine but is that hurting anything?

hydravien

if they blades are damaged they could probably use replacing. if they fail in flight you have a hurt heli. worse yet, you could hurt yourself with stuff flying off it

sbstew

So far So good. I am steadily improving. I can now hover with the nose pointing left and working on the nose to the right. I have decided to return to each position after trying a new one before my battery runs out. nose in is still giving me trouble. I have learned to push the stick in the direction its going (while nose in) to counter the action but that technique screws me up when I turn it around. I took of and flew it yesterday out and away from me. WOW, it's alot different than looking at the top of the heli from about 5 feet away. I did however return for a safe landing while keeping full control throughout the flight. FELT GOOD! thanks for the input.

PJSims

Sbstew,

I'm in the same boat you are. I've finally gotten comfortable at a tail-in hover and just managed to takeoff from one spot, drift over to another pre-selected spot, and set down without crashing.

Time to start working on sideways hover.

sbstew

good day today. Got out and flew around the cove and felt pretty confident , but there were a few cars around. So since I pay $100 per year I decided to go to the flying club field. Man what a difference there is having a large space. I have trained myself how to hover tail in , nose in and either side all in the confines of a 10ft wide cleared out spot in my garage ( with the addition of a few flights out in the yard and the cove). I got out to the flying field and man I looked like I new what I was doing. I also got a taste of how the gyro works with forward flight. I was worried about flying around like a plane leading with the nose, but it ws a piece of cake. This was a huge step and it felt good. Helicopters aren't as hard as I thought it just takes a little longer to learn. Also out in a field you can manuever to save the heli rather than chop the throttle and set it down.