I got Ray's Authoritative book and it kinda seems over my head or perhaps to detailed and going the extra mile. Now should I make an effort to follow Ray's or should I take the simpler aproach seen in my manual? I have a JR Venture

I was faced with the exact same problem not too long ago. Here's how I beat it: one step at a time.

If there's something you don't understand, skip it. Read the easy parts first, section without too much technical things.

When you meet with your friends, or simply post question here, ask them something that troubles and you'll understand. A little by little, the more things you understand, you more parts of the book you can understand. It's not that bad.

Lots of nice people here will give you tips or hints with your particular situation. I found that this forum was very beneficial in my helicopter setup and all my purchases.

I had the same problem when I started. I've got Ray's Third Edition. There seems to be excessive focus on building blades and balancing them and on actually building the heli from the ground up. My opinion is that a beginner will start off with an ARF, prebuilt wooden blades and perhaps try a bit of fine tuning on the balance. My edition doesn't even mention HH Gyros! After reading the easier parts of Ray's a couple of times, I realized that I was enrolled in Advanced Heli's when I really needed "Basic Heli's.

Hence, I purchased MAN's "Basics of Radio Control Helicopters". Great book for beginners, just as Ray's is a great book for advanced heli flyers. MAN's book covers the basics and covers them in understandable terms with diagrahams and illustrations. Don't get me wrong, it still has shortcomings (It mentions "Solid-State" Gyros, the latest advance in gyro technology)- and has no reference to HH Gyros. This book was published in 1995. Have we come a long way!

For $15, it was the best heli purchase I ever made. Now I understand about half of what Uncle Ray writes!

Bob