Hi All!

Just thought it would be fun to post in this area of the forum after a very fun though very HARROWING first helicopter experience I've been in R/C for many years, cars boats, aircraft... or I suppose on that last one I should say "airplanes" since in all my years in R/C I have never done more with helicopters than look at them on display in the hobby stores, looking them over at a friends house, or glancing sideways at them and their pilots from the side of the flightline with a kind of grudging envy...

Now why was the envy "grudging" you might say? Well, the whole time I have been flying airplanes, no one ever said anything else about R/C helicopters except being incredibly hard to fly and having an incredibly steep learning curve. Both of these of course, are true, but true enough in my case to steer (or bank ) me away from helicopters for all these years.

Well, awhile back I bought a fun program to play with... Many on this forum are probably familiar with it; Reflex R/C simulator. I purchased it as a tool to practice flying and just as a sort of fun pastime to wile away the hours and show friends who visited just what R/C flying was like...

In the program is a very detailed and I am told very accurate helicopter section. In all the time I was using the program I never touched it, still being repelled by the idea of the difficulty of flying the rotaries.

One evening I was setting dual rates on my transmitter (a JR XP8103) and while creating a new model I stumbled into the Helicopter mode of the transmitter and poked around for a bit. I'm not certain what prompted me but I set up the basic default helo program, hooked it up to Reflex, and decided to give it a go. It took a while to configure the proper channels and to center and EPA all the travels but once that was done I loaded up a 30 trainer and stood next to the helopad and windsock that previously had only noted as an obstacle to low passes with airplanes...

many aborted hovers, a few wild and crazy trips around the virtual field ending in the helo rekitting itself, and a few nasty virtual crashes into myself! (does that happen often?) and I decided that some severe exponential changes to servo rate was in order. I bumped them all the way to 70% for all three axes and left throttle at linear and tried again... Much nicer! now I was able to bobble around ridiculously for almost 10 seconds before crashing!

A few more adjustments (I left wind on figuring that flying in dead calm was probably not a true virtual experience) and this introduced just enough buffeting to make things interesting...

I estimate that I spent a total of about 5,000 virtual dollars in all the crashes and mishaps, but this didn't prompt me to adopt a sloppy attitude about flying the whirlies... In truth, every time I lifted off the ground (except the first 3 or 4 times) I adopted the mindset that this was the real deal, and I gave it my all... (just as I do with the airplanes in the simulator)

About 2 hours and a transmitter beeping at me relentlessly that it was draining fast, I was at the point where I could actually hold a hover at about 3 feet straying only a foot or so in any direction from the "H" in the middle of the pad. I had to keep the tailfeathers pointed right at me the whole time though, but experimented with turning them 45 degrees to the left and right and trying to hold hover that way.

Time lapse...

I had been using Reflex for all my airplane practice, but after each session, I fired up the helicopters and practiced that as well... To this point I can hover at will and fly a box all around the runways under moderately complete control... The promenade thing where you walk around the helicopter still gives me no end of trouble, but maybe more practice there as well... All told, I had probably 30-40 hours of simulated helicopter experience at the next point of the story...

Time lapse...

A party at a friends house who I've known for some time... He's been flying R/C helicopters for years and we jokingly jab at one another about which is more difficult; flying a 1/4-40 inverted 2 feet off the ground, or hovering n copter...

As is normal, all the guys move to the garage to oogle at all the R/C gear while the wives gather in the living room for dessert and talking about all the money we spend on R/C gear... I tell my friend that I've actually been practicing flying rotaries in Reflex for the last month or two, and he's very surprised and delighted! (he's been trying to get me into it for years)... To see how proficient I was, he fires up the computer... hooks up the radio (he has reflex as well) and hands it to me with that "Go for it cowboy" smirk on his face.

I make a few adjustments to get it close to what I am used to on my system, and then when everyone is just about ready to strangle me because its taking too long, I lift off and hover He then says "ok, now rotate the 90 degrees left" I do.. and still hold the hover... "Now 180 degrees" again, I hold the hover almost exactly over the "H"... By this time, he's laughing uproariously with delight... "That's good!" he exclaims... then, just to wow him a bit more, I rise up a few more feet and proceed to fly in slow coordinated circles around the wind sock before touching down again on the pad...

Now comes the best part...

My friend proceeds to make flight ready his Raptor50! He says, lets see if you can do it... I refuse for the first 5 minutes, but he will hear none of it... in the next few minutes we're all heading out into his backyard under bright flloodlights to the area where he tests his birds.

Part of what makes him agreeable to such a venture he tells me is that he knows I'm honorable about owning up to my mistakes and he knew if I damaged the helicopter that I would write him a check in the next minute...

He tells me to hover only a few feet from the ground and then set back down... It takes a while to make all the preparations as the Raptor is running there in front of me... I test the throttle action, the rotor movement, everything I can think of while they patiently wait (oh, the wives are constantly remarking about making so much noise so late at night :P )

Slow throttle up... the ship begins to bobble, and slide to the left (hmm, that didn;t happen as severly in the sim) There is no wind and so I give it two clicks of right to compensate... one more time, and up she goes straight an steady!!!

drifting to and fro slowly I kept it as steady as I could at about 2 feet... 10 seconds... 20... 30... 40... a minute... to this point my friend comes up beside me and says "Well its no fluke! try a little movement... at that statement I set the bird back down slowly and hand him the transmitter...

My pulse was probably about 180! *laughing* I told him that was quite enough and also ALOT of fun! I let him know that it took FAR more concentration than the sim, and his response was that that was probably all just nerves...

We watched him fly all around the backyard for a few minutes which I thought was incredible even though the space was rather large... but after it was all put away, we talked more about tips and tricks, things to watch for, tuning, and maintenance, and we have an appointment to meet next week where we're going down to the hobby store to look into a first helicopter for me!

Damn... the wife is going to kill me! *laughing*

Sorry this was so long! just wanted to share a great experience and maybe the first steps into a transition (or more accurately, an addition) of my R/C activities and just wanted to let people that were curious know that it is possible to train on a sim and have basic skill necessary to execute... (with the addendum that I have previous R/C experience in other disciplines)

Have a good one all! I'll be back for more questions

Fae

Well you gone and done it!!
The heli addiction has got you now.
Welcome to the endless money pit of R/C Helis. Your going to love it. But your planks will start seeing less flight time.
go to www.runryder.com Its a forum simular to RCU but for helis only.

The hook is set!

Yup, you stepped in it now! Keep your check book handy, and don't forget to dust off the planks once in awhile! You'll love it, but I also agree, it is an addiction. I thought planks were expensive, then got a couple of monster trucks, but helies, whoah baby!

I just had CPR training if that helps.

Congrats and keep it up,

Mike

yes it's true,once you start heli's you will never be able to leave them alone!

Your checkbook might regret it for a little bit,,, but You never will
Have at it and have fun!
Joe

Here is another good helicopter forum for exchanging information concerning helicopters.

http://www.rotory.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=


Staraero

Hi Faenor,
Thats a great story. Did you training gear on in the backyard there? anyways Good luck in buying, building and flying your first own Heli.

I hope you are not like me and have an unfinished airplane or two laying around....

I've been working forever on a P-51D, but the heli's just keep calling. I'll leave the airplane sit and just tweak the heli's all the time.

Oh well, maybe some day I'll finish the airplane.