Let me start by saying that there is an instructor here locally, but my schedule and his are like oil and water. He is a Medical Professional, and I'm in Retail. Therefore, I read all I could find, and I went out to giv'er once. I'll start by saying that I did not crash. I fly (that sounds good!) a JR Venture with an OS 32 (Wildcat YS 20/20 fuel), JR TX (652), Rx and Gyro, and Hitec (545 on CCPM and 525 elsewhere)servos. I built the hoola hoop type training gear. I very slowly ran up the baldes until the heli looked weightless. A touch of tail rotor proved this to be so. The tail was jerking. And, as the Venture manual advised, I lowered the gyro gain slightly to fix it. After that the heli seemed to do all it could to help me. I skidded it around the flying field a few inches off the ground for two tanks. The highest I let the heli get was a foot or two up. I felt like I had pretty good control of where it went. By no means complete control. On lift off I consistently had a drift to the left of the heli. I dailed in trim to the right, but the drift continued. I think maybe I wasnt as straight into the wind as I thought. For over 8 years I've been wanting an RC heli, but prices were high and time was none. Now competition has made pricing better and my time has become less constrained. I can't wait for a shoulder high (stable) hover! I plan to add some more EXPO, as the cyclic seemed more than sensitive, and maybe reduce the TR throw to soften it a bit. But first, I'm going to the LHS for more fuel. This is going to take a while to learn. At first I was worried about the $20.00 per jug fuel, but now I say POUR IT ON! I like the smell of Wildcat 20/20! I like the Venture! :devious:

TailTwister,
That sounds like a great start for a newbie and the first day out. You didn't mention engine problems, lift off problems, etc.....

First off yes all helis will drift left. The tail rotor pushes them that direction. That is why full scale helis lean right in a hover and yours will too. Just keep adding right trim till it quits pulling that direction.

The tail rotor will feel twitchy at first but you will adapt. Try to learn to fly it this way. It will help you when you get into aerobatics. But, what is most important is that you learn to dial in the helicopter to respond to your liking.

Were the blades in track and did you notice ANY shakes or vibrations? I properly running helicopter will not shake or vibrate.

Also, the Venture needs +11 degrees on the bench to get decent performance. You are not ready for that but your pitch settings in Normal mode should be some +11 and -1. Set the hover point where you like. Some like midstick some choose to learn 3/4 stick from the start. It's up to you. But, if you have midstick set at 5 degrees and your stick is not at midstick when hovering then your setup is off. So, try to adjust your throttle curve to give you a good headspeed and your hovering is at midstick(if that is what you are set at).

The set up I have is the recommended starting points in the book. Pitch at -2,+5, +10 for hovering. The throttle is at idle, 50%, 100%. I was too focused on the heli to have a feel for what stick position actually lifted the heli. After the gyro gain was reduced I noticed no vibration or concerning movement at all. No wobbles or shakes at all. The OS seemed to be doing well, as it started right up and ran the fuel out until Iwas concerned and filled it back up. I had the heli back to idle several times when the heli got too far to one side and I wanted to carry it back to the center. Like I said "not complete control". I just need some stick time.

Well, miracles do happen. I got some stick time with an instructor. We did find that the blades were out of track a bit. We shortened the ball link rod on the high balde. by 3 turns to fix it. We tweeked the OS and the rest looked good. Our club instructor flew the Venture a few times and shook it pretty hard to see if it "felt right". You know hard up, hard down, pitch this way and that. Due to the training gear he did not do any aerobatics. After the shake down flights he said he thought it was fine and coached me through a few flights. It went much better. I had much better control, and was able to mostly put the heli where I wanted. I couldn't keep it there long, but that will come. This time most hovering happened from knee to shoulder height. His thoughts were that some of my "problems" were rotor wash. He was right. The heli was much better behaved up around chest height. There is too much going on at 3 inches up for me to control at this time. The drift to the left is still strong, but I can trim out most of it. Another benefit of watching him fly was seeing the heli in it's stable attitude. Now I can match it, somewhatly. Before it was hard to let it hang to the right without being concerned. Then I blew some covering off of my rotor blades. That was a good time to quit I think, but he taped it up for the last 1/2 of a flight. We were doing to well to go home then. A Great Day!

I like this Heli , a buddy at the feild has one it rocks..