Guys,

My first foray into helis was a Lite Machines with a Cox Teedee .049 which I bought about a month after they came out. Needless to say I could never get the helicopter to fly propely and after about 6 months i stripped it of all the pieces and gave up on it.

Next I bought a piccolo about 2 years ago, again about a month after it came out in the U.S., I tried for 7 months on flying that helicopter and besides some basic hovering for 20 secs, I could not do anything else with it and I got rid of it on ebay.

Today, I am going to pick up my new Hawk SE from the hobby shop, I have already gotten a futaba 9CH radio, and I will be using a JR 410T gyro, O.S. 32 engine, and the FMA Co-Pilot with it.

I wanted to ask all of you experienced people about your advice with the hawk and how I could be successful this time round instead of having to toss out this helicopter in another 6 months also.

The hobby shop guy told me that with the FMA it should be very easy to pick up flying a heli and since I already have the experience with the piccolo, I figured it should not be a big problem. But if you guys could give me any advice and tips on:

1) Putting the Hawk Together
2) Setting up the Futaba 9c
3) Setting up the JR gyro
4) Breaking in the O.S. 32
5) Using the FMA Co-Pilot


It would be really really appreciated. OK then, thanks a lot guys. Man I really want to learn to fly this thing around so I can finally try 3d which is amazing.

-Vipul

My only suggestion is to NOT use the FMA autopilot.
Trade the autopilot in on Realflight G-2.
Later,,,basmntdweller

I second the simulator! I learned how to fly planes, and helicopters using this thing. Still use it after 4 years for all the stuff that would be too expensive with the real thing.

However, I do have a Co-pilot because I wanted a safety net for aerobatics. If you already bought it, and can afford both, keep it. I decided not to use it on my aerobatic ship, and now going to use it to stabilize my gasser for aerial photos.

Go with the flight simulator, I am new also, but am able to hover from using the sim, get local help in actual setup and programing, will save you countless hours......

The Sim will save you a lot of crashes without a doubt. I'd opt for the sim myself.

can someone explain the "fma"? what does it do how does it work?

The FMA can keep the heli level by controlling the pitch and roll axis. I'm not positive but I think it uses infrared sensors to detect the ground versus air and levels accordingly.
I can see there are times I could have used one. Sometime I get out too far to see what the heli is really doing. If I could flip a switch and it would level the heli till I could get my bearings that would be worth the money. Down fall is it probably won't work on a CCPM machine as it couldn't control the pitch servo.
Later,,,basmntdweller

thanx now who carrys them and whats going price,thinking about a bigger heli,currentlly own a ms composites shweitzer and jus bought a lmh but from what iv heard it wont be long before i want more