After being away for over 3 months,due to illness,
I fired my Venture up today. I didn't know what to
expect, because one of my blades is bowed,and the last couple of times I flew it, I was having prob-
lems with my carb-adjustment.Mix that with the fact that I haven't flown for over 3 months, and
you can imagine the anxiety. I fired the engine, my heart raced, I started sweating, and then lift
off!! My heli actually flew pretty well. I made a
small ajustment(lean)to the carb, and adjusted the tracking on the blades, and continued to hover
and managed some slow FF & nose-in FF and hovering. I had just graduated from hovering, when I had to walk away from the hobby. It's good to be
back, and it sure was nice to see the bird in the air again. It was almost like watching your kid
walk, for the first time!! Now maybe I can start
back to work on the basics.
I'm still using my training gear, but hope to be
shed of it soon. Any advice, for my first flight
minus the training gear??? I know it will be lighter, but is there anything else I need to know??
Mike

First...don't rush it. Do it only when you can land your heli delicately anywhere you choose, anytime you choose. Wait to take your training gear off until you are in control of the heli, not that you're just reacting to it and can make it do stuff.

Then, once you do remove it, be ready for a happy experience. The heli will be more responsive, probably more stable in the hover and will look great.

Enjoy and good luck.

Ford

Try to focus on keeping the heli level and try a few landing cautiously and work your way up to getting more comfortable looking at two skids head towards the ground. Do not worry they will seem small & narrow for a bit and then you will not even have to think about it becomes second nature when setting down without you training gear. Keep the tail toward you until you get more accustom to the heli without the TG. GL, you are doing great & most of all enjoying it! And try to limit yourself to just a few flights a session if you get carried away and fly to many sessions you are more prone to loose focus and make mistakes.....

Appreciate the advice Ford. I'll probably make a few more flights with the gear, until I become more comfortable. So far I've been able to take off & land in different orientations, and pretty much where I want to set it down, but, I'm not going to rush it. I've notice a few guys, at the
forum using the Radioshack IR Thermometer to monitor their head temp. I went to their web-site and the thermometer was on sale for $29. Needless to say, I went out, right away, and bought one.
It should help with future carb adjustments.
Mike

Very good advice! I do tend to get a little sloppy
the longer I fly. It's better to walk away while
you can still feel good about it.
Mike

The big thing I noticed without the T-gear on was that the helicopter looked much smaller. You'll get used it and will not even think about setting it down when landing. It becomes very simple. Get used to looking at the body and tail of the helicopter, not the training gear or the blades.