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Today I finally manned up and decided to take my Red Bull 130X out to the local playing field for a proper flight. It's been sitting on my desk since before Christmas waiting for me to develop the necessary skills to give it a shot. So today was the day!
Those who have been following my posts will know that I've spent the last month or so on the sim and preaching the virtues of the Blade nQX quad as a convenient and cheap CP heli trainer! So this was the proof of the pudding so to speak.
So how did it go?
Well my intention was to just get it off the ground, hover about a bit and try to land safely. So first pack in and from what I'd learnt the previous week spooling it up in the garden I decided what it needed was a boot full of throttle to get it airborne without risk of tipping over. So I gave it the beans (probably 75% throttle or more) and sure enough it leapt off the ground pretty cleanly and then shot off pretty rapidly to the right (main rotor spins anti-clockwise just like the real one - cool hey!). At this point I was really glad I'd decided to do this at the field rather than in the garden, otherwise the flight would have probably ended right there and then in the fence. Anyway there was plenty of open space and I managed to bring it back in front of me and got it hovering quite well. To be honest it was all a bit of a blur from that point on and the next thing I knew it was whizzing around the field quite quickly! I just went with the flow and tried to stay calm and just pretended it was another sim session or the nQX up there. I actually flew a couple of pretty large circuits (much bigger than I had intended) but managed to stay composed enough to keep it together. Then it really took all my concentration and everything I'd learnt from hours on the sim to bring it back to a stable hover in front of me. Then finally after what seemed like hours, the timer went off and it was time to land. Now landing has been my nemesis all along on the sim and it's one thing the nQX doesn't teach you as it just flops on the ground. But in practice it was probably the perfect landing! I got it a couple of inches off the ground in a dead stable hover and then just hit throttle hold. It sat down gently on the grass and spooled down. The relief at that point was just amazing!
So a few deep breaths and pack number two went in. This time I was ready for the kick to the right on take-off and I controlled it much better. I also managed to keep the speed down and actually kept to my original plan of a simple hovering exercise. I just concentrated on the tail-in hover, but did spin it around a couple of times to test the rudder response. Again all that orientation practice on the sim and with the nQX really made a huge difference to my confidence. I felt like I was starting to get a feel for the response at this point and was a lot calmer than the first flight. So finally I landed it again without any issue and retreated to the car with a big smile on my face
Our 2 year old daughter who was sharing this little experience with me thought it was all pretty amazing. Then to top it off a real military heli flew straight overhead at low altitude. You couldn't have made it up!
I would never have guessed how much of a buzz it would be to fly this little thing! The scale Red Bull clothing and 4 rotor head really gives this little 130X a lot of presence - see pic attached. Sounds great too and makes a load of noise for its diminutive size. I love it!
Those who have been following my posts will know that I've spent the last month or so on the sim and preaching the virtues of the Blade nQX quad as a convenient and cheap CP heli trainer! So this was the proof of the pudding so to speak.
So how did it go?
Well my intention was to just get it off the ground, hover about a bit and try to land safely. So first pack in and from what I'd learnt the previous week spooling it up in the garden I decided what it needed was a boot full of throttle to get it airborne without risk of tipping over. So I gave it the beans (probably 75% throttle or more) and sure enough it leapt off the ground pretty cleanly and then shot off pretty rapidly to the right (main rotor spins anti-clockwise just like the real one - cool hey!). At this point I was really glad I'd decided to do this at the field rather than in the garden, otherwise the flight would have probably ended right there and then in the fence. Anyway there was plenty of open space and I managed to bring it back in front of me and got it hovering quite well. To be honest it was all a bit of a blur from that point on and the next thing I knew it was whizzing around the field quite quickly! I just went with the flow and tried to stay calm and just pretended it was another sim session or the nQX up there. I actually flew a couple of pretty large circuits (much bigger than I had intended) but managed to stay composed enough to keep it together. Then it really took all my concentration and everything I'd learnt from hours on the sim to bring it back to a stable hover in front of me. Then finally after what seemed like hours, the timer went off and it was time to land. Now landing has been my nemesis all along on the sim and it's one thing the nQX doesn't teach you as it just flops on the ground. But in practice it was probably the perfect landing! I got it a couple of inches off the ground in a dead stable hover and then just hit throttle hold. It sat down gently on the grass and spooled down. The relief at that point was just amazing!
So a few deep breaths and pack number two went in. This time I was ready for the kick to the right on take-off and I controlled it much better. I also managed to keep the speed down and actually kept to my original plan of a simple hovering exercise. I just concentrated on the tail-in hover, but did spin it around a couple of times to test the rudder response. Again all that orientation practice on the sim and with the nQX really made a huge difference to my confidence. I felt like I was starting to get a feel for the response at this point and was a lot calmer than the first flight. So finally I landed it again without any issue and retreated to the car with a big smile on my face
Our 2 year old daughter who was sharing this little experience with me thought it was all pretty amazing. Then to top it off a real military heli flew straight overhead at low altitude. You couldn't have made it up!
I would never have guessed how much of a buzz it would be to fly this little thing! The scale Red Bull clothing and 4 rotor head really gives this little 130X a lot of presence - see pic attached. Sounds great too and makes a load of noise for its diminutive size. I love it!
I was shaking like a leaf as I remember!
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