my eyes are playing tricks on me

[speedy jon]

hi all,
was flying on saturday and was up say 10 meters and around 10-15 meters away and turned left to hover at 45degrees. then for some reason i thought i was nose in so i quickly turned back to tail in.iv had this a couple of times now but only when i turn the heli to the left.
i was wondering how to over come this feeling that the heli has turned more than it has.

cheers jon

[Kwickkwack]

practise orientation on the sim, also different canopy colours can help (distinctive marks help)

[Boggy]

when i started i suffered from this . i painted each side of my canopy a different colour. i still do it now!! its stuck

[Mike W]

I paint mine red and yellow .. Can see em alot better .. As for orientation .. the more you fly the model the easier it gets to see it when flying .. Nothing we all aint been thru

[tourerjim]

I always look at the screen part of the canopy.

[unwind-protect]

BTDTGTTS...

On my smaller heli I run a strip of bright insulation tape from the top to the bottom of the canopy over the nose; makes it much easier to recognize when it's nose in, and easier than repainting the canopy.

[chrisebowen]

Hi I’m glad some one else suffers with the same thing, ruffle the same height and distance away, the B400 just blends in together front back left and right, it all looks the same. Started to get use to it now, the T500 is a lot better for this, and with the yellow canopy it looks twice as big in the air.
Chris

[moyesboy]

When you fly the heli a bit further away and into circuits then this eyes playing tricks thing is common. your eyes will suddenly tell you it is not the way round you thought it was leading to a momentary panic, but then (hopefully) you realised the heli can't suddenly turn backwards or inside out and it is still carrying on the way it was.
After a bit your confidence will improve and you will be filtering the eye info with your knowledge of what the heli is doing and all will seem normal. This is how it is possible for more experienced pilots to fly full 3D with a skeleton heli with no canopy, or in the dark with night lights.
To begin with exaggerated colours on the canopy etc can help reduce the eye trick effects, but once you are flying further away, and high, the colours on the heli are not so visible against a bright sky.

[speedy jon]

cheers guys, im glad its a common problem which ill just have to over come with more practice. ill start playing with a few different colours and looking at a different part of the heli to see if it improves things.

thanks again, Jon

[Metoleous]

When I used to see real aircraft in the sky, so far away that they were just silhouettes, I thought the illusion was cool....umm, not so much anymore...Kinda of like-"What the??? holy crap..panic..crash..chicken flop..realization...Hit the switch dammit!! rebuild..It's an evil cycle!!

[Mikee]

cheers guys, im glad its a common problem which ill just have to over come with more practice. ill start playing with a few different colours and looking at a different part of the heli to see if it improves things.

thanks again, Jon

+1... I too have been caught out like this... even though I have just done a banked turn to the right, I just loose the heli in a panic moment and pop to tail in... just to get my head straight and stop my leg shaking..

I tend to look at the skids to much and miss the bigger picture of what the heli is doing.. canopies do play and important part.. and I find sometine a bright canopy can be as bad as dark one.. my favorite 450v2 sized canopy is the one that comes in the kit as standard

[Disc]

The worse thing is the Sun...

One site I flew at when it got to say 11amish you ended up flying through the sun on certain approachs. The trick is NOT to look at the sun or you'll end up in real trouble you need to look at the other side of the sun for the model to re-apear... Providing you don't do any stick movements the wrong way the and let the model fly through you'll be fine... Give it a stick input in the blind Sun spot you'll have a problem...

other than the Sun I find Dusk/dull grey days are the next pain once the model just appears as a grey spot i'd say get it back and land and either put on some model glass's the yellow lens ones are good or pack up go home while its in one piece!