nerves getting the better of me, 1st time flyer

[nathkrul]

Hi there, Ive been trying to hone my zero skills using Pheonix-fs for about 3 weeks now and I'me on it about every day adding various wind conditions in a hope to ready me for outside flight.

Went out to a local football field late in the evening on sunday, no one about great, got my Hurri 550 out, a little bit wind but steady, hovers her first, spot on, time for a bit hight I thought and thats when it went pear shaped, was about 7 meters up doing ok when heli started drifting to the left couldnt get her to come back over in front of me (unlike in the sim) began approaching the tree line so dropped throttle and tried to let her down gently, heli was about 30m from me, maybe more, landed but tail boom bent, no major damage.

Took the hurri back to the car and got the mini titan out guess what! same thing, could it be that the wind even at 7m's was stronger or am I expecting too much for first time.

Oh! and on a more serious note while setting the speed controller on the hurri up strapped to a weight on the livving room floor, and while following the chinglish instructions I unknowingly sparked the motor up while in programming mode, and eneded up with a 5cm cut with skin missing and a lovely big bruise on my forearm. I now have lots more respect for heli's ~

Colin

[brin]

hi and welcome to the forum ,when a heli goes up it has to be controlled theres a lot more to it than just sending it up into the air its best to only take it up a 1mtr and try and keep it there and get some training gear on it will help reduce the impact when you hit the ground.

[Mart61]

Hi there and welcome aboard.

I'm not too far away from where you are now. Perhaps I'm being over cautious but I am practising on Phoenix and have flown for the last 3-4 Sundays on the trot at my local club.

I'm sticking with tail in hover, training gear on, and am keeping the heli at no greater than head height.

My words would be to slow down. There is no rush. This is not a race. Progress only when you are comfortable to take the next step (or willing to accept and afford the consequences).

[beerdeor]

Hi mate were you flying in idle up or normal as i found when learning its harder to get the heli down and back in the wind when your flying normal mode
Not enough negative pitch to pull her down nicley IMHO
hope this helps Jim

[tourerjim]

Hi there and welcome aboard.

I'm not too far away from where you are now. Perhaps I'm being over cautious but I am practising on Phoenix and have flown for the last 3-4 Sundays on the trot at my local club.

I'm sticking with tail in hover, training gear on, and am keeping the heli at no greater than head height.

My words would be to slow down. There is no rush. This is not a race. Progress only when you are comfortable to take the next step (or willing to accept and afford the consequences).

This is sound advise!

[Holst]

Although the simulator will simulate wind, its by far the least acurate part of the simulaton.

I also found it difficult to ajust to how the heli looks in real life, when your looking up into the air things look different somehow.

I would follow the advise of the other guys and concentrate on hovering the heli infront of you at about 6 feet high. As you get more confident try slowly increasing the height.

One thing about learning to fly a heli is that you should try and take lots of little steps forward. If you try and make a big jump then you can get out of your comfort zone and crash the heli. If you take smaller steps its easyer to get back into your comfort zone.

[opc]

Hi there,welcome to the forum.Best thing to do when learning is to keep it head height or below.If you get it higher you carn't tell if what the heli is doing therefore you carn't react to it.Stick with it and don't give up.

[Mart61]

Although the simulator will simulate wind, its by far the least acurate part of the simulaton.

I also found it difficult to ajust to how the heli looks in real life, when your looking up into the air things look different somehow.

I would follow the advise of the other guys and concentrate on hovering the heli infront of you at about 6 feet high. As you get more confident try slowly increasing the height.

One thing about learning to fly a heli is that you should try and take lots of little steps forward. If you try and make a big jump then you can get out of your comfort zone and crash the heli. If you take smaller steps its easyer to get back into your comfort zone.

Again good advice. Baby steps - I like that.

[shoot51]

Welcome Buddy, There is a thread a few below yours title "Bottle Gone" Thats me! Give it a read. You will get nothing but help from the guys on here, they certainly helped me through, thing is it is not easy and it will get to you, i actually lost sleep, but i love heli,s and you just gotta do it and do it right, biggest learning curve ever but so worth it, take the other guys advice its GOOD. Richard

[waveydavey]

Hi Colin

I'm in the area a week on Monday, more than happy to give you a hand with your first hops, hover. Get some training gear and let me know.

[crash-alot]

Great advice from all in the treat!

I remember my first hover. It was nothing like the sim. Too much nervousness. Palms sweating and forgetting the basic orientation principles.

Go back on the sim and concentrate on keeping the heli at head height tail in hover. Progress to 45deg side left and right. The idea is that you need to be in control of the heli.

Other advice would be, make sure your heli is properly trimmed out. Again a steady hover will give you a clue on this.

Check out your pitch curves. I would recommend -3 to -4deg negative pitch in the normal curve. Remember any gust of wind is going to sweep your heli away and you need to be able to reel it in.


Another tip is not to get distracted by spectators. They have little clue on the effort that goes into a steady hover. Don't try to fly above your skill level it might just end in tears.

Jaco

[Xige]

Hi Colin, welcome to the forum. My advice is to take things slow mate, and as others have already said it's safe to take small steps instead of taking a big step and risk your heli. Try just slowly increasing the distance from yourself to the heli in small steps, slowly to build your confidence.

It's also worthwhile to put some training gear on your heli just in case, to keep it safe.

With me I'm still learning too, and from the beginning I just take things slow and practise when I can to build confidence and my skills.

Good Luck mate =)

[nathkrul]

Hey Guys, thanks for the warm welcome. Youre all correct in what your saying, I am trying to advance too quickly, luckily I did have training gear on which did help.

I tried increasing the head on wind to 15mph with gusts in Phoenix and can now see what went wrong when I drifted to the left, I should have increased the throttle and pointed the nose down, it would have brought me back. But thats for another day, when I get more practice in.

I need to practice more at hovering, and landing a bit softer.

Thank you for all the kind words, ime taking it all on board, cheers.

Colin

[Birdie4x4]

HI,
I learnt to fly with a Raptor 30, It was originaly set up with no negative pitch, as my flying site is always windy (peak district) the wind would get under the blades and take her up much to quick and when atempting to get her down I lost all head speed hence bounceing on the ground, I then put 3deg negative pitch and increased head speed on no 2 on throtle curve, what a difference I can now get her down on demand and stop her before hitting the ground.