Hello from a newbie

[eyedee]

Hey there, I just thought I'd start off by saying Hi. I'm Nathan and I am very new to the whole rc helicopter scene. The first copter I owned was a 6ch Honey Bee King which turned out to be too much for me to start with, so I decided to downgrade to a cheap and cheerful Syma 9083 2ch model, but it didn't take too long to reach the limits of what I could do with it so I recently upgraded to Walkera Dragonfly 4ch.

I'm finding learning the ropes very interesting but I haven't had much luck 'flying' it yet. I've spent hours trying to balance the blades, paddles and rotors etc., but it still shakes pretty violently and arcs to the left as soon as the skids begin to leave the ground. It is a bit frustrating but I'm not wanting to give up. I've obviously got loads to learn!

Is there a club with meets or do forum members meet up for practice, advice and a chat at all? I definitely think I could benefit from spending time with more experienced pilots.

Anyway, nice to be here. Looks like a really good community so looking forward to learning from, sharing with (though probably more learning - at least initially ) and hopefully meeting a few of you.

[brin]

nice intro mate welcome to the forum. dont know much about the dragonfly but just check that the swashplate is level allaround with all the trims centered .

[opc]

Hi Nathan,welcome to forum,ask as many questions as you like,there's usually someone that knows the answer.

[moonmanflyer]

Hi Nathan and welcome.
A heli with blades rotating clockwise will alway tend to want to go lift on takeoff, thats why it is soo hard a the start to learn to hover.
The best advise i can give is get a sim, will save you a fortune in repair bills

[Mart61]

Welcome aboard Nathan.

[swampy]

eyup Nathan, and welcome I was in the same position as yourself a few months ago, then a bug bit, I wound up on here, and joined a not-so-local club, and had a wallet-lightening experience to the tune of just over 2 grand,,,,,and I don't regret a moment of it, the feeling you get when you manage your first controlled hover with a collective pitch is worth every penny

[liambaker996]

hi Nathan and welcome to rcha any qestions post them up here best advise is join a club and get a sim
do you also have some training gear as this will help while you are learning????
liam

[del19_82]

Check Here for a list of clubs in your area.

[Mojo]

Hi Nathan,

Welcome to the forum.. A very friendly and helpful bunch here..

Enjoy your stay..

[eyedee]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys, and the tips and club link. Looks like the closest Heli club is in boxhill which is a fair way from me. There are a couple local flying clubs on the list that look interesting but they seem to be aimed at planes. I'll probably go have a chat with the organisers and see what they offer.

As for my Dragonfly, I still haven't had any joy getting it to stop vibrating. I bought it pre-built without an instruction manual and I am starting to wonder if it is broken in some way or if there is something more serious wrong with it. I'm going to try and find a Heli model shop that can take a look at it for me and tell me where I'm going wrong. Can anyone recommend a helpful model shop in or around the Surrey area or somewhere with helpful experts that I could take it for a quick look-see?

Also, can I ask what sim is generally recommended? Sorry if this kind of question is asked quite often!

Cheers again for the welcome and thanks one and all for your help.

[EtheAv8r]

The most common of the best Sims are Pheonix and RealFlight and I have both. Reflex is also supposed to be good, but I have no experience of it. I have RealFlight G3.5 and all the Expansion packs – these can add up to a costly total. All Pheonix upgrades are free after the initial purchase. Which is best???? Difficult to say as both are very good and each outshines the other in different aspects.

RealFlight physics are probably more realistic, certainly a lot of the helicopters in Phoenix are easier to fly than the real thing, whereas the RealFlight ones are as tricky as a real model. That said Phoenix has a lot of advantages.

One way to differentiate them is whether you want to you you own Tx with it (Phoenix) or whether you want a dedicated Tx controller that you don’t have to charge up or put batteries in and is dedicated to the sim (RealFlight).

If I were to keep only one which would it be.....? Difficult to answer that!

[brin]

try here for the manual Walkera Dragonfly Manual : Buy Align, ESky, Walkera, Skyartec RC Toys at RC-Fever.com

[eyedee]

Simulators - They're not exactly cheap are they. Guess they are cheaper than continually crashing though! Thanks for the info EtheAv8r. I'm going to start off by downloading a free model simulator which connects to my tx and see how I go with that. It'll probably be rubbish and unrealistic, but I won't know till I try.

brin, I had a look for my Heli's instruction Manual via that link and a search of Google but I couldn't find it. Apparently, there isn't a decent manual for my Dragonfly, but there is a very good manual for an exact copy called the EF Sabre, so I've downloaded a copy of that instruction manual. It does look quite helpful. I'm still looking for a local heli enthusiast at a shop or whatever to take a brief look at it though.

[spunkmyer]

At first the price put me off and I used a free sim which was good, but I brought pheonix and wished I had sooner. I spent a good six months on the sim before I had my maiden with Blade 400 outside and Im glade I did use the sim first.

Yep get a sim it is another tool that you need, yes that costs and yes you do save money but its more about practice and testing out any new moves that wish to learn.

[Tombo242]

Hi eyedee,

I found the best free sim on this site:- HeliSimRC

It is for Helis only but works as full 6 channel with a lead (obtainable from E-Bay) to your own Tx. With photo-real graphics and fully configureable data as a freebie I don't see how it can be bettered for the price.

Here's a screenshot from my portable computer.