Teach yourself?

[gazza]

Hi mate,

I've posted my 'Self teaching' experiences on her before so apologies to those who are reading again, but here you go Oli!


Personally speaking, I got into the helicopters the hard, expensive and dangerous way.
I saw a programme about model helis on Sky, fancied a crack at it and went out and bought a Raptor 30 nitro heli.
I was already flying model aircraft, so I did have some experience regarding nitro engines etc which did help somewhat, but read on!!!

I wouldnt recommend going it alone. Basically you are in control of a spinning scythe, and it will seriously injure or kill you, damage property, or worse- Others.
I was impatient, reckless and stupid. I didnt think so at the time but looking back I cant believe how I got away with not killing myself.

I had no Idea about pitch curves, throttle curves, balancing etc, it was all guess work & ignorance due to impatience. I had many close shaves including a full throttle runaway, and a blade failure due to excessive headspeed. I also had many expensive crashes.

I would suggest- A ) you buy a good sim and a cheap transmitter or a Twister bell 47 electric. As advised the Sim to have at the moment is Phoenix. Its excellent and will become an invaluable training aid to you. I only wish It had been available six years ago!! The Twister bell is a great little electric heli and costs around 120 quid. My friend has one and its a buzz to fly.
Stay away from the cheap electric crap outfits you see on ebay.
They come with crap batteries, crap chargers, crap components fitted and iffy spares backup.

B) You buy a complete 30 or 50 sized nitro outfit such as the knight, Sceaudu or Raptor and find and join a club. Club list available on the BMFA website. You could also get a 30 or 50 size electric heli such as the Century Swift ( Which I have) or the Trex600 but the initial outlay cost can be phenomenal as the batteries are £100 each minimum.



Good luck mate.

[Leebert]

I started down the teach myself route but it was expensive. It started when I had a go on a friends copy of Reflex. He had a Honey Bee (micro electric) and so I bought one too. I paid for the heli twice over in spares and had a hard time learning.

I then joined this forum and with loads of advice from the guys here I got a couple of lessons, bought a Raptor 50 and joined a club. These were the best things that I did and got me addicted but without constantly shelling out loads of cash.

There are so many like minded and helpful people here and at clubs - why struggle by yourself??

[Ade_Law]

Oli,

as soon as i got a glow i joined a power club. but the club was all fixed wing so i had no help. However i had a pretty good idea of what was required after lots of research and 10 years of flying planks of various powered and unpowered varieties.

AFPD is pretty good for fixed wing flying but the helis are definitly lacking. It will fetch good money on ebay, probably enough to cover the cost of phoenix it would be a very worthwhile upgrade for you.

if you get a 30 get a raptor its definitly the best. However if you can justify the extra money its worth getting a 50. they are more stable and offer something to grow into rather than grow out of as they have much more power available than a 30. But can be tamed down.

the 3001s that come with the 9c will work but only just and will give you soggy controls its worth spending a bit more and getting 3152 or 3050.

lastly, there is only one make of engine worth fitting in 30s and 50s and thats an OS. Anything else will give you trouble.

not saying OS wont give you trouble but the chances of it are a lot lower.

Ade

[col9]

hi, I'm sort of teaching myself with plenty of usefull, needed and appreciated hints and tips from club members. I would say that the first few flights which i had very closely supervised were essential. Someone in the know standing next to you telling you what to expect and what to do and to calm down its only wind is soooo helpful its unreal. Its great to have people there to have a flight if it dosnt look/feel right and make a few adjustments if needed to sort things out.

Out of ignorance and impulse I got a Vario 60 size heli to learn on that no one in their right mind learns on, costs a small fortune to fix but its so well built. If I did it again I would get a raptor (everyones got one) or more likey a sceadu, both relitivly cheap to fix.

The sim is usefull but a bit dull and Its irritating doing circuits stall turns and the like on the sim but getting scared of the wind (tart) while hovering in real life.

Youre only 25 or so miles from our club in Olney, Bucks with no waiting list. Depends how much you like a drive.

Col.

[chipbury]

Hi,
I bought and built myself a T Rex 450XL in June this year - the shop i got it from gave it a quick wizz around a field to check it and since then i have been on my own. I have since taught myself to fly (sort of). So far i can hover and do some forward flight but am still struggling with the orientation thing if i get it nose in.

I am at sea half the time so am not able to take the helicopter away with me. I do have Reflex (at home and on the ship) but i find it boring and rarely use it.

The most useful place for me during learning (and continuing to learn) has been online forums for tips and advice - it has always been forthcoming and has helped me solve a few problems.

I have crashed a few times but lucily never caused much damage, the mechanical/eletrical side of things has been reletively easy for me as i have an engineering background, i can imagine this would be a difficult thing to get your head around without any prior knowledge.

However i have recently been given a Robbe Moskito which i can not fly at the playing field where i fly the T Rex so i am about to join a club. I will not be able to go much due to transport problems but there is no other way and i can fly a helicopter of this size. Just popping in to my local club on a flying day has provided good friendly advice and i am looking forward to getting there maybe once or twice every month.

After all that dribble yes you can teach yourself to fly if you persevere but will make mistakes along the way that being in a club could probably help you avoid.

[infacto]

If you gonna do it yourself I would recommend the following.
1. Crash helmet (full face preferably)
2. Leather gloves
3. shin guards
4. Cup/jock strap

Yes I flew my T-rex into myself while learning to hover. Luckily for me my wife is a nurse. She was however very angry at having to get out the shower at hearing my screams .That was with a little T-rex. My fingers have healed up now but my confidence is a little shaky.

I don’t want to put you off I’ve put in a lot of hours and it’s the only accident I have had.

Infacto

[Gaza07]

Wow it wasnt just me then, I went from the twister bell 47 to a twister 3d,
The thing is the twister bell47 if it hit you would only sting a little,
The twister 3d is a diffrent story i was sat on the steps on my patio, Learning to hover the twister 3d and it got a little close which should have worried me a lot but it didnt,
Then the wind blew it into my leg just below my knee,
(Bike riders will understand the next bit) My 1st thought was oh my god look at my helicopter my 2nd thought was oooh my friggin leg hurts,
Where the blade struck me there was a very thick deep red line where i think the skin prob almost split, The bruise i ended up with covered 80% of my lower leg,
iam now much more carefull imagine if the wind had blown it into my face

[jamiem]

i taught myself to fly with a hummingbird totally on my own, before i had even joined here, since then i bought a raptor 30 which i fly with a mate who knew the basics (and had a raptor 30 also), and together we have both progressed nicely. we both now how raptor 50's, but will be joining a club in the new year as its hard to learn new tricks from each other now, as we are both at the same sort of level. i found www.raptortechnique.com invaluable when learning as it helps with the theory behind it all and setting up etc.

good luck and enjoy!

Jamie

[gazza]

Of course it is possible to teach yourself, myself and many others are testement to that.
At the end of the day, when RC helis were first developed and marketed at a time where there were no heli clubs or fliers there would have been a fair few people having little choice but to go it alone

My point and the point of others is: At the end of the day Going it alone with no experience, and a Rappy 50 at your fingertips ( Or thumbs ) is a bloody dangerous and extremely risky thing to do.

[Oli]

Thanks for all the replys and advice given, i will definately try to join a club! Just like to say how welcome everyones made me feel on the forum. Thanks

[Gaza07]

oli all you have to do now is buy is all a drink

[chisnsid]

oli all you have to do now is buy is all a drink

LOL, gr8 idea!

Oli - for me - the sim was very very helpful in getting the calibration of my brain right!

I'm no heli flyer at all - I'm a mere beginner - but after some time on the sim you do build a bit more confidence if only in knowing what the sticks fundamentally do. Moving the Heli round and hovering it over certain areas, landing in certain places, all sorts of 'really interesting' stuff. Flying side on, nose in, upside down, loops whatever.

But, when you get a heli up in real life all the knowledge you have from the brain calibratioin exercises pays off. I hovered mine immediately - no real problems, yeah sure I was pushed around by the wind and the wind induced rise/fall affects the heli more in real life than on the sim, but without a sim, I wouldn't have even gone near starting my heli.

Mikey