Newbie to Helicopters

[twopart]

Help !!!!
I live in harlow essex, and have just got into i/c Helicopters.
I have a twister bell medivac electric to pratice and learn the basics on.
This i seem to be mastering with a good amount of sucess.
I have brought under the advice of my local model shop a sceadu 30 helicopter, with a irvine engine and a futaba T6exhp transmitter.
After a bit of bad advice I have now invested in a futaba gy401 gyro and the appropiate digital servo to go with this.
I have also brought some 550mm SAB carbon blades and some carbon tail blades.
The problem I have is that there are two local shops in my area one the guy who runs it seems to be out of date with things and carrys very little stock.
The other shop has good stock but their advice changes from one week to the next. They say do it one way then the following week they say you should not do it like that. They also seem only interested in taking money of you as well.

Does anyone have any suggestions on any books to read regarding set up of the helicopter and transmitter gyro etc ?.

I have taken out the BMFA country membership for my insurance.
I have not joined my local club as of yet as they seem very biased towards aeroplanes than helis. And the only place to fly locally is a public place but the flying club seems to dominate this and you are treated like an intruder when you turn up.

Any help would be gratefully received.

[David Drew]

Welcome to the hobby.

I am quite new myself, but this has to be the best location for unbiased advice anywhere.

Shops, ......that's my experience too, so just take any commercial advice with a pinch of salt, and check it out on this site before spending money.

I have a Raptor & a Swift fitted with the 401/9254, so I am sure you will want for nothing else in the gyro dept for some time to come. Futaba radios are a.o.k.& again you will want to upgrade, but not for a while either.

The heli & engine sound o.a.k too.

So basically, it's about getting it all set up & learning to fly.

The most often given pieces of advice are 1) Join a club, 2) buy a simulator 3) take some lessons. Can't argue with any of those.

The guys on this site who are much much more experienced that i am will not let you go wrong

Enjoy

David

[Disc]

Help !!!!
I live in harlow essex, and have just got into i/c Helicopters.
I have a twister bell medivac electric to pratice and learn the basics on.
This i seem to be mastering with a good amount of sucess.
I have brought under the advice of my local model shop a sceadu 30 helicopter, with a irvine engine and a futaba T6exhp transmitter.
After a bit of bad advice I have now invested in a futaba gy401 gyro and the appropiate digital servo to go with this.
I have also brought some 550mm SAB carbon blades and some carbon tail blades.
The problem I have is that there are two local shops in my area one the guy who runs it seems to be out of date with things and carrys very little stock.
The other shop has good stock but their advice changes from one week to the next. They say do it one way then the following week they say you should not do it like that. They also seem only interested in taking money of you as well.

Does anyone have any suggestions on any books to read regarding set up of the helicopter and transmitter gyro etc ?.

I have taken out the BMFA country membership for my insurance.
I have not joined my local club as of yet as they seem very biased towards aeroplanes than helis. And the only place to fly locally is a public place but the flying club seems to dominate this and you are treated like an intruder when you turn up.

Any help would be gratefully received.

I would find another local club, Just showing up could cause an issue with channels and the last thing you want to happen is to cause a model to go in.

You may have to travel a bit further but i'd say find another Club.

BMFA Club list is here:
http://www.bmfa.org/clubs/clist.php

As for a Good helicopter shop Skyline gets my vote you order something it arrives within 2 days normally not let me down yet.

[twopart]

The only thing I found with the BMFA site list for clubs is that the web sites listed for the clubs either dont work or are out of date. the one for my local cliub is out of date by two years !!
I think as you say I may need to travel a bit.
I really want to do this hobby as I work in Formula one motorsport and love anything technical like this but it is so hard to get into.

[Nutz]

Hi
I am based in Harlow essex not far from yourself are there any good heli clubs near you as my local clubs are a nightmare as they offer advice but what they say one week changes the next.
Also the club is run from our main local model shop who just seem interested in taking money of you

If this question is aimed at me, then I am a member of the CAMFC club, they are primarily a fixed wing club but we do some heli flying there and are based inbetween Croydon and Biggin Hill.
There is a heli club in the SE area of the M25 (Kent) but I am not sure of there name, it might be the Bickley or Concord Club, I think it is run by the guys in Avicraft, Bromley. You can contact Avicraft (number on there web page) to get more info. Feel free to look CAMFC up we have a forum if you have any questions.

[Disc]

The only thing I found with the BMFA site list for clubs is that the web sites listed for the clubs either dont work or are out of date. the one for my local cliub is out of date by two years !!
I think as you say I may need to travel a bit.
I really want to do this hobby as I work in Formula one motorsport and love anything technical like this but it is so hard to get into.

I have found a lot of Club sites don't work, when I did ours I wanted it simple to use easy and to update by me. I also wanted to see how good other Club sites were compared to the one I did.

Currently I think ours is one of the best sites for the are.

But a lot of Clubs seem to get websites then leave them alone. Where I change things every month or so like the videos and move pictures about etc.

[kevinh]

hi,

chelmsford will be your neareast club i reckon, they have a seperate field for helis if i remember correctly
Hooby stores in chelmsford will have the details for it,if you fancy travelling to elm park in hornchurch bretons fly there,

or nip across to maldon where colin bliss models is, not been there recently, or further afield come upto to colchester and they have helis flying over there and do professional flying lessons for members,

hope this helps

kev h

[mattie-lodge]

Welcome to our world Twopart. Hope you enjoy it.

DMHC is a great place t6 fly if you fancy making a trip one day. Quite far for you but you would benifit a lot.

Rays is quite a good set of DVD's to watch. It is based around the PCM 9x2 though but the Thoery is there. Little bit pricey.

Hope this helps

[twopart]

Silly question but what is DMHC ?

[Disc]

Silly question but what is DMHC ?

A Club

apprently there freindly as well...

I think about 100 of them hang out here....

[mattie-lodge]

Dorset Model Heli Club

[mattie-lodge]

All heli clubs are friendly.

It's just, up to about 1 and half year ago I was a member of a plank club. As soon as I joined a heli club. Flying just got better and better

[Kwickkwack]

Welcome Twopart
As already mentioned there are clubs around in Essex, I fly with Colchester Model Aircraft Club, and have been slowly getting into the sport, good advice and all you need can be obtained from Colchester A1 models, which is run by keen guys who both fly helicopters themselves,

This forum is an excelent place to get your questions answered, and the banter is always good as well.

Good luck

[Steve]

twopart

I live about half an hour's drive from Harlow, but I did once meet up with site user RaptorMadSteve and fly one afternoon at a site here ->

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.sr...=newsearch.srf

Hope that link works!

It's common land but is a registered BMFA site. I have no idea about the club that looks after it - talk to RaptorMadSteve about that.

I've also been to, and had a fly at the Chelmsford site as a guest of site user GaryBagridge. Their site is very nice - can fly just about whenever you like, and they are very disciplined in the way that they operate. Nice set up there.

[ChrisB]

Just a couple of pointers,the Tx you have s really basic and you dont really need carbon blades and especially carbon tail blades for now...

good luck