I'm getting there slowly but surely.

[quinnj3]

Another progress update.

Today I finished my first gallon of fuel and at the same time I was forced to take off my training gear! With the training gear on I was just setting down to refill after my first flight of the day when one of the training legs seemed to come out ( I haven't glued them in!!). When I went over for a look I realised that it had broken out of the holder, so instead of repairing it I took them off all together. The failure was because of numerous landings on very uneven ground, so I set out a 4ft*4ft piece of plyboard as my landing pad. The heli instantly felt livelier, trying to move the tail and slide around even before takeoff but it also felt more controllable, no vibrations or anything.

I had been practising landing the heli in a particular spot on the ground before the training gear failed so I expected to be comfortable with having to set down on what seemed like a large piece of ply. Although I was scared ****less, I practised taking the heli up for a short hover of about a minute at a time to get accustomed to the lighter feeling and also to practise my set downs. Each time I was able to gently set down dead centre of the ply. The ground I am flying from is so rough that if I miss the ply and land on the soil the tail is very likely to skim the ground and shatter. It really got my heart pulsing and now all I want to do is hover a short while then set down and rest for 20 seconds and repeat.

I think before I move on to side on hovering I really need to become comfortable with the controls all over again. I'll probably spend most of the gallon of fuel practising this as I really feel that I need to be in full control at all times in this manuevre before I could justify moving on.

happy flying!!

Jonny

[Spanner]

Good drills, seems there are a lot of us on here that are up to the same point in our learning curves!! Keep it going

[3door4x4]

Planning on doing this myself tomorrow night. Bloody training gear plastic "spider" piece is so brittle - broken two of them just handling the heli in and out of the shed!

Gonna make something more reliable at work!!

[electricsceadu]

don't forget its not a race to get the training gear off
and once off if your having a bad day just put them back on

[3door4x4]

Will be taking them off for some "below take-off" headspeed practise just keeping the tail and starboard skid in check and then back on for some hover / landing practise until I'm happy. Been playing with the old fixed pitch heli in the workshop at work during lunch breaks to keep "on the sticks" as it were.

[stumpe]

Always good to get rid of the chicken legs, you will find it takes a little while to get used to them not being on.

This is just part of the learning curve we have all been through, good luck

Lee

[Al M]

I agree.. good to get rid of the training gear. The heli looks and feels better. Well done.. Do remember that you can always put the training gear back on if you need to, for example if you are hovering in different orientations. As for short hovers and landing on the ply.. try long hovers and landing on the ply. Maybe increase the flight duration by a minute every 2 or 3 flights.

Don't turn the heli round too far to practice side on, turn it round gradually. So master tail in, then try it slightly behind and to the left and right, then maybe 45 degrees then round towards 90 degrees, after you have mastered the previous step. Also remember to practice each side equally, so you don't become 'handed' in your flying. But really well done, keep at it and you will push on very well.

[Mslater]

Good practise. Watch the tail gears on landing And if you haven't got rubbers on the skids glue some thin carpet to that ply.