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As promised, here's the story of my interest in RC helicopters.
I've had the interest for a long time, ever since I saw a man learning to fly his at a local field. The field is no longer there as a school was built on it. So, a few decades ago then. He had a huge hula-hoop on the bottom of it.
I never gave it anymore thought since I knew these things were going to be expensive with a capital X. I figured you'd start with a pile of balsa wood and build it then fly it and end, seconds later, with an untidy pile of balsa wood followed by a loud cheque book groan.
A few years ago my brother got a little toy helicopter and while fun (for 10 seconds) it was dreadful really. No gyro back then. You bent the tail fin to get a little side trhust out of the main rotor down-wash. You also launched it into the air at a hefty rate of knots (unless you wanted to watch it do the 'chicken dance'). So, not good, not really.
Just before Christmas I went into ModelZone and saw the helicopters and decided to get a Syma S111G. It had... a gyro! Wow that was fun to play with - for a while.
Next day I went back to the model shop and got a Bemma co-axial helicopter. Big beggar it was. Charged it, took it into the garden. Put the throttle up. Blades start spinning. More throttle. Then even more. Then full throttle - and still the bugger wouldn't take off. Then it fell over. That was its main trick. Spool up, fall over. 3 charges and no airtime.
So, next day, feeling very disappointed and disillusioned with a potentail new hobby, I took the Bemma back. They didn't really believe me until they tried it themselves. The guy in the shop spooled it up to maximum and stared amazed as it rabbit-hopped backwards. "There," says I, "Won't take off." I get my money back.
Having already done some research I realised I should have bit the bullet and gone with the branded Blade 120 SR. yep, you guessed it, back down to ModelZone to buy a Blade 120 SR (who I call Blizzard - don't ask).
So, home and Blizzard is unpacked and the battery put on charge. Plenty of space in the bathroom as outside is too windy, so in I go. Jeepers it was like flying a manic rabbit. Blizzard was everywhere and nowhere, baby. He hit this and he hit that and I was the slack jawed yokel that let him. Tried him in the bedroom. Something soft to land on if he decides to take on the glide path of a sharpened brick. Right, he shoots back and to left of me to strike the door and the tail rotor motor breaks off.
Superglue the puppy back on and decide to take him into work where there is more space. I'm up on the mezzanine floor lunch time and got a fair bit of space around me. I pull off a hover!!! I'm over the moon and try again. This time he drifts off to the left and is starting to come down in some boxes with a load of metal legs sticking up out of them. Oh no! Put power on to compensate and newbie thumb decides to over compensate and nearly full power is put on. Blizzard leaps into the air like a rabbit that sat on a lit fag end. 9' in the blink of an eye. Now, I don't know why I did it but I gave him some forward cyclic, shock I guess, and, well.... Our mzzanine floor at work has a false ceiling sticking out where we fit fire-curtains to test them. Yeah, you guessed, he piled on up and over and landed (I use the word 'landed' loosely) on top of the false ceiling.
OK, not a disaster. I go down stairs and bring up the huge stepladders. That was an adventure in its own right. Grub around on top of the false ceiling and bring Blizzard down. Yep, tail motor broken off again but otherwise in one piece.
Back home and I reglue the tail rotor motor holder back on. Next day at work I decided to wait until after work and try flying Blizzard on the HUGE table that we have for sewing up these HUGE fire-curtains. He takes off and pretty much goes where he fancies. In seconds he's 20+ feet away and shifting. I drop him on to the table and go collect him and reposition him. Well, a little (little? Liar!) over-compensation later and he's shot off the table behind me and, yep, busted the tail rotor motor holder again (fragile stuff superglue). Fun lasted less than a minute. I tried regluing the busted bit back on but there's only so many times you can glue superglue to superglue. I gave up and ordered two new booms, sans motor, and some new blades (just incase). Blizzard was put away until the parts arrived.
By now I was thinking that there was something wrong with Blizzard. it couldn't be me, oh no, I've watched the guy on Horizon Hobbies lift it stright into the air and hover it and even let go of the controls. Nooooo, couldn't be me - or - could it? Where was the warning: Flying this thing maybe harder than our expert makes it look.
Was talking to a guy at work who flies planks. He says he'll lend me his simulator and controller. Turns out it's RealFlight Basic and it's own controller and he sells it me for £40 (what happened to 'loan'?). So, Friday night sees me playing with this (very, very) basic flight sim. The only helicopter that says 'trainer' and has training gear is a huge nitro jobby.
I lift that sucker into the air and watch as it tears off into the distance with a sort of curving forwards sideways motion. It's accelerating like a gazelle belting past a pride of lions. FAST!
BANG! Into the deck it goes. So I spend the next few helicopters (literally, I spent them) getting the trim reasonably right. I lift that sucker into the air (got the feeling we've been here before? Thought so) and I try to hover him. Hells Bells but the slippery devil is off like wet soap on oiled glass.I give it power to prevent another crash and before I know it I'm looking at a fullstop in the sky. I left it to crash.
Two hours and dozens and dozens of chopper deaths later I'm starting to get the ghist of the thing and start to understand some of the physics I'm dealing with here. One thing, why, when it got away from me (which was frequently) did it go howling off and do a huge tail-in circle around me? That was wierd.
The next day I tried again and I was able to get a sort of hover but then the critter would break free again and go haring off. By then I'd learnt to be able to stop it and bring it to a hover. A hover 30' away and a 100' up. I carried on playing with it on Saturday but to this day I'm not convinced that Real Flight Basic's physics are quite right. I also learnt short, sharp movements. I also learnt that if it's haring away then put a steep move on in the opposite direction and bring it to level before it fully stops 'cause if you don't you'll send it haring off in the opposite direction. So I learnt prediction. These things have hysterisis. I have a new move, it's called 'rocking the baby'.
Sunday came and it was a beuatiful calm day and Blizzard was snoozing peacefully on the shelf awaiting his new tail boom. So, back on the simulator. By now I'm not crashing (tell the truth, hardly crashing) anymore. If the blighter gets away from me I am able to stop it and hover it at a distance and bring it down safely where it is (mostly 'cause I can't yet bring it back to me) but hey! It's a recovery isn't it?
Tuesday arrives and so does Blizzard's parts. Get home Tuesday evening, have tea and then fit Blizzard's new tail boom. Trot him into the bathroom and give him a whirl. Hey! I'm hovering him! I'm ecstatic! He drifts to the left and I nearly panic but remember my sim training and calmly nudge the stick to the right and he comes back to me. I land him and leave it at that until I can get him into a bigger, more comfortable space.
I'm not happy with Real Flight Basic. It doesn't allow you to change any parameters and doesn't have models like the ones I'm after or have. The electrics are hyped up like they're on super-concentrated Red Bull. The big nitro trainer slips around like an eel in corn oil. Don't they half accelerate!!! Full tilt and it could put a heli shaped hole in a brick wall.
Tried a plank out of curiosity. Took off, banked, dug a furrow.
Soooo, I've been discussing options with the model shop in Worthing (about 50 minutes away by train) and I'm getting a DX6i transmitter and Phoenix V3. I like the idea of the tutorials that's built in to it and I like that I can bind the transmitter to Blizzard. I like the idea that a virtual copy of Blizzard (I hope I can tell them apart) lives in Phoenix and that I can use the very same transmitter on both. The end goal is to get a BNF Blade 450 later. Lots of sim time and lots of Blizzard flights later.
That's pretty much where I'm at at the moment. Thanks for reading.
Best regards.
Vikki.
I've had the interest for a long time, ever since I saw a man learning to fly his at a local field. The field is no longer there as a school was built on it. So, a few decades ago then. He had a huge hula-hoop on the bottom of it.
I never gave it anymore thought since I knew these things were going to be expensive with a capital X. I figured you'd start with a pile of balsa wood and build it then fly it and end, seconds later, with an untidy pile of balsa wood followed by a loud cheque book groan.
A few years ago my brother got a little toy helicopter and while fun (for 10 seconds) it was dreadful really. No gyro back then. You bent the tail fin to get a little side trhust out of the main rotor down-wash. You also launched it into the air at a hefty rate of knots (unless you wanted to watch it do the 'chicken dance'). So, not good, not really.
Just before Christmas I went into ModelZone and saw the helicopters and decided to get a Syma S111G. It had... a gyro! Wow that was fun to play with - for a while.
Next day I went back to the model shop and got a Bemma co-axial helicopter. Big beggar it was. Charged it, took it into the garden. Put the throttle up. Blades start spinning. More throttle. Then even more. Then full throttle - and still the bugger wouldn't take off. Then it fell over. That was its main trick. Spool up, fall over. 3 charges and no airtime.
So, next day, feeling very disappointed and disillusioned with a potentail new hobby, I took the Bemma back. They didn't really believe me until they tried it themselves. The guy in the shop spooled it up to maximum and stared amazed as it rabbit-hopped backwards. "There," says I, "Won't take off." I get my money back.
Having already done some research I realised I should have bit the bullet and gone with the branded Blade 120 SR. yep, you guessed it, back down to ModelZone to buy a Blade 120 SR (who I call Blizzard - don't ask).
So, home and Blizzard is unpacked and the battery put on charge. Plenty of space in the bathroom as outside is too windy, so in I go. Jeepers it was like flying a manic rabbit. Blizzard was everywhere and nowhere, baby. He hit this and he hit that and I was the slack jawed yokel that let him. Tried him in the bedroom. Something soft to land on if he decides to take on the glide path of a sharpened brick. Right, he shoots back and to left of me to strike the door and the tail rotor motor breaks off.
Superglue the puppy back on and decide to take him into work where there is more space. I'm up on the mezzanine floor lunch time and got a fair bit of space around me. I pull off a hover!!! I'm over the moon and try again. This time he drifts off to the left and is starting to come down in some boxes with a load of metal legs sticking up out of them. Oh no! Put power on to compensate and newbie thumb decides to over compensate and nearly full power is put on. Blizzard leaps into the air like a rabbit that sat on a lit fag end. 9' in the blink of an eye. Now, I don't know why I did it but I gave him some forward cyclic, shock I guess, and, well.... Our mzzanine floor at work has a false ceiling sticking out where we fit fire-curtains to test them. Yeah, you guessed, he piled on up and over and landed (I use the word 'landed' loosely) on top of the false ceiling.
OK, not a disaster. I go down stairs and bring up the huge stepladders. That was an adventure in its own right. Grub around on top of the false ceiling and bring Blizzard down. Yep, tail motor broken off again but otherwise in one piece.
Back home and I reglue the tail rotor motor holder back on. Next day at work I decided to wait until after work and try flying Blizzard on the HUGE table that we have for sewing up these HUGE fire-curtains. He takes off and pretty much goes where he fancies. In seconds he's 20+ feet away and shifting. I drop him on to the table and go collect him and reposition him. Well, a little (little? Liar!) over-compensation later and he's shot off the table behind me and, yep, busted the tail rotor motor holder again (fragile stuff superglue). Fun lasted less than a minute. I tried regluing the busted bit back on but there's only so many times you can glue superglue to superglue. I gave up and ordered two new booms, sans motor, and some new blades (just incase). Blizzard was put away until the parts arrived.
By now I was thinking that there was something wrong with Blizzard. it couldn't be me, oh no, I've watched the guy on Horizon Hobbies lift it stright into the air and hover it and even let go of the controls. Nooooo, couldn't be me - or - could it? Where was the warning: Flying this thing maybe harder than our expert makes it look.
Was talking to a guy at work who flies planks. He says he'll lend me his simulator and controller. Turns out it's RealFlight Basic and it's own controller and he sells it me for £40 (what happened to 'loan'?). So, Friday night sees me playing with this (very, very) basic flight sim. The only helicopter that says 'trainer' and has training gear is a huge nitro jobby.
I lift that sucker into the air and watch as it tears off into the distance with a sort of curving forwards sideways motion. It's accelerating like a gazelle belting past a pride of lions. FAST!
BANG! Into the deck it goes. So I spend the next few helicopters (literally, I spent them) getting the trim reasonably right. I lift that sucker into the air (got the feeling we've been here before? Thought so) and I try to hover him. Hells Bells but the slippery devil is off like wet soap on oiled glass.I give it power to prevent another crash and before I know it I'm looking at a fullstop in the sky. I left it to crash.
Two hours and dozens and dozens of chopper deaths later I'm starting to get the ghist of the thing and start to understand some of the physics I'm dealing with here. One thing, why, when it got away from me (which was frequently) did it go howling off and do a huge tail-in circle around me? That was wierd.
The next day I tried again and I was able to get a sort of hover but then the critter would break free again and go haring off. By then I'd learnt to be able to stop it and bring it to a hover. A hover 30' away and a 100' up. I carried on playing with it on Saturday but to this day I'm not convinced that Real Flight Basic's physics are quite right. I also learnt short, sharp movements. I also learnt that if it's haring away then put a steep move on in the opposite direction and bring it to level before it fully stops 'cause if you don't you'll send it haring off in the opposite direction. So I learnt prediction. These things have hysterisis. I have a new move, it's called 'rocking the baby'.
Sunday came and it was a beuatiful calm day and Blizzard was snoozing peacefully on the shelf awaiting his new tail boom. So, back on the simulator. By now I'm not crashing (tell the truth, hardly crashing) anymore. If the blighter gets away from me I am able to stop it and hover it at a distance and bring it down safely where it is (mostly 'cause I can't yet bring it back to me) but hey! It's a recovery isn't it?
Tuesday arrives and so does Blizzard's parts. Get home Tuesday evening, have tea and then fit Blizzard's new tail boom. Trot him into the bathroom and give him a whirl. Hey! I'm hovering him! I'm ecstatic! He drifts to the left and I nearly panic but remember my sim training and calmly nudge the stick to the right and he comes back to me. I land him and leave it at that until I can get him into a bigger, more comfortable space.
I'm not happy with Real Flight Basic. It doesn't allow you to change any parameters and doesn't have models like the ones I'm after or have. The electrics are hyped up like they're on super-concentrated Red Bull. The big nitro trainer slips around like an eel in corn oil. Don't they half accelerate!!! Full tilt and it could put a heli shaped hole in a brick wall.
Tried a plank out of curiosity. Took off, banked, dug a furrow.
Soooo, I've been discussing options with the model shop in Worthing (about 50 minutes away by train) and I'm getting a DX6i transmitter and Phoenix V3. I like the idea of the tutorials that's built in to it and I like that I can bind the transmitter to Blizzard. I like the idea that a virtual copy of Blizzard (I hope I can tell them apart) lives in Phoenix and that I can use the very same transmitter on both. The end goal is to get a BNF Blade 450 later. Lots of sim time and lots of Blizzard flights later.
That's pretty much where I'm at at the moment. Thanks for reading.
Best regards.
Vikki.
and a platinum star 
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