My god this is tough.....

[helimadness]

My Jr 7 has a picture you can watch when you are adjusting it so you can see what it is doing. You can see it shallow out the curve around mid stick.

[Reality Bites]

Silly question but you are adding negative Expo?? Positive Expo will make the controls more twitchy, also if your running Spektrum gear you have to put the Expo in to + ie +10% to add negative Expo, Confusing i know but i did it the wrong way when i first got Spektrum gear

Pretty sure it's gone in as positive. It did numb the response down a little but as I'd used it stock the two nights previous, it was almost like starting again!

Maybe I should stop tinkering and just practise lol.

[rachel]

To check your expo responce just hold your aileron stick slightly off center, and keep it in the same place , now add expo (making sure its switched on !!! as some transmitters need you to tell then when you want the expo such as my JR DSX 11 ie normal mode , stunt 1 etc etc)

Now add expo to the aileron channel ,if the swashplate tilts more, your going the wrong way.

If you are using a JR tx it will be posative you need to add to tame things down.

and yes it IS that hard , but there does become a time when flying around becomes like driving , you don't have to think too hard :-)

[highlightshadow]

It is a tough hobby to get going with .... I've been in this since Jan but unfortunately my stick-time has been inconsistent .... i did notice when i was getting some packs in regularly i was improving much quicker
You need to get them neurons regularly working on this ..

One silly tip i got but found it made a difference was letting the heli drift around a little more .... a lot of the instructional vids, good as they are, encourage you to keep within a small area (a square foot or two) ... but i found i was making twitchy corrections .... my 'instructor' (helpful club person) said to let it move around a little more .. which did help ... trick is quick but smooth stick movements rather than jabby ones...

I'm finding pushing the heli 30ft either side of me (tail in) is hurting my head as i lose sense of it being tail in and lose orientation quickly esp right side so its just progressively pushing at a weakness..

Stick with it .... you'll get there .

[Swashbuckler]

In the words of Homer "if something's hard to do, it's probably not worth doing"

[Leigh Beaumont]

I don't think I ever imagined just how tough learning to fly a heli was going to be. Only ever played with the basic toy before so took advice and bought Phoenix first. Plenty of reading and watching videos before I even started and it's really hard.

Getting your head around controlling a 6ch heli is mind boggling, just hope it comes eventually. I have to quit after 45mins or so sim time as i find myself getting frustrated.


How long was it till you 'mastered' basic flight?

Sim is Key the moment you stop using the sim oh boy dont you notices, i was using sim every day and flying felt great, left sim alone for few weeks and my flying slipped cos no sim no flying as weather was pants, now back on both and its all feeling good again

So my advise sim as much as you can and fly for real as much as poss, i'm sure everyone will say the same. But when it all works oh boy its great

As for mastering it your always learning but it gets easier but we all learn at dif rates

[Reality Bites]

Sim is Key the moment you stop using the sim oh boy dont you notices, i was using sim every day and flying felt great, left sim alone for few weeks and my flying slipped cos no sim no flying as weather was pants, now back on both and its all feeling good again

So my advise sim as much as you can and fly for real as much as poss, i'm sure everyone will say the same. But when it all works oh boy its great

As for mastering it your always learning but it gets easier but we all learn at dif rates

I will stick with the sim until things click, but, I do think flying (and crashing) a model will speed the progress up. I end up crashing in phoenix due to losing the perspective of the model on the screen. I think i would find it easier sometimes with a real heli.

I was almost buying an MSRX this week, but may hold off a week or two and jump straight to the MCPX and fly out doors instead.

[rhysduk]

Don't forget RB that you can change the Camera in Phoenix to suit your taste...

[Leigh Beaumont]

I will stick with the sim until things click, but, I do think flying (and crashing) a model will speed the progress up. I end up crashing in phoenix due to losing the perspective of the model on the screen. I think i would find it easier sometimes with a real heli.

I was almost buying an MSRX this week, but may hold off a week or two and jump straight to the MCPX and fly out doors instead.

Defo fly aswell but the bigger the better they cost a lot more to fix but very stable, 2 of the best helis to learn on are the trex450 sport, (pro is alot more twitchy)and trex500 esp these are what i started on and most the guys I no, and there not to bad a price each crash, the mcpx is a little pig at first but great fun and u can crash n crash n crash in the grass n nothing breaks if u hit throttle cut in time

[Reality Bites]

Defo fly aswell but the bigger the better they cost a lot more to fix but very stable, 2 of the best helis to learn on are the trex450 sport, (pro is alot more twitchy)and trex500 esp these are what i started on and most the guys I no, and there not to bad a price each crash, the mcpx is a little pig at first but great fun and u can crash n crash n crash in the grass n nothing breaks if u hit throttle cut in time

Even though i'm not quite ready for a larger heli, i have been reading up on the 450/500 trex models and can't decide if the jump in price to the 500 is worth it for me yet. for the FBL model i'm looking at around £180 more than the 500 with all the kit i would need. then there's the more expensive bats, but, many do say it's more stable and not much more to crash.

oh well, we'll see ...

[Mslater]

I guess I'm going to hit the point where I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get a model to fly for real. I find I've been fine until I lose control. I know what sounds obvious but what I mean is I panic and snatch the controls as my brain can't react quick enough yet. I'm hoping it will click though.

The sim is great, but I struggle with the perspective sometimes. If the model goes above the ground, you lose a sense of angle and direction.

Try setting. Keep ground in view
See if that helps(it's on the menu)

[Leigh Beaumont]

Even though i'm not quite ready for a larger heli, i have been reading up on the 450/500 trex models and can't decide if the jump in price to the 500 is worth it for me yet. for the FBL model i'm looking at around £180 more than the 500 with all the kit i would need. then there's the more expensive bats, but, many do say it's more stable and not much more to crash.

oh well, we'll see ...

Ive just got me another 500 after i sold mine last year, the reason ive brought another is to practice on and if it goes wrong its cheap to fix and mainly there so stable for there size and they will cope with anything you throw at it, there easier to in the air over the 450, which as you get better and fly about you need to be able to see it, and you can get batteries for a 500 £30 which if the bug bites and it will very hard you can use the packs paired up and get you a 12s machine just as ive done, used 500 packs in my 600pro now using them in my fusion 50 as 12s 4mins easy

[helimadness]

I went straight into the 500. A lot bigger than the 450. About twice the weight so more stable, easier to see and better in wind. A little more expensive to fix but only really had a couple of minor roll overs on take off but did do about 150 quid worth of damage for both. That said I now have about 100 flights on it so not so bad if you average out. Cheers

[King Daddy]

I started flying about 3 months ago with a fixed pitch heli (nine eagles bravo sx) and that taught me a great deal initially but I found I out grew it very quickly. I've recently moved on to a walkera mini cp after trying out others (mcpx, solo pro) and I havent looked back... I'm learning something new every time I fly it.

I've used a sim a few times and I just can't get serious with it... I'm too much of a gamer and that takes over when I sit in front of the sim, I just don't seem to care if it crashes. With my mini cp however, I really do care!

I'll probably get bashed for liking a walkera product but in my experience it has been much more enjoyable than the mcpx.

[helimadness]

Hi KD. I also have a Mini CP. Living in China at the moment and cant get MCPX easily so was easier to get parts and a lot cheaper. Its a fun little thing but after flying the 500 the mini gets a bit left out. I use it to get over the first flight gitters for the day :-) it flys so much different to the 500 I am generally just sticking to that for most of the stuff.
The sim is good to get your head around new orientations but nothing beats the real thing. If you are comfortable on the mini a bigger heli will only be easier. I also extended the tail on my mini to stop it blowing out. Another thing to be careful off is the canopy pops off in a crash and takes a little diode out on the board. I have done it twice and they are expensive. I have found a way to fix them and also now covered it in Silicon so it doesn't happen again.
Enjoy.