spektrum dx5e

[musomaniac]

thanks guys , and yes i was a bit confused about the previous statement of £51 won't get you seriously flying helicopters , i no doubt realise that flying a sim is not going to be the same as the model , but i've had phoenix for nearly a week now , and without it i would have been buying lots and lots of spares !!

The sim gives you a good understanding of what each stick does , and you can experiment without the crash expense , as for seriously flying helicopters ----- i may not want to fly them seriously , and i may or may not decide to get a better more expensive model , my main concern at the moment is being able to fly this little 120 with confidence , and once i can do that , then i'll decide if i want to progress.

To me phoenix or something similar is an absolute must , by the way i downloaded the 120 sr model , and find it harder to fly than the bigger models on phoenix ?? Can someone with this sim try it out and compare it to say the 400 , because i find the 400 way more easy to fly than the 120 .

Can i also say that rc heliaddict is an absolute goldmine of information , with some really nice guys giving good advice (450man) immediately comes to mind , i flew fixed wing stuff back in the day , about 25 years ago now , and i have always maintained an interest in model aircraft , i used to go to bolingbrooke hall , god , is that still going !! Anyway thanks everyone for the information , and i will continue on my learning curve until i can make that little b***er do what i want it to .

[Stevec]

looks like you are finding out the small models in Pheonix just don't cut it. the smallest heli that flies half realistically is the trex 250. try learning on a 600 or even a 700 size.

several reasons.

you can't see the micros in the sim, and when you can see them they don't fly right.
the big helis have much more realistic parameters on them,
they react slower so you can fly them without the tuned reflexes of a psychic ninja.
the larger helicopters will not be outgrown by you so no need to change all the time.
there are some realistic paramater files available so you can fly one that actually flies like a real helicopter.

I don't know if you have noticed but almost everything in pheonix is well overpowered and has too much blade inertia making aerobatics and autorotations quite a lot easier than they are in real life.

check out the RChelination website they do a podcast that is well worth a listen and they recently released a load of downloadable models for pheonix tht have been tuned by people who fly the real ones to make them realistic.

now I'm not saying you are necessarily ready for the ultra realistic feel of a well tuned model, but they can be realistic enough for the pro's to use to practice with for hours on end. and if they are good enough for the pro's then that makes them good enough for 99.999% of us!

if you need any help start an online session called RCHA beginners in the online section of pheonix and you will probably only have to wait 5 minutes until it is full of fellow heliaddicts any of which will see the beginner in the title of the session and in my experience offer to help out.

if that fails shoot me a pm and we'll organise a closed session to go through some stuff if you like.
there are some cool features that make teaching/learning on pheonix quite easy, for example, if you are watching someone else online, you can check the transmitter view and a little tx appears on the screen and you can see exactly what they are doing with their sticks...

have fun, and you are right it is fun and should remain that way so keep it to your own pace and don't get demoralised.

/Steve

[musomaniac]

i have to repeat myself again and say that this site is absolutely the dogs b*****ks , thanks steve for the invaluable information , i will definitely set up a beginners online session , and will also let you know in case you feel like jumping in and showing me how to go on , even with my very small amount of heli knowledge i did think there was something not quite right with the smaller models , so as you say i will be using the 250 , 400 , ect ,from now on .

I had an hour on phoenix earlier today , and then took my little 120 outside and things are definitely improving , i can manage to keep control of it for at least 30 secs now haha . but i'm enjoying it , its a challenge , the little 120 got its own back though and left 2 scratches on my inner arm after i flew it into myself , certainly won't do it again though .

[musomaniac]

i downloaded a couple of models from RcHelination and saved them as per the instructional video they have on about it , but the models do not show up in the helicopter lists !!

[Stevec]

ok I had a similar problem when I downloaded them.

I did this...
right click save link as, then dropped it into Pheonix directory, from there I had to cut/paste into the /variants/helicopters folder and hey presto they appeared.
I think the video they put up was for an Os other than vista. I couldn't directly download into the variants/helicopters folder. dont forget to restart pheonix after you have put them in the folder it only reads it on startup I think.

hope this helps
Steve

[musomaniac]

cheeaz steve will give it a go