Flying. Where were you last year???

[AJ Jelly]

This time last year I did not even have a heli. Now I can hover and make some basic movements. Looking at starting to try figure 8's. Even started (almost finished) building a Raptor 90

[Adrian]

Last year this time i was just trying to hover a honey bee fp . Then i discoverd this fourm and met james (moonmanflyer) who has been an absolute gem.
Joined westlands club to gain acces to 2 flying fields once i could fly!!.
Built me 600n that scared the crap outa me,so i stored it in the garage and bought a raptor 30,which did the trick so quite and easy to learn with and gaind lots of confidance.

So to date im flying the 600n,rebuilt a rapey 50 and put that in a fuse which i can also fly.
Im just happy to fly about doing circuts and 8s, wana try a roll and flip but thats about it,dont know if the brain will take 3d its took long enough to learn and get this far.

[cambs flyer]

Cricky that's a question and a half!

This time last year all I had was a BCX2 which I bombed around the livingroom.

A year later I sit here with the knowledge of how to fly CCPM machines and can do most stuff apart from Nose in & 3D flying, (well Nose in for a split second.)

Learned loads from you guys & in person with Mike (Pip) & Gary (Gizmo) cheers everyone for that.

This time last year I never thought I'd ever fly what I am now, and it was this thread that made me sit back & think about my progress.

Good call.

[zoombolt]

November last year I'd just bought my first heli, a 4ch easy copter v6 - pretty much a variant on the BCX2. Hello heli - heli meet wall/T.V/table.

Got the 2.4ghz tx & Phoenix in March 2008. Progressed to the T3DS in April.
Bought the Trex600n in June/July so's to learn the build/repair/get a nitro.
Blade CX2 for indoor home use in August, due to crap weather.
Trex 500 in November as a bigger/better replacement for the T3DS for local park flying & after its positive comments from this forum.

Can now do all orientations, circuits in both directions, stall turns, all standard figure 8's, & nose in from any angle. Next step - the loop

Still haven't set idle up yet as I crash pretty well on the sim. Can't seem to get the hang of upside down & back to front. Multi-tasking sucks.

Still scratching my head re pitch curves/settings & getting a little anal with a 'just so' head set up.

Oh and joined a great web forum & learnt how to post videos on the net.

[SparkleBee]

Hadnt even touched an RC heli a year ago, in febuary 2008 my girlfriends dad gave me an Esky Lama V3 he wasnt using. I had no manual or anything for it, and no clue what i was doing, so that soon met a watery end in a horse drinking trough! But i loved the challenge of mastering flying it, so bought a CX2 from my lhs in march, and spent the summer crashing/fixing/modifying/flying it until i got pretty good at flying that around outside, large circuits etc. Couple of months ago i bought a mini titan kit as my first cp heli, built it and set it up myself, Now flying small circuits and figure 8s etc with it, but still to scared to take the training gear off! All things considered, im reasonably happy with my progress in the last few months, but i couldnt have done it without all the help ive had from this forum!! So cheers guys, i hope you all have a great 2009!

[Dashik]

This time last year I had not long got a T-rex 450 SE V2. That with My Belt CP and I could hover tail in no problems. All on my own.

OK now I am doing very slow left to right and back lazy 8's and can hover side on without too much trouble.

Did the SAA hovering proficency test on Sunday at Kinross, the Club I joined a few months back, with my T-Rex 600e

So allowing for the fact that I have not been able to fly anywhere near as much as I had hoped I reckon I'm doing really well.

Dinged the 450 yesterday while patting myself on the back for hovering nose in......

Fixed now

Just back from Kinross and more lazy 8's

[moonmanflyer]

This time last year had a 600 nitro sport and a mini pred.
I could do flips loops and rolls and fly circuits but had only been flying about 6 months at that point.

Now i can do a bit more, managed my first piro flips at the dmhc christmas fly-in, not very tidy but i didn't crash, tick-tocks are quite good now, both elevator and ailereon, funnels, inverted flight, autos, inverted autos, rainbows, elevated slappers, snake, so quite a bit more advanced but not near comp level yet by a long way. Also managed to get my A cert at last thanks to Richie Clark and a trip to the DMHC, no one at our club was ever free to do it, for helis anyway.
Hoping for a really nice 2009 to progress and get my B in the spring when it warms up a bit, to cold at the moment.

[Sesame]

Some great stories there, I really like this thread.

I remember last year quite well I had been flying about 10 months I was doing circuits, flips, rolls, stall turns, nose in, and holding inverted for a few seconds, not daring to move it around too much. general sports flying.

Now im doing inverted circuits, left hand backward circuits, right hand ones are a little lumpy, just started playing with inverted tail first flying, straight lines arn't too much of a problem its the turns I have trouble with, also going on out there, scruffy tail down and nose down pie dishes, piro flips are improving, did my best ones sunday, loadsa autos, the next new thing for me I want to get my first out the way this weekend if I feel confident enough is an inverted auto. cracked it on the sim, but not tried it yet.

for the next year I want to get my B, get confident at the right hand backward and the inverted tail first circuits, inverted piedishes, and tidy up my tic tocs. few if I get most of that done ill be a very happy boy

[jiberjaber]

Well I am not sure what happend this year, I discovered the joys of nitro in the last quarter of the previous year, joined a proper club and had loads of space. This should have seen me make good progress through the year.

Progress wise - very little, in fact I think I have taken a bit of a backwards step from being very cocky and willing to try anything to struggling to feel comfortable in the air I am sure it is just a passing phase though.

So it remains at the usual sport flying level (loops, rolls, stall turns, fast inverted flybys) and on occasion a couple of tic-toc's and some sort of funnel when I find myself in it! LOL

Engine wise, I think I am on number 4 this year - OS50, 2xYS50 and now with a running TT53

Heli wise - well the Beam E4 (huge grin inducing machine) and the Knight 3D have been the mainstay of the year.

This year saw the passing of the Trex 450 and the decapitation of the Raptor Titan.

Still not bothered to get my A - that was the target for 2008! Should have done it in the summer hehe

Oh - and the usual congratulations to you all for all the craic during the year

Great thread this

[cambs flyer]

Thats been one of my main holding back issues when I'm out of action for weeks on end and can't fly.

There are somethings A Sim can't help you with that can only be mastered in real life situations.

I think the most pride with my flying comes from getting out of sticky situ's, where a strong gust or learning a new maneuver has gone big time wrong, and having a cool head to correct the machine to normal flight, and in some cases end up pulling off a nifty piece of flying correcting it to boot.

You guy's know what I mean, I just can't think of another way of wording it, only once the fear of flying circuits, 8's, and not just tail in left and righting it, the thrill is off the scale.

This is why I think I no longer get a buzz playing video games, I know many here do, but this is just me for you, lol, as when your doing something for real with hundred's of hours of practice behind you and all the other stuff you learn along the way, playing car racing games with my cousin on he's PS2 seem almost boring

Yet I still love Space Invaders, Asteroids & Phoenix (retro game not the Sim)from my Atari console days around 1981 onwards.

Now playing Chess on my computer chess board, or having a game with my Dad on my Polish Chess set is almost on par with my flying, but not much else is.