360 degrees of expertise...

[mgjackson]

I had this idea while watching a newby nearly destroy his Neon Blaze. He took off with the tail facing him, then when the heli flipped round, he tried to take off again, this time with the model facing him. We stopped him before the inevitable happened :-)

Anyway made me think...a complete beginner could be considered a level 0 pilot because they can only hover with the tail at 0 degrees to them. A more able beginer, level 90 because they can hover the model at right angles to themself and an intermeditate pilot level 180 because they can hover nose in. An advanced pilot would be level 360 because they can hover inverted nose in.

Seemed a good way of quanitifying skill level....interesting to know if its been thought of before.

Thanks,
Matthew

[Weebl]

Sounds like an easy way to quantify your expertise at orientations.

I am a level 0 pilot, although when I drift it left or right the tail is not facing directly at me so maybe I am a level 10?

[DarkTherapy]

What about a number for when your inverted? lol

[Weebl]

I think that is what he means by 180 nose in and 360 inverted nose in.

181 would be inverted tail in.

[Ewan]

Reckon that I am probably 45 then as I am ok tail in, can manage side on but not for anything like as long.

[DarkTherapy]

Reckon that I am probably 45 then as I am ok tail in, can manage side on but not for anything like as long.

I went from tail in practise to nose in practice on the sim, then side on with the real thing. that gave me 2 options of safety if i lost control whilst doing side on, was quick to nose in from trouble rather than traveling a further distance back to tail in if you see what i mean..

[Ewan]

I went from tail in practise to nose in practice on the sim, then side on with the real thing. that gave me 2 options of safety if i lost control whilst doing side on, was quick to nose in from trouble rather than traveling a further distance back to tail in if you see what i mean..

That does make a lot of sense. Maybe should give this a go.

[Steve]

You need to be able to hover directly in front of yourself at all points around the clock face starting from 12 o'clock tail in. Then you need to be able to do it rotating left and then rotating right.

Next you should do both of the above 5 or 10m over to your left hand side, and then the same again over to your right hand side.

That's 6 different moves so far.

Once you can do all that, you can the start the whole process all over again inverted.

12 in total.

If you can do all that well, then you can control the hovering heli in all orientations and shouldn't be handed either.