apprenticiships

[chappers]

why do the the new influx of pilots go from the basic hover to flying (sort of) circuits without mastering hovering? one new member in our club has to stop his model at height then verticaly descend to the ground??!! personnaly i blame his instructor who isnt much better. how can you progress when you cant do the basics? come on guys finnish your appretiship.

chappers
( BMFA EXAMINER )

[Raptorite]

Hi Chappers,

OK, I'll bite

Isnt the normal way of things to learn to do the basic hovering as in the A test and then move on to lazy eights, gradually getting the model to face inwards at a steeper and steeper angle until its nose in.

The next step in the learing process is to then bring the model to a stop and so mastering nose in hovering, thus meaning that learning hovering is split up a bit.

Youre right about the approaches, this should be learnt as part of the progression on from lazy eights to full figure eights, or at least be able to approach for landing from either left or right, perferably both, nose in can come later.

Its the same with inverted flight, generally speaking this is learnt by maintaining the inverted part of a loop or roll longer and longer until the pilot is happy with inverted forward flight, then comes the turns and lastly inverted hovering.

What I am not so sure about is people going for their A when they dont know about or use an idle up 1 throttle curve.

Cheers,

Pete.

[G-DAVE]

Learning

I remember one story of a lone flier. He never actually learned to hover properly and used to fly in a farmers field on his own, he would blast off into the vast blue yonder and fly around doing circuites untill the tank got low and just dropped it into the long grass and presumably went home and repaired it for the next flight. Maybe he thought this was the norm. - if you aren't in a club or get yourself to fly-in's you have nothing to base your training program on.
As a footnote ,I don't think he's a isolated case judging by the number of helicopter kits that leave model shops and don't turn up at recognised flying Clubs/Sites.
I've been in this hobby for longer than I care to remember and for me your hovering apprenticeship is over when you can perform a PILOT'S PROMENADE.
" HAVE THE MODEL IN THE HOVER AT EYE-LEVEL AND JUST SLOWLY WALK AROUND IT. THE MODEL SHOULD NOT CHANGE HEIGHT OR DIRECTION."If you have not tried it give it a go.
Dave D

[mo]

HI DAVE.

It puzzles me how that chap you speak about managed to fly curcuits without first learning how to hover.In my case I found that flying around was much more difficult that mastering the hover,I must confess that my first curcuits were all inside of my position, the reason for that was the fact that the fixed wing patch was behind me ,and if I had gone anywhere near them it would have caused some panic reactions.
I did try the blasting off trick with indoor helli's, but I always managed to hit something before I could smooth the thing out,If I had done the same with an I/C helli at our field, and at that stage of my flying skill,I think I would still be looking for the bloody thing now.The walkround trick you mention is just great Dave',and I am with you in recommending this for good control.

GOOD FLYING.
MO.

[chappers]

cheers dave. and pete whilst i agree with you completly, please remember "there is more than one way to swing a cat" ie. some prefer to learn nose in by going back to the training sticks and taking off nose in, not my prefered method, but it works for some? and i learned inverted hovering by a half flip to inverted from stationary! thats not to say your way is wrong, far from it, the point is they are ALL right and each individual must pick his/her way they are happy with!

chappers

[Raptorite]

Hi Chappers,

I totally agree with you, there is of course more than one way to learn how to fly and its mostly down to personal preference.

The point is that whichever way is chosen there should at least be some structure and logic to it, rather than just going down to the field for some stick banging.

Those that elect not to join a club and fly on their own must get their information from somewhere, so maybe we should think about putting together some sort of guidelines and make them available here on this site.

Cheers,

Pete.

[chappers]

im with you pete, jot some notes down and lets have a look?

chappers

[Raptorite]

OK, I'll give it a shot and let you know what I come up with.

Cheers,

Pete.

[shrek]

8O
Hello to everyone, i am new to the model helicopter world and have just bought a hummingbird.I have not yet managed to get it off the ground but i am trying. I tried to be clever and held it up in the air, revved the motor to full and let go, it consequently hit the floor really fast and cost me a few quid to put it back together again. I now have a training kit on it and am taking it really slow, does anyone have any useful tips for me? PLEASE

[Stuart]

Pete & Keith

If you two want to build a How To..... on learning to fly from basics to more advanced then I'd be happy to put a forum for you two too moderate.

[chappers]

thanks for the offer stu but i have to decline i dont feel my experience and skill sufficient, however i wish PETE all the best

chappers

[shrek]

I have a zip file that you may wanna take a look at, it approaches heli flying right from construction up to tecniques for flying and pre flight checks etc, maybe you could let me know if its any good

[Stuart]

E-mail it to me and I'll have look

[Stuart]

Kieth,

Thanks for your reply....but I'm sure your more than capable. Did you like your movie I uploaded.

[G-DAVE]

thanks for the offer stu but i have to decline i dont feel my experience and skill sufficient, however i wish PETE all the best

chappers

How very COY!! Keith, this is a side of you not previously seen, I cannot think of anyone more qualified than your good self. "coughing " sorry about that I've just been sick.
Regards Dave :lol: :lol: :lol: