Going backwards quickly

[Pantone 186C]

I wish the title was an observation on my improvement in flying skills, alas it's the opposite. It's my skills that seem to be rapidly descending into outright incompetance

I have been a keen reader of this forum for a couple of years and have dabbled with helicopters for about the same length of time, starting with a Twister coaxial, followed by a Blade SR that I found very difficult to fly. This prompted me to purchase Phoenix, closely followed by a Trex450 Sport Super Combo.

The build was fascinating and taught me a lot, (improved by subsequent crash repairs)!

I steadily started to hover fairly well in all orientations except nose in (garden hovering) until I felt confidnet enough to venture into a larger flying area. On my first venture I exceeded my skill level, lost orientation and crashed. This has dented my confidence considerably and subsequesnt hovering attempts with the 450 and on Pheonix have been miserable, unable to maintain a reasonable hover for any length of time. Of course the weather hasn't helped, so I purchased a small fixed pitch 4 channel 'copter to practise indoors (I can hear the purists groaning from here), which I can now fly in small circuits reasonably well (still crash though less each day).

I am reasonably confident that my set up is OK (thanks to post on this and other forums and of course Finless) and the bird is tamed down sufficiently for a "newbie"

I am rapidly approaching 66 and wonder if some people just don't have he innate ability to fly helicopters effectively: this thought I find depressing as I really enjoy RC Helicopters and my progress made to date despite the setbacks. Also I'm a stubborn b****r and won't let it beat me, but I wonder if I might reach a level of competence before I get too old to remember what I am supposed to be doing or the expense makes it an impractical hobby (pensioner and all that)!!

Actually I'm feeling better for getting this "seed of doubt" into the open, I guess it's better to open up on the forum to others who understand the frustrations, than to a non-flyer who may think I'm just a doddering idiot playing with toys!

Anyhow back to Phoenix, the micro, and god willing with some better weather the 450 (the batteries are charged and ready to go).

I only hope that my skills start going in the correct direction one more - onwards and upwards!

[Guest]

I also went through a stage when the confidence went and for a while afterwards I was flying as if the heli was made of glass. I was so nervous that I was continiously overcorrecting the slightest movement of the heli. A couple of things that helped were firstly to get a mcpx. I put the 450 away, set the mcpx on dual rates of 60% and crashed to my hearts content. After a while I started getting more confidence and started to increase the dual rates until they were back to 100%. If you lose it with the mcpx your hit throttle hold and most times if you are flying over grass you have no damage.

The second thing I did was to get an attitude that I will crash the 450 so why worry about it, I went out to have fun with it and have had little damage. (Lessons from the mcpx regarding throttle hold helped)

Ensure that your 450 is set up correctly and set the dual rates right down.
Going flybarless helps the heli to be more stable.
Height is your friend, be at least 2 mistakes high to give yourself time to recover.

Hope this helps

[Pantone 186C]

Thanks Colin

All support and encouragement is most welcome.

Happy flying

[trillian]

To touch on your comment about innate ability; When I first started I only had a sim (RealFlight G3.5) and I got to where I could fly the planes around OK, I could takeoff and land and got a bit used to the orientation of a nose-in approach etc. But when I started trying to fly the helicopters on there I actually did begin to think maybe it was something I just couldn't do. It seemed nearly impossible and despite generally having an "I can do anything" attitude, it did look like maybe this was an exception. I could not keep one in the air more than a few seconds. But slowly my thumbs gained some reflexes and I got past that really steep part of the learning curve. I know some people get the hang of it quicker and youth can help in that area, but I think it's all just a matter of practice and repetition until all the little corrections you have to make to keep the heli in the air just become 2nd nature.

The transition from sim to real life can be a bit of a challenge as well. My first attempts with the real thing were not nearly as smooth as I had hoped (I spent about 6 months on the sim before I got my first helicopter). But eventually it all comes together.

[dani_r]

The key to all this, as many will tell you, is practice practice practice

Stick time is really key here. As well as covering all the basic orientations and how to bail out should anything go wrong. Over time you develop a sort of 'muscle memory' where your brain just knows what to do without really thinking about it too much. You become confident and it's only really web you get yourself into a position you're not very familiar with that you cane d up with a broken heli!
You will be absolutely fine

just keep up the stick time and use Phoenix to your advantage! The wy I see it; if you have 4 lipos and fly for 5 minutes a time twice a week that's 40 minutes of flying. With the sim you can fly for as long as you want, nail the moves you want and it hasn't cost you a penny with me, if I can do something 5 times on the sim consistently then it's time to transfer it to the real thing! But only slowly at first as its still scary sometimes.

[Cap Loz]

I have to agree with CPN re: getting an MCPX.
I bought a 500EFL Pro and had a lesson with buddy box just to get the confidence to at least hover it and to make sure my setup was correct. This was my first ever outing in RC, so was quite nervous. I was pretty good at straight forward hovering, ( I should be as I was 40 years as a pilot before I retired and the first 21 of that was as an RAF helicopter pilot.) But moving on to hovering side on, I was real bad and the repairs were getting regular, more to the point I was becoming really nervous of yawing that nose around at all. I have phoenix and whilst it is good, nothing beats the real thing.
So the saviour for me was the MCPX v2 and longish grass, with my finger never far from throttle hold.
Still a way to go but I am very confident with both circuits and nose in hovering with the little one and now trying to apply it to the 500. I'm still very careful with it but I think I am over my confidence crisis.
By the way I'm only a little bit younger than you, Pantone at 60.
Stick with it and get an MCPX is my suggestion. Good Luck

[dani_r]

I have to agree with CPN re: getting an MCPX.
I bought a 500EFL Pro and had a lesson with buddy box just to get the confidence to at least hover it and to make sure my setup was correct. This was my first ever outing in RC, so was quite nervous. I was pretty good at straight forward hovering, ( I should be as I was 40 years as a pilot before I retired and the first 21 of that was as an RAF helicopter pilot.) But moving on to hovering side on, I was real bad and the repairs were getting regular, more to the point I was becoming really nervous of yawing that nose around at all. I have phoenix and whilst it is good, nothing beats the real thing.
So the saviour for me was the MCPX v2 and longish grass, with my finger never far from throttle hold.
Still a way to go but I am very confident with both circuits and nose in hovering with the little one and now trying to apply it to the 500. I'm still very careful with it but I think I am over my confidence crisis.
By the way I'm only a little bit younger than you, Pantone at 60.
Stick with it and get an MCPX is my suggestion. Good Luck

That's good to hear feedback from an actual helicopter pilot! People have always said these things are harder to fly than the real thing, but is that actually the case in your opinion? Or is it like anything, that you just need to practice? Keen to hear your thoughts

[Pantone 186C]

I am really encouraged by all your comments and support. I guess the piggy bank gets emptied fairly soon when Mcpx's are readily available again. I must admit my tiny v911 (trex 100 clone) has restored some of my confidence.

Thanks to you all for your time and interest.

[dani_r]

I am really encouraged by all your comments and support. I guess the piggy bank gets emptied fairly soon when Mcpx's are readily available again. I must admit my tiny v911 (trex 100 clone) has restored some of my confidence.

Thanks to you all for your time and interest.

Any time We're all here to help.

[johnsandywhite]

Hi Pantone 186C. I am 69 this year. I started off 3 years ago with a Twister Co-Axial. I got to the stage where I could do lazy 8s and eventually nose in. I then bought a s/h Twister 3D Storm (Blade 400 copy) 2 years ago and virtually had to start all over again. It was a real twitchy beast to say the least.
However, which MUCH practice and MANY crashes, in May last year I managed to do lazy 8s and again cracked nose in. I now can do tic tocs upright, nose down and side. Forward and backwards Flips along with forwards and backwards Rainbows. I am now starting to do sideways Rainbows left and right. I also do knife edge piros. Loops and stall turns have never been a problem due to Plank experience along with rolls, Immelmans etc that Plank flyers do. I am now building towards Piro Flips.
Age is NOT a barrier. Only the will and the bank account to accomplish what you set out to do.

[Pantone 186C]

Hi Pantone 186C. I am 69 this year. I started off 3 years ago with a Twister Co-Axial. I got to the stage where I could do lazy 8s and eventually nose in. I then bought a s/h Twister 3D Storm (Blade 400 copy) 2 years ago and virtually had to start all over again. It was a real twitchy beast to say the least.
However, which MUCH practice and MANY crashes, in May last year I managed to do lazy 8s and again cracked nose in. I now can do tic tocs upright, nose down and side. Forward and backwards Flips along with forwards and backwards Rainbows. I am now starting to do sideways Rainbows left and right. I also do knife edge piros. Loops and stall turns have never been a problem due to Plank experience along with rolls, Immelmans etc that Plank flyers do. I am now building towards Piro Flips.
Age is NOT a barrier. Only the will and the bank account to accomplish what you set out to do.

Hi and thanks.

Really jealous about your skills (only joking) and encouraged by your development, I'm determined not to give up.
As the other replies posted have commented "it's a phase" to go through (a bit like puberty ????) and hopefully to come out the other side with better behaved thumbs!!

Looks as if the weather is improving, so its outside and let's fly.

[Cap Loz]

That's good to hear feedback from an actual helicopter pilot! People have always said these things are harder to fly than the real thing, but is that actually the case in your opinion? Or is it like anything, that you just need to practice? Keen to hear your thoughts

Probably best to not hijack this thread with my experience, but just to say that, the lack of orientation problems in the real thing is more than made up for with all the other problems that come with operating a real helicopter.
They aren't for making pretty movements through the "ether" in nice weather, but for carrying out a real task, often in atrocious weather, where a mistake could endanger your life not your pride and your wallet.

So harder to play with, yes but to operate No Way.
As you say practice, practice and more practice.

[heli]

Practice and Patience have been my key. I spent ages stuck in the tail hovering position, but it has paid off. A big hurdle for me was going from the hover to actual flying and my key here was a plank. Yes the fixed wing thingys. I bought a Great Planes Syncro and it really helped with the orientation and depth of field. It did become boring at a point but the bonus time on the sticks really helped. With some of the cheap HobbyKing stuff now available in the UK I would say go get something simple and see if it helps.

And +1 on Sim...it does pay off.

[PKNEC]

I wish the title was an observation on my improvement in flying skills, alas it's the opposite. It's my skills that seem to be rapidly descending into outright incompetance

I have been a keen reader of this forum for a couple of years and have dabbled with helicopters for about the same length of time, starting with a Twister coaxial, followed by a Blade SR that I found very difficult to fly. This prompted me to purchase Phoenix, closely followed by a Trex450 Sport Super Combo.

The build was fascinating and taught me a lot, (improved by subsequent crash repairs)!

I steadily started to hover fairly well in all orientations except nose in (garden hovering) until I felt confidnet enough to venture into a larger flying area. On my first venture I exceeded my skill level, lost orientation and crashed. This has dented my confidence considerably and subsequesnt hovering attempts with the 450 and on Pheonix have been miserable, unable to maintain a reasonable hover for any length of time. Of course the weather hasn't helped, so I purchased a small fixed pitch 4 channel 'copter to practise indoors (I can hear the purists groaning from here), which I can now fly in small circuits reasonably well (still crash though less each day).

I am reasonably confident that my set up is OK (thanks to post on this and other forums and of course Finless) and the bird is tamed down sufficiently for a "newbie"

I am rapidly approaching 66 and wonder if some people just don't have he innate ability to fly helicopters effectively: this thought I find depressing as I really enjoy RC Helicopters and my progress made to date despite the setbacks. Also I'm a stubborn b****r and won't let it beat me, but I wonder if I might reach a level of competence before I get too old to remember what I am supposed to be doing or the expense makes it an impractical hobby (pensioner and all that)!!

Actually I'm feeling better for getting this "seed of doubt" into the open, I guess it's better to open up on the forum to others who understand the frustrations, than to a non-flyer who may think I'm just a doddering idiot playing with toys!

Anyhow back to Phoenix, the micro, and god willing with some better weather the 450 (the batteries are charged and ready to go).

I only hope that my skills start going in the correct direction one more - onwards and upwards!

Oreeeet Pantone,its nothing to do with your ability as I am in the same boat at 46
I went into helis as my kids showed an interest but whilst I am still hovering and replacing TTgears for fun my 2 lads are way far in front happily sport flying with out a care in the world.
I just think as we get older our reactions are not what we think they should be, but I know in time I will be catching up and be able to do what my 2 boys can do.
But I do get frustrated and sometimes I feel like lauching the 450 into oblivion I think being impatient doesnt help me either and once that sets in out goes my confidence so I just leave it alone for a few days and then start back on the sim.
I have to say when I do have another go I am really pleased at my progress so I now know my limits and walk away when its not coming together rather than try to move on into another brick wall
Keep at it and it will come together (little and often)

[Pantone 186C]

Eehup PKNEC

Glad to see ,tother side of the hills have issues too (lol).

I entirely agree with you comments and fully understand your feelings and frustrations as they mirror my own closely.


Kids eh! Don't they show you up sometimes. Mine are dispersed through the UK (ok just two I am admitting too!) and really not into Helis.