Chris Rennie (Honorary Secratery)

 

(Learning to fly Helicopters)

 

My first Heli flight was in my back garden. It was short. Take off to "landing" took about 10 seconds. Afterwards, as I was pulling various bits out of the hedge, it dawned on me there was maybe more to flying Helis than I'd imagined. I repaired my crashed FP Hornet and apart from a few test hops around the kitchen floor, it was left mostly unflown and intact. I remember how impossible it felt trying to control this mini 'beast' which just seemed to have a will of it's own. For a while that's how it was left. Later on, a move to Gloucester saw me with some time on my hands - a perfect opportunity to learn to fly it properly... ?
A few phone calls and a bit of Internet "Googling" found my local club: The Gloucester Model Flying Club. I also found Paul Heckles school of flying near Swindon. I'd already gone & bought a T-Rex 450 in kit form and a Spectrum radio -  high hopes & aspirations! I'd also been looking seriously into flight-sims, which with hindsight was very sensible. Without doubt my flight-sim has payed for itself many times over. It makes crashing cheap & getting back into the air, quick. So I recommend buying one. There were two flight-sims which always seemed to get a mention these were Phoenix RC & Reflex.

After trying both, I bought Phoenix RC. I preferred the way it "flew & felt" As well, I found it easier to edit the built-in T-Rex model to get it to fly like the Twister 3D I'd recently bought. I'd told myself: "I'll fly the Twister first instead of the T-Rex, as it'll be cheaper & less fiddly to fix" I managed to prove that to myself later on.

 

To an extent, part of learning to fly is you have to be prepared to “help yourself” rather than turn up at a flying field & hope other members will put aside their own (valuable) flying time in order to lead you by the hand from square one. This is especially true with Helis. A good simulator will easily get you started so you will at least hit the ground running...  perhaps not the best metaphor.

 

 Although not fantastically cheap, lessons at Paul Heckles were worth every penny. It set me off on the right track before any bad habits became... bad habits.(Like setting up the radio to fly the helis tail rather than the nose - quite common in beginners apparently) Paul has a natural ability to explain stuff and pitches it at a level which is just right. This man knows his helis.I had (I think) three sets of two hour long lessons. Any longer & it would be too much to take in. You have to concentrate. A lot. In fact, I don't remember the last time I ever concentrated so hard as when I first flew Pauls Raptor 30. At one point he had to remind me to blink as I was staring so hard. It's dual control and Paul can assign any combination of channel(s) to your radio.

  This is definitely a gentle way of easing you into the "hot seat" rather than throwing you straight in with all the controls to cope with in one go - that would have got quickly messy for me, just as it did with my hedge experience. I found flying "little & often" to be the best way to make steady progress rather than go at it “hammer & tongs” which with anything new & exciting can always be a temptation. "little & often" seemed to work well with the simulator as well for me.

Since my meeting with the hedge, the flying has progressed & the Heli collection has expanded with a couple of ICs being added. A Titan 50 and shortly after that, a Raptor 90SE which was just too good to let pass.

 

The Titan was an eBay purchase which I got Paul to check over, set-up & test fly. The 90SE was a BMFA buy. I'm amazed by the quality of kit you sometimes see advertised, with little use and with an "ono" half-price-tag to boot. At the moment I'm mostly flying indoors electric but come better weather & a little more ability & confidence then the Raptors will see an airing at the flying field. I'll pick a day when there aren't too many onlookers. I can now hover without fuss, but not as yet nose in. Figure of eights are regularly flown although these do occasionally go "miss-shapen" keeping the height constant & the speed steady being the main challenge. Crashes are now fortunately rare. The occasional hairy moment still happens, mostly when I loose orientation of the Heli, so for now it's practice & more practice but above all having fun!

ChrisR

 

Gloucester Model Flying Club