The One Week Sim Challenge-All Skill Levels

[cudaboy_71]

Cudaboy_71's One Week Sim Challenge-All Skill Levels

Year after year I see thread after thread debating the usefulness of the simulator. I don't want to reopen old wounds and try to defend one side or the other. Rather, it occurred to me that just maybe people don't use the tool as well as they could.

So, I offer you this: Take my one-week challenge. To me the sim's usefulness is not even debatable. Walk a week in my shoes. See for yourself. If nothing else it might break you out of a rut….and, who knows maybe you'll just improve a bit more than you would have otherwise.

[get on with it!]

Right.

Step #1: Find yourself 30 minutes per day to dedicate to just this challenge. You may break it down in to as small as 5 minute blocks of actual flying (not including setting up your hardware/launching software) if you have a hectic schedule. But, ideally it should all be done at once. It's only a week. Make a sacrifice. Me, i will be playing along too. I'll set my alarm 30 minutes earlier for a week.

Step #2: Choose two skills to work on. Ideally these should be something you rather suck at currently, but overall skill level is not important. If you're just starting out it might be hovering nose left and flying down field and stopping at a hover and returning; the other might be doing a slow, stationary pirouette. You know you. Choose something that needs work. Remember, you're trying to prove a point to yourself….that smarter sim practice yields better and quicker results. Personally, I'll be choosing to work on getting my nose-down tick-tocs stationary and my counter-clockwise inverted-reverse hurricanes level all the way around. You get the idea.

Step #3: Plan your Practice---Practice your Plan. Personally speaking this the most important part of practicing anything---learning to fly RC, playing an instrument, or learning to ride a skateboard. This is where you will get a lot of value for your time. It's easy to get distracted and find yourself just banging around and not working on anything in particular. Making the plan not only keeps you focussed, it prepares your brain for something that might otherwise be tedious. 5 minutes is a lot longer than it sounds once you get the frustration-o-meter pegged. However, once its committed to paper, there's something therapeutic about getting to cross it off of the list. Get out a sheet of paper and number from 1-6. Each line is a 5-minute block. Note: "Freestyle" is just like a concentration break. Don't take a break from flying…just take a break from rigorous training. Practice something in your comfort zone.

Fill it out like such:

1. [write in your actual skill 1] (5 minutes)
2. Freestyle (5 minutes)
3. [write in your actual skill 2] (5 minutes)
4. Freestyle (5 minutes)
5. [write in your actual skill 1] (5 minutes)
6. [write in your actual skill 2] (5 minutes)

Step #4: Do It! I use my iPhone's timer set to 5 minutes. You're resourceful. I'm sure you can find another type of timer if you don't have a smartphone. However, If you can't do your skill without crashing every 5 seconds, slow it down. RF and Phx both have physics adjustments. I like slowing mine down to about 40% to get my stuff nice and clean. As your skill improves at that speed, bump it 10% until you're back to 100%. The important part is to focus on the task. It's a lot easier than you think to get distracted. Concentrate on the skill for the full 5 minutes. Work through the frustration. Promise yourself a cookie…whatever. Just do it.

If you're going to take the challenge, feel free to post your goals. It might even be interesting to do a sim capture movie of day 1 vs. day 7, though I'm not set up to do that currently. But, I'm really interested to see how everyone feels as the 7 days ends. I'd be very surprised if anyone can say (with a straight face, anyway) they would have improved as much by doing the same practice routine at the field. When I practice like this at home, I can quantifiably feel the improvement at the field every time out. But, I'm just not as comfortable trying something I know I can't do with a real heli aimed at the dirt. Go ahead…take the challenge...what have you got to lose.

[Bladecpnitro]

I practice more than an hour per day already sir even if I fly my real heli's. I hoped to fly this evening but it was drizzling outside and I might could have but thought about it and said, Naaaahhh! I'll just sim tonight.


I like to work on anything that I might be struggling with on the real helis. I'm doing backwards inverted circles ok not quite hurricanes by no means but I just really don't feel locked into it on forward inverted circles. I feel like one wrong move and I'd blow it. So I have been wearing the sim out doing inverted forward circles and figure 8's lately.

[clicky]

Even though I never been that structured I can testify that one week per skill (to certain level) is really what it takes (for 40year old like my self). Of course I am talking about really realistic goals.

First I even did (15 minutes 7-8 sessions over a week and a half) was to learn how to hover! I tried before hand ('Of course I can do it') and many parts later, installed sim (that free one I can't remember the name now) and after that run of 15 minutes daily I was able to take helicopter in to the air and hold it there for 30 seconds without crashing it! (I am talking old Walkera 22E and 6 years ago)

Last thing I did was three weeks of really good run having 20-30 minutes of sim 3-4 times a week practicing piro flips. Managed to 'learn' (not slow and steady - just the basics) of CW, back and flip to inverted and from inverted to upright from tail in and nose in. Also started learning CCW but didn't get far... Result - I can confidently piro-flip it both front and back flip from almost any orientation to and from inverted. All CW. And very easily with nCP-X, slightly less easily but still achieve all with 130X and did try to translate skills to 450 (Mini Titan) and 500 (Protos) with more or less success but no crashes!

Now need to practice precision and CCW flipping with pirouetting

So, for the initiative!

[Bbknucks]

I have set my self a goal! Well two actually... Backwards upright flight and inverted hovering.
I am a noob but in the last few days I have really been trying to get the backwards flight down and treating the sim like I would an actual model, and have gotten from instant crash to sloppy figure 8's in about two days!!! Pretty cool now if only I can get rid of the shaky hands and heart racing adrenaline feeling I can try it for real sometime ! Haha

Mark

[alexd1]

I have taken this challenge and feel I'm about ready for backwards circuits.

[cudaboy_71]

haven't checked in on my own challenge. but, i have been faithful to it. 30 minutes every day since Thursday...10 minutes on tictocs, 10 minutes on CCW hurricanes, 10 minutes freestyle.

today i went to the field and was confident enough to try the nose-down/disc-in tic tocs i have been working on. went up a coupla mistakes high and did about 15 or so in a row...did it a few times in fact. very confidence inspiring.

i tried the CCW hurricanes but they were ugly. still need some work. but, i didn't have butterflies trying either. before the dedicated practice i would have bailed on both tries almost immediately.

so, for me i've already proved my point (though i didn't need convincing). i will go through until next wednesday with the drill--i really would like to clean up both moves.

good luck to everyone else.

[Sonixs]

Nice one Cudaboy_71
My Cudaboy_71's One Week Sim Challenge starts today!

Thanks for the SIM motivation!!

[alexd1]

Completed my first backward flight today. It feels so good to make some progress. Now to work on inverted and funnels.

[kickbackkid]

I've been putting a lot of time in the last week learning funnels. I've spent close to an hour per day on the Sim learning 6 of the 8 orientations. I was amazed when I took it to the field and was able to do them on my 500 and it was exactly the same!

There was a time when I hated the Sim. Now I love it! Stick time does translate!

[MikeHo]

I am practicing backwards and inverted right now. Had the same idea as yours, but doing 3 10 min sessions. 1st backwards flying, 2nd inverted hovering, 3rd inverted flying. As soon as I get used to backwards, I'll start with inverted hovering and doing inverted and inverted backwards. I hope I can do 4 leaf clovers and funnels within end of wintertime

[clicky]

Originally Posted by MikeHo

I am practicing backwards and inverted right now. Had the same idea as yours, but doing 3 10 min sessions. 1st backwards flying, 2nd inverted hovering, 3rd inverted flying. As soon as I get used to backwards, I'll start with inverted hovering and doing inverted and inverted backwards. I hope I can do 4 leaf clovers and funnels within end of wintertime

Just an idea - I found out that practicing (inverted) slow stationary pirouettes helps a lot with (inverted) orientation.

[CalRotor]

Thanks Cudaboy, this got me back to focused practice instead of just flying around. My challenge was to improve my funnels / hurricanes in all orientations - and it really worked. The best part was that after doing the sim work, I walked over to the park and everything transferred over into the real world perfectly. The sim is somewhat like a time warp - you might not be able to do something well in real life, then you practice on the sim in your house, then you go out and do it great in real life. It's kind of like magic when it works out because it kinda feels like you have never "done" it before - but the sim works like a charm! Thanks again for the reminder.

[cudaboy_71]

awesome! i figured if i could help get one person back on track this would have been a successful post.

as a side benefit, i got to improve my stuff as well in addition to my regular practice.

now, rain is schedued for the next 10 days. guess i'll get even more sim time in :-/

[darkfa8]

I need to do this!

Btw, there was a similar training article in the latest edition of Model Aviation.

[cudaboy_71]

RIPOFF!

j/k

but, i have been doing this for +6 years now.

[Steve Graham]

Outstanding guidance.

My current challenges are piro and rolling loops. I have always practiced much the same as you recommend. Remembering the feelings I had that I WILL NEVER get the hang of uncoordinated sticks while I was going through that phase gives me confidence that eventually I'll master these as well. Sometimes however the next step feels so hard I find myself wondering if I will eventually find my personal "level of incompetence" Hope not!

[Spinning]

Originally Posted by cudaboy_71

Cudaboy_71's One Week Sim Challenge-All Skill Levels

Year after year I see thread after thread debating the usefulness of the simulator. I don't want to reopen old wounds and try to defend one side or the other. Rather, it occurred to me that just maybe people don't use the tool as well as they could.

So, I offer you this: Take my one-week challenge. To me the sim's usefulness is not even debatable. Walk a week in my shoes. See for yourself. If nothing else it might break you out of a rut….and, who knows maybe you'll just improve a bit more than you would have otherwise.

[get on with it!]

Right.

Step #1: Find yourself 30 minutes per day to dedicate to just this challenge. You may break it down in to as small as 5 minute blocks of actual flying (not including setting up your hardware/launching software) if you have a hectic schedule. But, ideally it should all be done at once. It's only a week. Make a sacrifice. Me, i will be playing along too. I'll set my alarm 30 minutes earlier for a week.

Step #2: Choose two skills to work on. Ideally these should be something you rather suck at currently, but overall skill level is not important. If you're just starting out it might be hovering nose left and flying down field and stopping at a hover and returning; the other might be doing a slow, stationary pirouette. You know you. Choose something that needs work. Remember, you're trying to prove a point to yourself….that smarter sim practice yields better and quicker results. Personally, I'll be choosing to work on getting my nose-down tick-tocs stationary and my counter-clockwise inverted-reverse hurricanes level all the way around. You get the idea.

Step #3: Plan your Practice---Practice your Plan. Personally speaking this the most important part of practicing anything---learning to fly RC, playing an instrument, or learning to ride a skateboard. This is where you will get a lot of value for your time. It's easy to get distracted and find yourself just banging around and not working on anything in particular. Making the plan not only keeps you focussed, it prepares your brain for something that might otherwise be tedious. 5 minutes is a lot longer than it sounds once you get the frustration-o-meter pegged. However, once its committed to paper, there's something therapeutic about getting to cross it off of the list. Get out a sheet of paper and number from 1-6. Each line is a 5-minute block. Note: "Freestyle" is just like a concentration break. Don't take a break from flying…just take a break from rigorous training. Practice something in your comfort zone.

Fill it out like such:

1. [write in your actual skill 1] (5 minutes)
2. Freestyle (5 minutes)
3. [write in your actual skill 2] (5 minutes)
4. Freestyle (5 minutes)
5. [write in your actual skill 1] (5 minutes)
6. [write in your actual skill 2] (5 minutes)

Step #4: Do It! I use my iPhone's timer set to 5 minutes. You're resourceful. I'm sure you can find another type of timer if you don't have a smartphone. However, If you can't do your skill without crashing every 5 seconds, slow it down. RF and Phx both have physics adjustments. I like slowing mine down to about 40% to get my stuff nice and clean. As your skill improves at that speed, bump it 10% until you're back to 100%. The important part is to focus on the task. It's a lot easier than you think to get distracted. Concentrate on the skill for the full 5 minutes. Work through the frustration. Promise yourself a cookie…whatever. Just do it.

If you're going to take the challenge, feel free to post your goals. It might even be interesting to do a sim capture movie of day 1 vs. day 7, though I'm not set up to do that currently. But, I'm really interested to see how everyone feels as the 7 days ends. I'd be very surprised if anyone can say (with a straight face, anyway) they would have improved as much by doing the same practice routine at the field. When I practice like this at home, I can quantifiably feel the improvement at the field every time out. But, I'm just not as comfortable trying something I know I can't do with a real heli aimed at the dirt. Go ahead…take the challenge...what have you got to lose.

Thanks for the tip Cudaboy, tried this and its great to get some structure in my sim sessions. Much more productive than just doing a random bit of this and that.

[smrceo]

I worked this the past few weeks and I went from very little inverted flight (nose forward) to inverted both directions and backwards flight upright is getting very comfortable now as well..I could already hover in all orientations but forward flight inverted always stumped me. I feel the Nano and the 130x have helped me get over fear of flying in real life as well..thanks cudaboy..

[TheHitman82]

Wow. This is some good stuff man. I've got some goals of mine too. They're tic tocs, Inverted Hover, and Inverted Nose in Hover. I'm gonna try it. Thanks for the challenge!