Progress Report

[Ber60]

Hi Brian
Nice to hear from you , my thinks when plywood starts to fly it is time to land the heli it is a bit crowded

[helihathnofury]

Hi Brian,
How's things over there? Starting to warm up a little!!! [as opposed to here where it is freezing]. Got another 4 weeks before my cast comes off, so still no flying for me - patience dear boy!!!!!!!

Take care, mate
Mike

[Ian 777]

Hi Great to here from you Bro

I'm going flying with Grant tomorow

[Ian 777]

As he promised me Grant came round today to help me fix my Glitching heli.
As soon as he arrived it stopped glitching.
Honestly for the past week it hasn't run for more than a minute without the motor
glitching and stuttering. Grant merely shows up and it has run perfectly ever since without
any hint of a glitch

Thanks so much mate;

Any way with the wind nearly pressing the trees flat to the field we ventured out side....

here are some very short vids of the results (forgive the quality they are filmed on a fuji E900 still camera with no zoom)

Me Hovering in 25 mph winds




this is the first time Iv'e flown in any thing above about 8 mph, (Iv'e put the training gear on to help with nose in practice)

And Now Grant Flying in 25mph winds

LOOPS


PIRO

ROLLS / INVERTED


How About That For 7 Weeks From Scratch in High wind


I must apologise that a lovely photo of Grant and I and one of our helis seems to have got lost when we down loaded the vids from my still camera

His Exi is a wonderful heli can't see the point of getting a Trex

Thanks again for coming bro

All the best Ian

[testpilot58d]

Grant, Ian,

Very nice...just the inspiration I need to try to break something tomorrow.

I just hope the wind cooperates. It's been windy and dust storms the past 5 days or so.

Hopefully tomorrow is decent.

[Grant_beltcp]

Thanks for putting those up Ian!
The wind was looking a little better this morning so I've already been out and practiced some more inverted, its getting better, keeping it steady about 1ft off the floor, and much lower for a slit second every now and then.
Weathers been rubbish here too - just hope the cold goes away as i have to come back in every few mins as i cnt control it my fingers are sooo cold.

[Ian 777]

Hi Grant the wind is a little better here but its been raining hard so that field is even wetter than yesterday, going to do an hour or so on the sim and then look at it,

Having you here yesterday really gave me confidence to fly it in the wind.

If the weather allows I will be at least looping it by next weekend.

Im getting better much quicker with this new sim. Being limited by my 2 batteries
with a 3.5 hour wait for them to recharge was really holding me back

will keep you posted

Ian

[Ian 777]

Hows the weather with you Brian?

[Jonnyheli]

I seriously need somewhere bigger to fly after seeing your vid.. I have had this heli for ages and I can only hover about 4 ft because I don't want it going over anyones fence. When its a windy day I cant even keep it in a hover because if I throttle to much it goes way to high and if I dont throttle enough I hardley lifts off the ground.

If I did find a big field.. Would I find it easier to fly higher?

Any suggestions?

Ps. That is really good for 7 weeks... I have had my heli since august and I suck.. I think it is because I only have a garden to do it in.. or maybe I am just a slow learner. And how long has grant been flying for?

-Jonny

[Ian 777]

Have you got your Idle up curves set yet Jonny? I had been flying without but copied Grants settings yesterday. You can't really fly in this wind without negative pitch to pull the thing down when it tries to shoot up!

[Grant_beltcp]

If you can find a feild to fly in you will progress so much faster - I started just over 7 weeks ago, well nearly 8 now - but i started learning to hover very low in my garden, but much more than that is too risky in such a small place so its hard to progress, after i learned to hover all my learning has ben in a feild of some sort!
In a field if you begin to lose it just power up and it saves you, if you get to high you have lots of space to bring it down, and if you can get alot higher up you have ALOT more time to think and react.
Now go and find a field!!!!!

[Grant_beltcp]

Progress has stopped - look in the EXI 450 thread in ESKY heli part

[testpilot58d]

My progress report:

Well another crappy windy sunday. I was not going to fly at all. At 4 pm I said screw it and made the trek down to the motor pool we are allowed to fly in. As I suspected, I was the only one there. It was just too windy to try the backflip I wanted to, so I decided to just do a little hover work on battery 1. (it was a 15c so I didn't want to do any idle up) Did some side-in stuff, and moving arcs in front of me. Brought it in close to build confidence that I could hold it steady even in the high winds.

Battery 2- Another 15c. Decided to do some figure 8's. A bit unfomfortable making the turn to a tail wind situation. The heli wanted to really speed up, so I would try to slow down by giving it aft stick when I realized I needed some nose-in work. Just wasn't comfortable controlling the heli with the nose pointed at me. So.....

Battery 3- Picked it up and decided to try doing nose-in. Normally I avoid it all costs. It scares the hell out of me. But just like everything else I have found so far in this hobby, it's just a matter of overcoming the 'fear'...turned the nose toward me and was scared shitless, but soon all the sim time paid off. 'move the stick in the same direction the heli is moving' I kept telling myself over and over again.

Battery 4- All nose in. Still wasn't comfortable picking it up nose in, but would get it to a 5 foot hover, left rudder turn and I found I could hold it quite well. Nose in hovering. My success story for the day. I was very pleased.

Battery 5 & 6- I know my next hurdle is loops,flips,inverted flight so with my 2 new KongPower's I decided to fly all idle up. Battery 5, spun her up to mid stick, jumped from 60--80% with Idle-up, and brought it up to a hover. MUCH more stable with the head speed approaching 90% RPM. Did all figure 8's and a couple large circles around me seeing how fast I could comfortably fly it. At the end of battery 5 though...minor mishap. Landing in idle up....

It's going to take a while to break the habit and learn to GENTLY lower it down to land in idle up. (I don't like breaking my intense concentration right now to find the idle up switch and turn it off while hovering) I lowered the stick to where I normally reduce power and due to negative pitch, she came down quick. Muscle memory force of habit, I let out even more and REALLY put it down. Everything on the heli was fine with the exception of the tail rotor blades which struck some gravel. Now I don't know if you've ever struck gravel before at 100% but...well...it disintegrates the blades. There was nothing left but a stump of plastic in the grips. Lesson learned and lesson for everyone else...start flying idle up as soon as you can.

Changed the blade stumps out and went up for the last battery with no significant issues.

PRAYING for a nice day next sunday so I can try to loop it.

Cheers,
Brian

PS..Grant, sorry about your bird

[Grant_beltcp]

Sounds like its comming on well. Nose-in was the same for me, I avoided it at any cost. I had it perfected on the sim and then decided to just go for it on a calm day and the sim time paid off! I dont think i could learn it anywhere near as fast without the sim. I still have to think before i spin the tail round which way to point the stickm but as soon as i correct it the frst time it comes naturally. Its the same as inverted, (i actually find inverted easier!!!! its getting past the mental barrier thats the hard part).
My next hurdle is trying to get nos-in orientation in inverted i think - but everytime i try it i want to start getting proper tic-tocs going well so i forget the other orientations.
The same with loops - its just the mental barrier, once youve done the first one you will do them all day long with out much thinking at all- honestly.
Keep it up !

[testpilot58d]

Thanks for the encouragement Grant!

[Ian 777]

Brian thanks for that free sim link you posted on the other side it's proving invaluable

If we get any good weather during the week I should be able to get to loop it as well by next weekend

That is if I can get a new tail grip in time. I damaged mine along with belt drive pinion when I didnt give it enough stick as the wind tried to slam it into the deck.

[helihathnofury]

I keep crashing the sim!!!!!!!!!! But I am trying to learn a new method - thumbless!!!!! Oh dear............

[Jonnyheli]

Ian,
I have my pitch at 0 with half throttle and idle up switched on. So I supose this means that I don't have neg pitch at all in normal mode. How do I set it up so that I have some neg pitch in normal mode? OR do you fly in idle up?

Grant,
I will definatly try and find a big field, especially if you say it speeds up progress that fast! 8 weeks and you can loop etc! Its all down to confidence really isn't it. If I was given a helicopter for free and I didn't have to pay for repairs I would prob be doing much better because I wouldn't care about smashing it up etc.

Once summer comes I will be flying constantly.

-Jonny

[Grant_beltcp]

Well in a garden you just have no room for error, and to be honest no room to try much more than hovering! To start learning circuits you need plenty of room to correct any errors. And to start learning loops you want to start off doing them very high, which means a field is a must.
At the weekend Ian was in Idle-up mode, it makes a huge difference in the wind, I dont fly without using it in winds. Infact a dont fly without it ever really. Apart from the aded stability and control in wind it you can bring it down when you want and not be taken by the wind.

[DierWolf]

Originally Posted by Ian 777

His Exi is a wonderful heli can't see the point of getting a Trex



All the best Ian

Thats the bit of text i was looking for Aint it great!?!? 99 bucks!!

Grant nice flying...

And no one is more happier to see you guys flying in high winds, this is how i learn to fly as i have no other choice but to fly in it, makes you a much better pilot... People shouldnt be afraid to go out and just "Do it"!

Again nice vids, great loops, perfect inverted... Love it all, Ian, splice the vids together and edit with some photo's and stuff would make a great lil Utube vid.