How real are the helicopters' reactions

[jbabb]

I am new to the sport and just got a Blade Nano. I soon found out I couldn't fly it so I went and got a Phoenix Sim. What I am wanting to know is how "real" is it. Some of the helicopters I can fly alot better than others and I was wondering how much of that transfers to the real world. I am using the DX4e on the phoenix by the way.

[MatBillings]

They're pretty close, however the general consensus is that the larger birds have more realistic physics than the smaller ones (not to mention they're easier to see! ).

There is a bit of a transition period between what you do on the sim vs what you do in the real world (at least for me, anyway!) I've only been in the hobby a few months, but the sim definitely makes a difference.

Another thing to think about is the possibility of upgrading to a DX6i or equivelant transmitter. Having the ability to change the stick sensitivity, throttle and pitch curves, etc can make a huge difference in control.

I'm not very good at explaining my thoughts on the matter, so hopefully that made sense!

[rojack]

Hi Jbabb,

I think most people that are starting out need to learn the basics of RC heli flying. By this I mean that you need to learn how to take off and land, hover and hold altitude, hover in different orientations, and then learn to fly lazy 8's and eventually figure 8's and circles. This is true whether your first heli is a Nano or a Trex-450. The sim takes some of the frustration of learning by making crashes free and instant to recover from. The basic skills you learn will apply to flying any kind of RC heli that you buy.

In the sim, use a large, easy to see, stable heli, such as a T-rex 700 or such to learn the basics with. These skills will transfer to flying your real Nano.

As Mat said, the Nano in Phoenix is not so great to learn with, and I personally would not spend too much time with the Nano in the sim. Fly with the real Nano to learn the Nano, but first get your skills down in the sim with the larger birds.

Finally, to get to your actual question, I think most folks find that you can set up a heli in Phoenix to fly very close to a real life heli that you might have. Most of the default heli settings are kind of idealistic and require some tweaking to make them match a real heli, but once you get a decent configuration tuned in the sim, they say you can go from sim to real heli and back and feel pretty darn close.

[Bladecpnitro]

I have a Nano and haven't found it very useful in sim. The Nano is considered a real life sim since you can usually pic it up and fly again as long as you don't slam it too hard and are quick with throttle hold. In the wind Iv'e found it best to stay about 10 feet high with the real Nano because the wind will slam you before you can react if your only 3 feet high.

Because the models are hard to see in sim, I just stick with the 700 size birds. I've spent a lot of time on the 450's too because I have one and they tend to drop faster nife edge than the big boys do. Also the 450 has to be brought down much faster when autoing than the big boys.

One of my favorite things to do in Phoenix is set engine failure to 30 seconds and try to auto out of any and every situation because you never know when a power failure will occur.

If you try to keep your Nano tail in in a hover for a while you'll soon get the hang of it. Then venture out into side in flying and eventually nose in.