When Will I Stop Being Petrified....

[VonRecktofen]

Quick question to Gitbse, or anyone else...
When you show up at the field with your flying fleet of machines, do you start with the larger birds first, or do you get the first flight in with a smaller bird, and then move up to the largest machine?
Cheers!
Franz in NJ

[ArchmageAU]

Originally Posted by Charliedontsurf

Quick question to Gitbse, or anyone else...
When you show up at the field with your flying fleet of machines, do you start with the larger birds first, or do you get the first flight in with a smaller bird, and then move up to the largest machine?...

Even with the micros, I start small to large.

Have read elsewhere others do the same. The small birds first to get fell of how "on" you are before launching the bigger ones.

[clicky]

I know you didn't ask me - but you'll get my answer for sure: whenever I have chance to start with smaller, less expensive I start that way. Even for a flight or two. Then, when I move up...

[matthewcornell]

I believe the Hitchhiker's Guide advice to Don't Panic to be both useful and difficult. After two years I'm finally getting better at this. A fellow HF said that he learned to not panic when training in scuba diving. Makes sense. Any other tips for not panicking?

[gitbse]

Originally Posted by matthewcornell

I believe the Hitchhiker's Guide advice to Don't Panic to be both useful and difficult. After two years I'm finally getting better at this. A fellow HF said that he learned to not panic when training in scuba diving. Makes sense. Any other tips for not panicking?

i start small to large. Then while the batteries are charging, it's whatever is Rady after I'm warmed up.
For me personally, it takes 4-5 flights to actually start warming up. I don't start sm all because I'm afraid to crash the big one, rather because if I can get the feel for my 450, the big boy gets that much easier to fly. Kinda like flying the Sim at a faster speed. Then once I'm warmed up, I can really let loose.:thumbup :

About panicking though, I'm not sure what good advice I can give on that. The same old "the more stick time the better." And my favorite, just suck it up. That's all I can really say.some people are inherently more nervous then others, so some people don't have to work very hard to overcome being nervous, and some have to climb over it like it's a 10ft wall with hornets all over it. I happen to be one who gets over it pretty easily. Of course iw as nervous for awhile, and still get it sometimes. But for one, I won't let my nerves overcome the fun of flying a machine I've put alot of time and money into, and (2), the nerves can be kinda exciting.
Think about it this way, there are two different flights here. One you're just cruising around, doing some nice sport flying and not testing the limits of anything. Just a nice lazy afternoon of flying. Then you have another flight where you pull off some miraculous saves. You almost hit the ground a few times, but save it every time. Which is more exciting?
All i can say is that you have to take stock in a few things. One is how much faith you have in your machine, two is how much time you have put into your flying. Then the fact that you can rebuild any crash, and as long as its not a 700 or 600+, it shouldn't be a wallet buster to repair. Just trust those few things, that's what mskes my nerves go away. Mostly with emphasis on the time I've put into my flying.

[gitbse]

Actually a thought popped into my head while reading myh post back to myself.

This is how I've always looked at it, but never put it into words before.

Everybody looks at their helis, and gets nervous about crashing them. Sure, its just natural, trust me I understand.
So here comes the thought process of, "look at all that money in the air, all the time I'veput into it, I better not crash it!"

I've said that a few times. When I first bought my rave, I didn't realise how much of a big bird, and big investment a 700 is until I had it in the air a few times.

But instead of worrying about it like that, think of it like this..
"Look at all that money in the air, all the time I've put into it... GODAMIT, IVE EARNED THE RIGHT TO ENJOY IT SO IM GONNA ENJOY IT AND I WONT LET ANYTHING HOLD ME BACK!"


Who knows, might work?

[big_jim]

The bigest ting that helped me not to panic, was having better pilots around to talk me through stuff. I remeber the first time I competed in a fun fly. The challange was to do three "roops". That's a roll then a loop, three time in a row as fast as you could. I had only started doing loops that morning, so yeah I was nervous. But one of the guys came out a stood next to me and talked me through each "roop" and I wa able to do them with confidence.

Sometimes just the reassurance that you are doing things right is all it takes.

[gitbse]

+1 on going to funflys. That's the most fun I've ever had in this hobby is going to all the events. Always great crowds, and a huge wealth of knowledge and experience.

[VonRecktofen]

Well, today I definitely sucked it up, and just went for it...
I'm 2for 2 with ditching my new Goblin500 into the asphalt on just hover training...Jesus that thing sounds like a monster when it spools up, lift off was smooth, start doing hovering "boxes" lost confidence as it drifted back hard left, and set it down from 3ft pretty hard, landing Skids let go, and tail blades went kablammo! Hit TH as it went in and saved main blades...
Then went on to Trex450, flew 4 packs, and fifth pack it got 100 yards or more away, tried to get it back tail in, but it went in tail first, bent tail boom and one broken pitch link...
Final bird of the evening was mCPX, flew the stuffing out of it, almost looped it, then forced myself to fly straight away from me, piro and fly back nose in...Was the most productive part of flying...
Will repair all and try changing order from mCPX to Goblin500 next time out, plus more nose in side in on Phoenix sim !!!
Thanks for the encouragement, and keep the ideas/suggestions coming...
I seriously need to find out how to program the goblin's mini v bar to be more stable and less twitchy...
Thanks again!
Franz in NJ

[RogerRabit]

Like that "charliedontsurf".

His words in this thread should be changed to "i like the smell of fresh nitro in the morning..."

To the topic-

It is depending on the time of the year and who else is at the field.
In winter it is easy. I only have one bird with me so it is the 700 Nitro.
Electric is not capable of deep temperature.

In the other times i take the 700 3d bird as first one. The first one or two flights of the day i just do figure 8s, some piro stuff, backward flying to get the thumbs warm and check the bird.

When i have to recharge after 1-1.5 hrs airtime i use another 700 or 800.

If people are at the field i use the 100 micro to play arround a little to warm up.

NO FEAR.

Fear gets away. If not put the letters NO FEAR on your canopy.
Or put a HC3SX in the bird.

[clicky]

I haven't really deducted all the influences to the 'fear', but there are days I go out and have no fear - just fly very, very relaxed! Enough and correct lighting (sunny day with no clouds and sun behind my back helps enormously), no wind (eh), familiar surroundings, no obstacles to worry about and nobody to watch or people you don't mind being behind you and how confident you are in what you are trying to achieve.

Day before I went to not so familiar field (next to place I work at the moment) which has some obstacles (quite far, but still present), it was a bit windy and I just didn't feel completely relaxed. That reflected in :eek: moment with first Mini Titan battery (few 4 through 130X before to 'warm up' and calm down a bit.

On the other hand previous weekends on local field we fly on Sundays I was so relaxed that no matter what flying had thrown at me I just went with it (along with auto when Protos lost power when I started side tic/tocs). No funny feeling in the stomach, no anxiety - just plain - go and fly. I must admit I didn't push it much further to what I already been comfortable with.

Stick time does help. A lot. I found out that even breaking in batteries in my garden (quite restricted space) - even with my Protos, I can use for doing slow pirouettes. Flying in such limited spaces does exercise control and that helps as well. Smaller helis help trying out scary stuff or flying in small places without worries - they teach muscle memory and train you for tail blow outs (I had a serious one on Mini Titan and didn't get scared at all - mCP-X thought me how to react in such cases)...

And finally, only thing I wouldn't easily go with THHGTTG are Zaphod's special glasses against danger

[robbancs]

Originally Posted by clicky

I haven't really deducted all the influences to the 'fear', but there are days I go out and have no fear - just fly very, very relaxed! Enough and correct lighting (sunny day with no clouds and sun behind my back helps enormously), no wind (eh), familiar surroundings, no obstacles to worry about and nobody to watch or people you don't mind being behind you and how confident you are in what you are trying to achieve.

Day before I went to not so familiar field (next to place I work at the moment) which has some obstacles (quite far, but still present), it was a bit windy and I just didn't feel completely relaxed. That reflected in :eek: moment with first Mini Titan battery (few 4 through 130X before to 'warm up' and calm down a bit.

On the other hand previous weekends on local field we fly on Sundays I was so relaxed that no matter what flying had thrown at me I just went with it (along with auto when Protos lost power when I started side tic/tocs). No funny feeling in the stomach, no anxiety - just plain - go and fly. I must admit I didn't push it much further to what I already been comfortable with.

I have this too. All I need is the first flight to tell which day it is. I have my routine for both cases. It's fine when it's not going well, it's nice to recognize and say ah... okay.... so this is one of these days... no problem, let's just do some basic orientation training, or whatever easy fun stuff.