how to get teh most from my stick time

[OGMiller]

I started flying out of the blue on the 5th of july this year, (picjked up walkrea 36 friend had pawned and couldn't buy back) It had so many issues and the radio was so sketchy I bought a blade 450 3d on july 18th and "toughed it out" because I live on disability income of practically nothing and I was so green to this sect of RC that I didn't know the SIM's were that helpfuill nor did I want to choose SIM over bad ass heli

anyway, no that I can keep a heli mostly together asnd flying well I am struck with neebraska being so windy that it's either fly in high wind or not at all (keeping my mind occupied is a big part of how i'm dealing with my sitation medically.

But anyway, money is a large factor to me and many more low level flights per crash than I do high FFF stuff so irobably burn 10 packs a day in the yard or at a industrial spot by my house.
problem I have is wind takes my bird up and far off fast an getting I back is a frewal challenge as I have a l;ot of orientatin issues when it's 100 yard s away or so, sop I now find that a lot of y time is flying minor obstacles, step up ledges amnd such just playing with what challenge I can give myself

What I need to know is if there are things I can do/practice to make the most of the Extra time I am being motivated to spend at 20feet altitude or less

I fly in alleys of storage buildings and all kinds of tunneling areas for wind in tight obstacle riddled areas`as well thinking the extra cahllennge not only keeps it interesting but it will help my overall skills in the end...wind/gusts in a tight area and wind outside in the great open nothing ness that is the heli swollowinmg good life of Nebraska LOL ( last time I wqas fighting wind at the field by the LHS, I was estimatin gto be about 300-350 feet AGL and lost orientation, battled and puckered till around 50 feet off the ground where she amazingly ballooned up in a somewhat level hope inducing attitude letting me gast a bit of air in my lungs just before the next gust turned it on it's side and dropped it like a rock onto the tarmac below)

sometimes I can g out and have a lovely day, feel like I've progressed and have a few laughs about the adventuresd in flight that day... then sometimes I wonder why I ever got myself into this pleasure filled hell that is heli flying LOL
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SOi feel i'm stuck between one hell of a hoverer, and a crap FFF pilot .. I gues really are there low altitude thigns I can do to help wih my future skill set/lessons for the days I have the chance to gfly in the open without it being constantly fighting the wind for my 450 and 400 I built from bargaion bin parts and a walkera 36. And mani have to say when yougotta fight the wind for basic control of your heli the next two packs you oribnially planned to burn through now seem like more of a chore than a pleasant way to spend the next 15 minutes.


I hope to post a vid of the little bit of stuff I practice like rotating 90* to each side while pivoting the heli on end of tail or noce , (kindalike turret maneuvers) and see how the masses feels my oprogress is for oms eon weho just jumped into a 450 CP heli as their first heli fly time PERIOS and has been completely self taught aside from teyh few youtube channels that teach the hovering excerciseas and such

[Himilou]

as far as the wind goes make sure that you have some negative pitch in your setup even for flights in normal mode. Wind gives the heli extra lift and if you dont have a small amount or negative pitch available it can be really hard to get the heli back down without diving at the ground. With some negative pitch you can get the heli to hover back towards the ground even in the wind.

[Himilou]

Forgot to add, look up RADD's school of rotary flight. Its a whole training \ orientation guide to get started and is all about hovering and training with a real heli.
You don't really want to start practicing slow piros on a real heli till you can do the RADD training

[ArchmageAU]

Little hard to gauge your level from the post.

If I interpret correctly, you can hover tail-in and move through to side-on OK, but if you get too far off the ground, fighting the wind is an issue. Also you fly on a VERY strict budget so crashing is VERY bad.

Assuming my interpretation is correct, then do not worry about FFF at the moment (although it is fun, things can go bad quickly). Get hover an orientations first. Get them so good that you can almost read a book while doing slow pirouette hovers. Draw two circles and fly from one to the other. Get control so you can land and take off side-on or nose-in. There is so much that can be learned before FFF.

A cheap sim like Heli-X, neXt or ClearView would be a great thing too if you can afford it. More flying skills = less crashing.

Once you can hover REALLY well, then slowly add FFF. Hovering in the wind is actually forward flight, just airspeed matches wind speed so ground speed = 0. Hovering and piroing in wind will make you an excellent FFF in the longer run.

Lots here willing to help in any way possible. If you structure and qualify the questions, help will arrive with specific answers. This hobby/addiction is hard enough a it is.

Best of luck.

[OGMiller]

Archmage, for the most part you are correct, except I probably hover a little better than what I let on... I can do right side in all day long, tail in while talking and using one hand to smoke or drink (water or soda no alchy for me ) It's the left side in that i'm still working on and i'm getting better (it's a confidence thing because I almost took my own head off on a left side in hover when I first started)

I was thinking about getting a blade nano cpx this week (since i'm not crashing much I can probqbly spare the 130 bucks the LHS wanrts for one, and this would lert me learn some stuff inside.. I'm not a huge fan of "3d but I do like inverted and stuff liker that, more of what is "sport flying" I guess?



I can also do the basic FF stuff like stall turns and such, but as stated the wind makes fighting for the bird's control a big obstacle on most days, I might get one day a week that's calm enough long enough to burn off 2-3 packs at roughly 50-75 feet AGl.
I have Clearview and use my Dx6i on it and it's ok, but I think it really only teaches me stick movements and not actual response as much as the real bird

PLease excuse the random letters ion words, my nervouse system and motor skills are being afgfected by my condition that i'm on SSD for and some days no matter how many times I erase and re-type a word it will have the same typo over and over.- (this is what messes with me the most, as when i'm tired I begin to lose random control of limbs and they will jump and jerk at their own will) Considering My previose career and still hobby of machining/fabricating this can be especially challengine but I pull it off)

I've never failed at anything I set out to learn or do in life, and i'm proud of that, bu8t i'll be honest there was a weekend or so that I honestly asked myself "is this the cap on my intelligence?" "am I just too dumb for helicopter flight?" thank god I picked it up withion the next week LOL (it all just clicked on sleepless morning)

Anyway, I've looked at the RADDS stiff but the site was so confusing with no pixctures or vide3os that I could find that I left it and did the rcheilcopterfun sights learning steps

What I gues i'm really wondering is if there are any maneuvers that are low alt that will prep me for the movements and motions that go with doing things like funnels and such??? I can't get anything to come out anywhere near the things that look like something other than a crashed heli LOL. I felt if I understood the steps asd to what was taking place both in the physics of the flight as well as the control inputs I could get the hang of it but I can't seem to find that part free online for some reason (I dont' try and learn on youtube like most as I can't learn anything when it's a 12 year old kid going "like uhmm you8 like push on the thing with the uhm like tool thingy and such until it kinda like twists and uhm comes loose" - the nation (maybe world) is dumbing down as a whole and this scares me - just a side thought when thinking about youtube learnin')

[ArchmageAU]

Originally Posted by OGMiller

Archmage, for the most part you are correct, except I probably hover a little better than what I let on... I can do right side in all day long, tail in while talking and using one hand to smoke or drink ... It's the left side in that i'm still working on and i'm getting better...
...
I have Clearview and use my Dx6i on it and it's ok, but I think it really only teaches me stick movements and not actual response as much as the real bird
...
What I gues i'm really wondering is if there are any maneuvers that are low alt that will prep me for the movements and motions that go with doing things like funnels and such??? ...

Man!! Have you come to the right place, or what.

I wrote a tutorial piece called "From tail-in to all 8s and funnels in 6 months" (https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=531380). This picks up where RADD leaves off, as you can tail-in hover and have access to a sim, this should work well for you. Only yesterday posted the flight recordings of each step.

Originally Posted by ArchmageAU

... Taken a while to get to doing this, but I have finally done Heli-X recordings for all lessons (warts and all)...

The recordings work on the Demo version of Heli-X. (Working on getting them youtube'd). As the title says, All 8s and funnels!

Heli-X is closer to real life than Clearview. If you can use your DX6i on ClearView, you can use it on Heli-X. Heli-X, demo version is limited to only a few helis and airports (an 10 mins between nag screens), but you are learning to fly, not road testing helis. Register if you like it and will keep using it (I'm not into spending money I don't get value for, but I'm not as strapped on finances as you).

In short funnels are VERY similar to circles, master circles (all of them) and funnels will come quickly. To get good circles, good orientation is essential. This is what the training regime concentrates on.

I'm more into sport than smack (although I am learning piro-flips, just for fun). I can see a lot of appeal in F3C (precision hovering and big air aerobatics). I feel you are the same.

After reading through what else I have posted, you will probably understand why I say forget FFF till you can hover REALLY well.

Hope this helps.

[OGMiller]

talk about right place at rtight time, I thank you for the tutorials and the link :thumb

What do you think of me getting a nano to flu in the house?

I've only been on SSd for about two years when I was finally diagnosed , but I used to own a home paintin company and a Small fab shop and I have a !/5th scale HPI baha with one of my patent two speeds and about 4 thousand dollars in other goodies on it i'm hoping to sell to support my heliu addiction... I can nopw see why people have so many different sized ones ( two weeks ago I thought the nano was for kids LOL )

You're definitely on the nail with me being more into the F3c stuff.. I like to put a smakll hook on the blade and try and fish things around the garage and driveway7 sometimes

I'm sure i'll have more tyo ask of you in the future, so again I thank you for the help, ansd honestly would like to say thanks to the entire helifreak community, I made a rle to pick only one forum per interest and this was the heli one that I chose and I think it was a agreat decision

[ArchmageAU]

Originally Posted by OGMiller

What do you think of me getting a nano to flu in the house?
..

Nano is great to fly in the house. The motor is weak, and it is very battery condition dependant (good batteries, good flying, bad bats, poor flying). They are a blast to fly, help with control, can be flow outside and very crash resilient.

If flying lounge room, definitely nano. (Just flew mine inside minutes ago). If larger space (20ft x 20ft), an mCPX BL may be better.

Originally Posted by OGMiller

I'm sure i'll have more tyo ask of you in the future, so again I thank you for the help, ansd honestly would like to say thanks to the entire helifreak community, I made a rle to pick only one forum per interest and this was the heli one that I chose and I think it was a agreat decision

We are here to help. I've learned so much here, glad to give back.

[OGMiller]

My LHS has the McpX for 10 dollars less than then nano, I can barely tell a size difference in them and i9 have a main living area and a garage in which to fly indoors if I want... my room mates are all young bucks out all the time, not knowing the pleasures of relaxing in the Casa like I do :_)


would I be happier wioth the McpX as far as power and such,, I just read some where that the nano was all around better but thqat was an opinion i'm sure

[gitbse]

Originally Posted by OGMiller

My LHS has the McpX for 10 dollars less than then nano, I can barely tell a size difference in them and i9 have a main living area and a garage in which to fly indoors if I want... my room mates are all young bucks out all the time, not knowing the pleasures of relaxing in the Casa like I do :_)


would I be happier wioth the McpX as far as power and such,, I just read some where that the nano was all around better but thqat was an opinion i'm sure

As far as Mcpx v1 vs. Nano... hands down get the nano. It's head and shoulders better than the V1 Mcpx.

However, the Mcpx BL is way better than both of them. But also alot more $$$.

[gstoneberg]

In my book it depends on where you are in your flying. The mcpx is slightly larger, lower powered and flies somewhat smoother than the nano. It's tail holds poorer than the nano, and requires finesse on the collective. It is an excellent CP trainer. It is not as good at aggressive maneuvers as the nano and it is not as good indoors. In my book the only weak point in the nano is the main motor. I've converted mine to brushless and it flies more than any other heli in my stable. However, in brushless form it isn't as good indoors as it is stock. It's funny, when I bought the nano I really wanted to fly it indoors. Now that I'm doing flips, rolls and inverted work I don't enjoy flying indoors anywhere smaller than a gym. My nano flies daily outside. I flew it 6 times after work today. My old brushed mcpx also flies 6 times a day as a rule. Typically I alternate the 2 to let the motors cool. I use the mcpx to work on circuits and right now it is almost always flying tail first. The day will came when I retire the mcpx, but not for a good long while. But don't get me wrong, the nano is my favorite micro.

George