Possible to learn 3D in a yard?

[Vertflyer]

I know sim sim sim.. and I am doing an hour or 2 every night. I am starting to get my half and full piro flips down in the sim. I have my inverted hovering orientations down.

I have done these piro flips in a field when I actually get to go to a field. But I would love to get brave/proficient enough to do these in my yard. I have a decent sized front lawn, but it's no field and '2 mistakes high' is sort of tough because of the layout of trees and other homes, etc. I spent a lot or hours researching the best sized heli to try practice 3D. For smaller helis, I have a G380, Trex 470L, and a 180CFX. I am wondering if an Oxy 3 will be the correct size to practice my 3d moves in my yard? But mainly I am wondering if anyone learns in a yard. Is a field somewhat mandatory? I see videos of 3D in smaller areas like front or back yards, but I get the feeling people started those moves in a field. True or false?

For some reason when I get down to trying them in my yard with my smaller fleet, G380, etc.. I chicken out cause the space feels confined. The G380 feels just a hair too large for the yard. But I know that once I get really good, there's no doubt that theres enough space.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I can only get out to the field a couple times a month and never for too long. I would love to hear advice on how to utilize my yard to learn 3D. Stick to the 180CFX?, Try a Oxy 3 sized? Just suck it up and go for it on a 380 sized beater? Like an X3?

[Dogdipstick]

...... depends on how much money you have.... If alot , well then yeah go for it.

When you get tired of buying new helis, fixing your lawn, digging parts out of the ground, and cutting down trees to get the heli back, and fixing your windows/ siding, you can always then hire someone to do it for you.

If you don't have the money, I would say stick to the new moves at least 2-3 mistakes high and in the biggest field.

[BrokeDad]

With a K110.

[Frankel]

Oxy 2

[Wargamer]

+1 for an Oxy 2. Needs less space than an Oxy 3 or your bigger helis, and flies a lot better than the 180cfx.

On a progression strategy, I would suggest more than inverted hover as a foundation for 3D. You usually need to actually fly a bit in a bailout. The more comfortable you are with all flight orientations, the more comfortable you'll be taking on anything new, and the less crashing you'll do.

I'd work on inverted and tail first flight in the sim. If you want to work on those in your yard with minimal cost, I'd go with BrokeDad and spend $100 on a k110, which you can crash all day. In the sim, when you get comfortable with your orientations in a field-size space, move to a smaller heli in a large sim gym. When you can fly all orientation eights in the sim gym without crashing, and are doing it comfortably in your yard with the k110, the transition to the Oxy 2 in your yard will be easy.

At that point, assuming good sim prep, you should be able to handle things like funnels, piro flips and tic tocs in the yard. As with orientations, you can start these in the sim at a field, and then move to a smaller heli in a gym.

As you can tell, I'm very structured, but I've found I have to be if I want to practice in the yard.

[Steve Graham]

Frankly the whole "bigger helis NEED more space" thing is focused on the wrong thing. Can a big heli be seen a further distance away? Yes, of course. So while you can use more space with a larger heli you don't really need to. A proficient pilot can keep any size heli in pretty much any reasonable size outdoor space.

What we're talking about here is the space required for learning in. The question we should be asking is "How much space do I need to account for the invariable pilot input errors I will be making while practicing new maneuvers?" You also need to recall that flying in close proximity to obstacles is stress inducing. This WILL negatively affect your flying. You may be able to execute perfect piro flips with the heli in a 3 foot box in a wide open field. Bring those same maneuvers into a constrained box and your accuracy will suffer.

It's also imperative that you have an area large enough to give you and the surrounding property, homes-cars-kids in the yard-etc, a reasonable buffer when equipment failures occur.

[Epoweredrc]

With the 180 I would say go for it if your that good on the sim... I just wanna say you suck cause i still cant do a piro flip even on the sim.
how big is ur yard...
The yard i have to fly in is tiny and i wouldn't be doing piro flips unless i was really really good at them.
180cfx loving my new flying spot (3 min 52 sec)

[Raptorapture]

I don't know the root cause whether governor, under powered motor or high disk loading, but the 180CFX suffers greatly on collective. There is so much delay that combined with cyclic input the 180 goes all over the place somewhat unpredictably causing it to require much more space than its size would suggest. I'm hoping the K110 doesn't suffer the same challenge as I'm considering it for "backyard" flying.

[Thtasher]

Originally Posted by Raptorapture

..... I'm hoping the K110 doesn't suffer the same challenge as I'm considering it for "backyard" flying.

I sure hope so as that is the route I've gone
Just ordered one but more to practice inverted and backward circuits not 3D

[Epoweredrc]

Never flown the K110 but i have flown 2) K120 and they both felt so much more locked in then any of my MCPX's ever did ..
I like the 180cfxand while im not a hard core 3d pilot probably never be as good as most for my flying really enjoy it.. if you ask me that flying spot of mine is pretty tight for a heli of this size a mcpx/k110/k120 would have plenty of room to do anything in the same space

[Smoggie]

like many things 'it's possible' but that doesn't mean its a good idea.

[Wargamer]

Originally Posted by Thtasher

I sure hope so as that is the route I've gone
Just ordered one (k110) but more to practice inverted and backward circuits not 3D

It's great for orientation practice. Get some spare main gears and some spindles as well. Enough crashes will eventually break the gear (usually the hub before the teeth) and bend the spindle. The spindle needs replacing when the tail starts drifting on you with no rudder input.