me latest choppah!

[betty.k]

well overdue for an update here!

it was just a matter of time before i got a proper collective pitch heli, just waited for a good deal to come along.

it’s a twister cp v2, came with some decent extras too. upgraded skids and fins, spare set of wood blades (comes stock with fancy cf ones, i decided i’d rather smash the wood ones first), spare tail blades.

here’s a stock one:

and here’s mine

i figured i better get some training gear but the prices are outrageous so i just made my own.

i just used ping pong balls, bamboo skewers, zip ties, a square of lexan, heat shrink and super glue.

i already had the little skid clips but if i didn’t have them i would have used zip ties or rubber bands.

whether you make it or buy it i recommend installing trainers on your heli if you’re a beginner, makes learning a lot less nerve racking! :8ball:

[betty.k]

i gave it a lick of red to help with visibility and make it my own.

also got some new blades. i bought a set of wooden flat bottoms but they made the heli a little too unpredictable, using the cyclic would make it jump up for some reason. then i did some accidental gardening with them and they’ll need a spot of glue before i use them again!

i also got some symetrical plastic blades. they’re nearly twice the weight of wooden paddles but seem to be more beginner friendly so i’m using them for now.

and i made a blade balancer by hacking the sides off a plastic chocolate box.

definately a must have tool!

so now i’d like to share my learning journey.

rc heli’s are pretty much like a 2-3yo child. they need constant supervision and direction. you turn your back for one second, even blink at the wrong time and bam! instant ****ing disaster!

once i installed training gear i could begin proper practice. winding it up then shutting it down at first to learn the throttle feel and practice killing it quickly in the event of a crash.
i then moved on to getting it light on the skids and trying to keep it straight and in one place.
bit by bit i’d get it lighter and try a few hops as my confidence grew.

up until then it was a very frustrating experience but that’s part of the deal. you can’t tell if it’s trimmed right until you get it in the air and you can’t get it in the air easily unless it’s trimmed right!

but you get through that and once you start to understand the in flight behavior it gets a lot easier.

so far i’ve clocked up about 2 hours and i can do a pretty decent hover for as long as i want in my little 15ft x 15ft backyard training area. i’ve even managed a couple of decent right hand piroettes, going left is a different story all together!

see that’s the thing with a heli, you need to give it input every step of the way. say you wanna sway left, you need to give it left input to tilt the heli left. it then moves left and you need to give it right input to arrest the left movement. then you gotta tilt it back to the left to stop it swaying back to the right!

but i’m totally loving it, no turning back now!:D :8ball:

[Dangerous Dave]

a professional model heli pilot mate strongly recommended I get hold of the Bell Twister Medevac style helis to learn on.

They are dual conter rotating design, but with full swash plate and 4 channel control.

They are naturally quite stable and fairly robust. Not the fastest thing, but suitable for indoors as well.

I still love flying the little 3 ch Airlark though…

[betty.k]

your friend is very wise!:D

while it’s possible to jump straight into a real heli and succeed it’s a lot less harder if you cut your teeth with a 4ch counter rotating/coaxial heli first.

here’s where i started:
http://www.ausmicro.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14121

but a real collective pitch heli is still hard to learn, the first 5 – 10 pack will be a total disappointment! (were for me!);) :8ball:

[Dangerous Dave]

yeah, I started with a walkera 36, and all the heli guys have said it’s a total pig to fly, but if I can master that, I can fly anything hehehehe

got the basics happening at least !

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