It might seem odd but the main reson I bought the heli was that I had heard they were really tricky beasts to fly, sort of a new challenge and skill to master!
Well maybe not master but at least gain a semblence of competancy in!

I've never actually been airborne in a real heli, so have no idea what is actually like - noisy I suspect!

Hehe - if I was flying it near a girlfriends car that would be the least of my worries - getting caught by the wife would be tops on that list - but I take the point though!
The stupid thing was that the flying box was just about the only thing it could have hit, what I was doing was trying at a low level to sort of hover a loop around an apple tree in the garden, stupid here swung the tail around just as it decided to move sideways (ground effect I guess) an just clipped it, an inch more and it would have missed entirely.
Live and (hopefully) learn from that one I guess.

There was a certain degree here of running before I could walk, so once its fixed it's back to hover practice for a while longer and no more "try this" until I'm better at it!

I agree entirely about ditching the undercarrige as soon as possible, but keep in mind I'm still only 1/3 down the first bottle of fuel right now, so really still an absolute novice.
I'll get there though!

I understand exactly what you mean about the tipping point and the weight distribution pulling it level, I would guess the centre of moment would be around the swashplate or slightly higher, above that there is really just the weight of the rotors, pitch adjusting gear etc, whereas below is the weight of the rest of the heli - the tipping angle is going to be quite high as you say.

So if it is leaning sideways then leaving the rotor angle alone and letting the weight of the main part of the heli pull it level is a lot more sensible.

One thing I would say about the Mosquito design that I consider a little poor is the tail skid, just a loop of wire, I had one problem a while back in that it was pretty wet underfoot and when it landed the wire just went into the ground resulting in the tail rotor digging a little trench and snapping the tail drive belt. I'm going to improve on that design wehn I get time!

I must say though, those tail rotors are tough little things even after choping a segment out of the flight box there is no visible damage or marks on them!

I guess I'll be playing with another toy over Easter, there's no way I can find time to go to Hinkley to collect a new bit in the next couple of days - if I don't sort out the garden soon the wife is going to get aggresive with me!



Phil