Glad it was just the door!

[jawbone44]

Ok, been flying heli for about a month. I have a raptor 30 v2. I was starting to get the hang of hovering in a nice big field on the weekends, when a friend suggested I could practice every day in my back yard if I could just find a way to tether it to the gound. So I cut a catle post off at about 2 feet and sunk it in the gound so only the top 1/2 inch was above the ground. I tethered the heli to it and to my supprise this worked rather well and before I knew it I as getting better and better at hovering. And then for what ever reason, god decided to untie the rope I had attached to the heli. It drifted into my shed and put about a 12 inch gash in the steel shed door. Im just glad it didn't hit me in the head. Well, 1 crash kit later, I'm back in the field where I belong. Not one of my smarter moments.

[Nidrah]

I would have liked to have seen the tether. Interesting idea. And it would have been fine had your connection stayed put?

[jawbone44]

It was working great. I had been practicing that way for about a week before the crash. I was actually using the pull start cord for lawn mowers (its double braided and really strong stuff). So the idea works, but would still be better suited in an open field, just incase the rope comes untied.

The main benefit I noticed was that it limits your altitude. So you don't have to jocky the collective back and forth (one less thing to worry about). Then you can concentrate on just keeping the machine on one place. It would probably work better with a chain and some kind of mechanical fastener.

[tecmic]

Hi,

I had the same idea when I first got my Raptor but, I was told by the guy who taught me, and many others since, NEVER tether a heli. It dramatically changes it's flight characteristics and puts heavy strain on components that are not designed to take it!

In other words, it's a very bad idea.

Mike.

Mike.