my first kinda funny story

[luma]

My girlfriend is getting into this R/C helicopter flying with me and we had cleared the bedroom (we have a large master bedroom) of all objects that could be damaged/damage the heli. and we where just starting by lifting the tail slight and moving the rear from one side to the other. just getting familiar with the control.

Well we started to get a bit cocky and where trying to hover, I said don't forget to move your good pine bench. she said bah I won't hit it.

2 Seconds later we are down one rotor blade and there is a nice very impressive Ding in her beautiful hand made Pine Bench

Lesson Learned. (well now there is a Dent in the Chip rock in the living room so lesson REALLY learned, the and chip rock was my fault :P

Luma

[Dangerman]

I can 1 up you on a funny/sad story. I am new to this hobby.....dabbled with nitro powered helis about 30 years ago. I have had my Walkera 22D for about a month now. I too did the hover/slide deal on the living room carpet....got cocky and went outside on the patio. I actually got my bird up out of ground effect and hovered! on landing I hit the ground hard and broke the landing gear. After a week of waiting I got new skids and other parts (tail rotor blades). after fixing all the damage I ran up the heli and found other problems. My tail rotor wasn't spinning fast enough to provide adequate anti-torque. So back on the bench it went. I fixed the tail rotor problem, charged up the batteries and out the door I went. On liftoff, I got a nice clean hover and actually got a little positive control over the heli. Thats when all hell breaks loose. The heli goes into a mad spin that no amount of opposite rudder would fix. As I retarted the throttle I got no response. No matter what inputs I attempted the heli just blew me off. The last time I saw my 22D it was at about 40 ft and climbing heading 270 degrees at about 3 knots. I searched all over for my bird to no avail.

[Aztek1701]

yep, its a bummer

Something like that happened to me with my first B47 twister (Read blade CX). Wind got under it and the last I saw was it dropping like a stone into an unknown back yard. Taught me a lesson... Dont fly helis in your back yard

Hate to say this but eletronics is what the big problem with walkeras is. Have you replaced it yet?. If not what r u looking at replacing it wif?

Take care.... Azzy

[Dangerman]

AZZY,
I will eventually replace the wayward 22D. What do you suggest away from Walkera? I kinda would like to lean towards something Japanese, you know a little more dependable. I like the looks of the T-Rex but that is down the road after alot more expierience on my part.

[New-heli-pilot]

Perhaps a Honeybee CP2, or a Blade Cp/Blade CP Pro? I just got the Blade Cp and its actually pretty easy to hover. I just got done hovering it in a 5'x5' space since its too dark outside to fly there.

[Dangerman]

Thanks New-Heli Guy ..... did you do some simulator time before you got the hang of hovering. I am doing some asking around this time before I replace my lost bird. How are the electronics on the blade line? What do you have as far as pros and cons on your heli?

[New-heli-pilot]

Yes I had about an hour of simulator time on FS One last night, which definetly helped considering I was crashing every few seconds on there for about the first half hour. Ive never had and problems with Blade electronics, I've had a Blade CX for about 3 or 4 months now and its never had a problem. So far the CP seems to have just as reliable electronics on it.

Pros: Easy to learn on;Can fly indoors;No setup require besides blade tracking;(this next can be taken either way)Not aerobatic ready, for me this is good as I am not tempted to try anything stupid just yet, it needs an upgrade package for that;reliable electronics;decent flight time(10 minutes on standard 650MaH Ni-Mh battery

Cons:650 Mah Ni-Mh battery really weighs this thing down, I prefer using my 2cell 800Mah Li-Pos;Not aerobatic ready(again this can be taken either way); finally the tail rotor tends to slip from the gear on it (the rotor has pegs which snap into the gear being turned by the tail motor), this started happening after my blades were getting stuck on the ground due to the pole supporting the tail not being much taller than the blades themselves. But probably also makes for easy tail blade replacement

Overall I love flying my Blade CP, at night when its dark I fly the sim, when its light I got 3 battery's to use flying. (2x 2cell 800 Lipos from my blade CX, and the stock 650 Ni-MH)

Edit:Also remember I have only had the Blade CP for about 24 hours now so I still havent learnt all of its secrets.

[Aztek1701]

Hi Dangerman,

Why would you say the T-Rex is a way down the line on experience. The end to my funny story is that after I lost the first B47 twister, I went down the heli shop and bought another b47 twister AND a t-rex (yes it was a lot of money but I sold a few grandmothers that day ) I havent looked back and I still have the trex (albeit in an airwolf body now lol).

The T-rex is a scary beast compared to a fixed pitch or maybe even some CP models but you soon get used to it and they can also be calmed down, they fly well and its often a first step on the rung of "real" helis. If you can fly a T-Rex you can fly a nitro.

If you dont want to stump up the money for a T-Rex yet, what about the twister 3d pro or the hummingbird pro.

Hope this helps.... Azzy