A noobs story

[TT120]

Hi guys, total noob here.

I'm new to heli's but not new to RC, I have a bunch of cars and trucks and a little foam park flyer so I can handle a remote. I was given a couple of small electric heli's, thats right, I said given. Sometimes I luck out. Anyway, one is a Century Hummingbird V3 and the other one is a Colco Thunderbird. They are almost identical.
The Hummingbird was broken so I tried to fly the Thunderbird and WOW! it was extremely hard. I decided to download Flight Model Simulator and get some practice in before I tried to fly the bird again. My Colco radio came with a buddy jack and a serial cable so I could use it to fly the sim. I spent the next week reading heli forums and crashing the sim copter and getting better.

By that time, the parts for my Hummingbird had come in so I put it back together, trimmed it out according to some instructions I found somewhere on the net and gave it a test flight. To my amazement, I was able to tail-in hover for almost the whole battery! The sim really helped me and I recommend to any newby, get a sim! It will help a lot.

Now I have about 5 flights under my belt and have no problem keeping it floating for a whole battery. This is seriously FUN!! I'm hooked, time to sell some of my cars and get a bigger CP heli like a T-Rex or something.

[hawkman]

Hi there.....FMS is not a bad simulator at all.....its limited in some ways but it sure helped me learn.....5 minutes hovering a real nitro heli.....I was off around the field on my first circuit.....havent looked back since.

I have a small electric Twister Bell 47.....its a hoot to fly and I can fly indoors which is important as my job limits nitro flying for the moment.....the guys I work with are totally amazed at my little Bell47 ....one or two guys are going to buy one as well!!!!

I like the look of the TRex....I havent heard anything bad about the heli at all....parts are cheap....and it can fly outside in a breeze.......sure gets my vote.

Keep posting....let us know how you get on

I belong to another site.......but it gets sooooo serious at times

Love this site because the basic interest/passion for RC helis is alive and well.

Rob

[TT120]

Thanks Rob, I'm having such a blast flying this thing around. I'm starting to be able to do side-in hover and a little FF but still get disoriented when nose-in. Strangely enough, I can nose-in hover in the sim without a problem.

I understand the bigger heli's are a little more stable and can fly in a breeze so thats what I'm after next. Going to have to bite the bullet and sell some of my RC cars to fund a new T-Rex or something like that.

[Aztek1701]

Hey TT,

Good to hear you are progressing well keep at it.
I would say that going for a Trex as your next machine would be a good choice. It is more stable that what your flying now but its also a MUCH faster heli, just be ready for that when you start flying it. Interesting comment about selling cars, Ive heard of ppl doing this before, seems that once youve tried helis cars are a bit 2 dimensional.

Good luck with it... Azzy

PS for help and info on the trex try looking at www.trextuning.com