Raptor 30 first flight

I purchased my Raptor on Ebay from a guy in Canada who bought it and never put it together. After a lot of reading on " Raptor Technique dot com" (Thanks Michael) I put it together and after spending at least 20 hours flying around in Reflex XTR I put the big training gear on and headed out for my first hover. To say that I was nervous was an understatment! Anyway after I meticulously went through my preflight check I cranked her over stepped back about 30 feet and lifted off. It was incredible I was able to hover with no problem the bird was rock steady! I highly recommend using a flight sim as to which my first flight sucess is totally based. I was able to go left and right and something that almost resembled a figure 8. Anyway my second time out wasn't so sucessful. I removed the landing gear and after flying right, left, out and back, landing and taking off for almost a tankfull I made the mistake of trying to land the heli while it was too far away from me and I must of lost orientation or landed to hard, anyway the result was the rotor blades hitting the boom. I need pretty much a basic crash kit to get back in the air so it could of been worse. The lesson I learned was don't land far away bring the bird back to you! Regardless of the crash, I am very pleased with my progress again I highly recomend the use of a sim it will shorten your learning curve and save you money in the long run.

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

I must congratulate you on the succesfull flight of your heli, You make a very good point that simulators dispite what the haters say are a very good training aid. I would recommend them to all who are thinking of learning to fly heli's as they are so accurate these days that if you can fly on the sim you can no doubt fly for real.
One bit of advice though is that now you have started real flight you will when your nerves settle to it. Want to push yourself fast and fast forward with your skills. Never give up on the simulator practice practice practice and slowly take this newly acquired skill in to real flight. Too fast forward and you will need a good supply of parts.

On a matter of saftey. Please be sure to check the heli thouroghly before and after every days flight. You will be supprised at the things that can work loose.

Welcome to the fold (pilot)
happy flying.

Put the training gear back on just because you had one good flight does not mean you are ready to fly with out it,I started flying last September and just took the training gear off my heli's last June and I have over 300 sim hours logged along with 100 flight hours logged between my Freya 60,my Voyager E and my XRB and I am just getting the hang of side in hovering.I have had many flights that if I had not had training gear on would have cost me hundreds to fix but as it was it only cost me a couple of wooden dowels.If you would have had training gear on your tail boom would not have been damaged because the gear takes some of the hit when you land hard.Also great job on your first flight it is a rush and it only gets better.