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[sheerline]

I Have been flying aircraft for years and always shunned helicopters but was given a collective pitch Twister which I learned to hover in the dining room.......very difficult... damaged furniture, damage chopper (many times) and almost damaged marriage! The whole episode was fraught with anguish but being a twitchy little thing I was determined to master it and could actually flatten a battery without wrecking anything so it proved to be an invaluable experience which sharpened up my reactions.
I now have the Ikarus eco sport 7 and being a much larger machine, I have found it much more stable and controllable and can hover the thing indefinately (in the garden now). I want to make the transition to level flight so can anyone give me any pointers or indicate any tricks which will ease me into normal level flight around the garden without smashing it up immediately.
Spares could be a problem as I wrecked the very frail tail boom and got no response to a request by e-mail from the German company but I have since modified it with a carbon fibre fishing rod blank and it works superbly. Anything anyone can suggest to avoid instant carnage will be most welcome.
Thanks in anticipation men!

[das boot]

When I learnt to fly helis, I was given a little tip which helped me considerably...tie a length of thin string to your belt and tie the other end to the tail boom of the 'copter. That way you learn level flight without the bl**dy thing charging off over next door's hedge and losing itself in their fish pond. Just make sure that the string doesn't interfere with the tail rotor, or you could find yourself with a chopper flying backwards towards your nether regions at high speed as the string winds around the tail rotor...

Good luck..

Rich

[grasshopper]

I've got a twister - and as far as I can tell you've mastered the diffifcult bit! I can fly reasonable circuits - but fail miserably at hovering, landings are more an arrival, that's why I still fly with the training undercarriage!.

Obviously, given your previous flying experience you'll know there's no substitute for height - and if your new chopper is fixed pitch, remember that it's the head speed that gives a lot of stability and as you reduce height (rotor speed) the heli' can get a little 'wobbly' - that's the point I find it all goes pear-shaped and I just hope the ensuing 'arrival' is not too expensive!

[sheerline]

Re the Twister, I should have said it was 'cyclic'  pitch, not collective. The Ikarus is collective , much more docile and I can usually put it anywhere I want . I got it under the willow tree at the the bottom of the garden one day and actually managed to back it out and return to my hovering practice without any damage.
I was told hovering is the most difficult part of learning to fly these confounded things and in that I suppose I have got there. I am sorely tempted to just go roaring off and do a circuit but I think I should probably try to fully master 'nose inward' rather than tail inward before I do. I believe the secret of flying these things is 'practice, practice and more practice and I don't think you should have to concentrate to the same extent as a novice, in other words, one reactions should be second nature, like with aircraft.
This thing started out as a project, I just wanted to learn to do it for its own sake and found I had to completely re-wire my brain, I must say it has been quite a learning curve and I am rather pleased with myself that I have got this far. As for the Twister, I'm afraid it looks just a shadow of its former self as it has been battered to death and repaired and modified so many times.... but it still flies.
Who says 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks' eh?
The Ikarus also has a heading lock gyro on board which is a real boon to controlling it.

[andyn]

Get onto the guy who owns this shop - master Heli pitlot.

http://www.mainlymodels.co.uk/

Also, would be very much worth going to an indoor meeting in a sports hall, what part of the country are you in?

Andy

[sheerline]

Thanks for that Andy, I will give him a try. I couldn't use the Ikarus in a sports hall I'm afraid as it's too large, this ones a bit of a grown up type chopper and has blades about a metre across,you wouldn't want to get in the way of this one when it's going!
A twister would be fine in a hall and as it happens, I have just got hold of another one which unlike the first model,  has collective pitch but now I have becomed accostomed to using the large Ikarus with it's rather more docile nature, I fear I may have lost the reaction sharpness gained using the old twister and plant the thing.

[andyn]

Nahh I've seen T-Rex 600's flown in a two basketball court size hall.

If you're close to Potters Bar, give Furzefield Leasure centre a try, it's HUGE 

[sheerline]

Sorry Andy, looks like I will have to stick to the garden for the time being as I'm in Norfolk but there are plenty of cropped fields at the moment so if I feel ambitious I might take it into one of those.

[john54]

Free flight sim hels/planes just google fms not very high tech but good fun  :)
Sorting out the controls can be pain >:(

[sheerline]

I had just learned to hover the old twister and was beginning to stop smashing it up when someone loaned me a sim. I was becomming proficient at the sim and went back to the Twister to see if I had learned anything........smashed it up immediately!
sims are very good but I realised I must become proficient at the model I intended to fly so haven't bothered with a sim since then. I guess I will just keep practising. 

[Seaspray]

Hi   

Try this new site good bunch of heli modellers and lots of help

www.crackroll.com/index.php      

Martin