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Futaba-RC . Fast Lad Performance . Esprit Model

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Beginners Corner > First flight. How freaking cool...
 
 
nofear
Senior Heliman
Location: Chicago, IL

I think at this point your biggest concern between wood blades and carbon blades should be the replacement cost when you do finally put it in.

As far as the damage they will cause...well they'll probably do about the same damage to what ever they hit.

As long as you do your preflight checks and preventative maintenance you should keep things like mechanical failure down do almost zero.
Keep your wits about you when flying and don't do anything crazy beyond your capabilities and you should be just fine.

NF.
04-24-2008 07:52 AM
 
 
macsgrafs
Senior Heliman
Location: Barnstaple, Devon, UK

Get it higher off the deck, its far more stable..trust me I'm a complete newbie & found this out from day 1. I used to be a slope soarer myself, so know the path well. Get a good flight sim (Phoenix) & have fun fellow addict.

Ross

Seems to me that ALL heli's beat the air into submission
04-24-2008 08:02 AM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Pistol_Pete
Elite Veteran
Location: Tampa Bay non-Buccaneer

Quote 
Should I be flying with the wood blades?

the norm is to start with woodies due to the learning factor and cost of replacement...ultimately its a decision between you and your pockets.

Indeed you need to fly at leat two feet off the ground to eliminate ground effect.


congrats on your success.

<><>...the lunatic is in my head...<><>
04-24-2008 04:37 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
dhollein
Veteran
Location: Tucson, AZ

Congrats!!
04-24-2008 06:17 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Triguy
Heliman
Location: Nevada, USA

Updates:

Man, this is really cool. Flying is just the coolest freaking thing to do... well... its not number 1, but its close.

I've got a balancer on order, and I'm really looking forward to it coming in. I'm starting to get nervous about continuing to fly my packs and charge them without the balancer. I only put 4 or 5 minute flights on my packs and trickle charge them, but I'm flying far more than I figured I would before the balancer came in. Perhaps I should stop flying until I can balance the packs?

I'm getting higher in the air, and generally have been working on hovering a few feet up. When the wind grabs the heli (or I hit the throttle) and get that little thing like 20 feet up, it is just the coolest experience. I still haven't climbed higher than 20 feet or so, mainly out of concern for controlling the heli on its decent back down. But soon, ah, soon... the skies will be mine.

Two people were cleaning little bits of trash in the parking lot where I was flying, and the kid kinda yells at me, "hey!" I don't respond. He keeps yelling. I'm thinking, "kid, I'm flying here. I'll land and look over when I can." So I land, and I look over and the kid says, "how much was that?" Interesting question actually. Sadly, all told, quite a bit. I shrug and say, "about $500." He says, "wow, that's allot of money. Yeah, $500 is. I really don't want to think what I ACTUALLY have invested in all of this nonsense! And I'm just tinkering around with a 450. Some of you big nitro guys... just wow. But I suppose the money on motorcycles, bikes, and airplanes would provide me one hell of a nice .90 and some spare parts. One day...

Back to work!
04-25-2008 07:50 PM
 
 
TJinGuy
Key Veteran
Location: Socorro, NM - USA

Hey all hobbies are expensive! You should try photography sometime!

As for blades I am a firm believer in running what you need rather than what you want or what looks good. Sure CF blades look cool, track well, fly well and so on, but they are expensive and when you do crash they will do WAY more damage to your heli, people and property. The Align woodies track/fly/crash amazingly well! Remember that all that energy has to go some where, may as well be the blades because they are toast anyways! At $13 a pair I see no better option.

- Chris

I own the King of helis! And a Mini too!
TAKE OFF AND LANDING CHAMPION SUPREME
04-25-2008 08:37 PM
 
 
Triguy
Heliman
Location: Nevada, USA

Thanks for the comments about the blades. I'll keep the carbon on since they are tracking perfectly and flying well.

I really want to get out and fly but the wind is ripping. Maybe I do need to pick up a little heli for the house...

My Trex is staring at me like, "what's your problem, man? Fly me!"
04-28-2008 08:09 PM
 
 
Fullpitch
Heliman
Location: Deerfield Beach,Florida

Wait till you get a nitro if you think eletric is cool just wait.
All helis are fun nitro or eletric,but when I broke into the nitro
end of this hobby it changed the world for me and I cant get enough
of it ether.Have fun and enjoy and let us know if you get your 50
nitro.
04-29-2008 10:04 PM
 
 
Triguy
Heliman
Location: Nevada, USA

Updates:

Still no crashes - which means I'm that much closer to my first.

Flying has been awesome. I'm currently working on 45 degree orientations. So instead of just doing tail-in flying, I'm now messing around regularly with about 45 degrees (give or take). Flying the heli high in the air is fun as hell, too.

To be honest, I'm still just kinda motoring around a few feet off the ground most of the time, working on my orientation. I still have the training gear on, and man I'm getting so close to taking them off...

The little heli is nice without wind, but with wind I get the ballooning that everyone talks about. My throttle control (and just control) in general isn't good enough to counteract the wind fluctuations to keep the heli completely still. Eventually...

Back to work...
05-02-2008 12:25 AM
 
 
w8qz
Veteran
Location: Walker, MI - USA

The point that you *should* ditch the training gear is: when you can always bring the heli back to a stable low hover, without much motion. At that point, you can always land safely. And, at that point, you don't need the gear. (And, it will fly better without the extra weight and drag.)

It is a nice mental 'safety blanket', so most of us tend to hang on to the training gear longer than we should

------------------
veni, volavi, fregi (if I could only fly as well as I post !!!)
05-02-2008 01:35 PM
 
 
heliman79
Heliman
Location: loxley, alabama united states

right on about the training gear. the only thing its really good for is preventing tip overs and boom strikes, which boom strikes still happen with the gear on( inm living proof). triguy, seems you are progressing well. keep youre learning curve slow and slowy master the orenintations like you have been and it will reward you in the long run. i got too agrresive once i passed the hovering phase and mild foward flight phase. attempted inverted hovering( tail in of course) was amazed just how quickly it got away from me and i " dumb thumbed" it into the ground in idle up at full head speed after taht i slowed down and re-thought my flight plans and im glad i did today keep it up!

damn, that was close!
05-03-2008 06:45 PM
 
 
Triguy
Heliman
Location: Nevada, USA

Okay, all. Another question for you.

Still no crashes, still having fun, still working on about 45 degree orientations.

My question is this - I'm only running positive pitch right now since I'm new. Should I just bite the bullet and put the -10/+10 setting in and start flying with that since the control stick inputs will change relative to what I'm learning on when I finally do make that change?

If I do that, I think that setting is called Idle-1, is it not?
05-05-2008 04:05 PM
 
 
Triguy
Heliman
Location: Nevada, USA

Bump for my previous question...

Any suggestions? Ideas? Bueller? Bueller?
05-06-2008 05:01 PM
 
 
TJinGuy
Key Veteran
Location: Socorro, NM - USA

At some point you will need to move away from "normal mode" flying and use idle-up if you want to progress past simple hovering. Right now your heli should have things set up so you get range of roughly -2* to 10* pitch with the center at 0* in normal. Set your idle1 to be the same. Then add some more negative but leave the same exact throttle and pitch curves for everything above midstick for now. In other words, only adjust the first 2 points out of 5. Then just start adding more and more negative as you feel comfortable. Maybe try -4* to start. Eventually you will be at -10 to 10.

- Chris

I own the King of helis! And a Mini too!
TAKE OFF AND LANDING CHAMPION SUPREME
05-06-2008 08:19 PM
 
 
heliman79
Heliman
Location: loxley, alabama united states

yes exactly what chris said. reason for that is to prevent the heli from trying to bury itself in to the ground or becoming a ballistic missle when the collective is " manhandled". you may also find the hovering in idle up seems steadier b/c of the constant headspeed.

damn, that was close!
05-07-2008 10:12 PM
 
 
Triguy
Heliman
Location: Nevada, USA

Awesome. Thanks guys. I'll take a look at this and when the wind dies down let you know how it goes.
05-07-2008 10:19 PM
 
 
Triguy
Heliman
Location: Nevada, USA

Hmmm... This is turning out tougher than I thought. I have 5-point curves... so what should my curves look like in normal and idle up?
05-07-2008 10:29 PM
 
 
Triguy
Heliman
Location: Nevada, USA

Okay, all. I did it. Training gear off! Two flights with no gear, and yup, it's exactly as you all said - ditch them. Now, I will certainly crash sooner than if I left 'em on, but now the heli "looks" like a heli, and is far lighter in the air.

I spent two packs basically hovering with a bit of 45 degree orientation both ways and then squaring it up and bringing it back down. The only real suprise was how light the bird is without the gear... and my gear were pretty damn light.

I also modified my pitch and throttle curves and programmed my idle up settings. Its pretty cool to learn about all of this and then impliment it and go fly.

In other news, of my three battery packs, one produced erratic performance the last time I used it (about a week ago). After spooling up and hovering for about a minute, power started to cut in and out. I brought it down, inspected things, spooled it back up, and the same thing happened. I have since figured out that it is not the ESC (the other batteries produce flawless performance), so it must be the battery. I haven't tried charging the pack again yet, as my blinky balancer will be here any day now and I want to get it balanced before I charge it.

Really, this hobby is bad ass...
05-09-2008 06:01 PM
 
 
dhollein
Veteran
Location: Tucson, AZ

Congrats again! Where in NV are you?
05-09-2008 07:53 PM
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Triguy
Heliman
Location: Nevada, USA

Thanks! (Now if I could just get that Pantara off my mind I'd be fine... I can see how this hobby is an addiction...)

I'm in Reno.
05-09-2008 08:06 PM
 
 
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Beginners Corner > First flight. How freaking cool...
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