First nose-in, at the club field today

[Rick Rotorhead]

I was an plank flyer of ten years experience, 15 years back. Since 'discovering' helis, I decided to re-join my old local flying club and a few ol'boys are still there and remember me from days of yore. So, when I tell them I'm learning heli flying I get the strange sideways look, my club only has one established heli flyer. Helis are indeed a black art practiced by eccentric studiers of the arcane pagan flying cult - not to be trifled with by normal people who don't have the way of the knowledge!
Anyhow, the wind dropped so I got out my Twister/Blade thing - which looked ludicously small next to regular planks. Spooled her up and flew several circuits, fig 8s and, thanks to lots of XTR practice, managed long enough nose-in to make it look like I knew what I was doing. I did warn the 'old guard that I was still learning and not very good, but I think it actually impressed them (most heli flyers, they told me just kind of hover at chest hieght for 10 mins, land and go home - every week!!!). There I was, arising into the flying scene like returning from the dead, and buzzing this little bird about like second nature, I guess you could say that I really did put my money where my mouth was and it felt real good.
Thanks to lots of XTR sim time and Twister/Blade air time in my garden, so I'm rightly chuffed now (now before the cynics say it, I will - pride comes before a fall - yeah I know, so I'll watch my step now :lol: )

[DebianDog]

:cool: Nicely done!

My favorite new story is... a few months back someone came to the field just to watch with a few buddies. One of them asked me years I flew planes before moving up to helicopters.
I said, "Never flew a plane"
Him :thinking

[flyinfool]

Nice job. Soon you will be dazzling them with your brilliance.

I love taking my heli to plank fields that have never seen a heli do more than hover.
I'm not good enough to even mildly impress a heli crowd but a bunch of plankers will think I signed a pact with the devil to pull off the maneuvers that I do. :glasses2:

[schmleff]

Back when I first learnd the black art, there was nobody that had ever successfully flown a heli at our field. All the old guyes laughed when I started. They got used to me flying patterns with them.

What is very interesting to see is when you biff the heli an it does the chicken dance right in front of the flight line while they are still in the air. :arggg: Only did it one time, but it was worth it :cool:

[wacojoe]

I bought a Blade CP just so i could learn to nose in hover,
and learn to do loops, rolls etc. Could nose in hover on sim
with no problems but my T-rex and Shogun are too intimidating.
after trimming out the blade, I was having a ball with little heli
nose in, tight figure8s, stall turns etc. with no problems.
So my confidence was all built up and was doing the same with
the T-rex and Shogun. all in the back yard!

[Rick Rotorhead]

Had to eat some humble pie today :lol: It was a bit gusty and I got near the ground about 40 feet away and ontop of that my Lipos were running down - so I decided to chicken out and set her down nice and level, albeit a bit too far away to be comforable. Next thing, at a height of only a foot or so she snagged some tall tough weed and went down sideways onto her rotor - result: yet another broken blade grip (the little washout lever thingie snapped off). So I'm grounded again with another £13 repair bill - Chopper Down :( The damage part probably got weakend yesterday when flying in my narrow front yard and I couldn't get out of the way in time and she flew into my right shoulder :? God, I'm rubbish at this!!!!!