Hello all -- new to the hobby

[meganbg]

Hi, all... I'm new to the site, a few months into the hobby and now tackling putting together a Hirobo Lepton. I love it.

At least with my BladeCP[&CPPro], I can pretty reliably fly about 20-30 feet away and then bring them back (tail in) and land, but I'm still not getting down left or right orientation (and not daring to try head in, yet)...

I think that I'm going to have to fit a simulator into my budget as I really want to get to the point of head-in and FF before I risk cracking up a brand new lepton...

I wish I could find someone local who I could fly with and get tips and advice from...

Anyway, nice to meet you all, from afar...

[bighands3d]

you can find a used Sim on one of the 3 sites. I would recomend a sim before damaging your new lepton. Sim will help alot more than you know.

Good luck with it. Take it slow.

[WillJames]

Chris is right. Now would be a great time to get a sim to start learning the stick inputs and the visual orientation skills.

[kgfly]

Get a sim!
Get a SIM!!
GET A SIM!!!

Megan you will save yourself a lot of cash and anguish if you get a sim. I have FMS, ClearView and Reflex/XTR. You will be able to learn so much for far less than it cost you to learn on your Blade or Lepton.

If you are short of cash now, get FMS (its free) or ClearView (USD$30)

FMS is fine for practicing orientation but the physics is not very realistic. Has the advantage of being free and will run on pretty much any PC with P3/900 or better and 16MB graphics card or better.

ClearView is fantastic value for $30, easily 80% to 90% as good as the $200 sims. Needs at least a P4/2GHz or better and a 64MB graphics card.

If you have the cash (~$200), get Reflex/XTR or G3. Choosing between them is pretty subjective, they are both good. They need pretty high end PCs and higher performance 128MB graphics cards, particularly G3.

If you are adventurous, you could get the new Phoenix sim which is targetted at XTR/G3 but only around $130 I think. It's brand new and I have not seen it in real life, but it could be good and you would be the cool chick with the newest sim in the world :wink:

What ever you choose, you will find a sim invaluable, lots of fun and the best fix you can get on a bad weather day.

Happy flying.

[kjfly]

Hello Meganbg!!

You got to get a sim - it is the only way to learn forward flight and side in hovers - without doing a lot of damage to your real heli.

My hubby mechanic (TJRIDE) and myself use the Reflex/XTR - it is the best, very realistic. Yes it will cost $200 but it is much less then what you would spend on fixing your Lepton each time you crashed. It really is worth it. Plus you will have it for during the winter months when you can't actually fly. We started with FMS but the graphics and how the helis handle on Reflex is SOOOO much better.
:thumbs-up2:

I am still tail in but I am moving around and flying 20-30 ft. in the air. I just lost my training gear on both my Swift and my TRex - it felt great!!!
:banana

Good luck.
kjfly
:glasses2:

[leslie]

Hi Meganbg,

Hello from not so far away! I'm in Hollis, NH. I fly a couple trex's, a shogun, a 3dpro, and a couple fp's (winter birds).

Where do you fly??

Cheers,
Leslie

[Rick Rotorhead]

XTR is great, not just for Helis either - for a light diversion from stick thrashing it has some fun planks and gliders too - reproducing heli flight charactaristics isn't always 100% on any sim (xtr has pretty lame autos, too easy), but plank flight is spot on. Hey, thats not to say the heli sims arn't good, they most definitely are good, but I find you have to ramp up the Time Expansion Factor a bit to get a realistic response rate, (try a TEF of 0.8 for a more realistic feel). Finally the photo realistic flying sites really make you feel that you're there. Also downloadable new models and sites are free!!!!

To be fair I have not tried G3 or others, but with XTR I don't need to........

[Jetgirl]

Hello Meganbg, welcome aboard.

I really dont' have much else to add. I agree, a sim is the best way to go. Research the sims and pick one that best fits your budget.

Again, Welcome aboard!

[meganbg]

Well, I finally completed construction of the Lepton EX on Sep 19th... I spent the next few days measuring and adjusting links and on friday the 21st, I spooled her up for the first time. She seemed so solid with no apparent vibration... and then she was light on the skids and I just had to press to takeoff.

She lifted off beautifully and I got her into a stable hover...

I had her translate left and right, out and back a few times and then brought her back in for a landing...

It was great...

There are still some adjustments to do, including getting the gyro/mixing settings in the transmitter setup properly and doing some link sizing. I'm hoping to talk with some more experienced people this weekend at the free helicopter fun-fly in Saugus...

[kjfly]

Congrats meganbg!!!

You'll have to take a pic and post it so we can see your new toy!!!

kjfly
:glasses2:

[sleddog7]

Hi Megan, I'm your neighbor in the next town over. PM if ya need help.

Mike

[meganbg]

Hi all... an update...

after lots of practice on sims (I have two now, Reflex XTR and RealFlight G3.5), I've
gotten to the point where I actually dared to try some simple FF, flying back and forth
with stops and turns. I also tried a real coordinated turn in FF and it worked.

After Jeremy from rchover helped me adjust the throttle and pitch curves for my
lepton, I've gotten Normal/Idleup1/Idleup2 all set... although I'm not daring enough
yet for 3D (even though I'm doing pretty well with rolls, loops and somersaults in
various directions along with inverted flight using the sims), I think I'm going to try some figure eights next time and maybe even nose-in hover (which I am also doing fairly well with the sim)

wish me luck...

[x5girl]

Hi all... an update...

after lots of practice on sims (I have two now, Reflex XTR and RealFlight G3.5), I've
gotten to the point where I actually dared to try some simple FF, flying back and forth
with stops and turns. I also tried a real coordinated turn in FF and it worked.

wish me luck...

Congrats! I find that with the sim work you do get more daring.
I wish you luck...I am pretty much at the same point in the learning curve as you in terms of forward flight and turns. My goal is to be able to do coordianted turns smoothly and without hesitation by the end of the summer :lol:

I think that I could be progressing faster if it weren't for the constant windy conditions here in the Northeast.

Good luck!