Crashfest 2010

[slagburn]

Tiring of rebuilding helis..

I have a couple 450's. One's pretty nice, the other a beater. Been flying for about a month after years of planks and some FP and coax time. I keep crashing.. a lot. Where I'm at is FF, all hovers (upright), loops, rolls and lots of flips. The beater takes all the wrecks and I fly the good one like a pansy, but today crashed both of 'em in a row. It's not mechanical or radio problems, no cop outs there. I get on the sim a lot and work on inverted hovers and such but have a mental block with that, so just go back to FF and flips. Flips are burning up the most parts.

Am I working on the wrong sort of progression here? Is there something else I should be doing first?

[Rªzª]

how good is your nose in (honestly)

does your ff flight include complete circuits and not what we call at the field "potato chips?" That would be where you ff to the right then make a left turn to turn around. Then fly to the left then make a right turn to turn around (i.e. never getting nose in or making a complete circuit)

if flips are a tad beyond your comfort zone (making you crash too much) then you should step back and work on all positive pitch for now. There's lots of sport things to work on that are still very challenging that don't require negative pitch. Backwards, funnels, stall turns, and pirouettes in place and while moving to name a few.

Take your time and don't rush and feel you need to stick bang when you go out to the field. No need to pansy it either. You should be in a place where you feel you can push the edge of your abilities, yet be confident you have enough control to handle any situation. If that means hover, then hover. The more you work on something (especially the really easy stuff), the less you'll ever have to think about it later, and you'll have a better foundation of skills you can use to learn new things with confidence.

[sarpilot]

how good is your nose in (honestly)

does your ff flight include complete circuits and not what we call at the field "potato chips?" That would be where you ff to the right then make a left turn to turn around. Then fly to the left then make a right turn to turn around (i.e. never getting nose in or making a complete circuit)

if flips are a tad beyond your comfort zone (making you crash too much) then you should step back and work on all positive pitch for now. There's lots of sport things to work on that are still very challenging that don't require negative pitch. Backwards, funnels, stall turns, and pirouettes in place and while moving to name a few.

Take your time and don't rush and feel you need to stick bang when you go out to the field. No need to pansy it either. You should be in a place where you feel you can push the edge of your abilities, yet be confident you have enough control to handle any situation. If that means hover, then hover. The more you work on something (especially the really easy stuff), the less you'll ever have to think about it later, and you'll have a better foundation of skills you can use to learn new things with confidence.

Man you remind me of me.....
FAA gold seal CFI since 95......

:noteworthy

[JadeBlade]

Yes, I am guilty of just "Potato Chips", but then again I fly a Blade SR. :(
I found out this week that adding a little up collective in the turns really gives me much more confidence which will allow me to just make complete oval "Circuits".

[JadeBlade]

Does it make sense to learn to fly slow and steady, practicing side hover and nose in hover in a relative smaller area of the field, than just progressing with fast FF wide circuits?

[Tomy.]

For what it's worth, I was mostly limited for learning in the park behind my house. I know some folks would 3D the heck out of their heli in such a small box, but when you first take off with your first CP heli, you'll be all over (I know I was). It either costs a lot of $$$ or lots of nerves to learn in a small place like that. I could not do much there but hover (all orientations) and slow flights around the box and slow 8's and FF to hover to BF to hover transitions. I figure it helped a lot by forcing me learn control. In fact first time I crashed, was my first time out on a baseball field and had no idea how to "handle" all that huge space and the heli got away before I could say whaddaheck.

[slamdance]

I am like most "new" rcheli pilots who have absolutely "zero" experience planking. From my "living room flying" experience I tend to want to fly low and tight. Compared to my "ex-planker" friends who like to fly big and wide, almost like they are flying an airplane. So, here's a video of my practice session. I hope you are inspired by the precision, instead of getting "bored" by the confinement. I have literally done this a few thousand times already. Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ5z2OSE9rA&hd=1