Rookie Flight Story

[OttoHobbies]

Hi all,

New to this forum and hobby. Been studying/researching/simming since July 2010 and just recently made a purchase of a T-Rex 600E. It's spent the last 4 weeks on the bench being assembled, tested, and setup. What a learning experience.

Anyways, last night was the first time I took it out, mainly as its first run up to get the throttle hold completely dialed in, check the tail gyro, and make sure everything worked fine. Well, that part went great. Checked the idle-up settings, full range of movement in the servos, tail moving in the right direction. All on the ground of course.

WELL! (and you had to see this coming). I got a little excited, and inadvertently raised the pitch stick just a little too much past center on pop comes the heli off the ground! :face

So before I knew it, I was 10 feet off the ground and caught off guard. Didn't panic though. Got the drift under control, stopped the climb, gathered my senses, and brought it back to land without incident. Phew!

All I can say is my hands were shaking for a few hours after and I am still recounting all the what ifs in my head. That could have been really embarrassing.

Anyways, it's all good and I probably learned a lot from that experience. I do want to give a big thumbs up to practicing on the simulator (which I have been doing since last summer), as that's the only thing that saved me from a pretty expensive wreck on my first ever flight. I'm not eager to repeat that performance.

Thanks for listening.

[froghammer]

Haha. Nothing like a pucker moment like that to make you feel alive, huh? And yeah, the sim is the key. Provided you're able to calm down and focus to save a heli from a tricky situation, the sheer repetition of practicing on a sim gives you a fighting chance.

[froghammer]

Oh, and you're in Iqualuit? You must be one dedicated guy because I don't even want to think of what replacement parts cost by the time they reach you.

The upside is that you probably get TONS of time practicing on the sim. Also, shouldn't you have the word "summer" in quotes? :lol:

(Kidding on the last one, of course...)

[kingair pilot]

Hi all,

New to this forum and hobby. Been studying/researching/simming since July 2010 and just recently made a purchase of a T-Rex 600E. It's spent the last 4 weeks on the bench being assembled, tested, and setup. What a learning experience.

Anyways, last night was the first time I took it out, mainly as its first run up to get the throttle hold completely dialed in, check the tail gyro, and make sure everything worked fine. Well, that part went great. Checked the idle-up settings, full range of movement in the servos, tail moving in the right direction. All on the ground of course.

WELL! (and you had to see this coming). I got a little excited, and inadvertently raised the pitch stick just a little too much past center on pop comes the heli off the ground! :face

So before I knew it, I was 10 feet off the ground and caught off guard. Didn't panic though. Got the drift under control, stopped the climb, gathered my senses, and brought it back to land without incident. Phew!

All I can say is my hands were shaking for a few hours after and I am still recounting all the what ifs in my head. That could have been really embarrassing.

Anyways, it's all good and I probably learned a lot from that experience. I do want to give a big thumbs up to practicing on the simulator (which I have been doing since last summer), as that's the only thing that saved me from a pretty expensive wreck on my first ever flight. I'm not eager to repeat that performance.

Thanks for listening.
Glad to hear all worked well. I read with great interest this story as this is my plan I figure a sim purchase here soon and alot of sim time. Then this is my problem I have no issue with building a trex 500 and I really understand how important and beneficial it would be to build this heli but, here I live I dont know of any other heli guy around for several hours drive time. It sure would be nice to build it then have experience look it over so I know it is at least set up correctly. Well I have a bit longer to read and learn

Cheers
Mike

[DKS_ONE]

Good to see the sim time paid off with some automated responses. :thumbup:

[OttoHobbies]

Oh, and you're in Iqaluit? You must be one dedicated guy because I don't even want to think of what replacement parts cost by the time they reach you.

The upside is that you probably get TONS of time practicing on the sim. Also, shouldn't you have the word "summer" in quotes? :lol:

(Kidding on the last one, of course...)

Yeah there is no local hobby shop (we do have a Radio Shack though) so I tend to do a lot of my ordering in bulk (and with places that offer free shipping!) Wait time is minimum 2-3 weeks for shipping so so far I tend to try to think in advance of what I will need.

Glad to hear all worked well. I read with great interest this story as this is my plan I figure a sim purchase here soon and alot of sim time. Then this is my problem I have no issue with building a trex 500 and I really understand how important and beneficial it would be to build this heli but, here I live I dont know of any other heli guy around for several hours drive time. It sure would be nice to build it then have experience look it over so I know it is at least set up correctly. Well I have a bit longer to read and learn

Cheers
Mike

Highly recommend a simulator. I bought it at the same time as the TX (Futaba T8FG-H) last summer so practicing could start well in advance of even buying my first heli.

Also, for lack of experienced people locally, I took the the internet to answer a lot of questions, and read a LOT of setup guides. Fortunately I bought used from an experience builder, so all I had to do was some list assembly of the disassembled bird, and figure out how to properly program the transmitter.

Good to see the sim time paid off with some automated responses. :thumbup:

Thanks! I can't wait for a good day to take the next flight.