My (totally) newbie experience (advice and opinions greatly appreciated!)

[kinch]

Hello,

I got an RC helicopter for my birthday about a month ago. Completely unexpectedly (I'd had no real interest in it before then). The model was a LAMA V4 co-axial electric model - it flew right out of the box. At first, I learned how to bunny hop, and then get it into hovers (this phase lasted about 2-3 weeks, and had lots of smashes because I didn't have the co-ordination to move left or right, only up and down, so when I drifted towards an obstacle, I paniced and just shut the engine down).

Now, I'm slightly better at keeping it hovering (about 1-3 feet off the ground) but I've noticed that a 'steady hover' is practically impossible - it's always swerving, rotating, tilting, entirely on its own, so I'm constantly pushing it back and forth trying to get it to stay within a radius of about 2 metres. Things got really weird (the motor was making crackling noises, and it was veering way off to one side as it started to lift (I call it crab-hopping)) so I took it back to the shop to be repaired. They had to replace the blades (that's about my 4th set already) the main shaft, the weight-thingy above the top blade, and all up it wasn't cheap. But the guy was testing it, and I watched him to check what is 'normal' and what isnt.

Honestly, I was impressed. This guy put it down in the store (between two shelves about 1m apart) started it up, it jumped right up to eye-height, and just hovered there barely moving. When I do it at home, it gets to knee height and constantly spins around, moves forward, etc etc. So clearly the guy had it working ok.

I took it home, and boom. Right back to spinning around. Wondering what the hell I was doing wrong, I took it outside, hoping that more space will make it easier. WRONG. The first thing that happened was it took off way too high and started drifting over the house. So I toned the engine down and landed (dropped) it on the roof. Great start. Then I got it up about 3 meters (all during this it was still swerving and spinning alot) and in trying to correct this, I rammed it into a tree. Even better.

Now, back inside, as soon as I take off, it spins and veers about 10 times worse than before the tree incident. I have no doubt that I've bent the shaft (or balance) and it's now uncontrollable. That will be another $50 to get it fixed, within 1 day of spending $50 to get it fixed. Awesome.

At the end of the day, I have to wonder. After one month, with a heli that I can't seem to control outdoors, that I always crash, that's costing me considerable money, that I can only barely keep in a hover about 2 feet off the ground, I have to wonder if maybe an rc heli just isn't for me. Should I funnel more money into this seemingly endless pit of frustration? Or should I realise that I simply don't have the skill, co-ordination, dexterity, or skill to make it work and should just abandon it now as a fun hobby that I enjoyed for a month, and be done with it?

Oh, and in case anyone's wondering, yes I have tried the PC simulator stuff. It didn't seem all that realistic to me (I only used the keyboard controls because I haven't bothered with the RC interface *yet*). For example.

PC: you take off, and the heli stays perfectly still, hovering exactly where it is.
Reality: you take off, the heli veers wildly from side to side, spins around, continues rising or sinks down to touch the ground and bounce off.
PC: a gentle veer and the heli veers and then stops, again hovering perfectly.
Reality: a gentle veer and you're heading towards a wall, height has plummeted, and the tail has spun around.

[apeman88]

First, the Lama 4 isn't meant for outdoors. Any bit of wind and it'll fly up so high you'll loose the bird. Co-axials are not like single axial helis... they are VERY different.

That being said, Co-axials are VERY easy to fly...I have 2 Lama 4's and use them for indoor flying when I can't go out. They are great little helis. Co-axials will auto self center after you let go of the controls (when adjusted correctly) while normal single axial WILL NOT. The Lama is almost crash proof... most that will happen are broken blades which cost $1 a piece to replace. If you are bending shafts and etc... you are crashing pretty hard. A few friends and I would get together in a warehouse and dog fight with the Lama 4 and they would crash into each other and very little damage will result.

Lama 4 are almost idential to Blade CX...a lot of the parts are interchangeable. The Lama 4 sells for $50 COMPLETE in HK and you can find them in the US for around $80 (http://www.raidentech.com/bles4colav4r.html) Might be cheaper to buy another Lama for spare parts. But check your blades first... Lama will fly okay with 1/3 a blade broken off (lower level). Top blades are used for balance and seems to more critical.

As for advice on what to do... it depends on what YOU want to do. Lama 4 will help you with orienting the TX controls... but that's about it. But orienting controls is a big part of learning how to fly single axial helis. If you decide to make the jump to single axial... keep in mind there will be another learning curve. If interested in single axial... I say you need to learn to fly your dual axial before making the leap to single.

Below is link to a vid of my Lama 4 flying in my office. Very smooth right out of the box... vid is of 2nd flight when new... and after at leat 20 crashes... and some fixing... still flies just as smooth.
http://ftp.cyberwu.com/public/ESky%20Lama%20V4/ESky%20Heli.mp4
(save file and play... in MP4... use Quicktime player)

Ken

[Jermo]

step 1: Invest in a simulator
step 2: Google Radd's school of rotary flight and follow it.
step 3: Save for a better quality/larger size chopper (translates into easier to learn on and more stable. The 400+ size is the smallest I'd even consider. I started with the Align T-Rex450XL... found plastic head parts to be expensive (time=money for me) eventually upgraded to an SE.)

[kinch]

Thank you for the replies.

apeman88, I watched the video you showed me. Very cool. I can't do anything even remotely close to that. Personally, I'd like to get a view of the controller for such a flight, so I can see how much controlling you're actually doing, and how. But I'm sure it wouldn't make me understand the controls, it's probably something you feel instinctively, am I right?

You mentioned "auto self centre" if you let go of the controls. Can you explain this to me? When I let go of the controls, it swerves into a wall, so I'm not quite following what you mean. Also, you said that they're very easy to fly, and almost crash proof... so the fact I've crashed so much and can't fly it means I completely suck as a pilot?

Jermo, I have a flight sim, hooked up to my tx. It doesn't work (properly). The throttle on the tx doesn't get sent through to the fms for some reason (everything else does, and diagnostics show the throttle control being detected just fine on the computer, but I need to use the keyboard for the throttle, which means I'm trying to one-hand the tx). That aside though, the pc heli behaves absolutely nothing like a real world heli. Or at least, my real world heli :(

Also I have read the first few chapters of Radd's school of flight, and to be honest, I have difficulty understanding what he's aiming for, and what he's talking about. He uses terms that I'm completely unfamiliar with, and it seems to be geared towards single bladed machines. I'll give it another go, but I have no idea if I'm doing anything the way I'm supposed to or not.

Thanks for the assistance.

[istandalone]

i too vote for radd's school of rot flight. radd's and helifreak are the two most helpfull sites out there imho. i prolly should have gotten a co-axial heli for starters but i bought an axe cp instead- i didn't want to learn the coaxial and then have to pony up another $200 for a single axial and have to learn again. once you start hovering in control, soon after it'll be like second nature. my advise (and i'm a newbie too!!) is to just fly, fly, and fly more. sim time is good, but nothing can compair to real stick time.

[JasonJ]

Radds works very well. I am to the point where I am tail and both sides in and I catch myself daydreaming while hovering side in. I am gearing up for the next phase of Radds, the short forward flights while the side of the heli is facing me, then the lazy fig 8s. My noobness is still dramatic and evident, but Radds has cut my learning curve down to size...

My little coax really helped a lot, because I could go out in the garage, or down in the basement when the wind was too high to fly it or the Falcon outside.

And yes, your helicopter should be well trimmed so you are not having to fight the thing while learning. You are supposed to be controlling the helicopter, not chasing erratic flight characteristics. I spent several battery packs working the kinks out and trimming and adjusting my Falcon 3D so I can let go of the sticks and it will hover in place for a few seconds before drifting off slowly wherever. It will never be a solid as a Trex, but I have it set well enough where it is hovering better than my little coax. I had thought that you were supposed to be stirring the sticks constantly to just hold a hover. I have since learned that a heli that is well trimmed only needs minor correction, not huge stick throws just to keep the thing from slamming into a wall, or fence, or tree...

[kinch]

Well, apart from the fact that I barely understood any of the terminology that was just used (and in Radd's tute as well) clearly I have a lot more to learn. Indeed, it seems I have to learn how to tweak my heli, which I assume will be a very steep learning curve as I figure out what modifying all the dials does to controlability... Is there a rc dictionary around that will explain everything I dont understand and all the terminology?