Tips Of The Trade For Flying The BeltCP

[helihathnofury]

I have noticed how we all talk about handy hints on repairing the Belt, replacing with upgraded parts and what parts to use, how to set it up, how to set up Transmitters, how we are progressing,etc, but we don't talk about how we actually fly the thing. Now I know there are umpteen forms of the Belt in its various modded states, and we use many kinds of TX's, but there must be common trends in how to do various things with it. Maybe we could start this thread with comments from you guys in how you fly the Belt, from basics to even the advanced 3D stuff. Could be hints about progressing from the hover, sideways hover and forward facing. What to look out for, what not to do. Aids to doing this, tips about what bit of the copter to watch, any rule of thumb you use. Hopefully we could all benefit from this.
Gentlemen, from newb to ace, over to you...........................

[mfbs17]

Your are quite right and I hope some one will open a new thread for thoes who just start the hobby, it will be a grate help for us.:hug:

[Ian 777]

Progresssive...Step by step

Hop.... Hover....Tail in Angled..... Side on.... Acute angled... nose in...

Side to side.... Turn the nose in the direction of travel a little more each time... Figure 8's turning away from you... Figure 8's turning toward you.... Circuits in front of you....
stall turns.......

That's as far as Iv'e got though I'm still weak on nose in hover TBH.

Also recovery tecniques:

If you start to lose it, get the tail in.... If your'e low gain height.

We crash usually because we get disorientated and lose the mental image of what to do next.

If you learn progressivly your only ever one step away from where you lost it mentaly:lol:

Finally back it all up with plenty sim practice, especially precision hovering but mirroring what your doing on the real thing.

All the best Ian:)

[mnwizard]

My first rule for myself is - have enough space. I can't "save it" if I don't have room to manuever. (Witness the parts scattered around on the garage floor :) )

Like Ian mentioned, I always try to have a "bail-out" in mind. With me it's pretty much always - get the tail in and go up.

[DierWolf]

Getting the tail in towards you is not always the best thing to do..

For instance... Heli is side on and banking too much to either the right or left and you panic...

Not correcting first the Cyclic and Elevator to level the bird as much as possible and simply just turning the tail towards you would lead to either a nose Down or Up attitude and you'll be in a MUCH MUCH worse place than you started with.

Always first try to level the bird then fix the tail..... This is where HeadLock gyro's screw you over big time!!! which is why i fly in Rate mode...

[helihathnofury]

That is a very good tip, Wolfie, cheers.

[Jonnyheli]

Yep, deffinatly get a big flying space. Or if you don't have one because you are learning to hover then find a place for future reference otherwise you will end up like me. I can hover and do side in forward flight but I am limited of how high I can go and how far I can go because I am in a garden.

This is assuming you already have a good setup. Otherwise it might not be so easy to fly.

But, if its your first helicopter and you are just learning to hover it then it doesn't really matter, but when you can hover for a full battery I would suggest finding a bigger space. Oh and get training gear it's a must!

Flight simulator:

Some people are really good pilots which haven't used simulators BUT having a flight sim really does help you get a good idea of how to use the stick inputs and when you try it in real life it will be very simular. Once I could hover the belt cp I tried a side in hover and I could do it easily because I had previously learnt the stick inputs and also, because I could hover I knew how to adjust to the wind. So yea flight simulators help. And if you get really good you can practise 3d manuevers on the sim and then go try them out in real life:D

So a few steps:

1. Get training gear.
2. Start hovering, if you feel like you are going to crash and you don't know what to do just try and land it. (If you are near an object and you don't thin you can move away from it, land the heli and bring it back where there are no objects)
3. Repeat step 2. until you can hover for about 30 seconds.
4. Once you can hover for about 30 seconds its just a matter of days untill that turns in a five minute hover.

Forward Flight:

This is where the simulator helps and a big space.

1. Get the helicopter at a stable hover then rudder it around so the left side of the helicopter is facing you. Do the same for the right.
2. The helicopter is facing you side on. Tilt the nose forward a little bit and you will have moved forward. Rudder the other way and do the same. Sounds easy but you will be still correcting the cyclic at the same time and even the rudder.
3. Repeat step 2. but move forward a further distance each time.

That is how to do forward flights in figure 8's hope this helps :S

PS. You can skip stage one of forward flight if you feel confident about the stick inputs. I didn't really learn to keep a hover side in. I just turned it sideways and moved forward. But I did have expereince with the SIM!

-Jonny