Simulator to real life transition.

[schwarztrader]

Ok, I have a delema that I'm sure someone has had before and could shed some light for me. I have just put together my first heli (trex 500) and I can hover it like nobody's business. I have been putting in a lot of hours on the simulator (can perform backwards inverted figure eights) although I am having trouble translating my simulator skills to "real-life" skills. How did you make the transition or did you just take the plunge and everything worked out? I know this is just a mental thing (maybe i'm just apprehensive that the "reset" button on the real-life scenerio is expensive).

[TheBum]

You just need stick time, even if it means crashing early and often. With each crash, you'll figure out something else to avoid and before long you will have developed the reflexes to avoid most everything...at least until you start learning the next maneuver. The biggest mental hurdle to get over is to accept the fact that you're likely to crash and don't let it rattle you when it happens.

Also, don't be afraid of getting some altitude. In my experience, falls from high altitude aren't any worse than low altitude crashes and the high altitude ones tend to be less damaging because you have time to hit throttle hold. With low altitude crashes, oftentimes you end up hitting the ground with power still applied to the blades, and that's what tends to cause the bad damage.

[HFG]

No reset button in real life, the pucker factor comes into play in real life. Remember the sim only teaches you muscle memory, the feel of the heli will only come from stick time on the real thing. I see this all the time so don't think iam picking on you but there is a difference between doing a trick and being able to do the trick. A test of if you can really do something or are just cheating is being able to

- Speed it up or slow it down at will
- Control how much space the trick takes up
- Control where the trick moves in the sky

Keep up the work tho, you just can't replacing real stick time with sim time. Personally i don't do anything in real life until i can do it blindfolded on the sim so when i finally build up the nerve to do it in real life it only takes a few packs to get it to look like what its suppose to and then another 10s of packs to make it look good :) Eventually you will get to the point of "screw it, iam just gunna do it regardless of the consequences" :)