Conference vmszoo::rc

    I figure this note being called 'RAMBLINGS' is a good place for
    this story as it rambles!
    
    For those who have been around for a while I hope you find this
    amusing and don't beat up the network to send me advice - I learnt
    a hell of a lot!
    
    For those new to the sport please, please, please learn from my
    mistakes - I certainly intend to.
    
    The backround is that I have just built a chopper ( Kalt Cyclone)
    and had my first flight last Sunday.
    
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    Well it had to happen - I broke my chopper!

Having had my first flight on Sunday and a couple of successful little
hops and hovers on Wednesday I was all excited to get in some more
practise. Soooo ... after work yesterday I put the chopper and toolbox
into the car and headed for the flying field.

I was a little disappointed to find nobody there when I arrived as it      
is a good idea to have some 'experts' on hand but never mind I thought to
myself ... I've done this before and I now have the chance to practise 
without making a fool of myself ... surely I can't get into trouble - 
I've been OK up till now!

I fueled up, went to switch on and found that somehow I had left the
receiver switched on from the night before ... flat battery and both
my spares were at home 9 miles away. I might add that it takes only 15
minutes to drive there but it takes 10 minutes to carry the gear from the
car to the flight area as we are not allowed to drive across the field!

I sat down and had a cigarette while I quietly cursed myself for being so
stupid. 

OK I said ... give it up for tonight ... it looks as if it may rain a 
little anyway. THE HELL I WILL - I CAME HERE TO FLY AND FLY I WILL said
this little voice. I should have ignored it!

I carried all the gear over to the car, packed it away, drove home, got
the spare batteries, drove back, unpacked the car carried the gear across
the field and set up again.

There was still nobody else there ... never mind.

Everything fired up OK and I carried the chopper over to the strip.

Right ... all I am going to do is some gentle bunny hops along the strip,
carry it back and do the same again until I have used a couple of tanksfull
of fuel.

Check all controls are working OK .. yup.

Stand behind and to right of chopper - feed in some throttle/collective
- blades begin to blur - quick check that I have some forward cyclic 
trim on the TX ... yup.

( Sam set this up for me yesterday so that all I have to do is ease up 
the throttle/collective ( t/c ) until it is about to lift off, ease in 
a bit of aft cyclic to get it in the air, let it run forward a few feet 
at about a foot or two off the ground and ease back the t/c to put it 
back on the ground .. not forgetting to use a bit of rudder to keep it
straight. It all worked OK yesterday and I did some good long hops )

Anyway .. away I go.

Not so smooth as yesterday and I seem to be having some trouble keeping
the nose in a straight line - in fact I do a few 180's to 270's but do
not panic.

Make half a dozen hops ... not too pleased with myself! I even get off the
15 foot wide strip and have to hop it sideways to get back on. Even have
to pick it up a couple of times and carry it back.

Been at this for about 10 minutes now and put it down a bit heavily when
it starts to get away from me a bit. Damn - I've broken one of my sissy
sticks. Take them off and try again - after all I have not had such a bad
landing that I have needed them yet.

Another hop ... it is a bit lighter now and goes a bit higher and farther
than I expected ... Oh well one more go and I will call it a day as I am
getting bothered by the bugs around my neck and a few drops of rain have
started falling.

Here goes ... yep it is up and OWMEGOD!!!

Before I knew what was happening it was up to 15 feet high and travelling
forward at some speed ... GULP ... DON'T PANIC.

The rest of the flight seems to take only a couple of seconds but must have
been at least half a minute.

While I am furiously trying to stay calm and only ease the controls so that
it does not pile up ( I am seriously worried about this as it is moving 
fast! and I realise that ANY sudden move now will dump it! ) the chopper
seems to have decided it is going to circuit the field.

It leaves the strip and starts a nice gentle climb and bank to left.

Gee this chopper does not need me to fly it does it better on it's own!

My G*D doesn't it look great and it fly's real well 



     ........... HEY YOU SOB STOP ADMIRING IT AND FIGURE HOW TO GET IT BACK!


My priorities are now to keep it in the air while I coax it to obey my fast
overheating braincells.

Next priority is to keep it in the field - we don't want it to hit someone
or something outside do we - this would not do the club a lot of good -
even if I am insured!

Somehow I have got it in a tighter left bank ( Gee just look how the tail
follows the fuzz ... STOP ADMIRING IT!!! ... GET IT DOWN! )

It is now 100 yards away about 25 feet up and I have a brain storm.


     ....... YOU AIN'T GOING TO GET THIS DOWN IN ONE PIECE

   ...... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO DO YOU?
                                           
                                           
 ..... WHY DID YOU EVER DO THIS ON YOUR OWN 
                                           
.... IF ONE OF THE OTHER GUYS WERE HERE HE WOULD HAVE HAD PLENTY OF TIME
TO TAKE OVER AND LAND IT                   

Admit it Brian - you don't know how you have managed to keep it up there
do you - it must be that you haven't done anything at all - it is just
flying itself - no that's not true but I can't get it down.

Deep breath .... you are going to have to get it on the ground before 
it really does run away and hurt someone.

I STILL DO NOT KNOW WHAT I DID ... I tried to ease back the cyclic and stop
it going forward but I think (?????) I pulled back both sticks.

THUMP 

SILENCE

I DID NOT EVEN LOOK AT IT WHEN IT HIT!

What an assh**e!










Well what are you going to do?

Keep calm, walk back to the toolbox, switch off the TX, put it down,
walk slowly across the other side of the field.

Well there it is .... one rotor blade ripped off the root strengthening
plate .. the boom ( it is carbon fibre - you can see the fibres! ) 
broken in front of and behind the stab .. where is the stab? .. it's
with the fin - both are in several pieces scattered around the ground
( couldn't find all the pieces - the grass is only 6" high but some bits
have completely vanished! ) ... the flybar is bent both sides of the 
head .. the other rotor blade has a little nick in it and the tail rotors
have little nicks in them where they must have been pushed into the hub.

It was tempting fate to buy those spare blades and boom!

Oh well .. switch off the RX .. that's funny the gyro must have been switched
off by the impact  .....    OH NO! did I not switch on the gyro before
flying?  .. yup you forgot! so that's why it was twitchy on the rudder!
       
Carry the pieces over to the TX area and sit and stare moodily at them while
I have a smoke and curse myself some more.

That's it folks. You can guess how I feel about all this.

Take it all home take the broken bits off ( jeeze - was it only one hour
from arriving at the field ( the second time ) to arriving back home? -
it seems like days! ) and see if I can straighten the flybar .. yup it 
takes a lot of tweaking and checking against a straight edge but it looks
good.

That means I only have to buy a stab and fin - I already have the rotor blades
and boom ( isn't that lucky!!! ).
   
Leave it all on the table and eat a Chinese take-away while I try to relax
in front of the TV ( a few glasses of wine help ).

Just to round off the evening when my landlord gets home he proceeds to
tell me what I should have done ( he has read Dave Day's book so is an 
expert on flying choppers! ) ... I know I am STUPID but I do not need this!

I go for a long slow walk around the neighbourhood and when I get back at
12.30 he has gone to bed.

Seems like a good idea to me .... goodnight world  

                                                                
   .............. I wonder if big G is trying to tell me something?


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
   
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            /   \              Bye for now, Brian
          ---------         
                            

    
    Don't need to be a helicopter expert to answer this one.
    Tell him to get a good instructor and do what the instructor
    tells him to do.
    
    A novice attempting to bring a chopper straight up without
    proper trims (or even with proper trims) and no instructor
    will guarantee a major repair job, possible injury, and
    probably a quick exit from the hobby.
    
    Bill
    

    SOUNDS TO ME THIS HOBBY SHOP OWNER IS TRYING TO CREATE AN INCREASE
    IN PARTS SALES.
    

    I hope that this reply isn't too late, but I have been out of town
    and am just catching up on notes.  The hobby shop owner should be
    shot and his cremated remains flown out to sea in a chopper.  

    #1.  You cannot land without going into a hover first, so even if
    	 a person were able to get the heli into the air, it would be
    	 unlikely that it would get down in one piece.
    #2.  If you learn to hover and keep it nose out, within a 5 foot
    	 circle, and keep the altitude somewhat level within about	
    	 a foot off the ground, it will be not only quite an accomplishment
    	 but then you will have somewhat a feel for how the helicopter
    	 will respond.  All this, near the ground where a mishap will
    	 not be a major disaster.  
    
    #3.  Unless the helicopter is trimmed by an instructor, (or the	
    	 new pilot, if an instructor is not available) forward flight
    	 would be a matter of pure luck.  Everyone that I know that
    	 flies choppers do the trim in a very low hover.  The reason
    	 is that you cannot just take hands off from a chopper to set
    	 the trims up.  
    
    This is not intended to discourage you from going into helicopters.
    They are a very rewarding part of the hobby if done right. If they
    are done wrong, it is probably as frustrating a part of the hobby
    as you can attempt, and you would likely give up before you got
    started.
    
    Good luck and ask questions if we can help.
    
		________
	 /	  __|__  
	=========[_____\>
	/	__|___|__/  BREAK A BLADE,
			    Ken    	

    I think I remember reading this topic before. This is in reference
    to "getting the chopper up in the air in order to learn how to fly".
    If I'm not correct.  One hint would be to ask your hobby dealer
    to demonstrate his/her proficiency?? 
    
    SOAPBOX.......	GOD!!!!!!!!!!!! some of these assholes that
    run/work in hobby stores. It's a wonder that this hobby survives
    in lue of all of the bad advise. It would be nice if there was a
    responsible approval program from AMA or another organization that
    could test hobby dealers abilities and put a sticker in their windor.
    I have heard many times one of the local dealers selling choppers
    electric and sport planes to newcommers and overstating the equipments
    abilities or it's function. This particular guy runs cars one. Had
    a plane and sold it. Flying was to hard. But to listen to him talk
    he must have won every contest there is to win and taught Ernie
    Uber how to fly choppers..................
    
    Kind of makes you want to Puke............
    
    Soapbox OFF
    
    
    Now I agree with Ken. Hollow the dealers advise and you better have
    plenty of money and time.
    
    1) Buy a 28 sized ship with collective pitch.
    2) Find someone that is proficieny in hovering and flying and is
    on his/her third or more chopper. Chances are they by then will
    know how to set a new chopper up.
    3) Learn to hover tail in at about 10 inches. If you can hover there
    you can hover at 5 ft,10ft whatever.
    4) Get out a minimum of two times a week.
    
    
    		GOOD LUCK
    
    						Tom
    

    
    
    	Tom,
    		Ever think of making your own??? I made two
    	sets for my Shuttle, cost was 4 @ $.79 for the whiffle
    	balls, $1.00 for two 3/8" x 3ft wood dowels, and $1.69
    	for a Radio Shack rubber grommet pack . They still haven't
    	worn out. used tie wraps and a glue gun to build it, and
    	tie wraps to fasten. Stays centered and has never broken,
    	even on a few tail boom strikes(when we were learning). You
    	have been around a while so I don't know if this info is not
    	known to you yet. Our club has used tons of these homemades
    	before with good sucess. This was before GMP made things
    	easier by producing a kit.
    
    					Carl