First Heli Flight In 29 Years

[Jetpainter]

I put my first stick time in on a RC heli today in 29 years. I bought a T-Rex 550e V1 a while back and finally had it off the ground today. I had a friend at the field check it out and do a test flight, then I ran two batteries through it hovering.



The first few things I noticed were, it's easier to keep the real 550 in one spot then it is on the sim, and it's so much easier than the Mini Boy I had years ago I can't even believe it. I had several guys tell me how stable the 550 was and now I get it. I am so glad I went that direction. The AR7200bx controller setup is pretty easy and I spent a fair amount of time with a pitch gauge getting the tracking as close as I could and it turned out to be perfect. The only tweaking we had to do was a turn and a half on the tail rotor push rod ball link and a little adjusting on the gain and it flew great.



Having some experienced help to check everything over and do the test flight was huge. Now I have to put in some stick time and see if I can transfer some of my sim skills into real flying skills. I've got tons to learn, but I think I'm already hooked.

 

[Bunky.F.Knuckle]

Welcome to the dark side!! 550 is a.good size for a beginner. I was flying 550s a long time back, well, early 2000s. Jumped from it to several 600 sized machines. Now I have just the lone 700. Airplanes is where its at for me. Heli is something I fly when I dont feel like getting the 35% out.

 

[Jetpainter]

Bunky F. Knuckle;16010 wrote: Welcome to the dark side!! 550 is a.good size for a beginner. I was flying 550s a long time back, well, early 2000s. Jumped from it to several 600 sized machines. Now I have just the lone 700. Airplanes is where its at for me. Heli is something I fly when I dont feel like getting the 35% out.

There are three heli guys at our field that I trust. Before I bought one I talked to each of them separately and 550 sized was pretty much the consensus. I had already been looking and was thinking about a new 450 until I looked at one at the field and decided I just wanted something bigger. So, after talking to those guys I started searching the classifieds and bought the one I did. I've been very happy with that choice.



There are guys at the field that say a 550 is way to big for a beginner, but none of them can "really" fly a heli and have never trained anyone to fly one. I mentioned in my first post that having experienced help was great. I'm pretty picky about the guys I take advice from. You can normally tell if a guy knows his stuff or is just a BSer.



Airplanes will always be my thing, but the challenge of learning something new is what drew me back to a heli.

 

[Bunky.F.Knuckle]

Ask those guys that you fly with (the nay sayers), if they have ever tried flying a 300 or 450 in 10 mph winds? Ask them how it handled it.



The larger machines handle the wind much better. You are off on the right foot. Listen to your "expert" at your local field, he wouldn't steer you wrong.

 

[quadracer]

I agree on the bigger birds being easier. I bought an MCPX to play around with, and a little while later picked up a Compass 6HV. It was SO much easier to fly than the MCPX. It died a couple of horrible dumb-thumb deaths in a year or so, and I sold it. I'll have another heli before too long though.

 

[Jetpainter]

I put some more stick time in on my 550 Saturday. It was a little windy for the first two flights, so I just hovered tail in to get used to the effects of the wind. Maintaining my location was relatively easy, but it took a bit to get a handle on the altitude changes. I guess with the FBL controller adjusting the cyclic to maintain position your going to get altitude changes.



By the third flight the wind had died so I did some tail in figure eights and circles and some side on hovering pointed both directions. I restrained myself from turning nose in only because I promised myself I would take it slow and it was only my 5th flight with a heli in decades.