Last Saturday Harold mentioned that he'd be back at the airfield today (Wed.) from 9am until around 2pm or so, and I was welcome to come out if I wanted to get some more flying in. Of course, that was right in the middle of what is normally my sleep period. Since it takes about 45 mins to get to Tortuguero, I could basically only get three or four hours of sleep if I decided to go. The question then was, just how much do I want to fly my helicopter? :) After discussing it with a friend or two last night, we agreed that the smartest option was to sit it out and just wait to go back this Saturday.
So this morning I headed out there around 10 or so. He was there with about three other students, two of which had just finished assembling their helicopters and were doing their first flights today. After they all flew once, I got to go up. All the more advanced pilots seemed to be surprised that this was only my sixth flight total, which I guess is pretty cool. I actually did my first transition to forward flight that time, and landed twice before the fuel was out. On my next flight, he taught me the next step: making turns by banking the helicopter while in forward flight, rather than using the tail rotor to simply spin it around. This stuff is decently advanced — not stuff I expected to be doing after just a week or two. At least, I got to the point where I merited his "don't be tempted to try flying on your own at home now" speech.
Hehe, I think the main reason he kept moving me forward into newer, more advanced things had nothing to do with my facility at grasping new maneuvers though. While my hovering has definitely improved, I definitely wouldn't say I have "mastered" hovering yet, much less forward flight. I think Harold basically wanted to show off for his new students, to show them that he was right when he told them how simple learning to fly a helicopter was :) But one way or another, he said that he expects I'll be flying solo in two weeks or so, which is cool to hear. I dunno how realistic that prediction would be if I only got the two or three flights per weekend that I've been getting lately, but I think with the sizeable amount of time I spend on the simulator as well, it's definitely possible.
I can't wait to get to that point, because once I'm freed from waiting for my turn on the end of Harold's trainer cord, I can definitely get more than just a few flights in per day. I'm normally out there from around 1pm-6pm on Saturdays, which leaves time for lots of flying.
Also, once I become a member of the flying club, I'll get a set of keys to the airfield, so I can go out there anytime I want. That's good, because while flying in a basketball court or field is certainly feasible once I get better control of the machine, they brought up a good point. Flying in places like that tends to draw a curious crowd, and it's really difficult to keep them from doing stupid things. The guys at the airfield told me about times they've flown in baseball fields and stuff and they'd have kids running up to the helicopter as soon as it lands, while the rotors are still spinning, despite their loud suggestions to the contrary. They advised that if I ever fly somewhere like that, I make sure I've got somebody there with me to handle the inevitable onlookers. Good advice.
Posted by Jenn 4 hours, 12 minutes later
I don't understand. How can you fly in a basketball court. And why would you? I doubt it would fit through the doors...
Posted by Dan 17 minutes later
You know I'm talking about model helicopters, right? Not full-scale :)
Well, I was thinking an outdoor basketball court like the one right down the street from my house. Because the simple design of a 2-cycle engine uses oil mixed in with the fuel, these nitro-powered 2-cycle engines give off lots of smoke, as you can see in the pictures, so they're not ideal for use indoors. There is a whole line of electric-powered helis which tend to be smaller, and are thus ideal for use in smaller, more confined settings. Hell, there's even ones small enough to fly in your living room. Eventually I might want to get one of those too, but for now, the nearby basketball court is as close as I'll get to home.
During the aforementioned "don't be tempted to fly it at home" speech, Harold told me about how one of the other guys, Ojeda, used to take his helicopter up to his roof in his neighborhood and practice flying from there. This is what they refer to as a Bad Idea, ESPECIALLY when learning. Apparently he crashed it like five or six times before he finally learned to keep it at the airfield. He took out a palm tree one time, a mailbox another. I dunno how he managed to avoid hitting a car or getting it caught in power lines. But anyway, a basketball field is plenty big enough once you know how to control the helicopter. :)
Posted by Jenn 3 minutes later
You have to have lessons to fly model helicopters? And a key to the airfield? And a fly license? And "solo flights" in two weeks? So confused.
PS. Join facebook.
Posted by Dan 21 minutes later
Yeah, they're free lessons, but it's definitely very strongly recommended to get an experienced RC pilot to teach you. Flying a model helicopter is not much easier than flying a real one. In fact, it presents some complications not present with a real one, like control inversion when the model is flying towards you — left then moves the helicopter to your right, and right moves it left. In a real helicopter, you're always sitting inside it, so left is always left :) Not to mention the fact that RC helicopters can fly upside-down, where up becomes down as well.
As far as a "solo flight", yeah, it's not quite as huge an event as your first solo flight in a real aircraft :) The normal method of learning to fly a model airplane or helicopter is to use a trainer cord, which connects your radio to your instructor's. That way if you get in trouble, he can simply push a button and take control of the model and set things right. A "solo flight" is when you first fly the model yourself, without him wired up and ready to take over if you mess up.
Facebook, eh? I've been finding myself assaulted from all sides by that lately :) I might have to succumb and try it out, hehe.
Posted by Dan 4 days, 21 hours later
Here's a webpage that explains why learning to fly a helicopter is so difficult :) Quote: