Inverted on the Deck: The Heli-Max MX450 prototype premiers at the 2005 E-Fest in
Champaign IL. This mini ARF is fully 3-D capable out of the box.
Total Control: Up-and-coming 10-year-old
Kyle Stacy puts in another breathtaking
flight with his T-Rex at E-Fest.
Please Handle With Care: These two
boxes contain the tools you need to
become a proficient helicopter pilot.
Customers often have to wait their turn for RealFlight and FS One simulators at
Hobbytown.
NOW THAT WINTER is upon us, it’s a
good time to reflect on the past year and
focus on what we want from our hobby in
the upcoming year. Everyone dives into the
hobby in a different way. Some people who
are new to the RC world get really excited
and let it become an obsession. Others have
been flying helicopters for decades and tend
to balance their time with other activities.
Many pilots fall somewhere in between.
One thing that all of them have in
common is enthusiasm. I mentioned last
month that more people than ever are giving
RC helicopters a try, and why not? It’s
never been easier or more affordable to get
started.
I was curious to find out more about the
RC helicopter market, so I paid a visit to my
local hobby shop. The shop is a Hobbytown
and Bill Scott owns it. He opened the shop
here in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1995 and
has expanded it to a 15,000-square-foot
megastore. He also has a satellite store on
the south side of Indy.
When I walked into the RC air
department I saw two operating flight
simulators. One was the RealFlight G3 and
the other was the new FS One from Hangar
9. It was midday on a Wednesday and both
of the simulators were in use. It’s nice that
shoppers can just walk up and start flying on
Cool Job: Hobbytown owner Bill Scott with the Blade CX, MX450,
and his popular RealFlight G3 simulator.
Bill regularly does in-store demos of the Blade CX. He takes his
fingers off the sticks to show how stable it is.
I wanted to find out how many
helicopters were being sold and what type.
Bill is an avid RC helicopter pilot and has
flown for the last 30 years.
“The growth in RC aviation, especially
the electrics, is phenomenal,” he told me.
Bill is selling an average of 30 electricpowered
helicopters per month! Wow!
That’s 360 new helicopters per year at just
one location.
“I have some airplanes and love ’em, but I
think I want to try helicopters too. What’s
the best way to get started?”
I hear that question all the time, and now,
with the invasion of the electric aircraft, it is
going to be easier than ever to answer.
Many pilots already have a simulator, and if
they do they have probably messed around
with a helicopter on it. That is, if none of
their airplane-flying friends are watching!
After all, you wouldn’t want to be known as
a “rotorhead,” would ya?
If you’ve given helicopters a go on the
simulator and you’ve gotten past the point
where you’re sure all helicopters are the
work of the devil, it might be time to make
that first helicopter purchase. There are
quite a few really good small electric
helicopters, and since most RCers have
some EP stuff the addition of a helicopter is
a minimal investment.
Some fantastic new EP helicopters on the
market are wonderful for beginners, and one
of the easiest to fly is the Blade CX. Bill
Scott shows the Blade’s inherent stability by
letting go of the transmitter sticks for
several seconds at a time and the Blade sits
and hovers on its own. That is amazing
since not too many years ago a pilot had to
be really good just to keep a helicopter in
the air at all.
The Blade CX is great for learning to
hover and flying basic circuits, but when a
pilot is ready to advance to the next level the
Blade CP (collective pitch) or the new Heli-
Max MX450 is a great choice. They can do
all the 3-D maneuvers such as inverted
flight, flips, funnels, tic-tocs, and almost any
other move you can think up.
If you’re making the transition from
airplanes to helicopters, follow the
guidelines I laid out for any helicopter
beginner. Even though you may be an
accomplished “plank pilot,” it is like starting
over when you pick up a helicopter for the
first time.
You will learn quickly that all your
airplane experience is helpful, but the
helicopter is a different animal. I can tell
you from experience that when you get to
the point where you can hover, it will be one
of the biggest thrills you’ve had in the
hobby.
A group of new helicopter pilots who are
buying these little electric-powered models
are eager to learn. With that in mind, I’m
going to touch on some points to keep in
mind if you’re getting started in helicopters.
Following is a checklist that will make your
learning go much faster.
1) Get a simulator. RC helicopters is a
fairly expensive hobby, and this will save
you a great deal in crash costs.
2) Find someone who flies—preferably
someone who is more advanced than you.
There is nothing like a real person to get
help from.
3) Read all you can about the hobby, but
beware of bad information on the Internet.
4) Practice, practice, practice.
5) Always be safe. Even though these
models are small, they have a big bite!
If you really want to succeed and
advance in your flying, it’s good to lay out a
plan to make it happen. Make a list of goals
you want to achieve.
When I started flying, I made a goal to
be flying inverted within a year. I didn’t
quite make it within a year, but it was
shortly after that.
I found it extremely helpful to keep a
flight log and record my progress. I am a
full-scale pilot, so I was used to using a
flight log. I’ve benefited from reading my
old logs and tracking my progress. It’s kind
of funny to look back and see what you
were struggling with in the past. I would
crash attempting maneuvers at 100 feet that
I now do at 5 feet.
There’s a metamorphosis going on in our
brain when we fly RC helicopters. We end
up reprogramming our minds so our flying
becomes second nature.
Sometimes, though, you feel like you’re
never going to learn that certain maneuver,
and it can get frustrating. That’s when it’s
nice to have a flying buddy to keep your
spirits up.
“I can hover and fly around, but now I want
to learn some 3-D. What helicopter should I
get and what maneuvers should I work on
first?”
This is a great question, and it takes me
back to one of the most exciting times in my
flying. The first biggest thrill in flying
helicopters is when you lift off into a
controlled hover without crashing. The next
big thrill, and maybe the most exciting point
in your progression, is when you hover
inverted for the first time.
When you flip the helicopter over and
can make it sit there inverted, it’s just—
well, pretty darned exciting to say the least!
Quite a few pilots will never make it to that
point, so when you do it’s like entering a
special club. The Invert Club!
The cool thing about this club is that it
opens up the foreign world of 3-D flight.
Flying 3-D means to explore the aircraft’s
entire flight envelope. Once you master
inverted flight, you have the basic elements
to proceed into full 3-D flight.
I’m a big believer in a regimented
training program while tracking your
progress. That’s where the flight log comes
in handy. Not every pilot is going to take
things this seriously, but if you want to
progress as fast as you can, this will make
a lot of sense.
Record every flight in your logbook.
Keep track of how many minutes the flight
was, what maneuvers you worked on, and
any maintenance issues. If you crash, write
that down too. Just don’t let your buddies
read the log! Ha!
Use a few pages in the front of the book
to list what maneuvers you want to work
on and then check them off as you master
them by writing the date beside each one.
At first you should master all orientations
of hovering upright and inverted. Pilots
usually skip this because they have so
much fun flipping and rolling all over the
place. That will be a mistake in the long
run.
As you progress, you’ll see someone do
a maneuver and you’ll think, “Wow, that
was cool; I’m gonna do that!” Then you
find out that you never learned inverted
hovering looking at the left side of the
helicopter, and you can’t do the move until
you learn that.
A great deal of what you see the top
pilots do is really variations of those basic
orientations. They just happen to be
moving fast or low while doing them. Even
a pirouetting flip is just many upright and
inverted hovering segments with a gentle
flip thrown in. It should be pretty easy
then, right? No!
I can’t stress learning those basics
enough. If you want to see how well any
pilot has them down, ask him or her to do
one upright pirouette done very slowly and
then inverted. You might be surprised by
what you see.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s
thoughts, and I will follow up on these in
the future.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/02
Page Numbers: 116,117,118
Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/02
Page Numbers: 116,117,118
Inverted on the Deck: The Heli-Max MX450 prototype premiers at the 2005 E-Fest in
Champaign IL. This mini ARF is fully 3-D capable out of the box.
Total Control: Up-and-coming 10-year-old
Kyle Stacy puts in another breathtaking
flight with his T-Rex at E-Fest.
Please Handle With Care: These two
boxes contain the tools you need to
become a proficient helicopter pilot.
Customers often have to wait their turn for RealFlight and FS One simulators at
Hobbytown.
NOW THAT WINTER is upon us, it’s a
good time to reflect on the past year and
focus on what we want from our hobby in
the upcoming year. Everyone dives into the
hobby in a different way. Some people who
are new to the RC world get really excited
and let it become an obsession. Others have
been flying helicopters for decades and tend
to balance their time with other activities.
Many pilots fall somewhere in between.
One thing that all of them have in
common is enthusiasm. I mentioned last
month that more people than ever are giving
RC helicopters a try, and why not? It’s
never been easier or more affordable to get
started.
I was curious to find out more about the
RC helicopter market, so I paid a visit to my
local hobby shop. The shop is a Hobbytown
and Bill Scott owns it. He opened the shop
here in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1995 and
has expanded it to a 15,000-square-foot
megastore. He also has a satellite store on
the south side of Indy.
When I walked into the RC air
department I saw two operating flight
simulators. One was the RealFlight G3 and
the other was the new FS One from Hangar
9. It was midday on a Wednesday and both
of the simulators were in use. It’s nice that
shoppers can just walk up and start flying on
Cool Job: Hobbytown owner Bill Scott with the Blade CX, MX450,
and his popular RealFlight G3 simulator.
Bill regularly does in-store demos of the Blade CX. He takes his
fingers off the sticks to show how stable it is.
I wanted to find out how many
helicopters were being sold and what type.
Bill is an avid RC helicopter pilot and has
flown for the last 30 years.
“The growth in RC aviation, especially
the electrics, is phenomenal,” he told me.
Bill is selling an average of 30 electricpowered
helicopters per month! Wow!
That’s 360 new helicopters per year at just
one location.
“I have some airplanes and love ’em, but I
think I want to try helicopters too. What’s
the best way to get started?”
I hear that question all the time, and now,
with the invasion of the electric aircraft, it is
going to be easier than ever to answer.
Many pilots already have a simulator, and if
they do they have probably messed around
with a helicopter on it. That is, if none of
their airplane-flying friends are watching!
After all, you wouldn’t want to be known as
a “rotorhead,” would ya?
If you’ve given helicopters a go on the
simulator and you’ve gotten past the point
where you’re sure all helicopters are the
work of the devil, it might be time to make
that first helicopter purchase. There are
quite a few really good small electric
helicopters, and since most RCers have
some EP stuff the addition of a helicopter is
a minimal investment.
Some fantastic new EP helicopters on the
market are wonderful for beginners, and one
of the easiest to fly is the Blade CX. Bill
Scott shows the Blade’s inherent stability by
letting go of the transmitter sticks for
several seconds at a time and the Blade sits
and hovers on its own. That is amazing
since not too many years ago a pilot had to
be really good just to keep a helicopter in
the air at all.
The Blade CX is great for learning to
hover and flying basic circuits, but when a
pilot is ready to advance to the next level the
Blade CP (collective pitch) or the new Heli-
Max MX450 is a great choice. They can do
all the 3-D maneuvers such as inverted
flight, flips, funnels, tic-tocs, and almost any
other move you can think up.
If you’re making the transition from
airplanes to helicopters, follow the
guidelines I laid out for any helicopter
beginner. Even though you may be an
accomplished “plank pilot,” it is like starting
over when you pick up a helicopter for the
first time.
You will learn quickly that all your
airplane experience is helpful, but the
helicopter is a different animal. I can tell
you from experience that when you get to
the point where you can hover, it will be one
of the biggest thrills you’ve had in the
hobby.
A group of new helicopter pilots who are
buying these little electric-powered models
are eager to learn. With that in mind, I’m
going to touch on some points to keep in
mind if you’re getting started in helicopters.
Following is a checklist that will make your
learning go much faster.
1) Get a simulator. RC helicopters is a
fairly expensive hobby, and this will save
you a great deal in crash costs.
2) Find someone who flies—preferably
someone who is more advanced than you.
There is nothing like a real person to get
help from.
3) Read all you can about the hobby, but
beware of bad information on the Internet.
4) Practice, practice, practice.
5) Always be safe. Even though these
models are small, they have a big bite!
If you really want to succeed and
advance in your flying, it’s good to lay out a
plan to make it happen. Make a list of goals
you want to achieve.
When I started flying, I made a goal to
be flying inverted within a year. I didn’t
quite make it within a year, but it was
shortly after that.
I found it extremely helpful to keep a
flight log and record my progress. I am a
full-scale pilot, so I was used to using a
flight log. I’ve benefited from reading my
old logs and tracking my progress. It’s kind
of funny to look back and see what you
were struggling with in the past. I would
crash attempting maneuvers at 100 feet that
I now do at 5 feet.
There’s a metamorphosis going on in our
brain when we fly RC helicopters. We end
up reprogramming our minds so our flying
becomes second nature.
Sometimes, though, you feel like you’re
never going to learn that certain maneuver,
and it can get frustrating. That’s when it’s
nice to have a flying buddy to keep your
spirits up.
“I can hover and fly around, but now I want
to learn some 3-D. What helicopter should I
get and what maneuvers should I work on
first?”
This is a great question, and it takes me
back to one of the most exciting times in my
flying. The first biggest thrill in flying
helicopters is when you lift off into a
controlled hover without crashing. The next
big thrill, and maybe the most exciting point
in your progression, is when you hover
inverted for the first time.
When you flip the helicopter over and
can make it sit there inverted, it’s just—
well, pretty darned exciting to say the least!
Quite a few pilots will never make it to that
point, so when you do it’s like entering a
special club. The Invert Club!
The cool thing about this club is that it
opens up the foreign world of 3-D flight.
Flying 3-D means to explore the aircraft’s
entire flight envelope. Once you master
inverted flight, you have the basic elements
to proceed into full 3-D flight.
I’m a big believer in a regimented
training program while tracking your
progress. That’s where the flight log comes
in handy. Not every pilot is going to take
things this seriously, but if you want to
progress as fast as you can, this will make
a lot of sense.
Record every flight in your logbook.
Keep track of how many minutes the flight
was, what maneuvers you worked on, and
any maintenance issues. If you crash, write
that down too. Just don’t let your buddies
read the log! Ha!
Use a few pages in the front of the book
to list what maneuvers you want to work
on and then check them off as you master
them by writing the date beside each one.
At first you should master all orientations
of hovering upright and inverted. Pilots
usually skip this because they have so
much fun flipping and rolling all over the
place. That will be a mistake in the long
run.
As you progress, you’ll see someone do
a maneuver and you’ll think, “Wow, that
was cool; I’m gonna do that!” Then you
find out that you never learned inverted
hovering looking at the left side of the
helicopter, and you can’t do the move until
you learn that.
A great deal of what you see the top
pilots do is really variations of those basic
orientations. They just happen to be
moving fast or low while doing them. Even
a pirouetting flip is just many upright and
inverted hovering segments with a gentle
flip thrown in. It should be pretty easy
then, right? No!
I can’t stress learning those basics
enough. If you want to see how well any
pilot has them down, ask him or her to do
one upright pirouette done very slowly and
then inverted. You might be surprised by
what you see.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s
thoughts, and I will follow up on these in
the future.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/02
Page Numbers: 116,117,118
Inverted on the Deck: The Heli-Max MX450 prototype premiers at the 2005 E-Fest in
Champaign IL. This mini ARF is fully 3-D capable out of the box.
Total Control: Up-and-coming 10-year-old
Kyle Stacy puts in another breathtaking
flight with his T-Rex at E-Fest.
Please Handle With Care: These two
boxes contain the tools you need to
become a proficient helicopter pilot.
Customers often have to wait their turn for RealFlight and FS One simulators at
Hobbytown.
NOW THAT WINTER is upon us, it’s a
good time to reflect on the past year and
focus on what we want from our hobby in
the upcoming year. Everyone dives into the
hobby in a different way. Some people who
are new to the RC world get really excited
and let it become an obsession. Others have
been flying helicopters for decades and tend
to balance their time with other activities.
Many pilots fall somewhere in between.
One thing that all of them have in
common is enthusiasm. I mentioned last
month that more people than ever are giving
RC helicopters a try, and why not? It’s
never been easier or more affordable to get
started.
I was curious to find out more about the
RC helicopter market, so I paid a visit to my
local hobby shop. The shop is a Hobbytown
and Bill Scott owns it. He opened the shop
here in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1995 and
has expanded it to a 15,000-square-foot
megastore. He also has a satellite store on
the south side of Indy.
When I walked into the RC air
department I saw two operating flight
simulators. One was the RealFlight G3 and
the other was the new FS One from Hangar
9. It was midday on a Wednesday and both
of the simulators were in use. It’s nice that
shoppers can just walk up and start flying on
Cool Job: Hobbytown owner Bill Scott with the Blade CX, MX450,
and his popular RealFlight G3 simulator.
Bill regularly does in-store demos of the Blade CX. He takes his
fingers off the sticks to show how stable it is.
I wanted to find out how many
helicopters were being sold and what type.
Bill is an avid RC helicopter pilot and has
flown for the last 30 years.
“The growth in RC aviation, especially
the electrics, is phenomenal,” he told me.
Bill is selling an average of 30 electricpowered
helicopters per month! Wow!
That’s 360 new helicopters per year at just
one location.
“I have some airplanes and love ’em, but I
think I want to try helicopters too. What’s
the best way to get started?”
I hear that question all the time, and now,
with the invasion of the electric aircraft, it is
going to be easier than ever to answer.
Many pilots already have a simulator, and if
they do they have probably messed around
with a helicopter on it. That is, if none of
their airplane-flying friends are watching!
After all, you wouldn’t want to be known as
a “rotorhead,” would ya?
If you’ve given helicopters a go on the
simulator and you’ve gotten past the point
where you’re sure all helicopters are the
work of the devil, it might be time to make
that first helicopter purchase. There are
quite a few really good small electric
helicopters, and since most RCers have
some EP stuff the addition of a helicopter is
a minimal investment.
Some fantastic new EP helicopters on the
market are wonderful for beginners, and one
of the easiest to fly is the Blade CX. Bill
Scott shows the Blade’s inherent stability by
letting go of the transmitter sticks for
several seconds at a time and the Blade sits
and hovers on its own. That is amazing
since not too many years ago a pilot had to
be really good just to keep a helicopter in
the air at all.
The Blade CX is great for learning to
hover and flying basic circuits, but when a
pilot is ready to advance to the next level the
Blade CP (collective pitch) or the new Heli-
Max MX450 is a great choice. They can do
all the 3-D maneuvers such as inverted
flight, flips, funnels, tic-tocs, and almost any
other move you can think up.
If you’re making the transition from
airplanes to helicopters, follow the
guidelines I laid out for any helicopter
beginner. Even though you may be an
accomplished “plank pilot,” it is like starting
over when you pick up a helicopter for the
first time.
You will learn quickly that all your
airplane experience is helpful, but the
helicopter is a different animal. I can tell
you from experience that when you get to
the point where you can hover, it will be one
of the biggest thrills you’ve had in the
hobby.
A group of new helicopter pilots who are
buying these little electric-powered models
are eager to learn. With that in mind, I’m
going to touch on some points to keep in
mind if you’re getting started in helicopters.
Following is a checklist that will make your
learning go much faster.
1) Get a simulator. RC helicopters is a
fairly expensive hobby, and this will save
you a great deal in crash costs.
2) Find someone who flies—preferably
someone who is more advanced than you.
There is nothing like a real person to get
help from.
3) Read all you can about the hobby, but
beware of bad information on the Internet.
4) Practice, practice, practice.
5) Always be safe. Even though these
models are small, they have a big bite!
If you really want to succeed and
advance in your flying, it’s good to lay out a
plan to make it happen. Make a list of goals
you want to achieve.
When I started flying, I made a goal to
be flying inverted within a year. I didn’t
quite make it within a year, but it was
shortly after that.
I found it extremely helpful to keep a
flight log and record my progress. I am a
full-scale pilot, so I was used to using a
flight log. I’ve benefited from reading my
old logs and tracking my progress. It’s kind
of funny to look back and see what you
were struggling with in the past. I would
crash attempting maneuvers at 100 feet that
I now do at 5 feet.
There’s a metamorphosis going on in our
brain when we fly RC helicopters. We end
up reprogramming our minds so our flying
becomes second nature.
Sometimes, though, you feel like you’re
never going to learn that certain maneuver,
and it can get frustrating. That’s when it’s
nice to have a flying buddy to keep your
spirits up.
“I can hover and fly around, but now I want
to learn some 3-D. What helicopter should I
get and what maneuvers should I work on
first?”
This is a great question, and it takes me
back to one of the most exciting times in my
flying. The first biggest thrill in flying
helicopters is when you lift off into a
controlled hover without crashing. The next
big thrill, and maybe the most exciting point
in your progression, is when you hover
inverted for the first time.
When you flip the helicopter over and
can make it sit there inverted, it’s just—
well, pretty darned exciting to say the least!
Quite a few pilots will never make it to that
point, so when you do it’s like entering a
special club. The Invert Club!
The cool thing about this club is that it
opens up the foreign world of 3-D flight.
Flying 3-D means to explore the aircraft’s
entire flight envelope. Once you master
inverted flight, you have the basic elements
to proceed into full 3-D flight.
I’m a big believer in a regimented
training program while tracking your
progress. That’s where the flight log comes
in handy. Not every pilot is going to take
things this seriously, but if you want to
progress as fast as you can, this will make
a lot of sense.
Record every flight in your logbook.
Keep track of how many minutes the flight
was, what maneuvers you worked on, and
any maintenance issues. If you crash, write
that down too. Just don’t let your buddies
read the log! Ha!
Use a few pages in the front of the book
to list what maneuvers you want to work
on and then check them off as you master
them by writing the date beside each one.
At first you should master all orientations
of hovering upright and inverted. Pilots
usually skip this because they have so
much fun flipping and rolling all over the
place. That will be a mistake in the long
run.
As you progress, you’ll see someone do
a maneuver and you’ll think, “Wow, that
was cool; I’m gonna do that!” Then you
find out that you never learned inverted
hovering looking at the left side of the
helicopter, and you can’t do the move until
you learn that.
A great deal of what you see the top
pilots do is really variations of those basic
orientations. They just happen to be
moving fast or low while doing them. Even
a pirouetting flip is just many upright and
inverted hovering segments with a gentle
flip thrown in. It should be pretty easy
then, right? No!
I can’t stress learning those basics
enough. If you want to see how well any
pilot has them down, ask him or her to do
one upright pirouette done very slowly and
then inverted. You might be surprised by
what you see.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s
thoughts, and I will follow up on these in
the future.