Radio Control Helicopters - 2008/05

Getting restarted in helicopters
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Helicopters Mark Fadely
Also included in this column:
• RealFlight G4 rocks!
• Flying a helicopter inverted
Below: The new G4 has digital trims, many
cool knobs and buttons, and incredible
graphics and aerodynamic physics.
Right: How Mark learned inverted flight on
the G4 simulator. 1: Fly nose in and gently
pull up as if you are starting a loop. 2: Let
the model climb and smoothly rise to the
top of the loop. 3: Relax the cyclic stick as
the model flattens in an inverted hover. 4:
Add negative collective to hold it and try
to hover as long as you can.
The author, circa 1971. He spent many summers flying balsa
airplanes in the fields behind his childhood home.
Bryan Regular, Canadian all-star pilot, rocks with his T-Rex 450. He
flew in his first Extreme Flight Championships in 2007 and earned
respect from fellow pilots. Watch him this year!
HELLO, EVERYONE! Good flying weather should have a smile
on everyone’s face by now. As I wrote last month, I just love the
spring. I love having the whole summer to look forward to.
When I was a young boy I would spend the cold winter months
building fleets of balsa airplanes. Then when the weather broke, I
would take all those models out for test flights. I can vividly
remember the warm evenings as the sun set and the air became
still. It was just the airplane and me.
The years passed, and balsa models became gas-powered CL
airplanes, then RC Pattern (Aerobatics) aircraft, and finally, for
the last decade, my lifelong hobby evolved to RC helicopters. One
thing has not changed, though; I still despise winter here in the
Midwest. We are lucky that there are so many opportunities to fly
indoors during the cold months nowadays.
May 2008 129
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130 MODEL AVIATION
What helicopter has 6 horsepower and does not burn fuel? This
Miniature Aircraft Ion-X2 (flown by Nick Maxwell).
Paul Soha puts the author’s model through its paces at the
Hoosier Heli Rumble in Lafayette IN in July 2007.
Keep those E-mails coming. I am getting a lot of good
information from readers. Thank you! It is enlightening to hear
what you have to say.
I want to share a great story with you. Tom Messer of Fresno,
California, wrote in about his experiences with getting started and
then restarted in helicopters. He wrote:
“I have just recently started getting back into helicopters ...
and when I say recently, it’s been about a week. I acquired a
Hirobo Sceadu in ’03 from my father who won it in a Fun Fly
raffle ... he was/is a rep for another company so he obviously
wasn’t going to build it. I paid him for the tickets he purchased
and got the model.
“I built it, put in an O.S. 50 (Hyper wasn’t out yet), GV-1, 401
gyro ... everything working perfectly. But, I only flew it maybe a
dozen flights. I had just bought a house, and could not afford to
buy parts should I crash it, so it just collected dust. I tried to sell it
with the radio with no success ...
“I have flown pattern for years off and on, and that’s really my
forte I guess. The last class I flew was FAI and did okay, though
my district has a lot of good fliers so my success was limited as
far as trophies go, but I had a lot of fun.
“I didn’t compete last year, just CDed one event, and helped
out with another (long couple days in the judging chair, fun
though) ... that was all due to change in jobs and not having a lot
of money. I decided to try IMAC, have a QQ 102” Yak and just
love it! Have most of what I need to put a 40% Radiocraft
together with a 3W 157...
“ ... the problem I have is a money one, but mostly I have a lot
of back problems and the big airplanes are really tough for me to
deal with. Which has led me back to helis. They are definitely a
challenge but much easier for me to deal with.
“I used to fly helis starting in the late eighties. I worked at a
couple of hobby shops when I was in high school, Sheldon’s and
Helicopter World (Century). I enjoyed it a lot and back then my
skills would have been considered advanced, but today ... damned
near rank amateur. Watching guys at events in person and on
videos these days just blows my mind. I cannot believe what even
the average guys are doing.
“Back in the day you had the Youngbloods, and the other reps
SCALE FLIGHT MODEL CO.
Repro Rubber Power Kits, Comet, Megow, Burd,
Scientific, Jasco, also available - Campbell,
Diels, Dumas, Florio Flyer, Guillow’s,
Golden Age Repro, Herr, Micro-X, Peck, Sig.
Send $2.00 for Model Airplane Catalog
Penn Valley Hobby Center
837-A W. Main St., Lansdale, PA 19446
www.pennvalleyhobbycenter.com
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