Radio Control Helicopters - 2008/05
Getting restarted in helicopters
Mark Fadely [[email protected]]
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.
Keep those emails coming. I am getting a lot of good information from readers. Thank you! It is enlightening to hear what you have to say.
Reader story: Tom Messer
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 I did okay. 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; I just CDed one event and helped out with another (long couple days in the judging chair, fun though). That was all due to a change in jobs and not having a lot of money. I decided to try IMAC. I have a QQ 102" Yak and just love it! I 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... "
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
