helis

after i decided to make the millions in may the full gig i removed the helis in the basement restriction. during the day when turing has his nap i tinker with my new heli and try to get it flight ready for when janel gets home. lately there has been zero wind, a bit wet, but zero wind. this means that i can go to the park across the street for heli mania. woo.

the lama.. big area with zero wind equals lots of fun.. until.. you get the thing moving at all and it just does not have the power to stop its inertia or the flybar pops off in flight. it's very frustrating. maybe i can make it a project to get this thing working decent in forward flight. everyone in the forums complains about it too, so i don't think i am lacking the flight skill.

the cp2.. the flattened cardboard box my computer case came in makes for a perfect landing pad. janel and turing got to watch me hover for awhile. they got bored and went home. without them watching i got a bit cocky and tried a little circuit.. smash.. i broke a mixer arm ball-link. a little CA (glue) and that fixed that. today i took it out and tried something else. i put the heli on the pad about 10 feet in front of me, took off, then circle strafed around myself while keeping the radius constant and the tail pointed at me. i'd do a full circle, then go in the other direction. AWESOME. it felt so freak'n great. the beast will be tamed! i did this same thing for my entire pack with no crashes. crazy. it also was really good to finally get the thing moving at a decent speed without me freak'n out.

tonight in the flightsim http://www.preflightsim.com/.. wait.. here is a mail i sent my brothers the other day..

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http://www.preflightsim.com/

the graphics and interface are crap, but it's fun to fly once you set
the keys. i recommend..

q/z throttle
w/s collective
a/d rudder
i/k elevator
j/l aileron

the throttle is a bit strange for planes, but you don't usually touch
throttle on then except to kill it.

btw. f12 is reset.

i've played a lot of the sims and never really liked flying any of the
planes. however, the 3d flyer (or whatever it is called, 3d something)
is actually pretty fun. i think those 3d planes have a gyro hooked to
the ailerons. this is cool because it makes the rudder act like an
actually rudder. combo that with enough power to not constantly stall
and you have a predictable plane that is very easy to fly. after a
couple of minutes i could inverted foot off the ground fly-bys and
then quickly turn it around and actually land the damn thing on the
actual runway. holy shit.

i had not considered getting a plane because helis are so much better,
but maybe i'll get a cheap 3d plane.

damn it. now i am calling them 3d. shit.
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ok.. anyway.. tonight i was playing with it and i figured out an important concept. one of the difficulties in flying a heli is that the orientation of the helicopter has nothing to do with the direction it is flying. you can whip the tail around all you want and it is just going to keep going with its inertia. what you have to do is constantly.. DIVE THE NOSE! that forces the helicopter in a direction. of course this is obvious, but it's not a natural thing to do until you 'get it'. after i 'get it' i can fly the heli in the sim around anywhere i want. i move the tail to set my intended direction of travel and then DIVE THE NOSE to force it to go that way. the heli will automatically level itself out after a little bit and then repeat. of course flying a heli in the real world is a bit different. you are in a constant battle with keeping it where you want it. it will still automatically level out just as in the sim, you just have to hold it's hand. A LOT.

i really hope there is no wind tomorrow. i'm quite excited.

btw. the reason why i have not been posting vids or pics is because we only have 8 rechargeable AA batteries and guess how many my transmitter requires? doh.