New member with some brand new "toys"

[Buzzz]

Bonjour à tous, new member here (check is in the mail ;) )

My name is Cédric, I'm 39 and I work in the aviation industry at CAE.

I'm new to RC helicopters, bought a couple of coax to my kids for christmas and I was hooked even before trying them. Made some research and a week later I bought an Align Trex 450L Dominator, a Blade Nano CPX, a Spektrum DX7s and Phoenix RC Simulator.

I've been practicing every day on the sim and/or with the Nano for the past month and quite pleased with my progress. I can now hover in all directions and do some forward flight both on the sim and with the Nano. Working on some nicer figure of eight and beginning to get inverted on the sim.

I just finished my trex build and I don't know when I will have the guts to fly it. Waiting for some training gears and maybe I will bring it to the "chalet" and try it on the frozen lake. I don't know if this is a good idea.

Found this club on the web and as I live in the West Island and the WIMAC field is in my kid's school backyard, this is perfect for me.
I'll be looking for some flight training with an instructor in the spring to help me progress and to pass my solo test.

Au plaisir de se rencontrer.

Cédric

[Sempai-mj]

Welcome to the club BUZZZ!

[Burning Head]

Bienvenue/Welcome:cool:

[Eladio]

Welcome Cédric !
If you have a chance come to the indoor at the school gym ! Today from 6;30 to 8:00 PM, Tuesday 28/01/2014 at Charlemagne that is ! you will talk to a few instructors and see some indoor Helis fly !!
Good luck ! :)

[Tarek Hassoune]

Welcome to the club its better to get your Heli checked by a Heli pilot before your first flight. There is a lot of setup involved with the Heli. Usually during weekends if weather permits you can find somebody at the club who will be able to help. Post before going there and you will get a respond from someone. If weather permits I will be there Saturday I can check it for you

[Buzzz]

Welcome Cédric !
If you have a chance come to the indoor at the school gym ! Today from 6;30 to 8:00 PM, Tuesday 28/01/2014 at Charlemagne that is ! you will talk to a few instructors and see some indoor Helis fly !!
Good luck ! :)

Could not make it tonight but thanks for the info

[Buzzz]

Welcome to the club its better to get your Heli checked by a Heli pilot before your first flight. There is a lot of setup involved with the Heli. Usually during weekends if weather permits you can find somebody at the club who will be able to help. Post before going there and you will get a respond from someone. If weather permits I will be there Saturday I can check it for you

I took my time for the build and watched a lot of video but maybe I'll come anyway to make sure everything is ok, there is so much things involved, maybe I missed something. Thanks for the offer.

[Kevin Rochon]

Bienvenue au club Cédric. Apporte ton héli au club et Tarek pourra surment t'aider. Le 1er vol c'est jamais parfait il faut toujours des ajustement. Les video c'est excellent mais jamais comme avoir une personne d'expérience pour vérifier cela.

[Buzzz]

Bienvenue au club Cédric. Apporte ton héli au club et Tarek pourra surment t'aider. Le 1er vol c'est jamais parfait il faut toujours des ajustement. Les video c'est excellent mais jamais comme avoir une personne d'expérience pour vérifier cela.

Merci du conseil, j'ai bien hâte à ce premier vol.

[MidnightHeli]

Bienvenue au club

[xtopher]

WELCOME CEDRIC. As being myself, a new member in WIMAC, what I've seen so far ; great people to be with, good moment spent and a very good job/organisation being made by the directors and the president.(it's a well-structured club) I'm proud to be part of it; It's not just club, it's a community! you'll never regret to be a member!
I bet you'll love it!

I've noticed from what you wrote that you are a very ambitious person; this a great leap- keep on practising on simulator, and when you'll first fly in the field in real weather conditions,you'll find out that there will be only one thing to win; not competence; but confidence. Then, the field is yours, hmm sorry, the sky is yours :D

wish you all the best and safe flights for the coming spring
Cheers
Chris

[Elgreco]

Simulator is a great TOOL, not a toy.
Meaning, practice properly, trying a specific move until you get it without thinking...
10-15 min is enough, take a break after.
If you keep "playing" at it for long, you will end up flying around doing stuff you would usually not even dare in real life for now. That won't teach you much.
Hint: Inverted...on sim..:p Too fast. Don't skip important steps..;)

Practice the same move all week long on the sim, and then try it on the weekend out at the field. It's easier like this, creating some muscle memory on the fingers for the move..
One thing at a time. Small steps...;)

Good luck.

I remember starting out. Fun days..!!

Take care.

[Buzzz]

Simulator is a great TOOL, not a toy.
Meaning, practice properly, trying a specific move until you get it without thinking...
10-15 min is enough, take a break after.
If you keep "playing" at it for long, you will end up flying around doing stuff you would usually not even dare in real life for now. That won't teach you much.
Hint: Inverted...on sim..:p Too fast. Don't skip important steps..;)

Practice the same move all week long on the sim, and then try it on the weekend out at the field. It's easier like this, creating some muscle memory on the fingers for the move..
One thing at a time. Small steps...;)

Good luck.

I remember starting out. Fun days..!!

Take care.

Thanks for the tip.

I actually do both. I start on the sim with specific basic things to practice for at least 15 minutes and after that I try more advanced things like inverted. Learning is less boring that way.

[MidnightHeli]

Thanks for the tip.

I actually do both. I start on the sim with specific basic things to practice for at least 15 minutes and after that I try more advanced things like inverted. Learning is less boring that way.

Do not forget that the default on the sim is with no wind. So for example, when you learn how to tail in hover without wind, make sure you add wind including gust, the change in wind speed will make your helicopter move in the direction of the wind or opposite, and on top of this, it will change the lift on the rotor thus making it go up or dowm.
Personally I do not play around doing more advance stuff because I do not want my finger/brain to learn bad habits, that later on will be hard to get rid off. Example My first helicopter was a Syma S107 that I flew around the house without any problems on the first day, but the rudder control is on the right stick, after a month of having fun, I decide to start and really go into this hobby I bought an E-flite MSR for the house and a Blade 400 for outside and because of the rudder being on the left stick everytime I needed to make a turn I almost ended in the wall, took me almost a month to get rid of this bad habit.
One good exercise I found, to learn all direction hover (after learning tail in and side hover) Do 2 minute piroute hover (one 360 degrees rotation in 2 minutes and stay in one place) Harder then it sounds, but ones you get it including inverted it becomes second nature and you will be able to control you helicopter in any position and any direction, thus easer to learn 3D.
That is my technique, I am sure others have their own way of learning.
I Would love to hear from them and maybe add new exercises to my sim practices.

[Buzzz]

Do not forget that the default on the sim is with no wind. So for example, when you learn how to tail in hover without wind, make sure you add wind including gust, the change in wind speed will make your helicopter move in the direction of the wind or opposite, and on top of this, it will change the lift on the rotor thus making it go up or dowm.
Personally I do not play around doing more advance stuff because I do not want my finger/brain to learn bad habits, that later on will be hard to get rid off. Example My first helicopter was a Syma S107 that I flew around the house without any problems on the first day, but the rudder control is on the right stick, after a month of having fun, I decide to start and really go into this hobby I bought an E-flite MSR for the house and a Blade 400 for outside and because of the rudder being on the left stick everytime I needed to make a turn I almost ended in the wall, took me almost a month to get rid of this bad habit.
One good exercise I found, to learn all direction hover (after learning tail in and side hover) Do 2 minute piroute hover (one 360 degrees rotation in 2 minutes and stay in one place) Harder then it sounds, but ones you get it including inverted it becomes second nature and you will be able to control you helicopter in any position and any direction, thus easer to learn 3D.
That is my technique, I am sure others have their own way of learning.
I Would love to hear from them and maybe add new exercises to my sim practices.

Good point for the wind in the sim, I guess it's at 0, I'll add some.
I flew my Nano a few times outside the house, I know it's an indoor heli but it wasn't too bad controlling it in some wind. I even did some inverted hovers with it yesterday outside. I think inverted hovering is actually something that should be learned early. That way I will be able to recover from any position. I saw it introduced in some training program fairly early.

Must be tough to unlearn mode 1 and fly in mode 2. I wouldn't compare this to trying some advanced things early. But point taken on the unlearning, I'll keep that in mind.

I do practice slow pirouettes, I put some trim on my tx to force it (in Phoenix RC and on the Nano). I ordered a cable to try Heli-X, in Heli-X you can set the pirouette rate in the Sim and put some boundaries for hovering practice. When you go out of boundaries, it "crash" and reset the hovering. I'll keep a log of the crashes to see my progression. I'll do it in normal and inverted.

I would too love to hear some other training exercises/techniques like the slow pirouette hovering.