A comprehensive heli guide for beginners

9. Real flying : 9.5. POINTS TO REMEMBER : 9.5.3. The point of flybar
9.5.3.1. Flybar reads the wind relative to the model (which means that even when the model is flying with no wind outside, there is the wind relative to the model.)
9.5.3.2. It tilts the heli blades to compensate for this wind because otherwise the heli will just bank over itself, because the blade that rotates towards the wind has a much higher speed relative to the wind, than the blade that rotates on the direction of the wind. That will create a constant banking of the helicopter depending on the wind and direction of the flight which will make the heli impossible to fly. And that's why there are flybars. So logically one can use a gyro, may be not a tail gyro that we are used to but something like a gyro, to stabilize the heli horizontally.
9.5.3.3. I didn't try weights on the flybars for stability purposes, besides I always want to see the model fly in its basic configuration with no additions. May be somebody can share their experience with the weights and how it affected the stability and how big the weights should be.

10. CRASHING
10.1. Well I crashed a lot until I learned the orientation on the sim
10.2. If you learn the orientation and let it just be in your mind for awhile you will start understanding it much better and you will know for a fact that you can correct whatever the behavior of the heli as long as I can see it.
10.3. I explained above how I trained my orientation.
10.4. Learning the orientation is the single most important thing that builds your confidence.
10.5. Once learned, take the heli for a spin, watch its reactions and if it feels uncontrollable hit throttle hold, then think. I literally started with 5-10cm take offs and hit throttle hold constantly, until I saw that the heli is stable and instinctively moved it to 1 meter hover, then I got scared and hit throttle hold again, the heli came a bit roughly to the ground. Like I said you can't crash your heli with throttle hold since it's sluggish.
10.6. Just a repeat from previous paragraphs in case you skipped it:
Configure Throttle Hold switch at a very easily accessible position because this is your heli savior. If it does anything that you don't understand just hit Throttle Hold and see the heli come back to earth. Rough landings are nothing compared to a heli crash due to the blades hitting something or the ground. The worst thing with rough landings is braking your cheapo struts, that you can actually attach back with a tough duct tape
10.7. If you crashed and you really like the model and believe it's stable and for you, just buy a new kit. It's a lot less expensive and gives you all the parts right away. If not get rid of it and get a new one, but DON'T invest into something you don't like in hopes of making it fly better.
10.8. Also keep in mind that after the crash you don't know which parts actually bent, so if you are buying just the blades and tail boom, trust me you just didn't notice yet that some bolt is bent or the main shaft or the spindle. That's a big frustration when you buy the pieces pay the shipping wait a week and find that you didn't buy some freaking bolt. So at the end it's cheaper to buy another kit and then but parts.
10.9. I crash at home much more often than on the street. The vertical objects like trash cans, loud speakers, furniture and walls are much more dangerous than the ground itself.
10.10. In order for you to crash badly your blades must hit something firm. And of course it's much easier to hit something vertical than horizontal. The ground, besides, unless it's a concrete, is usually not firm, and I saved several times my t-rex by flying after rain, the blades just cut through soil and didn't crash.
10.11. So flying or testing at home must be done very cautiously. No or very small positive pitch, or negative, very small throttle, and always keep the gyro ready to compensate in case something goes wrong. Don't put away your radio out of reach.
10.12. Even with throttle hold always reduce the throttle slider to 0, because you can accidentally hit your radio over something and that will switch that switch (happened to me several times). Also I tend to keep the pitch negative.
10.13. The only time I used it at home was to track the tracking of the blades. For some reason I couldn't do it outside. Well I tracked it and then gave my brother and we had dumb crash. Fortunately he bought me another one. But it's still very unpleasant.
10.14. Don't give your radio to anybody just to try. I did it and regretted it, because they don't listen to what I say, they think they are smart enough to understand it right away and are invincible, and they don't understand the danger of it. For them it's a toy that is smart enough to understand that it's going to hit something and correct itself. They don't have the required reaction and understanding of the radio and where the throttle hold switch is. So save yourself some trouble don't give it to anybody less experienced that you and crash yourself.

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10.15. Try to glue and unbend the damaged parts before replacing them. The tail boom can be easily unbent to almost the straight position.

10.15.1 The plastic ball link "hole" can be repaired if cracked by using a cold weld (sort of like an epoxy). You just put this thick weld mix over the plastic ball link in several millimeters thick paste. Once dried the plastic ball link can't crack again without breaking the hardened epoxy weld. This way I repaired my tail ball link. The cold weld is available in many harware stores. Here in Canada I bought it in www.canadiantire.ca

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10.16. Do not be afraid of crashing it. If you are in this hobby you will crash it sooner or later. So worrying about it is just draining your attention from the important – watching the reaction of heli and correcting it with your controls.
10.17. If you are really afraid, get a training gear. I bought the rectangular carbon tubes about 1 meter long and attached on under the frame. But I never used it and attaching it was a bit hard, so I gave up on it.
10.18. The most important thing to avoid crashing is leveling the swashplate. Do it as precise as you can. The next thing is the gyro and tail setup. It should be rock solid, no drifts and no hunting.

aerton (RR)
Status: Heliman

Registered: Feb 2005
Location: Longueuil, QC, Canada

Well thanks for reading I hope you found it useful

That's about as much as I know. If you have any questions let me know.
May be you can share your tricks and know hows.

Dan.

Please remember, these are not my words. I have copied and pasted this from RR with permission from aerton (Dan). Hopefully you will find out something useful throughout this thread and we can continue to share the huge useful knowledge we all have concerning this hobby!

verey good read for first time heli guys

Thanks Raptor3D, great read, very helpfull.