beginer Questions

[minipirate]

as the title says i am new to this, i previously have had a venom counter rotating blade chopper and i enjoyed flying that heaps i could hover and pritty much do anything that bird was limmited too, being fixed pitch and all, anyway that was until a gust of wind took it into the side of my house flat out lol. but forget that i am now getting my first "real" chopper the venom night ranger two.... and once i learn to fly that little bird i am going to get a bigger one probobly a .30 size. My LHS has a good deal going on the JR venture 800 bucks RTF. that is aussie dollars. anyway i just had a few questions i could not find the answers for anywhere on the net and you guys who own the real deal could tell me.

1. how do you start these things? i have been into rc trucks for a while now but i know that helis are nothing like them. i know you use a glow starter but how do you turn the motor over and from what point eg. through the rear or top. and to get my truck going when it is cold i generaly have to give it some revs how do u do that in a chopper when u are hanging on to the blades? also if it does go nuts how hard are the blades to hang on to?

2. tuning. how hard are they to tune.. i mean do you have to do it every time you fly or do the bigger motors in helicopters mean they are more like a brushcutter and require less ferquent tuning? also what happens if you stall in the air? what happens if it is too rich in the air will it fall to the ground or will somthing else go wrong lol? the same with lean.

3. if you do crash, i have seen heaps vids of helis beating themselves to death on the ground and the operator running up to try and stop it. do they stay flatout all the time or can you throttle them down and if so how come in a crash they dont stop?

4. what type of winds can they fly in exempting my skill level lol?

5. also last one... do all helis have that normal/3d switch and do they all start in normal mode, and have to throttle to half before flicking into 3d mode?

i am sorry for the questions but before i buy i would like to know a little more about them and i live 450 klms away from LHS, i would appreciate any answers you could give me

thanks Craig

[rocknbil]

Well I think you're thinking a bit ahead of the game - see how you do with the NR 2 or other CP first. This hobby can easily outdistance most peoples' budget in the learning curve alone.

1. how do you start these things?
Presuming you mean a nitro. Someone else will answer more accurately, but it's got a clutch in it and the starting system varies, it's similar to an airplane electric starter.

2. tuning. how hard are they to tune.. i mean do you have to do it every time you fly . . .
Every bit as easy, or difficult, as a ground nitro, it's the same engine. Yeah you should tune every time you run, slight changes in air temp, humidity, and barometric pressure are going to require different tuning settings.

what happens if you stall in the air?
Higher end nitros have autorotation to soften the blow but you still crash. :D

3. if you do crash, i have seen heaps vids of helis beating themselves to death on the ground and the operator running up to try and stop it. do they stay flatout all the time or can you throttle them down and if so how come in a crash they dont stop?

This would indicate some sort of radio malfunction or the linkage getting disconnected in the crash, yes you try to throttle down when you get into trouble.

4. what type of winds can they fly in exempting my skill level lol?
Wind is your friend for planes, your adversary for helis, but the heavier the craft the more wind you can handle.

5. also last one... do all helis have that normal/3d switch and do they all start in normal mode, and have to throttle to half before flicking into 3d mode?

Yeah this is the case, but with higher end helis you usually tweak the throttle curves on your transmitter to match the heli so this is a much smoother transition than on a mini electric.

My advice, if you're stepping up from a coaxial - go with a small electric first and lots of parts. If you decide to go with a nitro, you are very well advised to seek out a local club to have someone help you. A sim will also help, but I haven't found them all that realistic, too many real life factors affect how you really fly.

[minipirate]

thanks i know i may be a little bit ahead of myself lol... but i was just itching to find out more about these machines but i will learn to fly my micro first. i have all the learning gear and stuff. thanks for the reply do you mabe know of any sites that can help a new kid, thanks

[rocknbil]

Electric Helicopter Beginner's Guide (http://www.swashplate.co.uk/html/ehbg.html) - Download the PDF, it will answer any questions you have about helis

Radd's School of Rotary Flight (http://www.dream-models.com/eco/index.html) - Follow it to the letter, it will save you tons of money.

Blade CP Repair (http://bladecprepair.com/index.html) - If you get an Eflite Blade CP or a Honeybee CP2, this site is vital to the repair bench. The BCP and CP2 are almost identical, but the parts are (mostly) not interchangeable.

[minipirate]

thanks i cant wait to fly my heli i ahve read all those ebooks you sent rocknbill and i am ampping lol. well when the bank finds my lost money to pay for my bird.

[Bluefuzzyone]

Look Here
http://www.helifreak.com/viewforum.php?f=93&sid=1c4f1b778a5e1fb29559928b962877d8