"I Believe I Can Fly..."

[fraggle42]

(after a hell of a lot of practice on the sim

 

Meet Big Daddy and The Kid.

 

Got The Kid a year or so ago, couldn't find any local clubs so spent some very frustrating months attempting to learn in my garage whilst praying it didn't do another suicidal bit for the concrete wall (always the corner that sticks out...), which it did with depressing regularity.

 

After spending the same as it cost new again in replacement and upgraded bits (bad idea - make something stronger and the next thing along in the line breaks or bends) I kinda let it rest in peace. (main shaft bent, replaced it, still crazy vibes from the rotors)

 

A few weeks ago I find out there are actually THREE local clubs! I did find one but they hadn't updated their website in 4 years so assumed they were dead.

 

So now I know there are clubs, and trainers, and help, I had a look around to see what was out there, and found Big Daddy... < grins >

 

 

 

[Ezio]

Please tell me you aint flying with the Remote on the floor if so i understand you have a hard time flying Them haha jokes aside

They are great fun but harder to fly Then a F16

[fraggle42]

Haha, no that's just for scale

 

This is everything I picked up along with the heli:-

 

 

[fraggle42]

So when I have learned to do 3D flying with this one, can I have a play in your F16? Should be easier?

[SSTEEL]

Thats some kit mate.  Very nice.  I used to have similar years ago, but first flight, lost almost £1k in damages after a crash, so cut my losses.

 

I am now planning on getting a drone, the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter with 3-AXIS Camera to be precise.  Then once mastered it, I plan on offering real estate aerial photographs, already looked into the commercial licence needed for this too. 

[ceejay]

I was big into Competitive RC flying a few years ago, BMFA B certs in fixed wing & heli's. I competed in F3A precision aerobatics.

With competition planes well in to the £2-3000 mark and helicopters £1000+ it became hard to swallow when they hit the deck. The nail in the coffin for me was losing control of a helicopter (Raptor 50) and flying it through the flight line of my club chopping the aerial off my friends transmitter, it was less than 3 feet from decapitating him....That was enough for me

 

Great hobby but very addictive, expensive and occasionally...dangerous!

 

 

My last competitive plane ZN Line Comp ARF Integral

 

2 metre XTreme Composite Edge 50cc petrol & my Raptor 50

 

 

1st place at the GB RC Aerobatics Comp at Barkston Heath

 

 

[fraggle42]

I built something similar to the big one from a huge kit when I just got my first job (always fancied one), cost about £600 in parts 25 years ago.

 

Loved building it, making sure all the bearings were free and lubed, balancing things and threadlocking everything. And then running the nitro engine in - tied the whole thing to a railway sleeper so it wouldn't go anywhere. Or that was the plan. It couldn't lift it fully, but it did manage to lift one end of the sleeper up in the air a few inches! Really surprised me as those railway sleepers are damned heavy things. This model was back in the days before carbon fibre, all alloy construction and the weight overcome by the simple solution of a bloody huge engine

 

After I ran it in I did try to fly it, but gyros weren't in my price range so didn't have one. I remember I actually did better than I have with The Kid - bigger = heavier = slower response = more stable, but I just couldn't bring myself to break something I'd loved building, couldn't find a club or someone to teach me, so it sat around for a while and eventually got sold.

 

Older and slight chance of being wiser now, plus if it turns into expensive fragments it's only a weeks wages

[fraggle42]

The chap I got this off mentioned the poor chap in america who killed himself last year with his RC heli - looking at the YouTube video of him flying it close to himself he didn't seem to care or appreciate the tips travelling at 300+mph ain't going to stop very quickly when they meet squidgy human flesh or bone.

[Ezio]

So when I have learned to do 3D flying with this one, can I have a play in your F16? Should be easier?

Sure sure

[martijnp]

I'm always much interested in these, looks so cool to fly with! 

@Ezio, is it really that "easy" to fly an F16?

[Ezio]

Well everything is easy when you know how to do it

I crashed my brother in laws RC plane once hell i cant fly those things

[GenTLe]

My father was RC modeler. He was creating his own fuselages using fibreglass, he said it was much more satisfying than buy box and assemble them. I didn't get his passion.

 

Anyway, have you seen THIS:

?

 

 

I think next step can only be one of these: