A Beginner's View

I recently received a query from Mark Szolkowski, via email, about joining the club and how to go about it. I am glad to say that the exchange subsequently resulted in Mark joining up.  During the exchange, Mark offered that if I needed any assistance with the website... well that was an offer to good to miss!!! I asked Mark if he could write a "Beginner's View" - for those who are just starting out, and need a bit of an insight, as well as the many of us have probably forgotten just what it was like to take those first stumbling steps into this sport.

Personally I think this is a great write up. So with many thanks, its over to Mark... (Jim Hunt, Treasurer)

I was lucky enough as a 7 year old to have a Dad who liked to build anything that was remote-controlled - planes, gliders, boats, you name it! It was only for a couple of years, but I learnt to potter a glider about, with a homebuilt transmitter that had rudder/elevator on the left stick, and just throttle (for take-off) on the right. What a pain that setup was to lead to, in time...

My Dad has always had a fascination with helicopters, which rubbed off on me. This was bound to happen anyway, since I am one of the "Airwolf" generation - what a time to be watching tv! Anyway, after a couple of friends getting into heli's in the last couple of years, I decided to take the plunge and take up the hobby for myself.

I didn't find getting started easy for a couple of reasons. One is that I have absolutely *no* mechanical inclinations whatsoever. The other is that although I knew a couple of people who flew heli's, one lives in the US and the other lives at the other end of England. All that they could helpfully tell me was this:

• buy a Raptor or Shuttle kit

• buy training undercarriage if you don't want to crash within 2 seconds (literally)

• try a simulator before doing anything else!

I spent a couple of weeks searching the web for model clubs and model shops in the Manchester area that had even *heard* of helicopters. It was a nightmare, with some clubs not even flying helicopters. I even went into one well-known model shop in the centre of Manchester that said that although they had a Raptor hanging from the ceiling, they knew nothing about helicopters and only had it on display on the strength of a marketing mandate from head office! Fortunately, they weren't completely useless and pointed me in the direction of Revolution Models in Altrincham.

So, off I went to see the guys at Revolution Models. I bought the following from them:

• A Thunder Tiger Raptor 30 deal kit (£539.99), including Sanwa RD6000 Super radio kit and extra servo, Irvine 36H engine, muffler,

• An engine starter kit (i.e. fuel pump, battery gauge, glow plug clip, wooden box to hold everything) for approximately £60

• The gyro upgrade for about another £15 or £20

• Training undercarriage (roughly £14)

One tool that I wish I'd had while building the kit was a pair of ball-joint pliers for connecting the linkages to the ball joints. It is very difficult (and scary) using your fingers and pliers!

The guys in the shop reckon it takes about 2 weeks of building the kit in the evenings to get it finished. Perhaps my Dad and I are more obsessive than most, but we took it back to the shop after two days for Joe to check it out. Bearing in mind that I am useless at building anything other than Lego Bionicles for small boys on Christmas Day, I was quite pleased that the only thing they found wrong was that three servos were operating in the wrong direction!

Whilst it was incredibly tempting to start the thing up and see what happened, I am *SO* glad that I had been told about using a simulator, or several hundred pounds and many hours of stress would have been for naught (and that was assuming I hadn't hit something or somebody with it...). I'd bought Real Flight G2 and its add-on pack that contains the Raptor about a month before buying the helicopter kit, so had an inkling of how difficult it would be to get started flying for real.

A quick word on simulators. Most people will tell you that Real Flight G2 has great graphics, and that the CSM simulator has terrible graphics but more accurate physics than G2. Either way, it's very different from the real thing - if only because the software modelling of the helicopter is different from the way I built my Raptor! My software came with a USB dummy transmitter, which (according to the manual) was set up in something called "Mode 2 (U.S.A.)". I've already mentioned that I flew as a child with left stick controlling rudder/elevator and throttle on the right, and didn't want to learn a new mode for the USA. So, summoning all that I can remember of my masters degree in Microelectronic systems design, I took the transmitter apart to see what I could about reprogramming it. Since I can remember next to nothing from my degree, it was with not some little relief that I realised that I could simply move a ratchet and spring (for the throttle hold) to the other stick, and select "Mode 1" in the simulator. I wish I hadn't bothered now, but after a month, I was brave enough to go and visit the Hellecats.

I turned up at the Chelford site on a Saturday morning to find five gentlemen flying their models and chewing the fat. I felt a more than a little awkward turning up at the site to ask in a roundabout manner if I could bring my model along in exchange for them to teach me how to fly it! Fortunately, they remembered learning once themselves, and were probably impressed by the fact that I had bothered to turn up for a couple of hours to simply chat without bringing my model along. Here are some items that they recommended I buy before coming back:

• fuel, and spare fuel pipes (1 metre length) (approx. £15)

• 12v battery rated at 7.2Ah or so (to start the engine) from Maplin, plus charger (roughly £50 for the two)

• blade caddy, pitch gauge, fuel cut-off clips, spare glow plugs (approx. £25 for the lot)

•  upgraded batteries for the receiver (1700mAh for £20) since the ones that come with most radio kits are for model aeroplanes and are not good enough to drive all the servos in a helicopter

• battery checker so that you can check the charge of the helicopter's radio receiver battery after each flight

• the Allen keys that came with the kit, so that you can adjust settings at the field

• the manual for the transmitter so that the radio can be programmed easily. Nobody else at the field had the same transmitter as I did, so this was essential!

• a bin-bag full of cable ties so that you can tie the training undercarriage to the helicopter - you'll use eight, two at each corner!

It turned out that most of the guys at the field fly with their transmitter set to Mode 2. Great. I spent another week readjusting - constant switching is NOT something to be recommended. I readjusted so that I could get people to test fly my model for me. As it happens, I've been told that the setup that I knew of was uncommon, and that you usually find the throttle and rudder on the same stick, and elevator/aileron on the other.

The following week, I took my model along and was even more glad that I hadn't been stupid enough to start the heli up in my back garden. The tail rotor was hanging off (which the guys in the shop hadn't noticed!); the muffler I was sold was for another model, which meant it was fitted upside and would soon clog the pressure feed pipe, causing the engine to cut out in mid-flight; the pitch and throttle settings were out; and the rudder was sluggish.

The guys at the flying club were incredibly helpful with their spare parts,  time and expertise, and have been on several occasions. If you are sensitive  enough to realise that they are there to fly their own models, and don't  want to keep rebuilding a model for somebody who can't even get off the ground without reacquainting themselves with it in a crunching fashion every five minutes, then you'll get along just fine.

Mark has just sent me an Addendum to his article...

Another tip that isn't obvious when you're starting out: how tightly to connect the main and tail rotor blades. I'm not sure what a rule of thumb is for the tail blades, but Nigel (Mycock, one of the Club's experts and Examiners! - Jim) showed me that if you turn the heli on its side and shake, then the main blades should be just tight enough that they don't move.