“I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away
I believe I can soar
I see me running through that open door
I believe I can fly”
~ R. Kelly
How many times have you wished to develop the super power of flying? I'm sure secretly you do wish to develop temporary wings and take a flight of fancy to paradise. Well, now you can give wings to your dreams with an RC helicopter. This marvelous little gadget will fly as per your wish and command.
Radio controlled aircraft and helicopters are emerging as the hottest hobby idea in 2013. While procuring one of these modern day wonders is very easy, but to actually get it off the ground and fly it can get slightly difficult for some. In this post, we will let you in on a few basic tips and tricks on how to fly an RC helicopter.
Get Your Basics Right
Understanding the basics of this device is the key to flying it. Once you're clear with your understanding of its parts and their functions, you'll find yourself making progress with the flying and a decrease in your crashing. So educate yourself on that. For beginners, we recommend you try a 4 channel helicopter model as it has a simple mechanism and is easy to steer as it can fly sideways, which will help you during takeoffs. You can train yourself and hone your flying skills with the basic model before you graduate to the next level. One of the most important and tricky things to master is controlling the helicopter model once it is in motion.
Bring it Indoors
As a beginner, it would be better if you first tried flying your helicopter model indoors. But do make sure that your room is big enough and preferably carpeted with not much furniture in it, to avoid breakage in case of a crash. You can start by first lifting your helicopter above the ground a bit and letting it hover there for a while to practise some motion control. While it is hovering, try to position it in a way that the tail rotor faces you and the front of the helicopter faces away from you and is at the same level from the ground as your eyes. Once you get the hang of that, you can start flying it. Don't ever risk flying the helicopter behind you or where you cannot see it. Always fly it in front of your eyes. Oh and while you're at it, make sure your model helicopter is fully charged before you try any of that.
Don't Get Grounded
It is important to make the helicopter hover off the ground before you fly it to avoid ground effect as that causes the helicopter to become unstable and difficult for you to manage it. As far as possible, try to keep the helicopter at a height that is higher than the length of the rotor blades, say 2 to 3 feet above the ground.
Venture Outdoors
Once you feel confident enough to handle the helicopter indoors, you can try taking it outdoors. It is recommended that you try to fly it from a flat, hard and grassy surface as the grass will do in the outdoors what the carpet did indoors. However, by grassy we don't mean it should be like a grassland. The grass needs to be trimmed and kept short to avoid it from getting entangled in the rotors. Another factor to keep in mind is the wind speed. Even a large helicopter model finds itself to be totally incapable of flying against wind. A small helicopter is sure to spiral out of control and become unstable. Ensure that you use small, minimal movements on your remote control as your slightest touch can result in a big movement of the helicopter.
Up, Up and Away
Try practicing hopping first i.e. using the throttle, try to move the helicopter up and down. Increasing the throttle will make your helicopter ascend while decreasing it will make it descend. Once you're comfortable with that, try to move it left and right and then rotate it. Gradually move on to practicing moving your helicopter forward and backward and then from side to side. Remember to practice step-by-step and avoid making sudden or random movements as that is a surefire recipe for a crash.
The Perfect Landing
As already mentioned above, decreasing the throttle will make the helicopter descend. So you need to do that slowly until the helicopter starts to slow down and almost reaches the ground. Make it hover slightly over the ground for a while so that it becomes stable enough to land. And then completely shut off the throttle so it falls on the ground. Try to make it land on a soft or grassy surface to avoid causing damage to it and also try to keep the height of the fall as minimal as possible.
In Case of a Crash Landing
In case you feel that your helicopter model is headed for a crash (which it will many times), make sure to throttle off immediately so that the main rotor and tail rotor stop moving and don't get damaged once they hit the ground. Let the helicopter model fall from the sky as that will cause much less damage than with the rotors off than on.
In Conclusion
Most importantly, be patient. When you buy an RC helicopter, don't expect yourself to become an expert in the first few trials itself. You will crash it, and that too several times, it's inevitable! But you have to be patient. Keep some of its spare parts handy so that you don't have to keep rushing to the hobby store or order them online every time you crash the helicopter model. Don't give up on this hobby just because you didn't succeed the first few times. Remember to try and try till you succeed. This is one hobby that's not worth giving up on!