Helicopters after planks

October 27, 2007 Filed under: The early days — applematt @ 12:01 am

While the JP Twister Bell47 is a simple model compared to the Thunder Tiger Mini Titan it gave me a wealth of experience flying these hovering things we call helicopters.

  • First rule to learn is cutting the throttle will bring you down very fast - no gliding here!
  • Up & Down is not the same as a fixed wing up & down, its actually forward & back cyclic!
  • Aileron (left & right cyclic) will not make the model fly round corners… this comes with many inputs from the transmitter all at once!
  • Rudder is now called yaw
  • Throttle is now mixed with blade pitch and makes the heli go up and down

So, flying fixed wing is very different to flying helicopters contra rotating or otherwise! As a fixed wing pilot for many years I had to re-train my hands to do very different things - hence the twister was a brilliant learning curve for someone like me to learn indoors by not embarrassing myself over the field when I couldn’t even take off without having a crash! Oh dear should I continue?

I’m sure the twister saved me shed loads of cash and brought me up to speed with the new controls and terminology - I’m truly grateful!