Collective Pitch Flight School
Damaged, snapped, smashed, broken, but undefeated
You mean you have to go to school to fly a helicopter? Yup, and unlike coaxial or Fixed Pitch fliers, collective pilots have a lot of learning to do. A lot.
Let me put it simply: If you do not follow flight school, YOU WILL CRASH. Probably in the first few seconds of digressing. It is that simple. About 50% of first time CP Fliers end up crashing in their first 10 seconds of flight. If you follow flight school . . . you won't crash easily. You'll have a much slimmer chance.
Intimidated? Don't worry, anyone can learn to fly - even a total unnatural like me. There's so many lessons below because I split up the learning to make each lesson focus on one specific item. These lessons are all about helping you learn with as little damage as possible.
Let me say that in completing flight school on my mCP X the most expensive repair I had to do was replacing a few rotor linkages - less than $5 - and the most difficult was repairing the skids (aside from more than my share of technical difficulties). Now granted I learned on a micro heli, which you'll recall from The Best RC Helicopter: You Choose under Size are much more crash survivable than larger helis. But they are also harder to see when they get farther away and are more affected by wind. If you are careful, don't rush, and fully complete each lesson before moving on to the next, you can become a successful RC Heli pilot without expensive repairs! The sky is the limit with CP Helis.
Note in the picture above most of the damage on my chopper is from learning to fly inverted. And yes, that is tape and glue holding about 60% of it together :)
Collective pitch helicopters are so much more exciting and powerful. And acrobatically capable. Ready to learn? Start out with the lessons below! Notice, they are all finished now! (except for the lack of diagrams in lesson 11)
Lesson 1: Pre-flight Inspection
Lesson 2: Ground Exercises
Lesson 3: Hovering
Lesson 4: Hovering Exercises
Lesson 5: Cyclic Figure 8s
Lesson 6: Side Hovering
Lesson 7: Nose in Direction of Flight
Lesson 8: Slow Circle Circuits
Lesson 9: Fast Forward Flight
Lesson 10: Nose in Hovering
Lesson 11: Fast Projected Circuits and Pre-Acrobatics
Let me put it simply: If you do not follow flight school, YOU WILL CRASH. Probably in the first few seconds of digressing. It is that simple. About 50% of first time CP Fliers end up crashing in their first 10 seconds of flight. If you follow flight school . . . you won't crash easily. You'll have a much slimmer chance.
Intimidated? Don't worry, anyone can learn to fly - even a total unnatural like me. There's so many lessons below because I split up the learning to make each lesson focus on one specific item. These lessons are all about helping you learn with as little damage as possible.
Let me say that in completing flight school on my mCP X the most expensive repair I had to do was replacing a few rotor linkages - less than $5 - and the most difficult was repairing the skids (aside from more than my share of technical difficulties). Now granted I learned on a micro heli, which you'll recall from The Best RC Helicopter: You Choose under Size are much more crash survivable than larger helis. But they are also harder to see when they get farther away and are more affected by wind. If you are careful, don't rush, and fully complete each lesson before moving on to the next, you can become a successful RC Heli pilot without expensive repairs! The sky is the limit with CP Helis.
Note in the picture above most of the damage on my chopper is from learning to fly inverted. And yes, that is tape and glue holding about 60% of it together :)
Collective pitch helicopters are so much more exciting and powerful. And acrobatically capable. Ready to learn? Start out with the lessons below! Notice, they are all finished now! (except for the lack of diagrams in lesson 11)
Lesson 1: Pre-flight Inspection
Lesson 2: Ground Exercises
Lesson 3: Hovering
Lesson 4: Hovering Exercises
Lesson 5: Cyclic Figure 8s
Lesson 6: Side Hovering
Lesson 7: Nose in Direction of Flight
Lesson 8: Slow Circle Circuits
Lesson 9: Fast Forward Flight
Lesson 10: Nose in Hovering
Lesson 11: Fast Projected Circuits and Pre-Acrobatics