My intro

This was the intro to my blog when I started. I made it my first post.


The flying monkeys got me...

I have always loved flying, especially helicopters (a million parts flying in close formation) for their design and flight complexities. This flying adventure started innocently enough... Amazon came out with an iPad app, and naturally I installed it. Saw an ad for the coaxial Syma S107 Mini 3 Channel gyro stabilized heli, watched the vids about it on YouTube, went back and bought one from my new best friends at xheli.com (I have many of those in the R/C Heli business now...). The first signs of addiction was the next day I decided I needed a 4 Channel 2 blade heli, and some stuff to go with it, and... well over the next couple of days I spent a lot on a 3 helos for me (the Syma, a Walkera CB180D and a Walkera UFLYS), and some more stuff to go with them that I learned I would need, all of which I learned about on the internet having studied for hours. I visited my local hobby shop (not too helpful), made arrangements to visit the local R/C Club field, and read webpages, watched vids, ordered the cheap R/C flight sim, started a subscription to R/C Heli on my iPad through Zinio, got over my fear buying stuff on the internet from Hong Kong, and waited for all of it to arrive. Addicted? I couldn't even sleep. Then the Syma arrived... It had the power to pull my kids away from L4D and Halo Reach, as the 3 of us shared it over and over again. Their gamer brains and hand/eye coordination made them naturals, and they were hooked, hooked hard. The addiction spread, and before the night fell, xheli.com got orders for two more helos, a micro and another Syma S107 for my boys, since I didn't want to share anymore.

What do I know about flying helis? Absolutely nothing. Now I know that the R/C crowd tends to call them helis instead of helos, how I don't want to explode a Lipo (I now know a lot about batteries, ESCs, brushless motors and servos), that I want to learn orientation on the Syma before flying my bigger helis, that these things can mess you up if they decide to crash into you, and that I just can't get enough. The Syma flies like I dreamed helos should, and that's with 3 channels. I can't wait to see what 4 channel helis can do! So, this log is of our addiction to the coolest hobby ever. Watch us learn, try, succeed and fail, all on my dime. Next year I'm going 6 channel full CCPM, baby!

Ken

October 29, 2010