So, I've been at this for about 5 months now, and love every aspect of it! Wish I had discovered it when I was younger (I just turned 49 the other day). Started with a coaxial S107, which lead to CB100's, and a Walkera CB180D (love it) and my No-fly UFLYS (sorta hate it, but its problems got me over my fear of tinkering with heli's). I have been flying sims, from the FMS to Clearview, which I have mastered in its stock setup, and then the Phoenix, which grounded my expectations that I had a knack for flying. I especially love building and repairing (not so much the spending), and I love learning about the engineering and the electrics (not so much the sparking and smoking). I am pretty good at the building, always have been. But I made a big mistake and it has stolen my mojo...
I built my EXI 450, and in rebuilding the new stock rotor head I noticed that the dampers were pretty soft (way soft compared to the almost unsquishable 80s I have in there now), and one of them was damaged with a little angular split. I didn't think it would make much difference, even though I knew better from my readings. I figured if it caused a problem, I would change it out. I also wasn't entirely confident I knew what I was doing with the gyro and the CCPM setup. So I took it out for its first flight. It spun up nicely. I powered up in normal about 1/3 throttle and from about 20 feet away (damn thing scared me) I got down on my hands and knees and saw the tracking was off by about 1 cm. I also saw the tail auto gear was quite out of round. I lifted off and the tail wagged (at 32% true HH). No problem, I could fix all of this and be back. But she wasn't very stable, drifting back and forth. Some of it was a little wind, some of it was set up, but here's the rub... By this time I could fly the CB's well, and the Cearview sim was no real challenge. I hadn't gotten the Phoenix yet. The heli just didn't seem to be mine to control, and I decided to stop for the day, make the changes and sim some more. But then... I went up one more time...
I hovered just out of ground effect saw she was drifting and I wasn't really in control, so I brought her back down. She landed, then a dynamic rollover took the rotor into the dirt, and $50 later I have a new feathering shaft, flybar, main rotor and thanks to flying Fingers, a new main and auto gear. I still felt some of this was setup, and conditions, but I also began to doubt I could move from FP to a 450 as easily as I thought I might.
Now, I like a challenge, but this set me back a little. I realise I have only been doing this for a few months and did not expect to be flying circuits with a 250 and my 450 right away, but I felt I was on my way. Now doubt snuck in. Then the Phoenix made me realize how fooled I had been by the ultra stable settings on the stock Clearview, though I knew it was unrealistically stable. But I got to where I was flying the Phoenix pretty well, not great, but had control. However, the last few days it been dumb thumb-palooza... I can't even hover the sim to save my life. Now my mojo is lost... I am not confident in taking my 450s and my 250 out!
Lost my balls... lost my mojo... More sim, more time with the CBs, find my mojo...
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