What would be the best CP helicopter on the Phoenix simulator to practice with.

I want to try and move from FP to CP before I try and buy one.

You can try the green apache helicopter. It's pretty docile and a bit more fun than the aligns.

Originally Posted by 5stars

What would be the best CP helicopter on the Phoenix simulator to practice with.

ALL of them. Don't concentrate on one model. You need to learn to react and anticipate the helicopter, and if you only practice with one model, you're going to learn to expect things that not all helicopters will do. Every time you fly a new helicopter, you have no idea what to expect in terms of performance, timing, power, and so on. So, with the simulator, you have a powerful tool to prepare yourself for flying ANY helicopter that is behaving properly. Start with the bigger helicopters which are easier to see and more stable, then as soon as you start to get comfortable, switch to a different one. Don't let yourself get comfortable with the behavior of any particular simulated helicopter.

The scale helicopters in Phoenix have a strong weathevane effect - they like to point nose-in to the wind, so when you start flying forward, they tend to stay on track, fly more like a plane, you can bank and yank in the turns, and you don't have to concentrate on rudder. Most CP helicopters are set up with heading hold gyros on the tail, and the tail on those won't follow the helicopter around, you must turn it with the stick. So, I don't think the scale helicopters are good to practice with. They are EASY, but they don't require you to learn proper tail control. So, maybe start with those when you're learning forward flight, but don't stay with them. They aren't good for hovering practice because the tail swings around at unexpected times.

Yep, Jazz is right on the scales not having HH on the tail activated. However, if that's your cup of tea, by all means, you may want rate mode because your real heli may be rate mode, I don't know. If you want the scale look and want HH, remember you can tweak that in the model setup.

One other important consideration if you fly the scalies in Phoenix is skid lean during hover.

If you fly with a conventional RC heli, most likely the rotor rotates clockwise from top looking down like many European 1:1 heli's. So in a hover, you lean right skid down with some right cyclic to counter the tail rotor thrust.

However, if it's a scalie that's a model of a heli that rotates the other way, you will have to lean the other way (usually American 1:1 heli's).

Also... don't use the default mCP X ... or probably any of the small submicros - they are not modelled well.

Originally Posted by jasmine2501

ALL of them. Don't concentrate on one model. You need to learn to react and anticipate the helicopter, and if you only practice with one model, you're going to learn to expect things that not all helicopters will do. Every time you fly a new helicopter, you have no idea what to expect in terms of performance, timing, power, and so on. So, with the simulator, you have a powerful tool to prepare yourself for flying ANY helicopter that is behaving properly. Start with the bigger helicopters which are easier to see and more stable, then as soon as you start to get comfortable, switch to a different one. Don't let yourself get comfortable with the behavior of any particular simulated helicopter.

The scale helicopters in Phoenix have a strong weathevane effect - they like to point nose-in to the wind, so when you start flying forward, they tend to stay on track, fly more like a plane, you can bank and yank in the turns, and you don't have to concentrate on rudder. Most CP helicopters are set up with heading hold gyros on the tail, and the tail on those won't follow the helicopter around, you must turn it with the stick. So, I don't think the scale helicopters are good to practice with. They are EASY, but they don't require you to learn proper tail control. So, maybe start with those when you're learning forward flight, but don't stay with them. They aren't good for hovering practice because the tail swings around at unexpected times.

Well, see, the thing is since I'm new to helicopters I really don't know which ones are CP or which ones are FP. Stupid is as stupid does!

So, that is why I ask these dumb questions. If you could give me some names of the helicopters, I would know which ones to practice with.

Also, I just got the key chain camera and it's charging right now,. Once it finishes charging I will try and attach it to the Blade 120 sr with some velcro and see what happens this time.

Originally Posted by spykez

Yep, Jazz is right on the scales not having HH on the tail activated. However, if that's your cup of tea, by all means, you may want rate mode because your real heli may be rate mode, I don't know. If you want the scale look and want HH, remember you can tweak that in the model setup.

One other important consideration if you fly the scalies in Phoenix is skid lean during hover.

If you fly with a conventional RC heli, most likely the rotor rotates clockwise from top looking down like many European 1:1 heli's. So in a hover, you lean right skid down with some right cyclic to counter the tail rotor thrust.

However, if it's a scalie that's a model of a heli that rotates the other way, you will have to lean the other way (usually American 1:1 heli's).

Also... don't use the default mCP X ... or probably any of the small submicros - they are not modelled well.

Thanks for the reply, see my post above to Jazz...