Originally Posted by iDocRich

Hey jack is there anyway I can switch to Wednesday at 8pm? Which prolly will be a couple of hours away from the time you see this. Just let me know. Rich.

Message in your message box - cleared for takeoff - see you tonight.

Originally Posted by heli-insane

Hello CaptJac, i see your back to responding to people at rcgroups again so i guess the vacation is officially over. I hope you had a great time. If you have any time for lessons on the weekend i would totally be up for that!! Been working on everything we went through from the last lesson and am ready for more!!!

Hi Keith - vacation was cut a little short - back on the flight line and ready to resume. Message in your message box ... see you on the flight line.

CaptJac

Hello Fellow RCGroupies,

I've been at this heli stuff now for well over a year. Got a fleet of 6 helis ranging from an mSR to a TRex 500. My experience level includes hovering tail-in, sides-in, a little nose-in, and FFF (mostly fast forward in one direction. Bring the heli back tail-in). Spend most of my time crashing and repairing. With the exception of nose-in, I thought I had hovering down pat. After a phoenix lesson w/the Capt, I found out I had a lot to improve on. Lesson started w/CaptJac helping me properly setup phoenix for training. After properly setting up phoenix, the heli we chose had an incredibly realistic life-like feel to it. The Capt is very patient and has a way of presenting information that makes it easy for even the dumbest heli wannabe's to get the concepts. In retrospect, I realize now that I hadn't learned the fundamentals as well as I thought which is why I had been crashing so often.

Thank you Captjac. Look forward to our next session.

These Lessons are Amazing!!!!!!!!

I just got done with my first lesson with Capt. Jack, and to say the least it was amazing. He was able to walk me through the settings to make the simulator fly a lot more like the heli in real life.

He also showed me how to do a few things on the simulator and walked me through some different excersises. Really this was the most useful of all of it, as it provided a sence of direction in my flying. Before this lesson, I would spend hours just fooling around on the simulator really achieving nothing. Now however, I can fly with purpose and progress a lot faster!

Thanks Capt. Jack!

Can u get the blade sr and 400 hundred on this sim

Originally Posted by Buud9

Can u get the blade sr and 400 hundred on this sim

Not sure about the SR but the 400 is on there. May have to check for updates to get it but I can select it on my Phoenix.

Hey Jack,
Just sent you a PM re some Phoenix model settings. Even though my model is listed in Phoenix, it just doen't "feel" the same if that makes sense. Pretty sure I need to take a laptop the the field, fly the real thing - tweak the Phoenix model a bit, fly some more for real, tweak the model more to fine tune it.

Its a litle bit hard for me as a begineer to pick whats I need to change in Phoenix to "match" it to real life.

Originally Posted by Buud9

Can u get the blade sr and 400 hundred on this sim

I have phoenix and they just released the Blade SR, so yes, both the 400 and the SR are there!

Originally Posted by OzDruiD

Even though my model is listed in Phoenix, it just doen't "feel" the same if that makes sense. Pretty sure I need to take a laptop the the field, fly the real thing - tweak the Phoenix model a bit, fly some more for real, tweak the model more to fine tune it. Its a litle bit hard for me as a begineer to pick whats I need to change in Phoenix to "match" it to real life.

Hi Chris - sounds like you want to install Phoenix on your laptop and use it for setting up your 550 out at the field? The only experience I have with Phoenix is on a desktop computer. What I advise my students is to default the settings in their transmitter and change the settings in Phoenix - instead of defaulting Phoenix and changing the settings in their transmitter. That way we have the same settings even if we aren't using the same transmitter. I use the Trex-500 model for training as it most closely simulates the 450 in real life - at least for training hovering and forward flight. In most cases I start with 25% expo on the cyclic and "fine tune" the min and max for sensitivity depending on the student and the kind of flying they want to do. I'd be more than happy to walk you through some of the setup options if you want to schedule a session. Germany's clocks are 8 hours behind Australia's clocks (Sydney) - let me know what works for you.

captJac

Sorry CaptJack, I might have mislead.

I have pretty good experience with laptops \ PC's etc (IT Administrator \ Network specialist by trade) and I have setup phoenix in the manner you suggested (default model in my DX7) and I want to modify the model paramaters within Phoenix.


My question was primarly around a "key \ common" setting that you change for just about everyone and I think you have answered it in terms of "expo".

I will have another tinker with the 500 model and again try my Gaui model however the reason for the taking a laptop the the field was so that I could make immediate "tweaks" to Phoenix flight charactertics and then transfer the settings back to my desktop machine. Basically, after 8hrs at the field, 2 hrs drive - I am pretty stuffed and by the time I get on the desktop PC 4-5 hrs later after ariving back at home - I cannot seem remember exactly how it feels different than my heli in real flight only that it doesnt feel correct.

I guess at the end of the day it doesnt have to be perfect and as long as it builds confidence and reinforces orientation and muscle memory its better than not using the Sim at all.

Originally Posted by OzDruiD

I guess at the end of the day it doesnt have to be perfect and as long as it builds confidence and reinforces orientation and muscle memory its better than not using the Sim at all.

Yes, exactly. Remember, you're not trying to learn to fly your heli... you're trying to learn to fly helicopters, in general, and as long as you pick a realistic model in the sim, you will be learning what it's possible to learn from the simulator.

In fact, tweaking the models away from the provided settings may make it less realistic, as the developers have already spent plenty of time tweaking, and you might un-do whatever they did.

Also the simulator will never be perfect - there's about 500 variables that it just doesn't calculate.

on the phonix sim the blade400 feels quite close to the really thing it cant be far off and i always add some wind in the sim .

About 60 posts back (#42) - and responding to a post from EricJ about how many small tips he was able to learn in just an hour that he would never thought of - a question was asked if was possible to share some of those many tips? Still in the testing phase - my students being the test specimens - I needed more time in the lab before responding. Since that time (about 50 hours) a few have survived - students and teacher and tips. Note - these are training tips for learning how to hover and forward flight. NOT to be confused with 3D - although some might apply.

1. When lifting off the ground slowly (scale flying) the aircraft will have a natural tendency to roll to the left. Instead of correcting for the roll after it leaves the ground - apply and hold a very small amount of right aileron before taking off - neutralize the cyclic stick immediately after takeoff. Timing and amount is critical and takes practice - but once attained it eliminates the chasing exercise in trying to stabilize and you will have a stable hover from the get-go.

2. Hovering is all about stabilizing. Too much stick movement and you are all over the place. Too little stick movement and you are all over the place. So how much is the right amount and how do you find it? If you think about the marble on a piece of glass analogy it provides a clue. If the marble is already in the center - large or small movements will keep it there as long as your movements are symmetrical and your timing is exact. The more exact your timing the less movement is necessary.

3. Read number 2 again because it is the KEY to learning how to hover. The more precise your timing the more stable your hover. So now we got that behind us - how do you find the right timing? We all know the answer to that one - PRACTICE. But practice what? While you are practicing - notice the oscillation effect when correcting. Starts rolling to the right and you give it left aileron. Starts rolling to the left and you give it right aileron. Back and forth until it swinging like a pendulum. New scenario - starts rolling right and you give it left aileron but this time give it a very slight nudge of right aileron BEFORE it starts rolling left - in other words predicting what it will do before it does it and adding a very slight amount of correction.

4. Doesn't matter if you thumb or pinch your sticks - whatever is comfortable - try to keep your cyclic stick centered and make very fine movements by nudging instead of holding - but be prepared to hold if it starts moving too fast.

5. Use the tail boom as a horizontal reference by keeping it at a slight angle to you. In the sim world this helps - in the real world it REALLY helps.

6. Use the throttle-hold switch instead of slamming the throttle down. Three reasons. 1st -slamming the throttle down will also slam your heli into the ground. The more negative the pitch - the harder the slam. 2nd - crashes happen faster than we can think -immediate switching the throttle-hold to on can protect the motor and ESC from burning up. 3rd - slamming the throttle down doesn't turn the engine off in idle-up mode (3D) - it is VERY difficult to reprogram your reflexes to hit the throttle-hold when you are conditioned to throttle-down-slam.

captJac, author
Taking Off With RC Helicopters - FAQ's 101

Thank you, thank you!

Only a few select people can benefit from your one-on-one instruction, but many can read your Internet posts. This one is a keeper.

Those are very good tips too... I only disagree with one of them... and only a little bit

I'll be picking up a copy of Phoenix so I can join the fun... I'm a RealFlight user mostly, and if you have that, you are welcome to train with me on there, for more advanced stuff. I will let you know when I get on the Phoenix. One reason I prefer RealFlight is the built-in voice chat... and so far, I have been able to avoid signing up with Skype... but I'm just gonna have to cave on that