In the last couple of days I've managed to get my XK110 hovering without the gyros, the first time I've ever flown a heli without stabilisation.

The second flight it was a bit gusty and I was introduced to the wonderful world of rapidly changing translational lift. The wind gusted so much that at one point I was idling the rotor to descend! That's when I started using idle up, somewhat sooner than I'd imagined!

Both sessions I only managed three of my battery packs as opposed to the full 7 because I was getting shaky and weak at the knees from all the concentration and sheer excitement.

I'd love to hear how other people's milestones compare, it really feels like you've achieved something and it's been worth the hours of practice buzzing around on the floor or in a sim to get go that point.

Originally Posted by Jack_Varus

In the last couple of days I've managed to get my XK110 hovering without the gyros, the first time I've ever flown a heli without stabilisation.

The second flight it was a bit gusty and I was introduced to the wonderful world of rapidly changing translational lift. The wind gusted so much that at one point I was idling the rotor to descend! That's when I started using idle up, somewhat sooner than I'd imagined!

Both sessions I only managed three of my battery packs as opposed to the full 7 because I was getting shaky and weak at the knees from all the concentration and sheer excitement.

I'd love to hear how other people's milestones compare, it really feels like you've achieved something and it's been worth the hours of practice buzzing around on the floor or in a sim to get go that point.

Sounds like you are missing a little negative pitch from your pitch curve.

Finally running without the "training wheels" is a great feeling. Congrats my friend.

Hours of practicing? LOL! It took me weeks before it clicked.

My oldest son on the other hand sounds more like yourself, and he picked it up fairly quickly.
We both had the benefit of playing with helicopter simulators, but for some reason he picked it up
almost immediately (within a few flights).

Too bad the interest is not there. I've been trying to get him into trains as well. but he's stuck in computers.

I initially overcame the varying lift problem by making my 7-point throttle curve go from zero to over 60% at the first point, then gradually up to about 80% over the remaining five points. That way I didn't lose many rpm if I needed to go to negative pitch to counteract the gusts. That allowed me to retain the ability to shut down instantly by throttling back to zero, instead of having to fumble for the throttle-cut switch in emergency.

Once hitting the throttle-cut switch became second nature, I then switched over to using idle1 for my flights.

Jack, Congrats on the progress. It feels good to see the time spent on the sticks paying off. FYI, there's good comments above...

I might have to set up the throttle curve like that. I don't like negative pitch out of idle up because I tend to land in grass a lot I like to autorotate in for the last couple of inches and a sudden acceleration down would really throw me.

I've started flying in idle up now if it's breezy. I've been getting much better at throttle hold so I might do the whole flight in idle up soon.

Originally Posted by Jack_Varus

I might have to set up the throttle curve like that. I don't like negative pitch out of idle up because I tend to land in grass a lot I like to autorotate in for the last couple of inches and a sudden acceleration down would really throw me.

I've started flying in idle up now if it's breezy. I've been getting much better at throttle hold so I might do the whole flight in idle up soon.

TH is definitely the way to go. It took me a while, but I finally saw the light.

Still not very good at TH landings, though. I usually land at whatever head speed I'm running and once it's planted
with a few degrees of negative pitch hit TH.