Sleepyc
08-20-2008, 01:20 PM
By Toro (Jeremy Billeaudeux)
Yes, I am an addict… How many times have you been sitting at work, a soccer practice, church service, or at a mother-in-laws house at dinner and thought nothing about what was going on around you only to find yourself immersed in the pleasant sound of those main blades making that unmistakable thwop sound. It happens more than we know. A drive down the street turns into a see if I can find something that reminds me of helicopters. I can’t understand how something that is so simple can grip me so intensely. I am fortunate to be around the real deal occasionally at work within the fire department. Many a time I find myself sitting watching water dropping 412’s and Skycranes operating at the world famous California wildfires only to be startled by a co-worker telling me I should be doing something else and to get my head out of the clouds. What to do… feed it ? fight it ? Well… Here I am… FEED IT BABY !
This whole heli thing started for me about 6 years ago. I was flying giant planks, and was doing quite well with them. I was flying in contests and taking wood home with me. At that point I was flying a couple of times a week drawing straight lines in the air. I needed something more though, as I had grown weary of airplanes after having flown for 20+ years fixed wing. My discovery was at my local practice field there was a guy there from Thunder Tiger, and he flat out ripped. I was amazed at what he could do with a flying craft with spinning rotors. He was all over the place, ripping from spot to spot, and stopping on a dime. Inverted, right side up, side ways, what ever… Pirouetting high speed loops, and piro flipping with ease… HOW THE HECK WAS HE DOING THIS? This guy from TT was Jeff Fassbinder. He was rockin’! Well, soon after that I was so interested in helis I began speaking to the local club members about my thoughts of getting into helis. These conversations fell on the right ears, and a good friend of mine G-MONEY had a heli to spare that was handed down to him. And so it was passed on to yours truly. I was so ecstatic, I was in heaven, I now had a real life rotorcraft in my possession !! I had wanted one for so long as a kid, but was always told that they were so hard to fly. I had witnessed the difficulty many times with local guys trying their hands with the GMP and Schluter lines of helis, Crickets, Cobras, Heli boys, and many others. No one that I knew had very good luck with their early helis. I would witness them hover about 2” off the deck only to set them down and wipe their palms. This happened over and over. Surely I would have better luck than they did with this modern piece of machinery.
I came home from picking up the heli, and was mesmerized by its beauty. 550mm of wood bliss attached to the plastic and metal matrix sitting on top of the beautiful decal adorned canopy of the Raptor 30 V1. The K and S paddles with their bright yellow color just kind of made me stare at the machine cross eyed. I now was a heli owner. I couldn’t wait to get this bad boy in the air. First things first though, I needed some sim time. I had a realflight G 1 that I would practice on for hours. Hovering, holding, moving from side to side, and FFF (fast forward flight). I learned quickly how a machine felt in the computer, but was longing to fly the real deal. A practice session lasted for about an hour as I had a newborn to attend to and was interrupted regularly for assistance with feeding time. I purchased my gyro (a 401 w/9253) and got her all together. The big day was close so I elicited the help of one of my sailplane buddies who had taken up helis so he could fly when the lift wasn’t good. He showed me the ropes, pointed out my setup flaws, and helped me get my training gear affixed to the rig. It was time! We headed off to the park to spool up my pride and joy of used heli goodness for the first time.
First flight. We fueled up the bird, and applied the starter shaft to the one way sitting on top. Applied the glow starter, and hit the starter. The low high speed growl of the heli engine quickly sprang to life with a puff of smoke, and a smooooothhhh idle. I couldn’t believe it ! It was running. My buddy placed the heli about 10 yards out in front of us, and spooled her up. I watched with a grin as the rotors came up to their flying speed, and the heli lifted off ! BAM she was flyin’ !! He flew the first tank out of it, and landed it and handed me the transmitter, and said your turn. We repeated the primary steps, and again the heli came to life…. It was time… It was the time I had waited for for so many years. Watching so many people fail, and become disgruntled. Please don’t let me fail, please give me patience, I want this so bad. I was nervous yet confident as I felt so comfortable on the sim. I spooled up, and the heli came up to hover RPM. One more click on the collective revealed lighting of the machine on its skids. I was almost there. One more click and off she went. She was hovering about 2’ off the ground. Holy cow I thought, I’m doing it ! Just like the first time riding a 2 wheeler. I was actually accomplishing a dream I had had for 20 years. I was flying a heli. Well, first tank went so smoothly I was actually in FFF my first tank. I said lets get these training gear off this bird. I wanted to fly for real. The second flight, I was FFF the whole time, and I actually did a loop on this flight. I was so comfortable on the sim, that this was just like the sim. I was so stoked. I was flying a heli !!
Well one thing led to another after that first flight. I graduated from 30 to 50’s. I had 2 raptor Titan 50’s I flew regularly when flying planks. I attended IRCHA for the first time a couple of years ago. I quickly realized that the heli crowd was less sterile than the plane crowd, and the heli crowd shared an air of EXTREMISM that I loved! Heli flying was so aggressive, and fast paced. I knew that this style suited me and I wanted to be a part of it. I sold everything Giant, as my interest had really waned. Soon after I had bought more helis with the Giant cash I had stowed. At this point I no longer have anymore giant scale airplanes, I still have a couple of sailplanes (for those nice beach days) and I have 6 helis. God I have an addiction. But you know what…. I LOVE IT !!! and there's a lot worse things I could be doing. Since those first flights I have become a competent 3D pilot. I ain’t the best guy out there, but I can fly decently. The cool thing is, I’m still seeing progress. It continues to feed my addiction. There’s just something really cool about helis that you cant describe until your immersed in them. Its like CRACK. One hit and your addicted.
Yes, I am an addict… How many times have you been sitting at work, a soccer practice, church service, or at a mother-in-laws house at dinner and thought nothing about what was going on around you only to find yourself immersed in the pleasant sound of those main blades making that unmistakable thwop sound. It happens more than we know. A drive down the street turns into a see if I can find something that reminds me of helicopters. I can’t understand how something that is so simple can grip me so intensely. I am fortunate to be around the real deal occasionally at work within the fire department. Many a time I find myself sitting watching water dropping 412’s and Skycranes operating at the world famous California wildfires only to be startled by a co-worker telling me I should be doing something else and to get my head out of the clouds. What to do… feed it ? fight it ? Well… Here I am… FEED IT BABY !
This whole heli thing started for me about 6 years ago. I was flying giant planks, and was doing quite well with them. I was flying in contests and taking wood home with me. At that point I was flying a couple of times a week drawing straight lines in the air. I needed something more though, as I had grown weary of airplanes after having flown for 20+ years fixed wing. My discovery was at my local practice field there was a guy there from Thunder Tiger, and he flat out ripped. I was amazed at what he could do with a flying craft with spinning rotors. He was all over the place, ripping from spot to spot, and stopping on a dime. Inverted, right side up, side ways, what ever… Pirouetting high speed loops, and piro flipping with ease… HOW THE HECK WAS HE DOING THIS? This guy from TT was Jeff Fassbinder. He was rockin’! Well, soon after that I was so interested in helis I began speaking to the local club members about my thoughts of getting into helis. These conversations fell on the right ears, and a good friend of mine G-MONEY had a heli to spare that was handed down to him. And so it was passed on to yours truly. I was so ecstatic, I was in heaven, I now had a real life rotorcraft in my possession !! I had wanted one for so long as a kid, but was always told that they were so hard to fly. I had witnessed the difficulty many times with local guys trying their hands with the GMP and Schluter lines of helis, Crickets, Cobras, Heli boys, and many others. No one that I knew had very good luck with their early helis. I would witness them hover about 2” off the deck only to set them down and wipe their palms. This happened over and over. Surely I would have better luck than they did with this modern piece of machinery.
I came home from picking up the heli, and was mesmerized by its beauty. 550mm of wood bliss attached to the plastic and metal matrix sitting on top of the beautiful decal adorned canopy of the Raptor 30 V1. The K and S paddles with their bright yellow color just kind of made me stare at the machine cross eyed. I now was a heli owner. I couldn’t wait to get this bad boy in the air. First things first though, I needed some sim time. I had a realflight G 1 that I would practice on for hours. Hovering, holding, moving from side to side, and FFF (fast forward flight). I learned quickly how a machine felt in the computer, but was longing to fly the real deal. A practice session lasted for about an hour as I had a newborn to attend to and was interrupted regularly for assistance with feeding time. I purchased my gyro (a 401 w/9253) and got her all together. The big day was close so I elicited the help of one of my sailplane buddies who had taken up helis so he could fly when the lift wasn’t good. He showed me the ropes, pointed out my setup flaws, and helped me get my training gear affixed to the rig. It was time! We headed off to the park to spool up my pride and joy of used heli goodness for the first time.
First flight. We fueled up the bird, and applied the starter shaft to the one way sitting on top. Applied the glow starter, and hit the starter. The low high speed growl of the heli engine quickly sprang to life with a puff of smoke, and a smooooothhhh idle. I couldn’t believe it ! It was running. My buddy placed the heli about 10 yards out in front of us, and spooled her up. I watched with a grin as the rotors came up to their flying speed, and the heli lifted off ! BAM she was flyin’ !! He flew the first tank out of it, and landed it and handed me the transmitter, and said your turn. We repeated the primary steps, and again the heli came to life…. It was time… It was the time I had waited for for so many years. Watching so many people fail, and become disgruntled. Please don’t let me fail, please give me patience, I want this so bad. I was nervous yet confident as I felt so comfortable on the sim. I spooled up, and the heli came up to hover RPM. One more click on the collective revealed lighting of the machine on its skids. I was almost there. One more click and off she went. She was hovering about 2’ off the ground. Holy cow I thought, I’m doing it ! Just like the first time riding a 2 wheeler. I was actually accomplishing a dream I had had for 20 years. I was flying a heli. Well, first tank went so smoothly I was actually in FFF my first tank. I said lets get these training gear off this bird. I wanted to fly for real. The second flight, I was FFF the whole time, and I actually did a loop on this flight. I was so comfortable on the sim, that this was just like the sim. I was so stoked. I was flying a heli !!
Well one thing led to another after that first flight. I graduated from 30 to 50’s. I had 2 raptor Titan 50’s I flew regularly when flying planks. I attended IRCHA for the first time a couple of years ago. I quickly realized that the heli crowd was less sterile than the plane crowd, and the heli crowd shared an air of EXTREMISM that I loved! Heli flying was so aggressive, and fast paced. I knew that this style suited me and I wanted to be a part of it. I sold everything Giant, as my interest had really waned. Soon after I had bought more helis with the Giant cash I had stowed. At this point I no longer have anymore giant scale airplanes, I still have a couple of sailplanes (for those nice beach days) and I have 6 helis. God I have an addiction. But you know what…. I LOVE IT !!! and there's a lot worse things I could be doing. Since those first flights I have become a competent 3D pilot. I ain’t the best guy out there, but I can fly decently. The cool thing is, I’m still seeing progress. It continues to feed my addiction. There’s just something really cool about helis that you cant describe until your immersed in them. Its like CRACK. One hit and your addicted.