Is Helicopter easy to fly? If you talked to the pilots, they'll tell you that it isn't. If you're not skilled, you can get killed. Recently, six Malaysian Air Force officers perished when the Nuri (H-3 Sea King) they flew in malfunctioned and crashed into the depth of the jungle at Genting Highlands. Now, I'm not here to talk about the unfortunate incident.
I'm here to talk about my own experience in flying a helicopter. Yup. You heard that right. I'm learning to fly a Helicopter. This is how the helicopter looked like at the Pre-Flight.
Esky E004 Honey Bee2
Yeah, it's a Remote Control unit, it ain't the real thing, but let me tell you one thing. This little baby might look small and cute but if you don't treat it with respect, the blades is able to chop off your fingers before you can say Honey!
The Bee's Controller
At this moment, I can't boast much as I'm still learning how to get the Bee2 to hover. It ain't easy and it's not for the faint hearted. You need a steady hand that is constantly adjusting the remote to keep it straight. There's constantly correction to be made to just make it hover above ground. Imagine that you've to get it to fly around. The skill needed is huge!
Big empty space to fly in!
Now, one other important thing to remember, make sure you've a big empty plot of land to play the helicopter in, 3 main reasons I could think of is because 1. You don't have to worry about injuring any innocent bystander cause you've a big place to fly in, 2. More empty space means more area to fly in. 3. So the pilot can run for cover if the helicopter runs out of control/amok (this happens if you don't know how to fly yet and try to show-off or cross-frequency with fellow R/Cs.)
I'm quite fortunate that the area I lived in have various empty plots of factory land and one of the land has been turned into an air-field by R/C Helicopter and Plane pilots that either work nearby or lived nearby. This is especially true after office hours, between 5pm to 7.30pm, we have a steady number of pilots in the field either working on their R/Cs or flying their planes and copters about. Helpful as well as friendly, these pilots readily share their experience and stories with any who wish to join them. Just walk up to them, introduce yourself and if you are planning to fly your plane/helicopter, check the frequencies that is being used.
Lelek and his Titan
For me, fortunate to have Lelek who is willing to teach me. Will I be able to fly as well as those people out there? Only time will tell. Does this mean that I don't want to play with R/C cars anymore? Yup! I WANT TO FLY!!!!!
