Vintage RC Helicopters - Joe's RC Helicopter Section - Where I fly

Where I fly Joe William Richardson

As Chief Engineer Officer on one of the MOD's latest ships I am in a unique position with regards to flying RC Helicopters.  The vessel is a 'Landing ship' and as such has an internal vehicle deck for carry even the biggest of military vehicle's and also a large flight deck.  Because I spend most of my time away from home this is where the majority of my flying is undertaken. 

Ships Vehicle deck:

In other words a huge long steel box that is perfect for indoor flying; that is until you fly into a bulkhead and steel is VERY unforgiving. As you can see, it is large enough for even a T-rex 600 though it can be quite intimidating having some thing that large go past only a couple of rotor diameters in front of you.  It is also a unique experience to try hovering when the ship is at sea and moving around.  As we all know, the way you control a helicopter is to notice a slight movement and carry out a correction action before this movement can result in the helicopter actually moving off.  When the ship moves this perception is in reverse and the helicopter will appear to move from its location in space without any  perceptible movement of itself.  This is because in the hover the helicopter will stay where it is and the ship will move without affecting it but as you are stood on the deck you move with the ship.  It is very disconcerting especially when you first try it as the helicopter may bank to the left but still keep moving to the right because you have not given it 'enough' stick.

Ships Flight Deck:

Excellent open space but has a couple of drawbacks the most obvious being that if you move off over the side then there is only water underneath !!!!!!!!  Now if you have a mishap at your flying field then with a bit of luck you can autorotate down to a landing; even if you cannot make it back to the 'patch' and it ends up in a 'splat' or 'chicken' dance, at least you can get it back.  However, anything happen over the water and you cannot make the deck then it's 'splooosh'; all gone !!!!  Done it once with an electric foam biplane that didn't make it back however; a grand's worth of T-rex or £2.5K for a Vario 'Airwolf' and it puts a whole different picture on the subject.  Even after a few years of flying off over the side I still get butterflies for the first few flights of any session and any slight 'hiccup' whilst in the air then its straight back with hands shaking.  After that I'm usually no good for the rest of the day so it's back inside to the vehicle deck.

I have even flown whilst the ship is 'under way' as its just like flying when its windy though hovering off the deck is strange because although the helicopter appears stationary it is actually in forward flight.  Transiting the deck edge can be dodgy though as there is quite a bit of turbulence and you do not want to be doing it when only a couple of meters above the deck.  Risky? not really as the result is the same no mater if the ship is moving or stopped; in the water and its lost.  I know it will happen one day as sod's law will make sure it does one way or another.

I have tried mounting my camcorder in a T-rex 600E to take video of the ship but it didn't like the vibration and shut down (hard drive version).  I also tried with a 'Flycam one' but the speed controller caused interference.  You don't notice too much going nose up or down slightly but the roll when in flight or attempting to hovering in a high side wind is very noticeable.  Fitting a heading hold gyro to lateral control should stop that, then again maybe will try again with a glow powered helicopter. 

Home:

Back garden is a place I tend to test hover most of the helicopters though you do have to watch out!  I managed to back a Knight 50 into the hedge and damage the tail and drive gears; that's what comes with acting 'clever'.  Alternatively, I can lift off in the front garden then fly off across the road and above the open fields.  Generally only do the latter with the smaller electric helicopters so if its a bigger model, I walk 100m to the end of the row then fly off over the fields.

The garden is useful for carrying out test flights etc however if I want to 'blat' around without frightening the neighbours I have a 'private' patch only half a mile away; as you can see its in the middle of large fields, quiet and excellent or what?  Mind you it does means that I am basically a 'solo' flyer and again, like my first time with helicopters, everything has been 'self' taught.

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