Fees and Charges
I recommend that you purchase your own helicopter and learn repairs and maintenance with members of an MAAA registered club. If you have not yet purchased your own helicopter or require assistance with repairs and setup, I can help with the aid of my helicopter and workshop at very reasonable rates.
- Flight instruction with my helicopter and support equipment - 60.00 dollars per session.
· Dual control (buddy box)
·
2 Flights per session
- Workshop repairs - 50.00 dollar assessment up front, Usually sufficient for labour on minor repairs.
· Retail spare parts and workshop labour
· Repairs, Mechanical and electrical set up
·
Bench checkout and test flight of new / repaired models
Starting out
with an RC helicopter
Buy a simulator! The cost of a simulator is often less than the spare parts bill of your first crash. Make no mistake, you will crash at some point in time and the fault is usually your own.
An electric 500-600 or nitro 30-50 is a good size helicopter
to get started with. Nitro is popular due to the 'fuel and go' nature of an
i.c. powered motor. Electric may cost you a little more to start with as one
battery is never going to be enough (and then you need to charge them) but the
performance is great! Nitro is the cheaper in larger helis to start with. Each
type has its merits. Look into them.
Pre loved? Unless you know the helicopters history, I would
not recommend starting with a second hand machine. All too often I have seen a
student arrive with a model that has no spare parts available (due to its age)
and / or was put together by a moron. That's not to say that there are not good
pre loved machines available... you need to know what to look for.
Same can be said about radio gear and flight batteries,
unless you know its history (in particular the receivers and gyros) you may be
off to an expensive lesson. Start out with new electrical equipment. There will
always be new features on the next must have model, so get the one that is a
stretch on the wallet now rather than upgrade it after a few months anyway.
Take off is optional
Your helicopter is a collection of parts bolted together in
order to stop them flying apart from gyroscopic forces, vibration, torque,
mechanical load, and high temperatures. It is controlled by an invisible field
of electrons deciphered by a microprocessor with negative feedback added by
anywhere from one to three gyroscopes. Then the sum of the offset is sent to
another 4 microprocessors in a tight local feedback loop to run controls via small
electric motors with tiny gears....
