Hi everybody

[mearsj]

As requested, I am introducing myself.

I am 75 years old, started modelling when I was about 10 but been in and out over the years.
About 30 years ago I was flying various IC models with a busy little club but we lost our field and it all fizzled out.
I had a spell at model gliding on a nearby ridge and in fact I still have a couple of gliders, one being a 10 foot span model which I'd love to fly but no suitable fields with permission to fly!
Before getting married, I had 3 three years sky-diving, gave that up and went flying full size gliders. Had a share in a all wood "Pirat" ( which I looped once!)

After around three years of that, changed to sailing and had an "Old Gaffer" cutter rig sailing boat.
Gave that up after a few more years and started playing golf, which I still do but not very well!

About 3 years ago my son gave me a beautiful electric aerobatic model (can't remember the name) which I promptly lost in a corn field only for the combined harvester to eat it a few weeks later!

My son has now given me his old T-rex helicopter which I haven't flown yet as I know it is not set up correctly (which is why he could never get on with it) It is fitted with the old 35 meg radio gear plus a "Futaba T7CAP" TX and I have no idea on how to set up that correctly. That is the reason I have joinened this forum, to hopefully get some help with it.
I have flown various smaller helicopters but never anything like this and I don't want to wreck it, so am prepared to wait until I have it all set up correctly before trying to fly.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

Basingstoke, UK

 

[Tony]

Welcome to the forum John! One of the first things I would do is get that old Tx system off of the helicopter. Trust me when I say, nothing sucks worse than crashing a helicopter because of a glitch. Been there too many times.

 

[Admiral]

Hi John, welcome to the forum and back to he hobby, I don't know your financial situation but if possible move to a 2.4 GHz radio system, if not there are a variety of Youtube videos on programming your radios but remember it is subject to more interference than the 2.4 systems. While you are getting setup I would also suggest a computer simulator to get used to flying again as you have been out of it for a while and CP helicopters take a lot more concentration than fixed wing or small co-axial helicopters.

 

[wolfman76]

welcome to the forum and back to the hobby John I agree with tony on the whole discarding of the old radio they are just way to prone to interference from all kinds of things. I recommend atleast a 6 channel radio 2.4ghz there is a number of affordable choices out there to choose from I know a lot of us use spektrum radios I also use flysky radio for my surface vehicles but they do have them for aircraft also any questions feel free to post up and any number of us will be happy to help in any way we can

 

[Smoggie]

Hi John,

Helis are hard and the heli you have will be several years old so wont have any of the 'mod cons' available today that can make them easier. Being a competent fixed wing flyer, especially if you are half decent at 3D aerobatics does help, but it will be still hard. The tricky thing with helis is that you need to coordinate all the controls pretty much all the time. Use of rudder is especially hard for some fixed wing flyers who use rudder for steering on the ground and not much else. With a heli you need to be on the rudder constantly. A sim is good advice.

I know a few people who still fly with old 35MHz gear and of course it works as well as it ever did, in fact today interference is probably less likely because not many people us it, they are all on 2.4GHz! Dont get me wrong, 2.4Ghz is a huge leap forward but if you have a good 35MHz set then it could still do a job for you in the short term.

Some good photos of what you have would be good, we might be able to spot any obvious issues with the heli.