"Skywise" <into@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:65UOj.53168$fx2.6550@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Quick background...my first introduction to heli's was when I was
> a kid (about 1980 +- a few) and saw a guy hovering at the local
> school yard on summer day.
>
> Forgot all about it until a couple years later when I saw folks
> flying planes at the local fair grounds. That got me real interested
> in R/C, but alas, never did get anything. But I had a subscription
> to a modeller magazine for a few years.
>
> Then about 1991 or so I saw an electric heli in a hobby shop.
> Was interested but didn't like the idea that it could barely
> hold it's own weight for almost 2 minutes!!! (heavy NiCad's back
> then still)
>
> So then it's all forgot again until a few months ago. My have
> things changed!! And then I see all this 3D flying in YouTube
> videos. Now, I knew model heli's could do things that real one's
> couldn't, like inverted flight and loops and rolls and such. But
> I had no idea they could THAT!
>
> OK, my question is, when did this type of flying get started? I'm
> sure it's real easy (relatively) with all the fancy electronics
> and gyros and such.
If only. Lots of flyers THINK they can fly "3D", but thinking is a far cry
from actually doing.
TRUE 3D flying is probably best described as being in control of the heli
when it's flying in ANY direction in ANY orientation at any speed, so that
could be backwards while upside down, or sideways while sideways to the
ground, spinning in either direction while flying mutliple loops etc. ANY
position at ANY time. No electronics package (presently) can allow a ****e
flyer to do that, so talent is still the major factor in proper 3D flying.
Well talent and (nowadays) heavy simulator practice.
As for when it started, it was shortly after the invention (by Colin
Mills)
of the heading lock gyro which would be sometime in the eary/mid 90's.
Prior
to that, we were flying upside down and doing a raft of other manoeuvres,
but high speed backwards flight was a dream, even with the best gyro's and
fastest servo's available at the time. As soon as it was possible to
control
the tail during high speed backwards flight, the 3D world opened up. As
did
a lot of huge holes in the ground and in people's wallets:-)
>But what about a long long time ago when all
> there was was nitro and mechanical mixing? Did people do 3D back
> then?
No, but they did do "conventional" aerobatics. Loops, rolls, stall turns
and
a combination of the three. The main "thrust" was for people to fly a
helicopter as a close emulation of a fixed wing plane as possible, so
perfectly round loop (at a constant speed) and perfectly axial rolls (at a
constant altitude) were deemd the pinacle of control and in lots of
people's
eyes, still are. there's a majesty and grace seeing a helicopter fly the
FAI
manoeuvres that can't possibly be copied in a 3D demonstration.
>Or did it only come about when all the fancy gizmos arrived?
More or less. Now some people could still make a heli look exciting, even
without the gizmo's, but those gizmo's made 3D more attainable and a LOT
easier for those who took the bull by the horns and committed their heli's
to the maximum. The esarly days were ****ING expensive though. It wasn't
unusual to come back from the field faced with a repair buill well over
1000
quid (2000 dollars).
--
Beav
VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19
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