RC Newbie - King 3 Heli

[pjs]

Hello All

I got a Honey Bee King 3 for Christmas. I have never flown RC anything in my life, although I do have about a hundred hours on gliders (real ones). When I unpacked the heli from when I received it and spun it up, I ended up somewhat shortening the main rotor blades. Then I did lots of reading, a little bit of shopping and a tremendous amount of thinking. I still have a few questions, which hopefully some of you grand masters out there can shed some light on.

• My plan of action is to master the simulator first, in all orientations. I'm using HeliSim, which seems to simulate the model quite well. Then practice hovering in the living room, keeping within a 1 sq ft border, with training gear. Then I'll go outside and play. Properly. I am heading down the right track here, or am I heading for disaster (again)?
• When I get to the outside bit, where can I go fly in the JHB area? I don't want to have to drive to the other end of the Earth to spend 15 minutes flying.
• After my first little incident, I found the EHBG manual (Electric Helicopter Beginner's Guide). It recommends checking CG and balancing the swashplate before you do anything. Since the box said "Ready To Fly", I assumed that it was just that. Closer inspection showed that the CG was about 30mm aft of center with the battery snug in its holder, and that the swashplate was tilted about 15 degrees aft. Is it normal for these helis to be shipped so badly configured? I haven't tried flying it again after my first little fright, and just wanted to make sure that I'm not barking up the wrong tree.

Thank you in advance
Peter

[Dr.Vision]

• I can’t stress enough to use a sim!!!! I always suggestPhoenix for guys flying heli’s although Aerofly is very good too. Whatever simyou have is better than nothing. I would however NOT try too much in yourliving room LOL I know of way too many things that can go wrong there. A small pieceof garden should do fine.
  
  
  Unfortunately when it comes to this game you mostly get 2types of product. You get toy grade type stuff (Generally anything that’s VERYwell priced and says Ready to Fly) A lot of E-flite and Walkera stuffwould fit into this category. Funny I think these should say  “Almost Ready to fly” because that’s all theyare ALMOST able to fly.
  Then you get hobby grade kits and that would be the likes ofAlign, JR, Hirobo, Thunder Tiger, Makado and Outrage etc... (Not cheap and you’llhave to build most of them yourself) But well worth the trouble. It’s veryrewarding to fly a machine you have build from scratch.
  The best advice I think is to take your time and spend asmany hours on that sim as you can. Dont be in a rush. There are plenty clubsaround JHB to go fly too where you can get help from guys who have been doingthis for a while. Let us know what area you’re in and we can point you in theright direction to the club closes to you.   

[pjs]

Thank you, Dr

What category do you reckon the King 3 would fit into? The guys from ArialConcepts reckon they don't sell it because it is too difficult to fly, yet it is considerably cheaper than most of its counterparts.

Have you by any chance had a look at HeliSim (www.marksfiles.net)? I can't find any reviews for it on the net - probably because it was released quite recently - and as a new pilot, it is difficult for me to assess it. The model is far more difficult to fly than FMS, which should be a good thing. Right?

For clubs that might be close to me: I work in Bryanston, near Grosvenor Crossing, and live in Killarney, just South of Rosebank.

[Dr.Vision]

• Unfortunately the King is very much toy grade from my lineof thinking. If you feel the head you will feel tons of "slop" and movement.We spend hours and hours and a considerable amount of money getting rid of thison our 3D and F3C machines. There is no way to get rid of it on your heli.
  The guys at Arial Concepts are very right it is a difficultmachine to fly. That could be said about most machines that size (450ish) butthe King is not a "nice" machine to learn on. Make no mistake howeverif you can fly that you can fly just about anything. The guys at Arial don’tlike to sell those because they won’t get any repeat business.
  Think of it this way. Most people who try to learn to flyone of those are out of this hobby because of frustration in a matter of weeks.Someone who learns to fly on a 50 size machine and really gets into it is acustomer for many many years. I also started the hard way on a 450 size heli wasn’teasy at all.
  
  As for your sim, like I said before any sim is better than nothing. Use whatyou have at the moment. Take your time learning.  When you are ready to spend some cash on asim go for Phoenix it is in my opinion the best for heli's I have Aerofly toobut I don’t find it anywhere near as good and it's more expensive. The R1500you spend on a sim like Phoenix will same you BIG BIG BIG money in the years tocome on crashes. Think of it this way. If you save yourself from one crash on a50 size machine due to something you practised on the sim you’ve paid the simoff. If I work out savings for me I could have bought a new car.
  Come see us a NERF (Just off Allandale turn off) on Saturdayand meet crowd. Everybody is more than willing to help and answer any questionsyou’ll have. You can hear some of the stories of how everybody else startedbelieve me there are some funny ones.