My (Bought) Christmas Present(s)

[pdub]

I want another micro helicopter to fly around inside the house. That just fits me perfect, flying RC. They've come way down in price, the little copters have. In the past years I've crashed and destroyed 3 of them. I want another one, I love to fly, hand-eye and depth perception (which I do NOT have).

Sometime last weekend or the weekend before I got on line and convinced Unit that I truly deserve another micro helicopter. She's all okay with it. Sometime in the middle of the night with beer involved I placed the order, copter, extra batteries, etc. They shot back an auto email that said I would be informed when my order shipped.

The next two days or so they hit my credit card for nearly 60 dollars, but they didn't ever email me that the order had shipped. I went and bragged to Superman ho much cheaper the microcopters have become (he never pays full price for anything, that's a long story), now they're only about 60 bucks fully loaded out.

Time goes by, they may never ship the copter. We got back from the road trip joy ride today and there was a pretty good-sized box sitting on the porch.

TWO helicopters. I did in fact somehow order TWO of them. And....They're only about 29 bucks apiece.....An innocent double-click. Unit has declared I am never to go ordering stuff off of the internet again after I've had the 10th beer. Good thing I wasn't on the Ferrari page.

[corvettedad]

Yeah but after that 10th beer it's " Damn The Torpedoes Full Speed Ahead " there ain't nothing I don't deserve!
Oh and speaking of X-mas for me, having to work over and pull 16 today, hello GoPro!

[pdub]

The three axises (?)...pitch, roll and yaw. In a car, we've got yaw, around the curve. Roll, does the car lean over going into the curve? Pitch, only if you're hard into the throttle or the brakes, nose up, nose down. You're on the ground, after all.

In a past life of hobbies, I've flown fixed wing RC airplanes and crashed nearly every one of them in the great outdoors. Lack of depth perception in 3D, and one time a simple piloting airspeed error. Stalled it going downwind on a very windy day. With fixed wing, you're hauling ass forward and you better keep doing it if you want to stay aloft.

Helicopter.....that's another thing. Quite the challenge. Folks who can do it make it look real easy. The first best thing is to get the thing so it will hover. Lots of trim adjustments.

Then you can go somewhere.

Pitch....nose up, instead of gaining altitude like you do in a fixed wing aircraft (with enough airspeed of course) , in a helicopter now all of a sudden with nose-up pitch you are going straight backward.

Roll. You can roll a symmetrical wing stunt plane like a barrel. You put some roll into a helicopter, and now you're traveling sideways as fast or faster as you've going forward (or backward).

Yaw.....That's something an airplane can't do nearly as well as a helicopter. When you apply some yaw, it depends on how much pitch or roll you have already applied. Whip the tail around and now things are different entirely.

I love trying to fly model helicopters. Nobody gets hurt when I crash.

[DanStokes]

Our 7-year-old Grandson has been wacky for helicopters since he was 18 months or so and it's still passion #1 (he likes Legos and cars and stuff, too). He and his Dad fly inside the house quite a bit but he's not quite ready to solo. I'll bet it won't be long. I worry a little if his autistic little brother will get freaked out by the choppers but I guess it's all he's ever known so it's normal in his world.

In other words, PW, you clearly have the interests of a 7-year-old! (Love ya anyway, buddy! Besides, you're about 2 years ahead of me.)

Dan

[SuperBuickGuy]

I have two of those, I'm pretty certain the dogs hid the charger....

[Barry Donovan]

I'd rather train with an RC than a video game..
nothing youthful about it.

they carry bombs and cameras today with them.
one thing stays hidden, and that is weight and response times, for the given air. But still .. it is even fun.

there is a video on youtube where a military helicopter was landing downward a mountain slope.. no climbing out, nothing..no control, gaining speed.
that downslope wind took over. Smacked it right into the snow luckily.

[Stewzer55]

Would be fun, I'm sure my dog would find a way to eat it somehow, or the charger. If they could make one that would fetch beer, that would be very nice.

[pdub]

... a mountain slope.. no climbing out, nothing..no control, gaining speed.
that downslope wind took over. Smacked it right into the snow luckily.

I'd had some time flying RC fixed wing years ago when I went to visit a great friend in Florida. He lived by the coast. He had an RC sailplane, a little fixed wing glider. It's a sport they call.....I can't remember the term for it, but you can fly until the receiver battery runs out on the plane. The sea breeze is coming in and you ride and surf the updrafts off of all the motels and other buildings on the beach.

You sling the plane out toward the ocean, let it blow back and it's on. He asked me, "You wanna fly?" ready to hand me the controller. No, I have no depth perception. I don't know if the plane is close to that building or not even close to it or above it or below it or what. Same thing in the living room. So I hit the wall with the helicopter. Still do. But it sure is fun, even still.

[Deaf Bob]

Would be fun, I'm sure my dog would find a way to eat it somehow, or the charger. If they could make one that would fetch beer, that would be very nice.

I believe they are called "drones"...