Most of you know, its been a while since I have been able to actually get out and fly.. well today is Christmas, the weather was perfect, for a winter day. I decided I needed to get out and at least try to get some flights in. A lot of people have been asking me how the new radio has been treating me, and to be honest that is a hard question to answer. Mostly because its has really been a day to day thing for me. It seems that one day it feels like things are going really well, the next day it almost feels like I am starting over.
I have been on the sim almost every night since I got the new radio. At first I was really hard on myself, and a bit disappointed. It really felt like I took 100 steps back and that was not a good feeling. It didn’t take long and things started to click.
So that leads me to today, looked outside… sun was shining with just one day off for Christmas, I pretty much knew if I did not head to the field, I would regret it. Show up.. dust off the Coolpower 700, charge a few batteries. At this point there are no more excuses. Took a bit to get the Nitro going, but eventually it came to life. I took it out onto the flight line, set it down… At this point I was horribly nervous. I instantly reverted to a time a bunch of years ago when I can remember feeling scared to fly. I took a big breath.. started spooling it up.. next thing I knew the heli was in the air.
All seemed ok, I just was messing around with some basic hovering. I started shaking and had to set it down. I knew I was going to be able to do it. I just lacked the confidence. I did not let it stop me, so I spooled up again and this time I powered through it. Started to do some flips and rolls, It all started coming back. But I noticed that I kept bailing out of nose in orientations. Basically I decided that for now that was going to have to be OK, so I just rolled with it.
At the end of the day, I got in 4 glorious flights, its been since September since I last had a flight. It was awesome to get out to the field and I am looking forward to getting some more in this coming weekend. I think the new radio will eventually feel as natural to me as my old setup… To be honest, I am just thankful that I had a chance to get in a small handful of flights today.
Let me end by saying thanks to all of you that have taken the time to send me emails and other messages of support. This IS the best hobby there is
-Dan