Glossary

New to the hobby? Hear someone say a term at the field and you have no idea what they’re talking about? Here’s a Glossary of Terms we’ve come up with to help you get up to speed with the lingo. As time goes on you will notice that this is continuously growing so be sure to check back often to see recent additions. Interested in adding to the list? If so, head over to Helifreak where you can comment on the thread to make sure your word makes it on the list!

4th of July
When the LiPo's fall out of the model mid air and into the blades. Generally produces a 30ft streamer from the now ripped open LiPo's and usually followed by a brush fire
A Dan
going all in on something you once wanted no part of. ( goblin, vbar, vcontrol)
A Jessie
desoldering an ec5
A Justin
Gluing ones extremities to your face with CA
A Nick
burning/blowing up an esc
Asymetrical Blades
Where the top of the blade is a different shape than the bottom. Mostly used in scale flying and non-inverted applications for increased efficiency.
Auto Plow
When a model commits suicide because of some mechanical failure. From minor to spectacular
Autorotation
A maneuver that is performed with the motor/engine in throttle hold or completely off as a means to land the heli without power. Also done to keep fresh on emergency landings and do cool tricks.
Backup
Secondary source of receiver power if your main source fails
BEC
Battery Eliminator Circuit, a voltage regulator used instead of a receiver battery. The current is drawn from the main flight batteries.
Belt Slap
This is the tail belt hitting the inside of the tailboom while flying, sounds like a pop can rolling down a hill, a symptom of a loose belt
Blade Fart
When a particularly inefficient blade emits a farting, ripping, or snapping sound when flown aggressively.
Blade Scrape
When the pilot flies the heli close enough to the ground to momentarily scrape the tips of the mains or tails and then recovers.
Blade Sniper
The act of grinding blades so much out of boredom on tarmac that it begins to shoot it's weights out and injure people
Blade strike
when your blade hits anything, often the ground. This is commonly talked about in relation to tail blades touching the ground.
Flying On Rails
Usually referring to the precision of a helicopter while flying. It alludes to when it is flying as if it were mounted on a track.
Boom strike
when a blade hits your boom.  Also a type of blade strike.
Box
A given area that you have to fly in when you have multiple people flying at the same time on the flight line.
Braaapppp
Nick’s version of a fart. Also used to reference 2-stroke engines.
Bunny Hop
A quick reversal of positive and negative pitch with a quick cyclic input inbetween. The helicopter will exhibit a hopping motion down the flight light. Can be done forwards or backwards
CAF
Cold as fuck. Nick’s general reaction when temperatures drop below 60F.
Center of Gravity (COG)
The point at which an object balances. eg. If you put one finger under the length of a blade, the COG is the point at which the blade will balance on your finger.
Chicken Dance
Most commonly seen in fuel models where upon crashing the throttle gets stuck wide open causing the model to violently flop about on the ground
Chili dip
Act of dipping the helicopter daringly in an otherwise high altitude safe flight. Egged on by spotters yelling "CHILI DIP"
Collective Management
The art of combing the minimum amount of cyclic and collective pitch needed to make the helicopter do what you want it to do
Connector Fail
When the choice of crappy connector and or lack of soldering skill creates a joint with so much resistance that the required current generates enough heat to re-flow the the solder
Contest Director (CD)
The event "official" to blame for anything that goes wrong at an event/fun fly
Corners
The extremes of throws on a stick. Full forward elevator plus full left aileron. Also, a nick name for Shawn Hempel.
Craptacualr
Something that is crappy, in a spectacular way
CWB
A cold weather bastard…someone who lives in a climate that makes it difficult to fly year round due to excessively cold, rainy, or snowy weather.
Cyclic Gain
An adjustment in a flybarless system that controls the main gain for the rotor head.
Cyclic Nod
An uncommanded slow cyclic bobble from front-to-back. Most visible in the tail moving up and down.
Cyclic Shake
A quick uncommanded left-to-right cyclic movemnent. Commonly caused by cyclic gain being too high.
D-bag
See douche bag.
D Gain
The Derivative gain in a PID control loop. Most commonly used in tail tuning for controlling the stopping behavior of the tail.
Dirt Nap
A phrase in reference to crashing one’s helicopter
Dismount auto
Generally describes an overspeed style auto and utilize that energy to do a fancy bottom aerobatic maneuver and landing
Doo Doo Balls
Pulling out of a planned, (or un-planned) maneuver at the last possible moment. Usually followed by a vigorous shaking of your leg to clear out the small particles of Poo that were secreted from your hind end.
Douche Bag
Derogitory name given to someone that does something harmful to the hobby, others, or his character. Usually prefaced with, “don’t be a…”.
Downunder
A word commonly used to give us Aussies shit for our accent. Nick does it well though.
Drone
The term used by the FAA and the media that strikes FUD into the minds of our countrymen used to push their agenda.
ESC
Electrical Speed Controller
Extreme 3D
Type of flying focused on high speed maneuvers on 360 degrees of motion, usually done very close to ground level (less than 6 feet). 3D is a loose term used for the most common type of R/C helicopter flying when performing aerobatic maneuvers.
F3C
The discipline of precision hovering and flight.
F3C
type of competition rules set by FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) where points are awarded for precise movements, and consist of a given set of maneuvers that each pilot must execute as precisely as possible.
F3N
The discipline of precision/technical aerobatic flight.
FBL
Flybarless 1. Can describe a heli that doesn't have a flybar. - "look at that fbl heli" 2. I have seen it refer to the actual... um flybarless control unit / flight stabilization controller / whatever you call that thing
Feed Forward
A direct action from a FBL system due to your stick commands given to the servos before the control loop has time to interperit the input data and make a calculated command.
Fence Post
The act of driving a helicotper deeply into the ground tail boom first
FFF
Fast Forward Flight. Flying the helicopter in a straight line. This requires the pilot to tilt the helicopter forward and manage collective to counter the downwards momentum that tilting creates which naturally tends to drive the helicopter to the ground.  
Figure 9
The result of performing a loop and forgetting to pull out at the bottom
Flight Line
Imaginary line that the pilot flies in front of. A line that should never be crossed with a flying model.
Flight Line
A line that marks the boundary of where you can fly and where the pilots can stand.
Floaty
A heli that is considered “floaty” has a lighter disc loading than standard for that size class. The helicopter exhibits the feeling of wanting to “float” in the knife-edge orientation.
Flowy
The smooth cyclic feel reminiscent of a flybarred model. The disk flows from maneuver to maneuver as if inertia is carrying it through. Very desireable characteristic for stirring maneuvers.
FPV
Abbreviation for First Person View. The act of flying a model while looking at a video screen or with video goggles via a camera placed on the model.
FUD
Fear uncertainty doubt
Fun fly
Gathering of pilots flying, and in general having a great time
Gasshole
That one guy who insists on taking up a flying station at a fun fly, for 20 minutes, while a line of pissed off pilots behind him quietly plot to beat him down.
Hanging on the Pipe
When you hit throttle hold on a nitro model and the engine RPM's do not drop but they hang.  It resembles the sound of a 2 stroke dirt bike.
Head Gain
See “Cyclic Gain”
Hot apple pie
A mixture of Everclear and apple cider cooked together with pear juice and cinnamon sticks. Consumed at fun flies and typically sought out by listeners as “something I need to try.”
Hot Dog Fuel
See White Fuel
I GOT IT
Run to the nearest tree or hide undercover in the pits
Inverted
Flipping the helicopter over and flying upside down
Jackhammer Auto
The act of autoing your helicopter in such a fashion that when it lands it bounces multiple off the ground before to coming to a rest.
Jesus Bolt
The bolt that holds the head to the main shaft or the main shaft to the main gear. Named after Jesus because it holds the heli together in a similar fashion that Jesus holds the universe together. It's the most important bolt on the heli.   Variant: named because if it falls out He's the only one that can save you!
Jlog
A telemetry system that can read various ESC’s and other external telemetry and acts as a data bus for transfer to your transmitter.
Lawn Dart
Sticking either the front or back end of your heli into the ground
LIPO
A lithium polymer battery, typically with a nominal cell voltage of 3.7V
Locked-In
A very broad term desicribing when the helicopter is doing precisely what you’re inputs commands tell it to. Most commonly used in larger maneuvers and the helis ability to maintain heading
Logging
The ability of a device to record data for viewing at a later time.
Lower
The last thing inevitably yelled at Deater before he plows it in  
mAh
Abbreviation for Milli Amp Hours. Common method for measurement of the capacity of a battery.
Main Shaft
The main steel shaft that the rotor head attaches too. Most commonly driven from the main gear. Swash plate also rides on this shaft.
Mains
An acronym for “main blades”
McDoogle
High altitude dive into full negative with the intent to massively overspeed the disk and get attention. Often followed by a lot of boring flying until the next overspeed. 😛
McFail
Overspeed maneuver that results in some sort of failure (crash or in air model disassembly)
McFizzle
Attempt to overspeed that totally fizzles and is anti-climatic
Mesh
Typically referring to main gear mesh, this is how tight or loose the teeth of the gears mate together
Mirage
what Nick says when he means a lot of something.
Nosepickers
People that are being annoying or acting like know it alls
Overspeed
The acting of using the models speed to force the blades to turn at much higher RPMs then the governor set point. The one way bearing is disengaged and RPM is usually higher than what the ESC is able to log (since OWB is disengaged)  
Pie dish
English for funnel
Piro Flop
Name given to the maneuver called a “piro-flip” when it’s not performed correctly
Planker
slang for a douche who flies a fixed wing model and does not have the knowledge or skill to fly that of a rotary wing variety
Pop
A term used to describe the amount of collecitive pitch response a main blade has.
Pop and lock
Another form of smack where the intent is to produce blade farts with sharp precise stops generally as close as possible to the ground
Red Necking
Flying at night with only torches or spotlights to see
Resonate
Caused by rotating parts at different speeds, sending waves of vibration throughout different parts of the heli. Mainly cause by bad bearings, bent Spindles chipped blades, poorly set up TT.
Robotic
A way to describe the cyclic response and feel of a helicopter. Typically found in a higher-gain settings with high initial response off center stick.
Roll a hard 8
when you crash a quad rotor hard enough to break all four blades and all four booms
RX
Receiver
SAG's
Shits and giggles: to do something just for the laughs; or when someone tells a hilarious joke outside the portapotty/bathroom stall, causing shits and giggles.  
Sh’load
A more efficient and catchy way of saying a “shit load” of something.
Shocker
Putting the helicopter in a tail slide at a very high altitude with the intention of pulling out at the last minute, but instead, admiring how perfectly zero pitch it is all the way into the ground
signoticably
significantly noticeable difference
Skid Bump
The act of driving the helicopter towards the ground in the upright position, while at the last possible moment adding positive pitch and gently “bumping” the skids on the ground.
Sliding Auto
When the pilot performs an autorotation and stretches the final approach to gain more forward speed so that they can then lightly touch the skids down and slide on the ground.
Speed
Type of flying AND type of helicopters dedicated to this type of flying, where the goal is to achieve the maximum speed with a combination of model setup and precise straight-line FFF to minimize speed loss.
Spotter
A mate that stands next to you when flying to watch for fellow pilots machines. Will warn you of the I GOT IT yell.
Stick Bangers
A blade designed by Curtis Youngblood for his blade company Radix. Popular in the flybar days due to their increased cyclic response.
Symetrical Blades
Where the top of the blade is the same shape as the bottom. Most common type of RC helicotper blade and are intended for 3D flying
Taco
What your flight pack resembles after an epic crash
Tail Kick
When giving a collective input an uncommanded tail movement
Tails
An acronym for “tail blades”
Tall-Ho
A cigarette paper used in between the gears for perfect mesh every time.
TBO = tail blow out
A large uncommanded yaw movement that is usually 90º or more. This typically occurs in fast sideways or backwards flight. Unlike tail kick, the heli does not try to return to the previous input.
Team Taco
Once you experience a taco'd pack you might become a member of this elite club depending on the severity of the taco
Telemetry
The ability of a device to output live data back to the transmitter for viewing in real time
The 7 P's
Piss poor preparation promotes piss poor performance
Tic tic
A really shitty tic toc. Not orientation specific.
Tip-over
When the helicopter tips to a side while sitting on the ground before takeoff or after landing. Damage to the helicopter varies depending on headspeed and if the motor is engaged or not.
Torque
A measure of the rotational force available from a motor. Usually used as a specification of a servo
Blade scrape
When the main rotor blades touch the ground, but not enough to break the blades. It can cause a cheer on the side of the crowd when it is accomplished hovering inverted.
TT
Torque Tube
Two Mistakes High
Performing a maneauver high enough that you could make 2 mistakes trying to save the heli and still save it before crashing. This height will be different for everyone.
TX
Transmitter
Upgrade Opportunity
When one crashes
Uvular
A fuselage made by Mikado…F3C’ish.
V-Control
A radio by Mikado that has vbar integration.
Wag
An uncommanded back-and-forth movement from the tail rotor
Walk of Shame
The lonesome walk that one must make out in the field to retrieve their crashed model.
Whirly Bird
When the Jesus bolt fails or falls out, and the head goes flying into the air like a vertical Frisbee.
White Fuel
Slang term for Coleman lantern fuel commonly used in gasoline helicopters
WWD
A warm weather dick…someone who lives in a climate that allows them to fly in nice weather most if not all of the year. Most notably, Arizona and Florida.
Y-Harness
A wire harness that converts a single connector into two parallel or series connectors. Mostly used in parallel for servo leads and in series for high-cell count battery systems.
Yard Sale
When your helicopter explodes and is in dozens of pieces
Yeeeeeessssss!!!
A phrase made popular by Pinion the dog used in reference to great appreciation for something