The oh-so-plain website of
the RC Heli Newbie - RCHeliNewbie.com
In July of 2008 I started my journey with RC Helicopters. You might think that makes me an expert by now, but not so. I'm a *very* slow learner. Flying the machine is very difficult for me.

"How slow?" you ask!! Well, I'm still working on the hover. Currently (26jul09) able to consistently not crash in the 4 primary orientations (nose-in, tail-in, and tail R & L). Working on getting a nice actual "hover" in each one of these orientations.

Along the way, I've had my fair share of difficulties and problems and challenges.

And along the way I've felt that there was darn little help for newbies like me (no shortage of opinion, and plenty of opinions about specific questions, but no organized help) - so I thought I might be able to put some thoughts together that could help someone else in their journey.

Front view of swash setup with an sk360 on my raptor e600
The pages in this site are intended to help other newbies possibly avoid some of my stupid (and not so stupid) mistakes. I took up electric, but I expect that the issues about actually flying are pretty similar between electric and nitro.

And speaking of things I've learned, read about my exploding battery here, and have my experience be a lesson to you - be thoughtful about your charging setup.

Early days flying my E600 The hobby is a really great one - the technology in the machines is really spectacular and cuting edge. They are not playthings, but really serious toys ;-). You might hear them casually being referred to as the "flying lawnmower of death", and that's not a totally out-of-place expression. They are serious, demanding, challenging and will give you lots of adrenaline and excitement.

But the rush you get when you see that little machine hanging in the air - totally under *your* control... It's really amazing, and worth all the time and patience and effort (and yes, money).

russ@RCHeliNewbie.com RC Heli Newbie - Li Po Battery Info for Beginners and Novices RC Heli Newbie - My Journal - How I Learned to Fly an RC Heli From Beginner to Novice RC Heli Newbie - How to Learn to Fly an RC Heli From Beginner to Novice RC Heli Newbie - How I Started the RC Heli Hobby as a rank Beginner and Newbie RC Heli Newbie - How to setup your RC Heli: the Swash, servos, Flybar, transmitter, Dual Rate, Expo and Throttle/Pitch curves optimally for a Beginner and Newbie RC Heli Newbie - RC Heli Transmitter information and setup and configuration guidance for beginners and newbies RC Heli Newbie - How to tune your RC Heli: the Swash, servos, Flybar, transmitter, Dual Rate, Expo and Throttle/Pitch curves optimally for a Beginner and Newbie copyright © 2009, Steelwool Computer Systems