Old Men Also Need To Fly

[chrismohrsr]

I am an 84 year old retired photographer and public relations representative.

I am an aficionado of stereoscopy. I have taken over four thousand stereo slides since 1952 using the same Stereo Realist camera.

In 1965 I moved my wife and four children to California from New York City where I was employed by Rockerfeller Center, Incorporated as a public relations representative.

In California I was employed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's film library until the library was moved to Northern California in order to save it from NASA cutbacks.

I am currently interested in learning aerial videography using a quadrocopter and I have an original Walkera MX400 which I have not yet successfully gotten off the ground. I have been trying to find someone to mentor me to no avail.

[cds1950]

Welcome to the group.

Your interests caught my attention as I am trying to move into a form of aerial photography. I have gone the route of starting with the Ladybird then moving to the Scorpion and Spacewalker. After learning on these small mult-copters I bought a Hoten X and after several months flying the four of them I received the QR X400 which is a variation on your MX400.

I had flown RC gliders years ago and some RC cars as well. I had minimal amounts (maybe an hour or two total) of RC helicopter experience before moving to these quad copters. In fact, I tried the Ladybird to help me learn to fly my three helicopters. I haven't had any of them out in a very long time since the quads are so much more fun and easier to fly.

In my experience with learning to fly quads I found the little ones had major advantages over the larger ones. Crashes were either no big deal or very minimal cost to repair. Their lower power meant that they did not respond as fast to adding power to the quad. This has pros and cons but it helped me a lot.

Do you have any RC flying experience of any kind? The reason I ask is that initially new pilots tend to over compensate or adjust to needed inputs. I did it with gliders and power planes. My son did it with RC cars and I have watched others have similar experiences. It is instinctive to jerk or pull quickly when a crash is likely. The small quads help to get used to control your reactions to these required inputs.

I still have to work very hard to stay on top of my QR X400 when I fly it. It has so much more power than it needs. Just a little to much throttle and it is 100 ft in the air almost immediately. Powering off at that altitude is going to break something for sure. This is why the small quads are so great. When all else fails just cut the power completely. I have crashed from 25 feet up onto cement and only broke the frame of my Ladybird, well under $5 to fix and very easy.

Let me know if there is more I can do for you as I have a lot of experience crashing and fixing stuff but more than willing to try and help. I have a lot of time on my hands so feel free to write here and either I or someone else will get back to you.

Dale