Gathering rosebuds, Part 2.

One of the fun things about the Draganflyer is that it can carry a video camera. I have a video from a flight that I'll post when I find it.

The DF weighs 18.2 oz., so it takes a lot of lift to stay aloft. That makes it difficult to fly inside; the heavier a heli is in relation to the rotors' surface area, the more throttle adjustments are required. Keeping the DF hovering at the same altitude requires constant throttle up/down. The best I've been able to do indoors is hover and simple back-and-forth.

With winter and wind (the DF can handle winds up to 10 mph), there isn't that much outdoor flying time in CO. A couple of years ago I decided to invest in a smaller helicopter that I could fly indoors. I bought a Blade CX2.

The CX2 isn't tiny, but it only weighs 8 oz. OTOH, it has less rotor surface area than the DF. Near-constant throttle action is still required, but I can fly in the house. Another advantage of the CX2 is that it looks more like a helicopter. The main differences are that it has two rotors, a fly bar, and no tail rotor. The purpose of the extra rotor and fly bar are to keep the heli stable, with its rotors parallel to the ground. That makes it a lot easier to fly, but much less realistic.

Flying the CX2 inside, I still didn't have enough confidence to learn what I really needed to learn, to fly in all directions. Flying with the nose away is easy, but when the heli turns the actions of the controls are reversed. If the heli is flying toward you, you have to request it to fly right to get it to fly left. That sounds easy, sort of, but when any wrong move will result in pieces flying everywhere, and when one hand is constantly jiggling the throttle, the pressure rises. After a while I decided to go even smaller.

That is my MCX. It's small and it only weighs .9 oz. It's closer to the size of the copter I saw in the James Bond movie. It's really easy to fly inside, and I learned to fly in all directions. When I want to fly nowadays, I flop back in my chair, take off from the coffee table, fly around in circles and every which way, then land on the coffee table. I can't remember the last time I broke any parts on the MCX. The only limitation is one I can't escape, a lack of depth perception that has increased with the approach of geezerhood. I have to bring the copter down slowly to be sure it's over the coffee table.

Finally I decided I was ready for what I'd really wanted all along - a collective pitch helicopter.

...to be continued