It Flies!!

The proof is in the performance . . .

Over the weekend, I steeled myself to 2+ years of painstaking construction and decided to try and take the helicopter for a flight. You are probably thinking this is no big deal (after all, it's SUPPOSED to fly, right?) and in the grand scheme of things, you are correct. But after assembling all of the cogs, gears, wires, and etc, despite all of the confidence one may have, there are always those feelings of trepidation . . . Besides, with all of that time invested, this has become a labor of love, and images of this thing chopping itself to pieces upon sudden and inappropriate contact with the ground were prevalant in my mind.

But,

It flew!!

Now I shouldn't make more out of this than it really is. Aside from the fact that this is simply a toy, for enjoyment, the first flight was less than spectacular. The helicopter actually lost purchase with the ground for no more than a few seconds, at which time I hastily (luckily) saved it from chopping itself to pieces in the aforementioned scenario. There are no photos of this event, because even if Wyatt Earp himself were on the camera's hair trigger, he would be hard-pressed to have captured the fateful moment. But hey, the Wright Brothers didn't fly from New York to Paris on their first flight, so I consider it the little accomplishment that it is. After all, here I was given this box of miscellaneous gears and electronics and I somehow managed to assemble them into this semblance of a flying machine.

Unfortunately, this inaugural flight proved out one thing; this machine has problems. A trip back to the workbench and several more hours of fine tuning are in order, not without the help of the accomodating German enablers who sent me my box of goodies. But it's all about fun, so stay tuned, as one of two exciting things will happen: 1) My helicopter will soar to the air with all of the majesty (reduced to 1:16 scale) of its full-sized counterparts, or 2) My helicopter will chop itself to pieces upon sudden and inappropriate contact with the ground. Either outcome is guaranteed to be dramatic. Stay tuned as this nail-biter plays out . . .