My name is Derek. I live in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. I'm 38 years old. I've been married to my wonderful wife, Jordan for a bit over 4 years. We have little girl, Makayla Chanel, who is now almost a year old. Both of these ladies are very special in my life and I'm grateful for both!!!
As far as my rc's, it's a bit of a story. In the Spring of 2013, I was browsing random videos on Youtube. Youtube is a drug for me and I'm quite addicted....ok...SERIOUSLY addicted, lol. I saw a video of Alan Szabo Jr flying one of his Align helicopters and I was just amazed. I spoke with Jordan about it and got her approval to go to the local hobby shop and ask about rc helicopters. The semi pro there set me up with a set of coaxial 4 channel helicopters. He said coaxials would be a great start for beginners. Here are my helicopters:
- Force Helicopters.jpg (45.4 KiB) Viewed 4209 times
I started getting better flying these coaxials. I went back to my LHS and began to ask more questions about progression. The semi pro told me "The larger the helicopter is, the easier it is to fly." I honestly thought he was "feeding me a story" because the larger the helicoter is, the more it costs, and I felt that he was just trying to make a big sale (I now understand that he was actually telling me the truth all along). I left the LHS and went to a different shop. The dealt mostly with cars and trucks but they did have a used Eflight Blade SR RTF for sale for $125. it included some extra parts and two batteries. I was so excited....how could I go wrong??? OH MY...even after numerous crashes, totaling nearly $400 in parts, I was fed up with this helicopter. I got talking to the semi pro at my LHS again and he mentioned the simulator. This made immediate sense to me. I bought the Phoenix Sim and a DX6i. Quite happy with my new purchase, I headed home and immediately installed the sim. Over the course of about 3 weeks, I really could see that I was improving. Confident with myself, perhaps a bit over-confident, lol, I went back to the LHS and I was looking for a 450. I was looking at the Blade 450's because they were a bit lesser than the Align 450's. The semi pro told me some differences between the two and I decided on the Align 450 because it had less plastic bits. Unfortunately, they were out of stock on the Align 450's but they did have a Trex 500 E Super Combo, on sale. It was actually about $30 more than the Trex 450 Pro DFC. Very cool!!! Bought it, a battery, rx, charger, and some other stuff. Nearly $1000 spent and I'm heading home with a huge smile on my face.
Hmmm, lets speed the story up, lol. Sorry about the rambling!
So...500 is built...i'm having troubles flying it because I just wasnt confident in my own skills. More and more time on the sim to come. Late 2013, I was given a very lightly used Trex 600 Pro DFC with Ikon and two Gens Ace batteries (long story behind this). Never did fly it until this year. 2014 rolls along....hours and hours of sim time and I'm flying my 500 very well now and feeling much better. Getting into inverted flying, flips, rolls, loops, and mild 3D. Quite happy with myself. I bought a Trex 450 Pro DFC with 3GX (minus electronics) from Tony N, on RC Help). Bought the electronics for the 450 from ebay and Hobby King. Quite happy with it!
So...now, the 450, 500, and 600 are all doing well and I've been having a blast with them all. I've only crashed the 450 twice. The 500 and 600 have not been crashed....yet. I'm sure the day is coming.
I did find my way to RC Help, via Youtube, in mid 2012. Loved the forum. Loved the people. RC Help went through a series of unfortunate events and now I find myself surrounded by people that I like and trust, here at The Hangout.
I certainly don't know it all. I'll never claim to know it all. I'm not a pro pilot. I'll never claim to be a pro pilot. However, I'm having fun learning with each model that I get my hands on.
I did get the bug for scratch building planes, using Dollar Tree Foam Board, in 2012. I love to build things. I am a tinkerer. I've built, and crashed, many planes. I now have about 9 surviving plane. I love the fact that these planes are so easy to make and I love the functionality that these planes have. I've never bought an rc plane. All my planes are scratch built. Most have worked very well...a few didn't work at all, lol....but I know that flying these inexpensive foam board planes, and flying on the simulator, has really helped me learn my orientations for helicopter flying and I know it's made me a better pilot.
Geez, sorry about all that. Ok, I'm done. I'll be around the Hangout to help out when and where I can!!!
