Hi Heliman, I retired October 2014, now I wonder how I ever had time to go to work, I love hearing the traffic reports in the morning and realising that I don't have to do that anymore. I love the fact that when I have a job to do around the house I don't need to rush it, cup of coffee first take your time doing the job and do it properly. I love having plenty of time for my Helicopters & Planes, being retired hasn't improved my flying but it gives me time to fix what I break. It's a good life!
Hello there Admiral, I started with the Hobby after attending a pre-retirement course set up by my wife's employers as she finished early to join me on an assignment in Singapore (I thought my last, but not the case). Main question for me was "what to do in retirement?", sit around eating and drinking beer? No, not for me although beer drinking is also good, hence, my choice of something I'd had a passing interest in but never got round to. I used to be heavily into cars (full size ones) doing almost all work myself. When I was younger that was what I had in mind for retirement, but the rigours of time and probably the damage to my back due to lying underneath cars lifting out gearboxes etc.! Hey, now I can lift up the the whole machine with no pain and stand up while working with my workshop setup.
Your other question, I bought my first heli in Singapore, an E Sky Belt-CP (RTF). I was put in touch with a small group of accomplished flyers and we met up regularly. I quickly found out my mechanical skills were serving me well and after crashing it more times than enough, I can almost strip and re-build without problem. Setting up and flying.............. a different story there. I won't waffle on too long about that, suffice to say that I haven't been able to spend as much time as the last six months due to working away from home in foreign lands. My second heli was a Beam E4, a better quality model and I built it myself. Both helis were bought in Singapore where spares were no problem and access to help and support. All the usual advice given. Then the problems arose.
The young guys, although great flyers, couldn't answer my questions about how things work. My view is three skills are required, mechanical, power/control and flying. I'm concentrating mainly on power and control right now after setting up my workshop and buying cool new tools. My third heli was a Blade 450X also RTF to get me into the flybarless world as the technology changed during my downtime. Fortunately, my local model shop here in Switzerland stocks spares for it and as yet I haven't crashed it. Being an old fashioned kind of guy, I was focused on books for my learning. Never really had time for the Internet as a learning tool. Now I have what looks like the perfect platform for packing what's left of my little grey cells with the required knowledge.
Enough for now, the start of a new heli day is with me as that big orange ball in the sky comes round for my use. Thanks for the contact.
