Did you know you could make your own
training gear with some whiffle balls, wooden dowels, and a block
of wood? Plenty of folks have done this and in fact, it's how
I learned myself. However, it'll get soaked in exhaust oil
unless you paint it, can't be easily disassembled, and
may break at the most inopportune time, which puts your model
at risk. Something else I discovered with my home-made unit
is the consistency, or better said, the lack of consistency of the
dowels is an issue. That's because just as a composite blade
is superior to a wooden blade, using a FRP (fiberglass reinforced
plastic) hollow rod is better than a wooden dowel. This is
especially true because unless you trouble yourself to paint
them, as the wooden dowel closest to the exhaust absorbs oil,
it bends differently from the drier ones (they all end up getting
some exhaust oil on them over time), which led me to crash
once! As an engineer I knew there had to be a better way, so
one day while fooling around with the CAD program we put our minds
to it. Our goals were to create a better training aid for
learning to hover by making it strong, yet flexible. It
absolutely had to be fuel proof, plus I wanted it to
disassemble easily for transport. Read on because I think
we've succeeded in engineering a better training solution.
Just like training wheels on a bike,
our ProModeler Training Gear helps
stabilize things for learning. This superbly designed extended
landing gear straps on quickly and increases the footprint of
your model's landing gear, which promotes both stability and
gives increased tip-over protection. If that were all it did
it wouldn't be much better than a cheesy home made training
gear. A vast improvement comes from angling the legs downward
a little bit. Consequently, our training gear stabilizes
the model better from a higher hover because as you ease the model
in for touchdown, one of the balls touches first and begins to
help level your model. An added benefit to training gear
(once you're past the hovering stage) is as you get into close-in
circuits, because they continue to aid you, this time as a
visual reference. Remember, a model helicopter tends to
get hard to see quickly as it gets further from you so
the widely spaced bright red ball-ends really aid in
orientation.
- The
weight of the training gear also helps stabilize things by acting
as a self-righting pendulum!
When you get your
ProModeler Training Gear, you'll receive
in the package a spider assembly, four strong fiberglass
legs, which flex and absorb forces, and four ball-ends, which help
prevent the legs from digging into the grass at your field.
You also get four nylon-ties for securing the gear to your model's
original landing gear (though rubber bands work great as well).
- Training
gear as supplied in the package.
Attach the ProModeler
Training Gear using the supplied nylon-ties so that the
center of the spider coincides with the center of gravity of the
model and thus, it won't affect balance. Once installed,
as you walk up to your model it's easy to appreciate just how
much the model's landing gear is extended. Frankly, the
footprint becomes huge! Note also how the gear flexes,
which let's the model sit level on the ground once the full
weight is upon in. This tremendously increased
footprint really helps while learning to hover simply because
it gives greater confidence. Now you'll worry less about
tipping your model over as you conquer learning to hover!
- The
weight of the model flexes the training gear so it sits level and
close to the ground.
A close up view of the package contends
reveals the spider assembly, which is supplied in two main
parts. These are held together with an Allen-head bolt and a
nylon-locking bolt. The washer goes under the bolt head to
keep it from digging into the spider's plastic when
tightening. An interesting feature of the
ProModeler Training Gear is how you can
also adjust the angle at which the spider forms a cross to account
for larger and smaller landing gear.
- What you
get; ball ends, fiberglass rods, the spider assembly and screw,
plus zip ties for installation.
Without any weight on the training
gear, the spider of the ProModeler Training
Gear sits about a foot high. The purpose of this is to
angle the ball ends downward toward the ground so when you're
hovering they can lightly drag along the ground thereby increasing
stabilization. Added to this, unlike flat-design
training gear, it means one of the balls comes into contact with
the ground first (as you lower it from a hover), which
progressively helps level the model as you ease it down. This
is a nice improvement over old-fashioned designs.
- Down
angle promotes a stabilizing effect as a ball's light contact
helps guide your model.
The heart of the
ProModeler Training Gear is the spider
assembly. It's molded of the same engineering plastic as the
side frames of most model helicopters, i.e. a fiber reinforced
material, which is stiff, yet flexible and very, very strong.
The beauty of the spider design, however, is the through-bolt,
which allows the angle of the opposing leg assemblies to be
varied a little bit. This permits fitting this nifty training gear
to models both large and small because the width of where they
attach can be adjusted to compensate for variations in the
size of the model's landing gear.
- Close up
view of the spider, which secures the fiberglass legs.
A great feature of the
ProModeler Training Gear is how easily it
assembles (and disassembles). It's just a matter of slipping
the fiberglass gear leg into the spider and tightening the nut
finger tight. The groove-textured knurled exterior of the
nuts are easy to grasp - even when your fingers are slick from
model fuel - and the coarse-thread makes it easy to align
and get started, which is the secret to the rapid no-tools assembly
and disassembly of this superb training gear. Best of all,
the super strong and flexible fiberglass gear extension rods absorb
energy. They are more durable than a wooden dowel and don't
require painting (to prevent them from absorbing exhaust oil from
fuel like competing designs).
-
Connecting the legs is a matter of slipping them in place and
lightly snugging the nut with your fingers.
The strong, bright red ball-ends attach using the same design
threaded nut as the spider and the red plastic material is also the
same fiber-reinforced plastic as is used in the spider.
Best of all, unlike competing training gear designs, which use a
lightweight plastic ball held on with a wood screw, the
ProModeler Training Gear is very heavy
duty. Simply put, it's a much tougher design than a whiffle
ball, which was of course, designed for another purpose. As a
result, they better withstand the abuse dealt by
beginners. This training gear is better largely because it
was designed from the very beginning for this purpose, i.e. to
be both flexible and strong!
- Featuring a quick disconnect as
well, the ball end helps keep the gear leg from snagging the
ground.
Here's one of the neatest parts of the equation. At the
end of the day, when you're packing up, the
ProModeler Training Gear is a winner as
well because simply releasing the gear leg from the spider is but a
moment's work, as you loosen the nut and slip the leg out.
Consequently, you can store the entire assembly in but a
fraction the space of competing designs. What's not to
like?
- Disassemble the training gear in
moments, which makes it quite compact for storage.
Remember, your model hovers about the same whether it's 50
feet in the air or just off the ground, so keep it low for
learning. Furthermore, if it drifts upward, don't
panic! Instead gently lower collective to bring it closer to
the ground. The trick in all this is to hover just high
enough to keep the balls in light contact with the ground. By
design, if the model starts to tilt, the ball that first makes
contact begins to apply force, which self-levels your model
thereby helping you maintain control. Yet if you panic and
chop the collective, the spider and the legs will flex out of the
way absorbing some of the force and then the model's landing gear
will further absorb the impact. Ultimately, you'll learn
to hover more quickly when you use our ProModeler
Training Gear and before long you'll be flying around with
confidence!
- Light on the gear, learning to
hover is easy if you keep it close to the ground
In fact, before you know it you'll be confident in your skills
and zipping your model around without our product. Selecting
our ProModeler Training Gear means
the goal of mastering the critical hovering phase of flight with
your model is easier. Plus, once you start flying around
you're into a new phase of flight and are ready to start learning
new things. Remember, every flight begins and ends in a
hover, so take it easy, build your confidence, and before long
you'll succeed with your model helicopter!
- For us, success means you
learned to hover and no longer
need our ProModeler Training
Gear!