Do real Chinook pilots fly model Chinooks?
 

My son, Tom (the pilot in this vid), and I are wondering if real Chinook pilots fly toy Chinooks when they are sitting around in the mess?

YouTube - Model Radio-control Chinook

Well I think he did a pretty good job!

Close to here a former H-6 pilot is flying his helicopter R/C models as an expert - upsid down etc.. So, yes some helicopter pilots do fly model helos. I've bought the same "Chinook" as you from a "farmers store"! (I Put the one with obviously "screwed" blades to the back.) The problem is trimming. You certainly did a good job.

Good question?:
Do you need to be a "normal pilot" before beeing a "helicopter pilot"? ;)
Happy New Year!
PJC, ATCO, Helicopter Wing Karup, Denmark.

Was never RW, so can't answer your question...

But, nicely done, Tom. :D

Now, if I could only get my daughters interested in something other than Barbie dolls etc, I could actually get them some Christmas presents which I can enjoy!

I seem to recall a few students on BFJT (do they qualify as 'real pilots' yet?) at Linton getting very excited that one of them had been given a model Apache for his birthday and said stude promised he'd bring it in the next day...

...Well, good enough for them? Surely it must be good enough for Wokka drivers!

P.S. Nicely done Tom, keep at it and they'll love you at Cranwell :P

Thanks everyone. Tom is very good at this kind of thing and has had a lot of practice with a Picoo-z in the past, but the Chinook is really something else. It is very stable and easy to fly. Even I can almost fly it. We have had visions of the mess at a Chinook squadron being full of these things!

Congratulations on some excellent flying skills.
I have exactly the same RC Chinook, and mine always ends up out of control, and crashes somewhere about the house.

The Chinook in the video rotates one way or the other dependant on the amount of throttle used (as mine does), but the pilot shown is far better at the controls than I have ever managed:ok:

The only modification I did to mine was to remove the words 'army' on the sides (with surgical spirit), and add some RAF roundels, from an old modelling spares box:O
I would like to move on to a larger RC heli, but will have to overcome the problem of my kitten (aptly named 'bomber') attacking my Chinook on sight!

I wonder how big these things are going to get?

YouTube - RC Turbine MI-24 Helicopter - Quite an Expensive toy!

Pretty realistic and impressive, in a geeky sort of way! :}

I have 10k hrs rotary, but each time I try to fly my (quite expensive) R/C heli I crash! Around £150 for bits each time. Think I'll take up golf.

Real Chinook Pilots can fly anything... they care to!;)

Good flying....it helps when you have a living room the size of No 1 Hangar.

Does someone have a crisis at 17 seconds?

Who said they weren't building Chinooks anymore?

Nice work by Tom there, but I note the comment accompanying the video about the stability of the Chinook model vs. a single rotor. Did I see 6 rotors on the model? :confused:

The little RC Wokka flies great in a Hangar. One of the blokes at work has one and had great fun flying it in an empty 737 bay!:D

He's now three days after Christmas and getting very accurate. He's now flying this thing, which costs about £35, to spot landings and maintaining constant headings and heights very well.

Yes, each of the rotor sets consists of a double contra-rotating rotor with a balancing bar above, so 6 rotor sets of some description.

The way technology and miniaturisation continues to advance is incredible and you start to wonder if lessons from a little toy like this will eventually start to filter their way back towards real helicopters.