I am a 64 year old retired engineer and a private pilot. I am new to R/C and this forum. I have ordered a WL V262 Cyclone and a spare 1000 mah battery. I would like to practice with a simulator to save wear and tear on the quad. What are the available simulators? I only have windows 7 & 8 machines. I have an Esky simulator FMS that appears to only be for earlier versions of windows (is that right?) and it appears not to have a quad model (?). I am not a gamer and have very little experience with consoles. I can fly an instrumented real plane. I think engineers learn to read/understand/believe instrumentation and that helped me learn instrument flying. I also think R/C is entirely different from piloting a plane from the inside. I expect a considerable learning curve. BTW, aerial photography of my ten acres and my HAM radio antenna tower is of great interest and I plan on buying a Mobius for the WL v262. That is, after I can fly it deterministically. Why break a camera as well as the plane while learning. So, thanks for any help finding a suitable simulation using a mode 2 TX console. Doug
I don't know all of them, but this one has been recently upgraded and includes quite a few multirotors: http://www.heli-x.info/models_airports_e.php You will find a v262 very different because it does not have any kind of telemetry or instrumentation - so it's "seat of the pants" flying. That's a lot of fun, but at the same time a decent wind will quickly make it go far far away! It's an easy quad to operate, though, because it has 6-axis stability, meaning it will always self-level. You can take it up 100 feet, let it drop and then instantly recover by goosing the throttle after it drops 60-70 feet. The main thing is not to fly that quad in any winds over about 5 MPH. Others quads, like the DJI models, use GPS to stay in one place. I've lost two v262/Mobius combos, so now I fly the Phantom with my cams and the v262 for kicks. The v262 really is a fun quad. FYI, most basic wear on the v262 is the gears and motors - the gears are $1.00 apiece and the motors about $6.00. Remove the foam cowl before flying - it's too heavy! Or, just cut it way back and remove the decal. I've used part of the foam rings as leg extensions - the plastic on the legs (below the gears) is very weak and usually the first thing to go if you don't fashion some alternative landing gear.
Thanks webman. I have about 16 minutes flying time now and can hover or fly straight away and back without crashing. That was on a windless day. Where do you buy your parts for the v262? I only have one battery now, but I ordered a 1000 mah spare that has not arrived yet. It probably won't fit where the 850 mah original is. Do you suggest removing the battery cage and using a rubber band, or is there a better way? My v262 arrived with no manual whatsoever. I really could use one, but could not find it on-line. The lights flash differently at times but I do not know the code. Does it have a low battery indication? I bind by moving the throttle to full and back to zero, that seems to work. At times it seems to lose binding when I am close to the quad and batteries are full. Sometimes after a heavy landing. Does it shutoff binding if the gyros lose position or something? I have reached a point where it will not bind after disconnecting the battery and restarting the TX. the display shows the rotors turning but the real rotors are not. I wonder f I have a bad unit or if the lack of a manual is my problem. Amazon will take it back if I hurry and decide to do that. I would rather see a manual before I return it. Any ideas where I might find a manual? Thanks for your reply and help. Doug
I buy my motors and gears, etc. from MassiveRC - they may have batteries also, but I bought some originally from Hobbyking which fit (just with loosening up the screws a bit) on the existing battery holder. From the first look and review here: "I ordered some spares from the Hobbyking USA warehouse: Turnigy nano-tech 850mah 2S 25~40C Lipo Pack These are quite close in size to the originals except for the extra plastic wrapping around them. Removing this wrapping and slightly loosening the screws which hold the battery holder on allowed them to fit properly." I don't think the manual will help you at all. Basically, you connect the battery and then set the unit down and turn the TX on. As you mentioned, you move the stick up once and it beeps and then it's connected. There have been some reported TX and RX problems with the v262 - but most of these were cleared up at the factory long ago. Here is a post mentioning them.. https://www.droneflyers.com/talk/threads/wl-toys-v212-and-v222-have-some-early-problems.152/#post-958 If you are certain that your unit does this - and don't want to fiddle with looking inside the TX and possibly cutting the TX antenna if it's wrong, etc - then, yes, if a return is an option it may make sense. I think I lost one v262 due to this problem, but it was a pretty good distance away. The same one, though, had some binding problems - I had to try a few times to bind it. Good luck
A new simulator called Zephyr came out recently. It seems awesome so far, they have a bunch of training challenges and a screen pops up after each challenge that shows you where you can improve. It looks like it was primarily made to teach new pilots how to fly, but it could also be a good tool for experienced pilots to stay fresh on the sticks. They have a lot more info on their website: https://zephyr-sim.com
Try the free demo of this (scroll down the page). Maybe it will work. I like it. https://fpv-freerider.itch.io/fpv-freerider
