Teach Me About RC Helicopters
 

I want to buy a RC Helicopter. It will probably be electric. Please educate me....

David

David:

They suck. I had an E-Flite Blade. Figured what the heck, I'm pretty good with R/C stuff, this should be a challenge. Understatement of the year. 3 weeks putting it back together then half an hour getting everything trimmed and balanced- and even the mose seasoned R/C guys say they're tricky. You can buy 'helicopters' that have two sets of rotors, going in opposite directions. They are a doddle to fly, but aren't really helicopters in my book, as they have no tail rotor.

So in summary, if you are really good with R/C stuff, have lots of time & patience, plus an indoor area to practice (any wind and you're screwed) then go for it. Hopefully other with better experiences will chime in?

Cheers,

Paul.

Hey David - I can help here!

I do have one of those dual rotor helicopters and while they aren't like regular helicopters they are really good at helping you learn your hand eye coordination. They fly just like a regular helicopter as far as the controls are concerned.

The Blade is generally well regarded overall but not a pure beginner's helicopter.

The Dual rotor helicopters are considered this.

The next level of helicopter up from the dual rotor would be the fixed pitch kind - I would skip these but going this route can - if you fly well - save money.

The next step is the real deal - Collective Pitch copters like the Blade. The thing with the electrics is that they can be really light which means their usability in windy conditions or even breezy conditions can be limited.

I have a cheapo dual rotor that is childs play to fly, but the real deal engine powered RC helicopters are very difficult compared to regular RC aircraft. I was heavily into RC planes (and very good at), and considered buying an RC helicopter back in the day, but a friend told me that EVERY crash/mishap no matter how small that happened while learning would be $150 minimum damage.

Thanks guys. Mike, what brand/model do you recommend?

My cousin has a few.

His advice:

Buy a cheap one to learn to fly. Once you have the hang of it, go ahead and buy a more powerful middle of the road version. Once you get the hang of that, go nuts. ;)

The double bladed ones wont really help in the learning process- they have no torque.

I recommend starting with the computer simulated kind - Real Flight G4.5. It's a great sim (www.towerhobbies.com) and it has a bunch of training exercises.

Beyond that it's a matter of budget - the Eflite blade series gets very good reviews but there are quite a few 'clones' out there as well (Everything from china and all that).

Tim's notes on the costs of crashes used to be right on but with the smaller electrics the costs of crashes are far far less. The electronics themselves are not cheap but not expensive either. The most expensive parts I believe these days are the lithium batteries and the brushless motors.

So, the simulator is a great deal to learn with and then you can buy a beginner's copter once you figure out the flight controls. Also hooking up with a local club that can help with some stick time (like the Valley Flyers) is useful to. I don't recall how far you are from the valley but there may be something closer to you.

Blade CX-2. Do a search. Under $200 including a DSM radio. Fly it in your living room or outside.

I flew model gas choppers 15-20 years ago. Frankly, with the new battery and motor technologies, the electrics are the way to go today. Start with a Blade, and a training gear, get some help from someone local with experience.

I bought a Blade last year, after not flying for 15 years, and it is better than anything I flew before.

A few years back I went to a Coast Guard Open House and was allowed to check out their planes, boats, choppers, etc. up close.

On a baseball field nearby a kid was flying a gas powered RC Coast Guard helicopter. Looked just like the real thing except it was about 48 inches in length, maybe more. Single rotor, fan on the back, red. That kid was doing loops and spirals. Amazing. He'd hover about a foot off the ground, over second base, pitch it forward toward home and just barely lift it enough to get over the backstop. At the end of the demo, he brought it home and set it down on a small table next to him just as gentle and smooth as you please. I'd heard flying those things is tuff. This kid made it look very easy.

I have the Blade CX2 and when the guy was ringing me up, he asked how many extra rotor blades I wanted. I laughed and said NONE!!! The next day I was back buying several sets – LOL! It’s a great helo just to screw around with. There are tons of vid on youtube.

OK I just went out and bought a model Eflite-Blade 400 a few months ago. The B400's servos and gyro are junk. You need to replace them with better ones. That will cost you anywhere from $75 to $300 depending on what you get. By all means get a simulator...it will save you a lot of money in avoiding crashes. Realflight is what I have. I also have an instructor that helped set up my heli and he flies with me via a buddy cable to his remote. I spent $150 to upgrade mine and it is still a decent brand new heli for the price... the used ones are dirt cheap so check them out... also the parts are very common and inexpensive for the most part.

The standard for the nice helis are the Trex 450 there are many clones of them... such as the flasher, copterx etc. If you really want quality and bang for the buck buy a used Trex 450 V2 off one of the heli forums. I like Helifreak... runryder is also good as well. You spend most of your time trying up ugrade your B400 to be like a Trex so why not buy the best first. Here are great info sites for the

eflite blade 400: http://www.slyster.com/heli/
Trex 450: http://www.slyster.com/heli/trex450bible.html

Helis are so fun and addictive... If your in LA I fly over in the Sepulveda Basin at the hobby field.

I have a AX CP It is truly great in all respects and is electric
The best part is when it started to act weird..turn on with out me doing it and a few other things... I called the company..They sent out a New radio, No questions. Now that's service with a smile
The other thing to keep in mind..they are harder an H$$%^ to fly . That's the nature of the beast..there are so many things to control (It has all the same features as a real one )
In fact I have flown real ones and they are EZer as you are in them to feel and see....
So..If you want simple and not real go coaxial
If you want real I recommend the AX products
PS You will crash and ..crash..you might consider a flight simulator

invest in a training pad...saves lives, saves equipement.

Training pad ?

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXM034&P=ML

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXNWL1&P=7

my friend has a pad that leashes the copter down. you can lift off, and move slightly to and fro. it was leashed down with a shaft and it kept the rotor blades from hitting anything including the ground. it allows you to get the feel of flying without any run aways.

Ohh.
My Ax-cp came with fancy out riggers so as to prevent a roll over.
Since then I took my soldering iron and heated up the skid braces and made them much "wider" as they should be like in real life, never saw Huey with narrow skids.
The other thing ..they want to sell you "up grades" for the rotor head (CNC Al parts.)
Well I did all that .
Don'T do it. I went back to plastic for 2 reasons.
1 -they are made to better tolerance (sadly)
2- everything is a fuse..when you have a rotor strike the weakest part brakes. With Aluminum- parts rotor, head grips, ECT- the blades brake
with the plastic parts the M/R grips broke...so 3.00 bucks compared to about 20.00 every time.
Keep the plastic.
as you will crash

OK went off the Deep end here.....
Bought a Vario RC helicopter, It is huge with a 23 cc pull start gas engine ( like a small lawn mower )
It is supposed to be a high quality machine...but the directions are in German..and are very cartoonish..............

I have to agree with Mikester, My son and I bought the actual controller we want to use and the Real Flight software without buying the helicopter. I would say its saved me thousands in parts!