closet astronaut

Hello all, newbie to this forum and the hobby. I got into paper modeling about four years ago, as a member of the Papermodelers forum I did many large build threads, mostly on space race era space craft. One of the members inspired me to rebuild an Estes Atlas that crashed and burned on it's maiden flight about 13 years ago, after building model rockets for two years I grew tired of seeing models collecting dust so I moved into the model rocketry hobby building and flying many different designs and sizes. I'm still doing this but have expanded into this hobby. Actually it's my 10 year old daughters fault, I made a trip to the local Radio Shack several weeks ago, they had a clearance display with an RC Heli that she wanted but I told her no. Not knowing any thing about the hobby I figured it was just some cheap junk. Any way she had been doing so much around the house, helping with many chores and work so I thought I'd do some thing special for her and went to the local Wally World and picked up a little Cherokee RC heli for her, after playing around with it a few days I wanted MORE.

I went to ebay and picked up a fairly large coax Chinook, this thing is tough to fly, hard to trim, sluggish, slow to respond. Last week end I found a Syma Extreme S-3.5G for a good price, I bought it just to see if the flight characteristics were different from the other two....WOW what a difference, I mastered this little chopper within minutes, very happy with it, I would recommend this to any one, especially beginners. I started a thread on The Rocketry Forum and found several members there are into RC Helis. The thing that has sent me over the top is a video of a Trex 600 3D flight, I was completely blown away. At first I didn't believe what I was seeing, knowing the physics of helicopters theres just no way a chopper can fly up side down, backwards, inverted, vertical, just incredible, that is where I want to be and well on the way.

I found a great deal on a Hausler Trex 450 single blade flybar that I will be receiving tomorrow so the learning about this hobby is well on it's way. I plan to do some serious studying before flight, this is why I'm here. I've learned, being a member of two other forums, that the best place to learn is from those with the experience, and forums are a great place to do so.

I also believe in helping others new to a hobby, I've made many rocket flight videos with on board camera, I'm including the link to my Youtube page for those that may be interested and a link to a web-site hosting the finished build of the 1/48 scale Saturn-V. As I learn I'll make some videos of Heli flights, but be ware, I like to put videos to music. I don't see a Youtube button in the controls above so I guess I can't post direct videos here.

Any way, just wanted to say hello and give a little back ground.

http://youtu.be/RjTYjfDNuaE
http://youtu.be/NEkTW0bLji4
http://jleslie48.com/mw_greet48_build/acs.html

Rob2160

Welcome to the world of RC helicopters, and thanks for sharing about yourself.

Great videos and beautiful rockets.

You can post videos directly using the "insert video" button, then paste the Youtube link into the window that pops up.. I did it to one of your videos below..

The 450 will be a handful to fly initially without some previous experience on a 4 channel helicopter. (Not impossible but a huge learning curve)

My personal recommendation to anyone wanting to start with Helicopters is to:

1. Get a decent Helicopter radio (Spektrum DX6i as a minimum, a DX7S or DX8 is even better)
2. Start with an MCX2 (coaxial)
3. Next an MSR (Fixed Pitch)
4, Next an MCPX (Collective Pitch)

If you are sharp and a fast learner you can skip the MCX2 and start with the MSR.

The radios I suggested will work for all the helicopters listed and the main benefit of the MCPX is its durability compared to a 450 size helicopter.

This may be a little more expensive initially but will save you lots of repairs to your 450.

When you start building your 450 I can recommend the MikeysRC series of videos on Youtube: Here is the first one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4zJREpU7u0

Follow them during your build and it will make life easier.

Your Hausler is a TREX clone and there are many different clones available but they are essentially the same with variations in quality.

Another great thread with a group of very positive guys is the 450 GT forum, I guarantee if you post a question there you will receive plenty of good advice.

Here - http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/t-re...l#post11615275

Again welcome and enjoy what I have found to be the most satisfying and challenging aspect of RC in 35 years in the hobby.

http://youtu.be/RjTYjfDNuaE