soloboss
Posts: 1650
Joined: 9/17/2006
From: Fort Wayne,
IN, USA
Status: online
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I'll tell you from personal experience that a good vent is worth every word.
For anyone with a CX / CX2 that is flying it and enjoying it - DON'T get rid of it on my say-so. They are really cool little birds. The thoughts I posted are what I think would be the fastest, least costly and least frustrating way into RC helicopter.
Some get into this without coming to terms with the fact that RC helicopter is the most challenging of the RC toys. There's no way around that part. These buggers are tough for a lot of us. Others have little difficulty once they get the basics. I guess some of us have better thumbs than others. 
I started with a Blade CP. I couldn't fly it. I took it to the LHS and the guru made adjustments and flew it in the store. He lifted it off the repair counter and flew it in an area about 3 feet X 5 feet, then proclaimed it a fit machine. I paid him $10. Then I went home a broke 3 more sets of woodies. I sold the CP and got the CX. A year and many RC Universe forum friends later, I'm into the fixed pitch.
From the posts, it seems that those who are truly gifted find the Blade CP and CPP to be a lot of fun. Most of the rest of us find the Blades to be a real handful and more frustration than fun. As I got deeper into this single rotor stuff, I found a buddy with a near identical fixed pitch heli who is at the same level of frustration / inability to fly as me. The buddy system is good. We progressed together and today we are both hovering the single rotor fixed pitch in our living rooms. And we are looking to get our first Collective Pitch helis.
About the collective pitch machines; I think that a guy would do fine to go immediately into a collective pitch helicopter - IF he has someone to get it set up and keep it set up after crashes and IF he has an instructor for a couple of hours to keep him from trashing it immediately. Just the cost of blades can run $6 to $10 every time a blade touches anything!
I'm not into dumping on the Eflight Blade series. After the hours of fun I've had, that would be unfair. On the other hand, if you are trying to learn single rotor on a CP Pro you'll go crazy. The Trex will be far easier to fly than the Blade but the cost of repair when you screw up (and of course you will screw up) can break the bank. At this juncture you don't know how to set up a collective pitch and that's just more frustration.
If you have a local shop that sells a good fixed pitch, get one. If not, shop online starting with the names you hear and you know you can trust. I'm going to throw the names Walkera #4, Esky and Michael at US Hobby Supply out there as known good stuff backed by a good supplier. I'm sure there are others who are premium sellers also, but most are west coast sellers. I get stuff from Michael in two days by priority mail and that works for me.
Anyhow, before I knew about all this, I bought an Exceed Falcon 40 fixed pitch from a west coast seller. It cost $85 + delivery. It's identical to the Walkera #4 and the EF Sabre. My LHS does not carry new fixed pitch of any kind, but they do carry generic tail rotors than work fine, Blade CP landing gear fits my heli, I run on my CX LiPO battery packs from Xtreme. Boom material is common CF tubing or get a CP boom. The main motor and tail motor from a Blade CP work better in my Falcon than the original equipment. Servos are stock items and there are several brands of micro servos that work fine for under $15. I get blades for the Falcon a couple of sets at a time, but they are really rugged and take hit after hit without problems. Cold makes them brittle and that's a problem for me, not so much for you. These FP helis are simple to set up and cheap to maintain. They DO NOT fly themselves and the skills you build learning to control the fp helis does translate directly to the cp helis. They are not as stable as a good cp heli and are more challenging to fly, but it's a trainer. I'm told that once you master the fp helicopter, a good cp heli (like your Trex) will be easier to fly than the fp. The purpose of the fp is to transition you into single rotor with less frustration and fiscal damage. We want you to have fun, not quit out of frustration. And when you master the fp, sell it to the next newbie looking to make the leap. I'll keep mine as in indoor flier through the long winter season.
I hope something in here make sense to you. Of course anyone with other thoughts will post their opinions here. That's the wonder of this Collective brain.
Good luck, have fun and don't hesitate to post as you work through this!
Soloboss
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Soloboss
If everyone''s thinking alike, then somebody isn''t thinking. George Patton
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RE: Struggling with Single Rotor basics - 
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