270win

My Feedback: (14)

I've been flying fixed wing airplanes for years. (15+) Scale is my thing. Warbirds, civilians, whatever just as long as it looks like a real plane. Now I'm starting to get interested in helicopters. All the local shops seem to want everyone to get into hardcore 3D... Personally the main reason I'm in this hobby at all is to replicate full scale aircraft. I've never seen a full scale plane doing the things these 3D pilots are doing.... It's cool to watch but I'd rather try to fly as smooth and scale as possible....

Anyway, I'm just getting started into helis, and if someone just getting into airplanes was talking about scale I'd tell em' to crawl before they walk or even run. I've been looking at a Raptor .50. A guy at my hobby shop put me on a buddy box and I flew his Raptor .50 today. His is tricked out and settup for hardcore 3D but I was able to hover it fairly well. I've been on the sim (G3) for quite some time and had started flying a Hirobo XRB but I'm already bored with it...

So here's the question-
Is the Raptor .50 a good place to start with my goal being to fly scale helis? Can a Raptor .50 be "converted" into a scale heli? I'm new to all this so keep it as basic as possible. I know I've got tons of stuff to learn, just looking for some good direction from someone with experience.

270win

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

We have a lot in common.I also want to fly scale aircraft and scale style.If a real chopper or fixed wing aircraft cant do a manuever,I dont want to.
I know of 2 ways to get into scale that are not super expensive.One,and this is what I did,is to buy a Raptor 60 ,fly it without a scale fuse till youre comfortable with it,then buy the Thunder Tiger Hughes MD500 body.Check out my hangar to see the finished product.
The other way is to get a Hirobo .30 size Huey and training gear and fly it.You may be able to fly the Hirobo without the fuse,if so,you can learn by flying the bare mechanics and leave the body off till youre ready.Or,put the fuse on,put some training gear on and go for it.
good luck
Joe

270win

My Feedback: (14)

So the MD 500 is a Raptor 60 with the fuse over it? That's what I'm talking about! The guys at the hobby shop said they don't fly as good settup scale but I'm thinking they're speaking from a 3D point of view.

It was cool to fly the real thing vs. the sim or that XRB... Not to put it (XRB) down. But the Raptor was much easier to fly in some ways. It went where I told it to and didn't try to get back into a hover by itself.

Is $250 a decent price for a new assembled Raptor .50 V2. It needs radio/servo gear, gyro, engine, exhaust, blades... Basically everything but the body and the airframe.

270win

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

its a decent price but youre gonna need a lotta pieces to complete the puzzle.I find the best prices from either
Heliproz-
http://www4.mailordercentral.com/heliproz/default.asp
or
Rick's-
http://www.ronlund.com/
Ive used Heliproz a lot more than Rick's.They have excellent package deals,you dont pay tax and usually shipping is free.
By the way,I dont know of any scale fuse that goes on a 50 Raptor without quite a bit of work.

270win

My Feedback: (14)

Well that would make a difference. Is there a better airframe to start with for scale then?

They worked up a RTF price of $1,000.00 with a 601 gyro, OS .50 hyper, servos, pcm receiver, battery, wooden blades.... I'm not sure what else but it was supposed to be ready to fly. But if it's not the right way to go then I'll get something else.

270

lear31A

My Feedback: (123)

The best way to start is by ordering the Century Hawk Pro. It is $299 from Tower and you can put any of the scale fuselages on with ease (The funkey fuses from Century.). Trust me on this one.

EDIT: For the $299, you get an engine as well!

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

Like I said,if you want to go scale under 2 grand TOTAL,then its gonna be either the Rap 60 with MD500 fuse(500 and 400 dollars respectively right there)or the Hirobo 30 size Huey.Just FYI,My 60 has a Futaba 401 gyro with a 9254 servo for the tail rotor.I use a JR 770 PCM receiver,and JR DS811 servos everywhere else.OS max 60 wc.Im not familiar with a 601,maybe they meant 611? 611 gyro is top of the line but may be more than you need for scale flying.
My Century .50 Bell 47g has the same gyro,a 9253 tail servo,and the same JR recvr and servos at the other points.Its powered by an OS .50 Hyper Head.
Both are controlled by a JR 9303 PCM transmitter.heres the Hirobo site:
http://www.modelrectifier.com/produc...pters/30up.asp

lear31A

My Feedback: (123)

You can have all the scale you can handle for under $1000. However, everyone has their favorites and different size wallets.

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

If you look real close,you will notice I have a Century scale Bell47g in my hangar.
You'll also notice I didnt recomend a Century.Read my review of Century and there kit here in the user review section.
BTW,how many Century kits have you built?

lear31A

My Feedback: (123)

The guy asked for opinions. I gave mine and I am not here to defend my opinion from someone who had a bad experience. I dont care if you recommended Century or not, I did. I have had no problems with them.

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

He didnt ask for opinions.He asked for "direction from someone with experience".
I have it.I gave it.
What Century products do you have experience with?
There are no Century birds in your nest.

270win

My Feedback: (14)

I appreciate your input guys. The longer I'm in this hobby the less I'm driven by price... As a matter of fact, now I always want to know why something is a "deal". On the flip side, I'm not looking to spend the most money I can either. I just want high quality equipment. With airplanes, and especially helis, there are SO many variables that can go wrong, good equipment can at least help to curb this to some extent.

The 601 is an earlier version of the 611. See, that's what I'm talking about. Maybe the 611 is top of the line for 3D but I really don't care about 3D and the 401 is VERY good but not on the same level as the 601 (611). I want what I need to fly scale. But I want high quality equipment... So are there more scale fuses for the .60 Raptor? I was told that the fuses make them heavy. (from a 3D perspective?) I'll go explore those links.
Thanks again guys,

270win

270win

My Feedback: (14)

I keep seeing people say that the Raptor 30 is really more of a training heli. If that's the case wouldn't it make a great scale flyer? I'm assuming that they must mean that it's very stable.... And there are some good looking scale kits for them too... And they're pretty cheap to buy and fix... Any thoughts?

270

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

true but I dont know of any scale fuses that you can slide those mechanics into without MAJOR mods.
My opinion is the most stable Raptor out of the box is a 60.
If you are more into flying scale than building scale,why not keep an eye on the marketplace here for a RTF used scale chopper?

270win

My Feedback: (14)

I have been... I think I have the whole selection memorized by now. But I keep changing my mind on size of model..... Too many choices and pro/cons. Once I learn to fly a heli somewhat comfortably I want a Bell 222 fuse. Cool looking helicopter!

270

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

The raptor is a pain to stuff into a small fuse because of the collective pitch arm design.
win try this site http://www.scalerchelis.com thats all they talk about over there.

270win

My Feedback: (14)

Thanks for the link. I went there... not much traffic over there compared to rcu. But hopefully I'll get some more good input over there.

270win

burt gummers

pm'd u

270win

My Feedback: (14)

Pm'd you back...

burt gummers

http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/f43p1/

try here

burt gummers

never mind the **** blocks the link

270win

My Feedback: (14)

Still nothing. So that's the name of the site? "****" That's weird... ???? Hmmmm it does sound like a good site if I can ever figure out how to get there.

270

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

run ryder dot com

There's a scale forum there as well that gets ok traffic. Scale is a small aspect of a small aspect of the sport.

270win

My Feedback: (14)

Barracuda-
I'll go check it out. Good point. It'll be hard to find huge volumes of information with that in mind....

270

Christopher J

If I could, I'd like to throw something else in the mix.

The Raptor 50 or 60 are not bad helis to learn on but they are not the easiest to convert to scale machines.

I'm not sure of what your range is price wise but perhaps among the other helis you might also consider Vario's line. You could start off with a Sky Fox which has a number of fuses it will fit into also from Vario. I've been through two Sky Fox helis which are both still flying, each in an Air Wolf fuse. To start off you could get a Sky Fox machine, motor, exhaust, electronics........ and learn with it if you don't go the Raptor route. While you're in the learning process you can decide on a fuse. The Sky Fox line (along with other Vario machines) is designed so that it can easily be put into a fuse, i.e. pull the boom, skids, and nose tray, add four floor mounting brackets where the skids used to be and you're in business.