With
nitro prices on the rise, I've been really looking
at the electric micro helicopter market. Here in Denver
there is a group that gets together once a month and
flies indoors. Having found out about this has really
drivin' home the idea of having a micro helicopter
that I could fly inside during the winter months,
yet take out to the field on those perfect days with
next to no wind. When I got the call do review this
little helicopter I didn't know much about it. I started
to do a little research and started to get more excited.
Name:
Heli-Max Novus N125 CP Price: $279.99 Rotor
Diameter: 12.0 in (305 mm) Weight: 3.2 oz (91 g) Height: 3.9 in (100 mm) Length: 11.2 in (285 mm) Width: 1.6 in (40 mm)
Items
Needed To Complete
8
AA Alkaline Batteries
Ya
know, it's really hard to put into words how small this
thing is. When the package hit my doorstop I was amazed
at how small of a box it came in was. I thought to myself,
all of that came in here!? I can't wait to look at this
thing.
The
packaging was very attractive and nicely done. All of
the parts are in a vacuum formed plastic shell with a
clear top so you can see the contents yet, keep the small
parts and pieces from falling out. Upon inspection everything
looked like it made the trip here just fine.
Manual
Overall,
the manual was excellent, it explained the whole process step
by step.
I
started by unpacking the helicopter itself. Again I was
amazed at how small this thing was, it's smaller than anything
I've ever flown or worked on. I pulled the canopy off and
looked at all the guts and everything looked in order. I
pulled the battery and it's charger out and plugged it in
right away. It was about that time that I found the instruction
manual hidden underneath the plastic shell. I had to hold
back my excitement and sit down to thoroughly go through
the manual, after a good read I continued on. I also noticed
that there are a few spare crash parts such as spare main
blades, tail blades and some torque tube gears.
Next
I examined the heli with a bit more detail and checked all
the links, balls, servos, wires, etc. for any chaffing or
other damage. All was well with the exception of the main
and tail blades, they were a little bit looser that I like,
but that was personal preference and would not affect the
flight characteristics. After a little tightening I was
ready to go, and just in time as the supplied battery charger
was solid green indicating that the battery was fully charged.
I installed it in the helicopter and put the canopy back
on. I should mention also that the supplied charger only
operates on AC Voltage and not DC. Well not a major problem
for most modelers who have some sort of charger, the novice
modeler may not have a way to charge at the field and will
have to have an AC source at the field. On to the radio
setup.
RADIO
SETUP
The
radio setup was really non-existent! The transmitter is programmable
but there was no further programming to be done as it comes from
the factory literally ready to fly. I should mention here that
this bundle is 2.4gHz and it does go through the binding process
every time you power up. According to the manual you have to plug
the battery in on the helicopter and set it down on a level surface.
Next you power up the transmitter and wait for a few seconds to
it to initialize. Once it initializes a couple of tones come from
the transmitter and a second or two later a couple of faint tones
come from the helicopter to let you know everything is ready to
go. To power the model down I unplugged the helicopter first,
then the transmitter just to be safe.
Since
this radio system is programmable I wanted to see just HOW programmable
it was. I re-read in the manual how to adjust certain things and
it is all done primarily from the two rotary knobs at the top
of the transmitter labeled V1 and V2. To gain access to program
you must first press the "Enter" button then using the
"Up" and "Down" buttons you can access different
parameters. To reverse a function's direction you must use the
"L" or "R" buttons on the right side of the
screen. To make an adjustment to a value such as throttle curve
or pitch curve you must use the rotary dials at the top of the
transmitter. To know how much you've changed a value or to know
what the value is, the percentage of that value will show up on
the screen from 0%to 100% depending on the value. Make your adjustment
and exit out.
The
next day I took the Novus to work with me to try
flying it around the shop. I was a little worried
that I wasn't going to have enough room to really
fly it around and get a good feel for it. I set
the heli down and spooled it up, it took off and
came up into a nice stable hover. One thing I noticed
just seconds into the first flight is that the flight
mode switch is where throttle hold normally is and
there was no throttle hold, not a BIG problem, it
was just not what I was used to. It did fly very
well and I was surprised at the amount of things
I could do in such a small area. Now I was just
waiting to take the Novus outside.
As
the weather usually is here this time of year I
had to wait for a few weeks before there was a break
in the weather. The day finally came and off to
the field I went. I had a small crowd that followed
me to the flight line as several onlookers were
intrigued. I took off and flew a couple of small
circuits and decided to try some inverted maneuvers.
As always I gained a few mistakes of altitude and
flipped the Novus. It flipped and settled right
down into an inverted hover. It was quite stable
and predictable. Next I started to fly around inverted
trying some forward hurricanes, and then on to some
rolling and flipping tricks, the Novus delivered.
Without any timer, I decided that I had better land
and re-charge.
After
the battery finished charging I took off again and
went right into some stationary flipping and rolling
maneuvers. Then I did some more hurricanes and tried
some backwards flying to see how well the heading
hold gyro worked. Again, I was pleasantly surprised
at how well this little helicopter flew! After some
more flying around I decided to land and head for
home as my kitchen pass had expired :)
If
you are looking to move up from a fixed pitch helicopter
to your first collective pitch helicopter this is
a great helicopter. It did everything that it was
advertised and was a pleasure to fly. I will have
to say that if you need to do any fixing on this
helicopter I would do it inside a 12 pie dish or
some sort of lined area, the parts are so small
that they are VERY easy to loose. I had to do a
little repair on the tail and lost a small part
into my carpet. I never found it, I looked for over
an hour and then just ordered another one. It does
take some amount of patience to work on something
this small also, especially if you have fat fingers
like I do!
All
in all I had fun with this helicopter and would
recommend it to anyone looking to get into the hobby.
If this is going to be your first helicopter I would
definitely buy or manufacture some training gear
to help you with your first flights, just to be
safe. If you are moving to this from a fixed pitch
helicopter I feel that you wouldn't need any training
gear just use the low rate setting and get used
to the model before getting too wild. Whatever level
you are at, just enjoy it and......
The comments, observations and conclusions made in this review are solely with respect to the particular item the editor reviewed and may not apply generally to similar products by the manufacturer. We cannot be responsible for any manufacturer defects in workmanship or other deficiencies in products like the one featured in the review.
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