Quick story:

Here is a list of my current equipment:

1. A beat up wooden crutch Corona 120 with dented (but straight) aluminum tail boom. Stock Fusion brushed motor. Stock Fusion 35 ESC. A bag of parts to get it all straightened out and set up like new.

2. Hitec Laser 4 TX and (currently broken) Hitec 555 RX. The RX is no longer available but supposedly a suitable replacement can be ordered.

3. Futaba GY240 AVCS gyro.

4. IntelliPeak Pulse Charger.

5. Two 3300 Mah NiMH battery packs.

Everything listed above is nearly a decade old.

Quick questions: Fix it and attempt to learn to fly? Upgrade it and attempt to learn to fly? Sell it and buy something new?



Long story:

I attempted to make the move from nitro cars / trucks to electric helicopters years ago with not much success. I bought a Corona 120 and promptly went through many booms and rotors attempting to hover it in the basement. I was OK at hovering and tried to progress to forward flight and ended up with some major crashes and rebuilds. About 7 years ago I decided to do another full rebuild. I bought a BT stock replacement CF crutch, CF boom, some head parts, flybar, upgraded main shaft, rotors, 3300 mah batteries, etc. Shortly after this, I ended up moving and got sidetracked and moved on to other hobbies (see user name).

Fast forward to this past week. For some reason, I got the itch to dig out the Corona and attempt to get it working again. I still had the bag of unopened 7 year old "new" parts and an almost ready to fly Corona. The only thing I needed to get flying was batteries. I had destroyed the original set of batteries but had two "new" 3300 mah NiMH packs in the bag. The new batteries had deans so I soldered a deans connector on the heli and charged up the TX and battery packs.

Observations:

1. 7 year old battery packs don't take a good charge. I am probably charging them wrong but I was impatient. I have an IntelliPeak Pulse Charger. I set it on 3.0 and let it rip. and got a good 15 second attempt at hovering in my living room. LOL..

2. It is just as hard to hover as I remember it being.

3. I really need to go through and rebuild this thing and get it setup right.

4. Every charge of the battery gets me a little more "attempt to hover" time.

5. Running the heli into the couch is not good for the couch or the heli.

6. My GF is very interested in seeing this thing fly and attempting to fly herself.

After the couch incident, I started having issues with the RX. I think a solder joint cracked. I can squeeze the RX and get it to work but when I let go, I get nothing. During my search online for a new RX, I decided to see how technology has changed in the last decade since I bought my Corona. I was extremely impressed with videos I saw on YouTube and such. I decided to hit up my LHS and pick up an RX and ask their opinion on an indoor heli that the GF could mess around with and learn the basics. I had a CX2 or MCX in mind and was amazed when I walked into the store to an MCX buzzing around the shop. The precision and control of that little heli was amazing compared to my Corona. After asking about the RX and finding out they did not have one in stock, I asked a bit more about the MCX and and was quickly convinced to purchase one and a few spare batteries. My quest for heli flight has been renewed by this crazy piece of modern technology. Unfortunately, my quest is being held back by the lack of an available RX at any of my three LHS.

Sooooooo..... on to the questions.

My main question is: Should I continue my quest with the Corona and my near decade old TX, RX, gyro, charger, batteries? Should I upgrade some of my components? Should I just start again with something completely new?

The minimum investment I would need to invest to get this thing off the ground is about 60 bux for a new RX and possibly some new battery packs. Is it worth it? Should I invest the money into a different TX/RX?

I am not sure if the batteries will come back to life. I had the charger run auto discharge / recharge cycles on the batteries for about 12 hours on each battery. The charge / discharge time increased significantly so I think it helped. Should I discharge completely and slow charge each pack now? Any suggestions? Toss them and get new packs?

Is the gyro outdated? Should I invest in a HH gyro to make attempting to fly a bit easier?

Is the Corona outdated? I see there are plenty of hop up parts available that claim to make flying easier. Is their something you would recommend to make the jump to FF easier? Belt drive? Belt drive tail? Brushless motor and ESC? Assuming upgrades are the way to go, is it actually worth it? Is the money just better spent on a modern technology RTF with belts, CP, brushless, lipo batteries?

Ultimately, I am trying to find the best cost to benefit ratio. If you feel what I have now is suitable to learn on, fly, and enjoy with just a 60 dollar investment in an RX, then I will go that route. If you think that upgrades on the heli and or equipment is the way to go, is it worth the investment or should I just buy a new chopper?

Any guidance you can offer is greatly appreciated.