zerpy

Hi,

I am considering getting a small electric heli. I've been with gas planes for a while and have been dying to get into helis too. At some point I plan on getting into some of the nice big gas helis, but for right now I am considering one of the little electric ones that can be flown indoors.

Now, I understand that there is a very strong bias on this board against electrics, as it was apparent quite quickly It seems that the small helis are going to be harder to learn to fly with (especially since I've only got simulator experience) if I believe what I've heard, and I have no reason not to. But, it is a cheaper way to start out and even when I do get a gas one, I'd like to have a small electric around to fly in my yard on a calm day or in the house, etc...

So, I've seem a few different models. The two that seem to stand out the most are the Century Hummingbird and the Ikarus FUN Piccolo.

At this very moment I am leaning toward the hummingbird. They both seem to be about the same size, etc... However, the hummingbird appears to use more "standard" components (or at least separate components) where the FUN Piccolo uses an integrated picoboard that is quite expensive and is a nice single point of failure for much of the cost structure of the heli. In the hummingbird if my motor controller blows, or giro or whatever I can replace one, less expensive, piece of the "guts" of the heli.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone that has had experience with these small electrics (or any others in that class) could weigh in with their opinions and reccomendations?

If I prove to not have the patience to learn on the small electric, then I'll just have to hang it up until I can get a 30 or 50 size glow powered bird. Then I'll bring the little guy of the shelf once I have some more experience, but I'd like to give the little one a try and see if I have the patience to learn on one of them. Then maybe next spring I'll get a nice hawk or raptor or something after flying the little one around my house all winter. I'm going to need to do something this winter, I can't fly a plane in the house or garage!

Thanks
Jas

Simbo

Hello Jas

I am very new to this hobby and can not offer to much help, but i own a Feda which is the same thing as the Hummingbird, it now has more HB parts on it then the stock Feda, but i will say this, it takes a beating, i have never flown anything in my life before, and after a set of main blades, tail blade, and one main motor, i now can hover in the garage in a 10' area, i have only taking out side 3 times light winds and i did not do so well with it.

for the price and durability it's not a bad heli, but i am new to this, and have not flown any other heli's (as of yet)

carbon

Jas
I recently got the feda dragonfly, I am very impressed with it. I ordered it off Ebay for $235 shipped. It came with all the electronics, Extra set of main and tail blades, extra battery, and traning gear.
The first thing that I really like is that it has only one very small board on the heli. It has the receiver, gyro, and speed controler all in one. What this does for you is to make the heli lighter. The hummingbird uses a seperate receiver, gyro, and speed controller, heaver setup!
Now on to the fun thing about this great heli. It looks fragile, but it is tough as nails. Ihave crashed it several times and didn't hurt anything. The worst crash so far was to go from about 20 feet up and hit on the driveway, 1 broken blade. It is the coolest thing to be able to fly in the house. I use me bed to for my landing pad, also great if it tips over. I fly gas helis, do 3D flying, but I am having more fun wiyh this heli. This is coming from a guy that swore I would never have an elec heli!!!!!!!!
If you do buy one I would recomend that you install a head stiffner, this helps stablize it greatly, that goes for just about any of the fixedpitch helis being sold. If I can help you in any way let me know.

Mark

macman

My Feedback: (4)

one electric heli you should definitely check out is the lite machines corona model 120. This is a great heli to start out with, and can take quite a beating. You could upgrade to a brushless motor later on as well. check out the LMH Helicopter forum to check them out

astronut30

My Feedback: (5)

Yup, the Corona is very nice, especially for starting off... It's a little bigger than the Piccolo etc.. but can be hovered in a garage no problem and handles wind waaay better than the micros and it's a whole lot more stable making it a lot easier to learn on, it will be more $ than a micro initially but well worth it...

If you're set on a micro though, having owned a Piccolo, a feda and now a hummingbird, they all fly very similarly, I like the durability better on the feda and hummingbird as the rotor head assembly is designed slightly better in my opinion and requires less $ on upgrades there. On the Picc, a cnc anti rotation (stock one is very flimsy) arm and an aluminum hub (to prevent bearings or bushings from flying out) is a must, both not needed on a hummingbird. Just an aluminum shaft collar is a must on any of those and a head stiffener for forward flight. Hornet blades help a lot too with stability and efficiency I've found...

micro, I'd say go hummingbird, comes with bearings, pre assembled, more durable + now comes with the 370 motor for decent performance.....

zerpy

Great feedback, thanks alot. I'll definately look at the corona, but I am looking for something tiny to have some fun with, like I said a larger glow powered model is in the plan already

It is good to hear some of this feedback. It seems like the piccolo is so popular you get blinded by the popularity of it, seems all I hear is piccolo, piccolo, piccolo... without any "useful" feedback (maybe people just like it so much because of the CP upgrade - not even sure if that is really a big deal on that small of a model).

I appreciate the info!

Thanks
Jas