Jam Rectified

Hi everyone,

I got a piccolo about a year or so ago and could nevr get to grips with it - just too damn small and temperamental[:@] and ended up spending a fortune on spares etc and trying to upgrade to make it better but decided to just leave it and maybe come back to it. Anyway, decided that I just couldn't face it but want to get something a bit bigger and more durable - hence why I am looking at the corona. Now I am based in the UK so I am not even sure if anyone stocks them over here or if I should just order from helihobby.
Guess that my questions is whether I should buy a whole set up - I see that helihobby do a complete brushless set up for about $500, or is it worth me hand picking the best items and hopefully saving some money or at least not wasting money on parts I won't need.
Is there any upgrade parts I should get straight away to better the experience. Would very much appreciate your thoughts and opinions. I have a futaba skysport 6 trannie so I am guessing that that would be OK but what do you recommend for the rest of the kit - motor, ESC, servos, upgrades, batts etc
Any help / opinions woul be greatly appreciated. I also notice that someone is selling their set up currently in the buy/sale section for $250 - would this be a good way for me to start?

Thanks

TIA

Hi!

Used is a great way to start. Especially if you can get a used brushless setup. If you end up not liking it you won't be risking a huge investment and if you want to upgrade later the loss will likewise as minimal. Not to mention the savings out of pocket for the initial investment.

darthdrk

We've all just about walked down this road. I bought a Gas LMH 110/116,thewn I upgraded to the electric Corona 120, then Ive went to the BT Upgrades. During this time Ive tried the aerohawk micro Helicopter. Personally without quite a few upgrades needed,the heli (aerohawk) is junk. Its 3-1 board fried, the mainrotor would always fly off, swashplate always seperated. I havent got rid of it because I do plan on getting if flying again. The Corona is by far the best FP heli out there. Its very durable and rugged. I stock Corona when properly set up flys good and stable. Much easier than the smaller micro helis. I learned on the gas heli but after experiencing the 120 electric, I dont fly gas anymore. The BT (Ballistic Technology) upgrades only make a good helicopter better. BallisticTechnology.com (Add the WWW.) If youre into sport flying or scale flying and want to stay with a neighborhood size parkflyer heli,Id say go for the Corona without a second guess. If you want to go 3D The Corona will not fly sustained upside down. It will loop,and roll,Piro, stall turn,fly forward, backwards and sideways. Want skins for the Corona checkout Darthdrk.4t.com add the WWW.

Jam Rectified

Hi Reno,

Had a quick look in the for sale bit of this forum but there weren't too many in there....I guess that at the moment I am looking at getting new stuff but also with a mind to possibly upgrading in the future. If I bought the bare bones kit, what would be the best motor / servos / receiver / gyro etc to kit it out with, with upgradeability also in mind...?

Cheers

Jam Rectified

Hi Darthdrk,

Thanks for your opinion, and don't worry, I have spent a bit of time at your webpage - just love the Hughes 500D shell you have on there and that is definitely on my wish listbut need to keep telling myself to start small and get the thing flying before I spend a fortine on upgrades and nice to haves - plus the missus would kill me. Am interested in knowing what motor, esc, receiver etc stuff would be best to put together with the Corona bare bones kit. Any thoughts very welcome.
Cheers, and I seriously do want a 500D shell......must resist!

darthdrk

Mega 16-15-3 is the most popular with a cc-45 brushless controller
Im running a astro 020 brushless with cc-45 controller and Im very satisfied
most popular gyro is the futaba 401/240
Im using the hitec optic 6 radio with a standard reciever and seems to work great for me

Jam Rectified

I would be OK using my Skysport 6 trannie wouldn't I? I have seen a few mentions about a hitec 555 receiver aswell and some hitec servos. I have no idea what batts to us either - would I need to go lipo or could I just stick with 7 or 8 cell NiCd or whatever the bigger ones are?

beaner

Hi Jam R,
I had a Piccolo too, as well as other micros. And as you said too temperamental, too sloppy, too fragile. My Corona survived crashes which would have put some of my other helicopters in the garbage can. I now own 2 Corona 120's which I highly recommend. They fly fine right out of the box stock. However as you gain experience you will want to upgrade some parts. Probably the best power upgrade I made was going brushless. I am using an Astro 20 (voyager), I tried the Astro 20 (Corona) but the Voyager has a little more power. A Castle Creations Phoenix 45 ESC and a 8 cell GP3300 battery.To improve flying characteristics a cnc swash plate,5 mm main rotor shaft, and belt driven tail rotor really makes a difference. Those I purchased from Ballistic Technology. Good luck, Hope this helps.

Jam Rectified

Hi Beaner,

Glad to know I am heading in the right direction and moving away from the Piccolo - I do need to flog some of that gear though to fund the Corona. When you say it flys well stock out of the box - when I have seen it on the helihobby web page they seem to do a bare bones kit (which I am assuming is without the motor etc) then they do kits with a trannie and everything which I don't need so are getting a bit expensive. I have to consider the postage costs as I am in the UK. Would you say the an HH gyro like the futaba GY240 would be something that would be beneficial to me as well?
Goodd to speak to someone else who knows where I want to get away from on the Piccolo Front!

Cheers

Jam R

Jam Rectified

Hi Darthdrk - Just a quick queston - You mention that the Mega 16-15-3 motor is popular with a CC 45 ESC, Well I was just looking around on the WWW and found some place selling one with a CC 35 esc, is the 45 really necessary or could I make do with a 45?? Thanks.

darthdrk

Id go with the 45 which would allow a higher amperage burst rate. Better safe than sorry.

beaner

Hi Jam R,
I would guess Heli Hobby is allowing the buyer to have more choices by selling a ‘bare bones’ package. However, if you go to the Lite Machines web site you will see that they offer several prepackaged kits (although their prices are a bit high). I purchased my 120’s at the LHS. I got the Lite Machines ’standard combo’ which comes with an Electro-Fusion 7 brushed motor and an Electro-Fusion 35 ESC. Everything I needed to get this model airborne was in the box except for the battery, gyro and of course radio gear. The kit cost $249.00 USD. As for the gyro, if your asking specifically about the 240, I don’t have any experience with it. Although, I know people who fly the 240 and are happy with it. If your asking about HH gyros in general, I think they make the model easier to fly. Especially in windy conditions or for backward flying. I have a JR410T in one Corona and a JR500T in the other. The tail holds well on both. But the 500T has a remote gain adjustment (5th channel on my TX). Hope this helps.

Beaner

RK-Aircraft

My Feedback: (81)

If its balance correctly, you will not be disappointed with the CORONA 120. Make sure you get metal gear servos. HITEC HS81-MG are good.

TIA

Jam,

Yeap! What they said!



All great advice. I am running a CC35 in one of my brushless setups and it works fine, but the copter came wit it.
If buying all new stuff I'd buy the CC45 just for the extra added insurance.



Remember one thing, if you wanna play, you're gonna pay when it comes to helicopters. I've got nearly $2,000 in my BT Corona. My only point here is to ask yourself how far you want to take this so you get an idea how much you can figure the investment.
Reno.

Mini Boy

Hey Darth:

I'm interested to find that you finally gave up on those Norvel slimer engines, and saved a ton of money on "paper towels", to quote myself ... LOL !!! I used to grieve for you guys spending half your life trying to make those "fuelies" run ... God bless you !! So ... now that you have made the transition to electric .... especially to brushless .. can you finally confess as to how much niftier ( brushless ) electric is ??

Keep up the great work on your fuselages ... they are TOP NOTCH !!!

Russ

And Jam ... The LMH Corona will not let you down !!! all the comments about reliable, bulletproof, crash-resistant, easiest to learn on, etc., are TRUE ... TRUST US !!

Russ

darthdrk

Mini Boy,Long time no hear from. I have made that confession. Its one of the things I kick myself over for not trying sooner.Yep, you were one of the guys who tried to tell me. Before i converted to electric I went and bought a gallon of fuel and i still have that same gallon of fuel and havent used a drop of it. Electic is 100% much better than Gas for the LMH. Yep, youre right again about the brushless much better and cleaner than the brushed setup.

Jam Rectified

Gents,

Thanks for all your advice. I have started flogging my Piccolo parts on e bay to generate some funds for the corona. Have also picked myself up a GY240 to go in it - got a good price on it so just need to start picking up the rest of what I need.
Planning on getting a CC 45 as that seems to be the general consensus and probably the HS 81MG servos unless anyone has any other suggestions.
The only thing I am not really sure about is what motor to plum for....an Astro 20 or a Mega 16-15-3 or any others out there????
I am also just planning on using my skysport 6 trannie and the R147F 7 channel receiver that I "acquired" from an plank.

How does that all sound..? Anyone got any of these parts they want to sell off to me cheap and send to the UK.

And you know what one of my first extravagances will be when I get flying - it's gotta be a Hughes 500D shell from darthdrk!!! Just love those birds!

Again, thanks all for your advice![8D]]

Cheers Jam R

Jam Rectified

Just wanted to report back and say that after flogging off all of my piccolo parts on e bay I have now ordered my Corona from Mike at Roffee TV - Brilliant guy - dead helpful and has helped me pick my setup.
I have gone for the barebones kit, the Mega 16-15-3 motor, CC 45 ESC, 2 hs81MG's and 1 standard HS 81 for the tail and a 8 cel GP3300 and I already have the GY240 Gyro so I am hoping that sould be a pretty decent set up for starters. Can't wait to receive it and get building.

Now I guess there are probably posts already on this but along with the comprehensive construction manual that I have already downloaded are there any other important bits of info that you guys would like to share regarding the build itself. I could also do with some help with how I actually wire things up if anyone can help.

I just know that this thing is gonna fly like a dream just form all the comments on here and other forums about it and I can't wait. Thanks for your help and advice so far and please help me further.

Cheers

Jam R[8D]

Peter_d

There are 3 things you should be careful NOT to do...
1. Overtight the jesus bolt, the one that keeps the rotorhead on the main shaft. If you overtight this you deform the rotorhead which will give you vibrations..
2. Overtight the screw that holds your tail gearbox in place, if you overtight this you might crack the gearbox.
3. Don't attach the tailfin to the gearbox with glue, use velcro or something, there are a bunch of tips regarding this on the forums..
//Peter

beaner

Hi Jam R,
Welcome to the Corona community! Follow the manuals, they are very well written. Take your time building and take the time to trim it out properly and you won’t be disappointed.

Good Luck,
Beaner

Jam Rectified

Thanks Beaner!,

The instructions do look pretty damn good so I will see how it goes. Am just gonna take my time and get it right but will probably ask some more questions as I get started.

Cheers

Jam R

RandyT

One thing to look out for when your building, is Corona plastic parts are notorious for having alot of flash. Take some time and clean up all the flash to keep things from binding. Good luck.

Jam Rectified

Well bugger it! My kit turned up on Friday - Many thanks to Mike from Roffee TV. Everything was there as ordered and I didn't even get stung for import tax Started happily building yesterday and finished the rotor head and was moving on to fitting the main shaft to do the balancing and would you believe it - there are parts missing! The 2 MR bearing collars are nowhere to be found!! I've gone through all the other bags but can't them anywhere. Absolutely gutted. The construction manual says I need to contact Lite Machines instead of where I got the kit from but they don't give any e mail address....arrrghhhhh!
Has anyone got a contact e mail for them or even better has anyone got any spare collars that they would be willing to send me as cheap as possible!!!
Can't believe I have hit a hurdle so early on in the build. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come!!!!!

Mini Boy

Hi Jam:

Their phone # is at the bottom of their home page:

http://www.litemachines.com/

Give them a call, have your Roffe's sales slip handy, and they will be glad to send you the missing parts,

Russ

dameron

My Feedback: (1)

Debra Hula
Office Manager
Lite Machine Corporation
[email protected]
Phone: 765-463-0959
Fax: 765-463-7004