Fasa

My Feedback: (5)

aerohawk? cheap, good. check it out. I've been reading about it for 2-3 months now. mine will be here in about a week. I will post when i get it. planning on videoing the first time i plan on lifting off. it wil be a good video crash or not..lol the wife is ready and she wants a laugh.

Maybe i will direct it her way so she has to run!

helidreamer-RCU

THE BEST IS THE CALIBER 30 from KYOSHO it is quiet, steady, and can perform arobatics exelently. Did i mention it's steady.

if someone agrees back me up please

grittykitty

The caliber 30 is a very good machine. My instructor has one, among his many others. I chose the raptor 50v2 because my LHS carries the full line of rappy parts at good prices, and I chose the 50 size because I wanted something more stable & powerful.

caseyddr

My Feedback: (13)

I have a caliber 30 waiting to have a gyro/tail servo to be put it in it! As soon as I can handle all the hovering / basic flight I will be flying it. Just waiting to put a 401 combo pack in it!

-pkh-

My Feedback: (2)

From what I've seen, US$500 is a pretty tight budget to get into helicopters...

I'm just starting to get into RC helicopters myself. I have several electric RC cars, and am planning to go to a nitro helicopter... a rather large step! I'm just starting with a simulator first, before I shell out $$$ for a real RC chopper and crash it trying to learn to hover! The simulator alone is US$200. I've alread crashed ~100 times in the sim, so I'd say it's paid for itself already! If I just got a chopper to start with, I'd probably would have had about 2 minutes max of practice time before I crashed and had to spend $60+ to repair it!

I'm very proficient at handling RC cars, but after trying to fly a RC heli for a couple of hours in my simulator, I can tell you it's much harder than I ever imagined! I honestly can't see how anyone could get into this hobby without shelling out $$ for a simulator or shelling out even more $$ in crash repairs. I figure I'll have to shell out around $1000 for a good nitro heli kit, engine, and electronics, and will probably spend several hundred dollars fixing crash damage when I start flying for real. Between the simulator and the initial heli expense, that's $1200 minimum. If you've already got some nitro accessories that are compatible with heli engines, and if you sacrifice some quality/performance to get a cheaper kit and radio gear, I guess you could shave a few hundred dollars off of that figure, but I don't see how to cut it in half very easily.

I've only researched 30 and 50 sized nitro helis, so I don't know how much you can save by going down to an indoor-only electric micro heli... I'd still think the simulator and/or crash repairs would drive you up over $500 total though...

JamesJenkins

im think of getting a piccolo or hummingbird. ive downloaded a flight simulator and its quite good, i can fly a heli on it quite well now.

-pkh-

My Feedback: (2)

James,

Which simulator did you get? What do you use for a controller?

JamesJenkins

MFS- Model Flight Simulator and i just use my keyboard. But if i get the piccolo it comes with it own flight simulator which should be good.

-pkh-

My Feedback: (2)

Hmmm... unless you have an a joystick type controller, similar to a real TX, I don't see how you can have a very accurate simulation...

I've got Real Flight G2 with the USB Interlink controller (looks & feels like a Futaba TX, made by Futaba, in fact), and I have a hell of a time hovering. If I just had keyboard controls, I'd never be able to fly the thing!

Before you buy one, you should read what some guys have said here about the Piccolo... doesn't sound like it's very easy to learn on...

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Fun_...1727540/tm.htm

reman

something says to me I'm about to get my head blown off for this, but what about a electric indoors contra rotation rtf, e-sky lama 2s go for around £100 new on ebay. its easy to fly, teaches you the basics, and the first memory of RC Helli's wont be 3 minutes after you start, having to go back to the shop for more blades. (took me 3 weeks to smash the first set so bad i couldn't fix them with a blob of super glue.) Yes, in 6 months you could be bored of it, but it so much more fun than a simulator

sceadu37

from what ive read of this so far, you want a good heli for £300 odd..

well the ones that seem popular around me, are the twister cp and the twister 3d

the cp comes as rtr with 2 lipos for £200

the 3d you can get with brushed motor for £110 or the brushless for £130 these arnet rtr, so you would need a transmitter and a receiver (no need for servos) some lipos and a charger, a gyro (and i think it coes with the speed controller)

so a bit over your budget, quite a bit better..

i will say tho, that the micros arnet the best for learing..

im only 16 and i bought a full nitro jobbie (over £1ks worth of chopper) pretty much all of my own money, so its not hard

sceadu37

mfs is whach for a flight sim...

its pretty useless..

i have demos of realflight g3 and reflex on my pc, and i would get one of them

reman

i'm thinking of a second heli as i am bored of flying my Lama 2 around the house or at the office. as money is so tight i'v been looking at the e-sky stuff again for its replacement.

the two that have caught my eye so far are the Honey Bee King and the Honey Bee Cool. I've heard the king is quite easy to fly and its cheaper but its also smaller and i would like to fly outside more than the 5 or so dead calm days we get a year.

so i think i would like the "cool" as it's only a few more quid, but is it any harder to fly, or is there any other reason to get one over the other?

also what about upgrades? ive seen the alloy rotor head setup for the king but not the cool. is there one out there?



any advice would be greatfully receved as i dont know have any shops stocking e-sky helis around here ( lots selling parts thought ?) so i cant get a look at these kits before i buy online.

thanks

larksrc

I have the original Real Flight sim with the fake serial transmitter. Is there anywhere to download helicopters for it? Otherwise I have been using FMS with the Real Flight tx.

reman

Hows your German ? WWW.RC-SIM.DE

higgy

also in english : www.rc-sim.com ... ( click the usa-plane )

Earlgrey

Hi James

You experience of rc cars will in a way be useful for you when you begin to fly rc helicopters, however, I know of far too many people who are new to rc helicopters and go straight out and buy a £150+ helicopter only to smash it to bits on their 1st flight, have you thought about what will you do if you decide rc helicopters are not for you? - I ask because as you money is limited ( like the rest of us ) it seems a lot of money to pay if you've had no previous rec helicopter experience.

I would recommend a Honeybee cp2, or a walkera 4, both are cheap especially the walkera, yes I know a lot of people have not got a good word to say about the walkera dragonfly 4 but I have 4 friends who have one and they have no complaints at all ( I have one too ) the more you pay the more the spare parts will cost and believe me James you WILL need spare parts.

Have you tried looking at www.heliguy.com I order all my parts from them, I wiat no more than a day for the parts to arrive.

I have to date broken a tail blade, it was nothing to do with the helicopter and EVERYTHING to do with me - pilot error

I would hat eit if you spent £150 plus on a heli then wrecked it, start from the near bottom, with a fixed pitch model, then if your interest is still there go for a collective pitch, then upwards to the T rex's or whatever.

Hope this helps you.

reman

not English as i know it, more German junior school English !!
( thou still 100X better than my English senior school German )

FORGED

Raptor .50v2, save your money and buy what you want! i bought one of these for my first heli, and if you have a training under carriage and the right person to teach you, you will not crash, that comes when its time too take off the training under carriage. the reasons why i say .50 raptor is that their virtually the same as .30 but better power to weight ratio, more stable, bigger engine you will grow with a .50 with the .30 you will want the power of a .50 in six months time as a friend of mine found out! good luck[sm=thumbup.gif]

P.s buy the best radio gear you can afford. also the raptor is one of the most easiest heli's to fly!