ORIGINAL: rctradertwo

I have always flown airplanes and wanted to get into helis but everyone always said that they are so hard that you'll never be able to fly one. So iI kept on flying planes. I finally got an esky honeybee fixed pitch when they first came out. I paid $150 for one. I hovered it right out of the box with no problem. but when i took it out side to try forward flight it was useless. It would pitch up so bad that i would loose contol and the dirt brakes would come on. I sold that heli and bought a shogun 400 with brushless and original shaft drive. I ended up putting over $1000 into that pile of $%#$. Finally after i uprgraded everything on the heli I got it flying reliable enough to actually have fun with it. I started getting better at forward flight and started doing stall turns and almost going over into a loop. But every time I would it would get really unstable around 0 pitch and I would then be flying a rock and trying to gain control. I never did crash the shogun under normal conditions.....once put it in in gusting 20 mph winds (read idiotic). So I then sold the electric shogun inorder to fund my nitro project...... a raptor 50. I was thinking since i have mastered a small electric it would be easy for me to fly a nitro bird now....... I was wrong!!!!! I now have my Raptor 50 up and running and it is the EASIEST thing I have flown yet. I did this in an absolute opposite order than I should have. A raptor 50 would be the perfect learning tool (as long as you have the general knowledge of nitro engines and the basic workings of a heli). I found that the little parts on an electrics break easier and are more expensive than the bigger parts on a raptor. I do think that the electrics helped me but i also feel that I have learned just as much from FMS flight simulator. All I have done is waist money. I just put about $800 into a raptor, which is way less than everything I waisted in the electrics. I plan on getting another electric now that i have the experience to fly the more touchy electrics. As for the raptor, I built it in one day and had it up in the air then next day. all i had to do was to track the blades and now im having a blast with it. I have and os 50 sx engine and a futaba 240 gyro. i will be upgrading my servos and my gryo later when i get into more aggresive flying. Also, there just isnt anything like the huge 53" blades beating the air and smoke pouring out of the muffler instead of the annoying buzz of an electric. hope this helps.