Hello - as a first-timer learning on an "Aero-Hawk" fixed pitch heli - and after numerous crashes, upgrades and modifications - I decided the learning curve and cost of furniture refinishing was steeper than I could afford. The Aero-Hawk design was marginal at best, the quality poor, and parts replacement expensive. Two years later and short memory - I've been thinking about climbing into the cockpit again and giving variable pitch a try. Reading the reviews on the E-Flite CP suggests there been a few improvements since my first flight and I would be very interested to hear other's experiences with variable pitch for basic livingroom flying. Thanks very much - Jack Clarke

Jack if you want to fly in the living room with low cost on repairs i would get a SIMULATER it is the cheapest learning you can do and in the mean time shop around to figure out what you want to get for your next heli.
scott

defiantly go with a collective pitched heli but if your only flying in the living room Scott nailed it with the simulator suggestion.

kc

Thanks Scott and kc for your suggestions - good point about sim flying in the livingroom. A little more realistically, I'd like to get out to our local park where the walls are not so close and practice basic maneuvers. The best I could achieve with the Aero-Hawk was about 30 second hovers - and this was only after hours and hours of trimming and filing and sanding until them tiny linkages were nearly worn away. Does variable pitch make hovering any easier or is that more in the hands of the pilot and not the mechanics? How would you compare the quality of today's models (Walkera - E-Flite) as compared to the Aero-Hawk vintage? Has there been any improvement in the fabrication and molding of plastic parts for fit and consistancy and durability? Thanks again for helping me navigate through this maze. Your suggestions and opinions and experience are VERY much appreciated !! Jack

the only thing about fixed pitch is the lag time in altitude response. with a variable pitch you get instantaneous response to both up and down requests from the collective, in fixed pitch you have a lag as the head speeds up or slows down and the wind also plays havoc on fixed pitch. now if you were flying in the house with no wind influence then other then that lag in head speed changes there is minimal difference. cyclic/tail input is the same.

i flew some fixed pitch nitro birds way back in the days and the only differences in overall flight was in hover i had more up/down bobbing and you couldn't Safely stop forward flight and descend to a hover from altitude, you always had to fly down to a hover rather or the lagging head speed would cause you to have a 'not so smooth' decent or you'd have a 'bump in' with the ground as you tried to stop the decent.

kc