I've been wanting to get an RC heli since I discovered their existence as a kid. Until now, my mainstay with RC has been land-based, mostly RC cars. The heli I would like to purchase is the Kyosho Caliber 30, which appeals to me because of its scaleability. I have a few questions about this heli, and I also have some questions about flying.

General:
What are the "extras" that I'd need in addition to the standard fare of radio/servos/gyro, batt, fuel, etc. Any specialty tools that are a "must buy"? I'm thinking I should get a pitch gauge at the least, and perhaps a rotor balancer. Anything else?

Most kits I've had come out of the box with "average" quality parts. Would it be worthwhile of me to invest in some nice aftermarket parts like composite rotor and tail blades? I figure the will probably break sooner or later due to a crash or bad landing.

What are the ideal items to have in my field box?

Which shape of battery pack does the Caliber 30 use. My guess is a 4.8V flat pack. Even though a battery comes with the receiver, I want to get one with a higher mAh rating because I plan to use all digital Futaba 9252 servos.

Radio:
Everyone says to splurge on the radio. I found a good deal on a Futaba 9CAP/HP w/four 9252 servos for $700. I say good deal because it is much cheaper than Tower. If there is any place selling that package for less, link me up!

Motor:
I do not want to use a "can" muffler on the motor, I would much rather use a tuned pipe. Is there a good header/pipe combo for the caliber 30 using the OS 32 SX-H engine?

After reading some posts here, I was surprised to learn that ya'll run your motors without an intake filter on the carb. That just sounds a little off to me. Is there some particular reason that filters are not used? No room?

Flying:
What are the typical controls for a heli? i.e. what do the two sticks do.

What is the normal process for taking off, hovering, flying around a little, landing? The process I am referring to is how your heli responds to controller inputs...someting like, left stick up makes the heli take off vertically. So is hovering a matter of applying just enough throttle to keep the heli from coming down?

How sensitive would the Caliber 30 be to control inputs? Say I move the right control stick up slighlty, will the heli move slightly or a lot?

That about does it for my first round of questions. I am hoping for responses with the caliber 30 in mind. Thanks!

Whew!!! A bunch of questions I can't answer, and one or two I can!

Caliber: Great choice! Everything I've seen and read says you're gonna love that one. Easy to build and set up, steady and quiet - and 3D capable.

The ones I've seen came with a pretty good muffler: nice and quiet, and the bird's still strong.

Extras: I won't pretend to think of everything, but, IMPO, the two you mentioned aren't "maybe" items! If you don't know someone you can borrow them from, they're "must haves".

It also wouldn't hurt to keep a crash kit, or two, in your box - especially if you're new to helis. Along with the typical crash kit items, (flybar, mast and feathering shaft), I also keep spare rotors, (main and tail), tail boom and drive shaft. (Knock on wood: I haven't needed any of 'em yet!)

Radio: I don't know anyone using the 9CHP, but everything I've read on here suggests it's an excellent radio.

Personally, I'm using the Eclipse 7 - for a couple reasons:
- there are at least seven other pilots in my club using it, so finding help with its eccentricities is really easy; and,
- I'm not all that thrilled with PCM.
(The ready availability of help was the major factor in my decision on this radio.)

Sticks:
Left: throttle/collective, (up/down), and yaw, (right/left);
Right, (Cyclic): pitch, (up/down), and roll, (right/left).

How sensitive the Caliber, (or any other bird), is is in direct proportion to how you set up the trims on these sticks.

I'd suggest two other items, since you're new at helis:
- if you don't already have one, a simulator; and,
- a CoPilot.
I give these two items full credit for keeping my crash supplies in my box - instead of on my bird!

This is far from everything!

Good luck.

Thanks for the response!

I chose that radio based on what everybody here says about it, plus I have been using Futaba with my cars and they work great.

I'm probably going to take my chances flying solo. It might not be the best way to go, but I like doing things on my own. If worse comes to worse, I'll just crash and learn.

I've been thinking about getting realflight G2. It seems like a good simulator, then again, I have not tried any so I really have nothing to compare it too. Are there any sims that cost less than realflight? Which one did you get, and are you able to connect your controller to your ocmputer somehow?

And if anybody else has something to add, please feel free. Thanks!

SsZERO,

Learning on your own can be a challange. Good luck. I like your plan. Get the Real Flight G2 for sure.

Jerry

There are several good sims, but I won't pretend to know all of 'em.

I found EasyFly at the LHS - for < $20 !! It comes with a serial port connector for your radio, (if the radio has a Buddy Port), but it lacks all the "fine-tuning" adjustments. (I haven't managed a steady hover with it, but I can with my heli!)

Several folks in our club like FMS's sim. It can be downloaded, free, but you have to make your own connector. (I haven't used this one yet, but the guys say it's really great.)

A couple of the guys also have Dave Brown's sim, and say it's good.

I've got to admit, though, that the most talk I've seen is about Real Flight. Everyone that says anything about it says it's the best. My only problem with it is the cost. (Personally: Cadillacs are great, but a VW will get me there!)

A couple other little "extras": LocTite, (gotta-have), and ball link pliers, (awfully-handy).

SsZero,

I've had a caliber 30 for four months now. I started on an electric Eco8 and found that too tricky to learn on. In comparison the Caliber is very stable yet responsive, and is probably the quietest around. The stock muffler is very good. In terms of upgrades, don't bother. The stock stuff is fine, and I haven't had any slack or play in the system yet, whereas others with different heli's who started about the same time have already replaced their swash plates. Go for the CCP mode set up, and don't forget the training undercarriage.
In terms of crash sets, I haven't crashed mine yet. I did get it set up by the store, which wasn't a very good job, and I would have been fighting an unstable devil if I'd have flown it. A club colleague spent a patient hour and half setting it up, and now it'll hover hands off for 3 seconds... not bad. Another advantage is there are two head linkage set-ups. On for training, and one for 3D. Set it up for training.
Whatever you do, to give yourself a headstart join a club or at least get someone proficient to set it up.
Mine's totally stock and I'm more than pleased with it. Just put a high capacity receiver battery in the front, with perhaps a battery checker. It allows flying for at least a couple of hours, if not longer, without having to take the canopy off for replacement.

If you want the address of FMS simulator, just let me know. It'll give you a feel for how the heli behaves to controls.
Robin
Broadway, UK

can someone explain to me what does helicopter controls do? throttle/collective and roll.

I know pitch up/down, that's obvious. I also know that yaw is turning the head. But what about throttle/collective and roll? What is that exactly?

MonkeyDude:

There're two pitches at play here: collective pitch and cyclic pitch.

The cyclic pitch is the one that points the nose toward the sky or toward the ground. Collective pitch controls up/down motion of your bird.

The throttle and collective pitch are linked: as you increase your throttle, you increase your collective pitch - 'til you climb, hopefully!

How the throttle and collective are linked is controlled by the throttle curve and pitch curve. (Being a newbie myself, that exhausts my knowledge of these two!)

For roll, think like a plank flier: it's what makes you move left/right.


SsZero:
I've got to second ju87bstuka's suggestion: get some help from someone that's familiar with these things! At best, you'll crash and it'll only cost $50-200 to repair; at worst, your "significant other", mom, dad, siblings and friends lament their loss.

These little things are a really great hobby, and can be loads of fun.

Have fun, safely.

Yeah, in the back of my mind, envision some part of my body being severed by the rotors as I attempt to do a simple hover and accidentally fly in the wrong direction.

I'll give the sim a shot. The RC scene in philly isn't really big, as far as I know, so finding someone with the same chopper/radio as me is unlikely.

SSzero,

I wouldn't worry about finding someone with the same model/radio. A good pilot can set any heli up and it's radio. Just take your instructions/manual with you. On the Caliber, all of the links except two are fixed, and you don't have to adjust them. All the adjustment is by the two in the maual and it's simple. Your buddy will need to know that since most other helis have a multitude of links to adjust. Blessed Caliber simplicity.

So what exactly needs adjusting? Doesn't sound too hard if it is only two things to worry about.

I am also new the the heli scene, I've had only planes and cars up to now.

My advice, of which I have little that is helpful is to go ahead and buy RealFlight. I was skeptical at first, I downloaded FMS and PreFlight of the'net for free - they are no comparison. In fact, the only reason I am buying a heli is because it was so fun messing with them on G2.

I decided on a JR Venture(ordered today, in fact) simply because I've always been pleased with JR stuff and it seemed to get good reviews. I have a JR 8103 radio to go with it.

Good luck with your new hobby!

SsZERO,
Indeed alot of questions so I will answer them with short replies:

1) Heli - The Caliber is not the best recommendation for scale use. I assume that is what you are referring to unless you are using the term "scalablitly" to mean growth potential. If that is what you mean then there are ALOT of good choices in that regard. For the $ the Hawk Sport is the winner hands down.

2)Tools - These are must haves when building: blade balancer, pitch guage, ball link pliers, hex wrenches, various glues, metric ruler, screwdrivers(phillips #1, #2).

3)Field Box - Tri Flow oil, starter, glow igniter, start wand, fuel pump, fuel, glow plugs, tools, battery voltage checker, etc.

4) Upgrades - If you are buying a quality kit for a beginner then you won't need any. The name of the game when beginning is keep it simple and cheap. No need for fiberglass or carbon blades and a bunch of CNC aluminum upgrades. Just buy fuel and burn it!! If you are buying a heli that people are recommending a bunch of upgrades for then you are getting the wrong heli. The only exception to this is for items like more bearings. But, even this is necessary for a brand new heli. Replace them when they wear out or your flight skills overstress them!

5) Radio - The 9C is a great choice as far as value goes. But, I think you should try to find someone with one and hold it. As a beginner comfort is everything and this radio is NOT very comfortable if you fly with index finger and thumb controlling the gimbals. If you want to fly thumbs the it's no problem. But, for me and a couple of my students we all have had problems with this. If you want a top end 8-9 channel PCM system then get the JR 8103. Even the Airtronics RD6000 is easier to handle. This is all opinion but you should hold all three of these if you can! As far as PCM goes get it!!! Do it now and you won't have to worry about it later. If you want to know why then send me some mail and I will give you the reasons. But, they are for the most part communication rate, glitch resistance, fail-safe.

6) Motor - If you are in the US and can get 15% nitro then go with a one-piece "tuned muffler". Tuned pipes are much to difficult on helis for a beginner. It's not the same thing as 1/8th scale buggies here. Just get a TT .39 with Ace upgrade muffler or the Century Speed Torpedo. You get alot more power out of the TT .39. The OS is known to be reliable but this new motor from TT is proving to be just as reliable but with alot more power.

7) Air filters - Helis don't stay around on the ground like cars/ buggies. We don't use air intakes cause if they fall of in flight usually the will change the fuel mixture and cause a flame out which could cost you alot more than that little $4.00 filter.

8) Flying - Get a sim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

As far as Caliber goes is there any specific reason you are considering this? Reason I ask is because for the $ it's a good choice but there are better. I have alot of experience with the latest offering in the 30 size. I might be able to help you find the best fit.

If the Real Life Caliber flies anything like the one in the G2 sim... I don't care too much for it?

LIFT,
Now about that TT .39... you would choose that over the OS.32? Just wondering what to get for my SPORT?

SsZero-You will need to adjust a few things upon first flight. There is engine settings that need to be delt with. Top end mix, and idle mixtures. There is also the pitch curve and throttle curves. They will alow your heli to hover at a certain stick postion and certain head speed. Too much speed on the head and it becomes real twitchy for a new pilot. I dont know much about a Caliber but Ive owned the Concept 30 line and now a Sceadu and each heli is different. as long as you follow the instuctions by the letter you will be ok.
P.s- GET Realflight G2!!!!! It will save you alot of money and headaches. Its not a question of will you crash but a question of when and how often. G2 will help in getting your co-ordination down. Remeber your controlling 5 different things at once to get it to hover.