I have looked around for answers to my newbie questions, but I cannot decide which to buy between these two micros- Venom Night Ranger II or Helimax Axe CPv3. I do understand that a bigger heli would be more stable for learning on, but my budget just can't go that high right now. That being said, each of these rtr's has an upside for me. The Venom is carried at my LHS, but the Axe has included LiPo instead of NiMh. Now knowing these things, is there any reason that the CP capability of the Axe should effect my decision? Which would be better for me, having never flown before? Thanks.

Buy a good flight simulator first.

I attempted to fly helicopters since 1981. Spent A LOT of money fixing bad flights. I learned more in ONE YEAR of flying a good RC heli simulator than I ever learned in 20 or so years of crashing real ones.

The newest AXE CP 3 is supposed to be toned down to make it easier to transition from a very stable co axial trainer. If you only have limited funds, and have never flown a helicopter before, I'd start with one of the complet OOB co axial copters first. This way you have a stable platform to learn orientation and control. Then save up again for the CP single blade copter
MTC
YMMV
T

I appreciate the input, however I'd like to pass the coax stage and get into a model that will behave at least a little more like the bigger ones. I don't mind the challenge as I've been in rc for many years (just no flight experience yet) and consider myself a pretty quick learner.

Then go with the AXE. But you'll really have a lot more fun if you get your thumbs trained on a simulator first.

I will most certainly get some sim time in before I attempt the real thing.Also, I have yet to see a good vid of a Night Ranger 2 outdoors, but many of the Venom 3D. Is there anything about CP that makes it easier to fly in outdoor conditions, or is this a coincidence?. Again, thanks for the advice. I'm brand new at this.

First off I have to ask what your overall budget is. Then I have to say if you can afford the Axe or the Venom, which I personally don't recomend as a first heli, then you can save up for a little while longer and get a 450 size heli that will take you from first flight to wherever you want to go, scale or 3d. Black Hawk 450 from ka-planes will do exactly that, and they are a great deal for the price. Of course my personal choice would be when you get the funds for the BH 450, bide your time. have patience, save a little more, and get the 500 size, and you will be greatly rewarded in a great flying, easy to learn heli. The bigger they are, the easier they fly, and the Black Hawk, while it may not have name brand electronics, will certainly be an excellent choice for a beginner heli that can take you as far as you want to go in this hobby.

As bugz said, save up for a 450 size or larger.

BUt, with that said a CP will fly the same as an FP when it comes to hovering, but it's more complex in the setup.

Good luck,
Skarn

Thanks for the help. My budget is right at or below 200 for right now. It's the holiday season and bills are tight around here. I know that I'll want a 500 size when I can afford it, but for a good while I probably won't have that much money all at once. On the other hand, scraping together a few bucks for the broken parts on these small, cheap models won't be a problem. I figure that I'll have lots of time to practice (and crash) on one of these little twitchy guys and then the move to a bigger, more stable machine will be all the better when i get to that point. The only reason I'm pressing the idea of the Venom is that it's cheap and my LHS has them, and therefore the parts would be more readily available. However, if the downsides of that particular model would outweigh this luxury, then of course I'd opt for something else. I have read that these Venom helis are not the best craftsmanship out there for this price range. The whole CP vs. FP kinda has me vexed right now. I wanna be able to fly outside in calm conditions and perform like some of the videos I've seen of the AXE but not the Venom NR 2. I hope I'm not overstating the obvious. I'm just anxious to get going, you understand.

Personally, I would not recommend learning on either of those helicopters. In fact, I would not recommend learning to fly on any heli that has a motor driven tail. I still don't know how I learned how to fly on an Axe CP. In my opinion, none of the sub $200 RTF helicopters with motor driven tails are "good" for a beginner. You just end up chasing the tail most of your flight. I don't even think they are good for experianced pilots.[&:] I wish that I had saved the money I spent on my Axe CP and went straight to a 325mm blade sized heli.

Since your budget is $200 and you have never flown before, I would use it to get a good sim and practice alot with it. The $200 you spend on the sim will save you much more than that in crash parts and frustration.

After the sim, I would recommend something with a belt driven tail like a Trex 450, Blade 400 (comes with a great radio setup), King 2, or any other 325mm blade sized heli with a quality radio and gyro. If you can afford a 500 sized then by all means get one. Bigger helis really are easier to fly than small ones.

I know this is not what you wanted to hear but it is my advice to any beginner. Learning to fly is frustrating enough, give yourself the best chance at success by following the adivce others have given on here.

why not get the Esky Belt-CP? 1) you can get it RTF for under $200 2) Its 450 sized and 3) Parts are relatively inexpensive. I can tell you that there are some characteristics about flying these things that you wont get when playing with other RCs. You will figure that out on the sim though.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I will look into some sim programs.

i went with fs one.[:@] should have got realflight lol i still might because i have a very big problem with the controller wires and plugs and i need peices and soldering, ah[:'(]

I don't understand this statement. FSOne comes with it's own controller, no soldering anything required, nothing required at all except to plug it in.

I like FSone....and it's only $99 now.

Skarn

Go for a Belt CP. Right @ $170ish.
Skip the whole tail motor thing.

I am learning on a CP heli- (EXI build up). Yes , there is more to the setup. but so far it has not been a problem.
I do not have a sim either. I put training gear on mine and just started trying to fly it. Took me about 2 weeks before I could hover for a whole battery. 1 month before the gear came off.

yeah,the controller that cam ewith it,used it for awhile and the the prongs on the pl,ug that goes into the interface broke off,so me and a friend tried to put a new plug from the jr or something adaptor that came with it and the wires are totally fdifferent, 3 wires on the controller and 2 on the adaptor with the same plug.so i need a new interface s-video plug in because a prong that broke off fromt he controller is stuck in and plug won't goin, so need a new s-video plug in and a new plug with three wires, which i s a s-video PLUG but not the same wires, so i can't get a s-video.so i need a new controller and interface, which is ex*****ve,so i'm stuck with it broken.now my fingers hurt lol

qoisdhc,

You could always use your real transmitter with FSOne....there are instructions on how to do it online.

I would stay away from single rotor fixed pitch helis. Coax rotor helis (which are fixed pitch) are very stable and easy for a beginner to fly. After that you should move on to a collective pitch heli, the larger the better for stability.

Here's the best learning sequence:
1) Flight Sim
2) Coax rotor heli
3) CP heli

I started out before the Blade CX and other clones came out, so I learned like this:
1) Flight Sim
2) Large (stable) 50 size nitro CP heli
3) Tried smaller electric CP and coax helis later on.

Since posting this before, I have done a little more research and decided against anything with a tail motor. I'm looking at the Esky Honey Bee King II. As I have been reading more and more around here though, I am really very confused and paranoid about where to buy from. It seems that quite a few companies that are interconnected have very bad reviews overall. Many have recommended Ka-Planes, but after looking at their site most of there stuff is out of stock. Even the items in the "new products" category. Weird. It sounds like there is a real business opprotunity here for someone who has startup capital and wants an online business, huh? Anyway...any suggestions on a good online dealer in the U.S. that could be assured to have parts when you need 'em and still be in business for awhile?

Ka-planes just had a big 4 day sale over the weekend with up to 20% off, that is probably why they are out of stock on many items. Another very reputable dealer that is well known on here also carries Esky helis and parts and I just checked and he has the HBK2 and the Belt CP in stock if that is what you decide to get, and he has most of the parts in stock too.

http://www.ushobbysupply.com/

i don't have my own controller lol so i'm kinda stuck until i get like $60 lol

boom go to xheli buy the exi450 it is a clone to the trex for 89.99 got mine on black friday sale for 53.99 and build a heli stay away from the (RTF) KA HAS A CLONE ALSO AND SNHOBBIES HAS ONE FOR 99.99 WITH motor an besc

Thanks for all the help everyone. I actually just wound up getting a Blade CP Pro from my LHS for a discounted price due to the v2 coming out. I realize that there may be better options out there, but for now I'm gonna try and train myself on this one. I'm actually doing fairly well hovering around the house so far. After all is said and done, once I have the money for a 400 or 450 size, I figure that the better stability will be a will be a welcome change and make the transition to bigger helis a good experience.

ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh blah, a horrible first heli.....that POS is so twitchy and takes so much work to keep in flying order.....eeeewwwwwww, well.......good luck with that.

I think it was a fine choice given your particular circumstances. Like you, I was on a limited budget and I wanted something that I wouldn't outgrow and had sufficient challenge for the foreseeable future. I chose the Axe over the Blade, but purely because it was what was carried by the HS I went to. If I would have had to have waited until I could afford a $200 simulator (then possibly a coax) and then a 450+ size electric I never would have gotten in to this hobby. The axe and blade can be a bit jittery and you might have to chase the tail quite a bit, but it is doable. If you get the chance to go bigger, you will have an easy time making the transition.

Just take it nice and slow and expect a bump or two along the way. It sounded like you expected that with these helis, so I think you'll do fine.

Keep us posted on how it is going!!

I actually had my first bang up yesterday and trashed one of the wooden blades when I whacked it good into a kitchen cabinet trying to get a little fancy. Once I got my replacement set from the LHS and installed them, I spun up for the fist time w/ the new blades only to see my little heli wobble all over the floor. I'm pretty sure the main shaft is straight as can be but getting the main rotor blades tracked is proving to be a little challenging. That's probably the problem, right? I put a colored spot on one blade and did the normal test described in the manual. So far, after some adjustment the blades seem to be tracking pretty true but when I spin up it still tends to do a dance across the floor while getting up to speed. This is especially troublesome after having it dialed in so well just before the crash. Also it seems that while looking straight onto the front of it when it's mounted to the kitchen table, the higher the RPM's get, the more the whole main blade assembly wants to pull the heli up on one side. I'm pretty sure it's not the flybar doing this, or at least I think not, because it seems to stay parallel. For right now, I'm waiting to do futher tests because my transmitter batt's are charging which takes like 16 hrs. Ugh, this new hobby is tedious for sure but nothing I can't handle, I'm sure. Anyone have any words of wisdom pertaining to this? Thanks.