Brad24

Hey guys, one of my buddies just picked up a syma 3ch heli and after flying it around his house, I've been really looking into getting a 4ch rtf of my own. I'm pretty good with RC having owned an rc10gt for years now among electric boats and other things so I'm not worried about the gap between 3ch and 4ch. My question is basically, is there a cheap way to get into this hobby? I don't plan on buying multiple helis or upgrading to a CP at any point - I just want a fun RTF 4ch that I can mess around with in the house and maybe outside on a really calm day. I've been looking at a bunch of different models lately, namely:

Walkera 4#6
Walkera CB100
Blade mCX
Blade mSR
E-Sky Honey Bee, etc

The thing that I'm really worried about is that the more I read on each of these (besides, it seems, the mCX and to a lesser extent the mSR), particularly the Walkera's, it seems that, much like with RC everything, none of the parts last long and routine part replacements and upgrades are a part of the expense. This isn't likely to be a very serious hobby and if buying a CB100 means that I will basically need to replace the tail motor after a week or 2, or if the 4#6 requires constant gear maintenance with the tail rotor, then I doubt I will find the motivation to keep dumping money into the hobby... Would either of these two have good durability assuming I'm not crashing it into things or letting it fall out of the sky from any higher than a foot or two? the 4#6 would be my top choice but the shaft drive and gears concern me as I have stripped a million spur gears in my rc10 which leads me to believe high stress + plastic gears and inconsistent meshing in rc = constant replacement.

Hopefully this isn't becoming too long winded but another point is that the Honey Bee and similar helis (falcon, etc) are less appealing to me because I've heard the brushed motors wear out quickly and, again, the point for me is to avoid as many maintenance costs as possible to keep it casual and fun without turning into a money pit... The only heli's with brushed motors that seem to last long are the mSR and mCX? I hear good things about them and I'm thinking that with how cheap the mCX (i like the S300) seems to be on ebay, I could buy one for 60-80 bucks used, add a cusker mod and maybe a lighter flybar and have a fun and agile heli for indoors with minimal maintenance or parts costs - does this sound about right or am I assuming these things are more reliable than they are? Would it be fun / fast with the cusker mod or should I still be looking at an mSR?

Thanks for putting up with the long windedness!

Real2You

Ihave the mSR and it is unbelievably durable. I have never had to replace a thing and it has crashed many times. It can get going pretty fast and is alot of fun....its also very stable in a hover if you let a "beginner" give it a try.

karlik

My brother has both the walkera 4-3b and the new cb100. The 4-3 is a little wild but with time I was able to get a pretty stable hover.

I have no first hand with the 4-6.

The cb100 is, in my oppinion, a true work of art. In a hover it is almost as stable as a coax. Properly trimmed it will hover hands free for short periods. But I pushed the right stick forward once and was amazed at how fast it took off. If I was in the market for "a fun RTF 4ch that I can mess around with in the house and maybe outside on a really calm day" it would be the cb100 hands down. This guy has an assortment of videos of both the cb100 and the 4-6 outside. [link]http://www.youtube.com/user/dkfuji#p/u[/link]

Brad24

Yeah, i've heard similar things about the CB100 but it seems to me (not trying to start a flame war, just going by the stuff I've read) that all I ever hear about the walkeras, after the initial satisfaction at how well they fly, is that they are a pain to fix due to the limited parts availability and the complicated designs... That would be the only reason I would want the mSR over the CB100 would be due to the higher longevity, specifically in the tail motor department where I hear the brushless tail motors of the CB100's are lacking.

I was looking up the prices of replacement brushed motors and found that they were actually much cheaper than I had anticipated, which leads me to be less biased towards a brushless system. I'm actually looking very seriously at the Honey Bee FP V2 now due to how cheap it is and supposedly its very cheap to repair as well... I figure if I can get the HBFP v2 for significantly cheaper than the mSR or the CB100, it might be better due to its larger size and ease of flying outside. If I got it with the crash training kit and flew it in an open soccer field, I don't think I would have too hard of a time learning to fly it and it seems MUCH more responsive than the CB180D.... Are they fairly durable and cheap to repair or would I be better off with an mSR? Is the CB100 relatively crash proof? Is anyone who has flown the 4#6 able to comment on the tail reliability? Hahaha way too many questions to think about, sorry.

Basically, for price to fun value, is the HBFP v2 one of my better options?

fly 450

mcx, mcx 2 will be a good choice, or some other coaxial helis

trickle007

When i first started this hobby about 6 months ago( i am still a newb in this field) i went out and bought a few coax heli's blade cx2 and a walkera lama 400. These are fun for a short time as long as you have room to fly them inside. But i got bored of them and went out and bought Phoenix Flight sim and soon after a collective pitch heli. Looking back now If I could do it all over again I would have just went out and bought the sim practiced for a bit and then jumped right into a CP heli. becausemy coax's just sit around and collect dust.

There a few things you need to consider when getting into this hobby. Where do you want to fly Indooors or outdoors or both?what your budget is with repairs included. I spent a fair amount of money in the beginingbefore realizingI really only wanted to fly the bigger heli's (450 size and up) and pretty much only want to fly outside. I now own a trex 450 and 500 and my coax's just sit there as decoration now.

At 1st i did not want to build my own heli because i thought i mess it up but now I am so glad I did it part of the fun of the hobby for me. There is a nice sence of accomplishment when you get a box of parts assemle them and next thing you know you flying this heli. Also when you build it yourself and you crash it fixing it is no problem.

karlik

Don't know if you're still looking or made a decision yet.

WOW hobbies has been very good to him so far. He had a sevo fail and they got it to him no time at all. He's ordered some stuff for the other walkeras from them, the cb 100 has been pretty reliable so far. He bought the cb 100 from them with upgraded brushless main and tail, and they say they after they do the upgrade they test fly it to make sure it's working ok. I'd hate to guess how much time he has on it. He works nights so he can't fly outside when it's dark and flys this little thing inside regardless of weather.

I flew his 100 outside and the slightest breeze made it hard to hover. I'm not the best pilot and I'm sure a lot of that was just me, but you're just starting so I'm thinking you're not any better than I am? Probably not the best choice for a beginner outside, but ideal for inside.

I have the Falcon which is the same as the honeybee. I know lots of people who fly it indoors, I don't have the room. It can handle much more wind than the cb100. It's not as stable and will have a bit more of a learning curve, but flies really nice once you get the hang of it. It's a tank and can take a lot of abuse, parts are pretty easy to get and repairs are usually pretty cheap. If your goal is lowest cost and more outside than inside (that's why I bought the falcon) the honeybee v2 / walkera 4 v2 / falcon 40 v2 is a good choice.

Coaxials outside will not do well in the wind.

Brad24

thank you guys for the more recent advice! i actually had a HBFP v2 all picked out this morning and was reluctantly putting in the credit card numbers when my indecisiveness and overanalyzing side kicked back in and i backed out of the order to wait another day or two.... it was gonna be about 120 shipped with the spare blades and such i ordered... Now i'm looking at the mSR again and wondering if I would be better off going with an indoor heli? I'm really not sure what I want and am I deluding myself by thinking I could learn to fly the HBFP v2 without really breaking hardly anything? I'm pretty adept at most RC things and the 3ch toy ones came easily to me, and I really dont wanna end up ordering 30 dollars worth of parts over the course of the next 2 weeks / waiting for them to come in while the heli collects dust. Karlik, you said your brother's cb100 stands up to crashes well? I would buy either the cb100 or the msr used on ebay to save money on them, but i would buy the HBFP new... and like trickle said, I would like to avoid the coaxial route unless I could get an MCX S300 for like 50-60 bucks on ebay and then do a cusker mod to it. Ahh, now im pretty lost again when just a few hours ago I was ready and set to buy the HB