Please give me some input on which 50 or 60 heli is considered the best. SHOPING! Thanks. Are these any good? T T Raptor 50 Titan V2.

There is no 60 sized helis that I know of currently. But in the 50/60 range, I would take a serious look at the one recently launched by Century. They are designed for use with blades from 600mm to 640mm, depending on the power systems you install into them.

The N640 nitro version can use any of the current 50 to 60 nitro motors engines:

http://www.centuryheli.com/products/...?currentid=814

The E640 electric version is for power systems from 6S to 12S:

http://www.centuryheli.com/products/...?currentid=813

They are both available in a flybared version or in an FBL version.

I have the Raptor 50 v2.  Its nice...the nicest heli I own really.

Im not really keen on nitro and prefer my electrics...but like the stability of the 50.  It is smooth as silk and if you get one I am sure you will be happy with it.  Im just not that great at auto rotating one down and nitro engines just have that "dead stick" dread in the back of my head the entire time.  Ive never had it die on me...just my own "phobia" of it so to speak.

Never thought of it that way. I have alwaysbeen a "piston" guy.What happens when an electric starts running out of juice?

It'll just lose power very gradually, but really you never fly them long enough for that to happen. You can do 5-7 minutes easy on most setups, and batteries aren't near as temperamental as an engine.

I still consider getting a nitro every once in a while, but I already have a nice charger and electrics have better power to weight and reliability so...I dunno. I don't think nitro/gas helis have anything going for them at this point beyond aesthetics.

Well,, after talking to a few guys, and reading these posts, I'm thinking of going electric. Is the cost of good batteries much? Do I need an expensive charger? I have a Prophetsport 4 to 6 cell NiCd and NiMH AC DC peak charger. Would that be good enough? Thanks for letting me pick your brain!!

Unfortunately the start up cost for electric isn't cheap...but you can do it fairly reasonably and I think the long term price ends up being less than nitro. All helicopters these days run LiPos, so you're going to need a new balancing lipo charger. I have the iCharger 306b and it's great, if you order from EPbuddy they'll give you a free parallel charging board with it that can significantly reduce charging time provided you have a capable enough power supply.

If you're looking to go 50 size, battery cost is going to depend on the type of flying you want to do. A helicopter like the Mikado Logo 500 suggests a 5000mah 6 cell lipo which you can get for about 60 dollars or so a piece. Some people run 8 cell setups which will cost a bit more but give you a little more power for aggressive flying. Going up to a 600 size or larger most people run 12 cell setups which are actually two 6 cell packs connected in series.

For my trex500 I have three 2650mah 6 cell packs currently and it's enough for me. You'd need a bit more to do constant flying but if you have some other helis you're probably not too worried about that.

I was thinking of going with a 500 size chopper. With the three batteries you have, how much flying time is that? I don't really want to fly 3D, I like scale ships and making them look real when they fly. I'm thinking about puting a Hughs 500D body on it. I know that will ad weight to it, but scale is what I like. Many years ago, I learned (with NO help) to fly my first and only heli, a Kobe Keko Hughs 300 nitro, before there was tail rotor gyros! Early 80's. Now I have one gas hydro race boat thats running 80 MPH, but I want to get back into Helis. I'm 62 years young!

Scale flight on a flybarless setup should get you at least 7 minutes I'd think, I fly pretty aggressively and run close to 3000rpm, my flight timer is 5 minutes and I land well before my power starts to drop at all. I have no experience with scale setups but I have a feeling you could get pretty respectable flight times out of it of that's what you're shooting for.

Well,,, I did it! I bought the align trex 700e f3c super combo. Then I bought a Futaba 10 ch. Tx w/ a14ch. Rx heli radio. All I need now is the batteries and charger. I feel like a kid in a candy store!! LOL.