xp8103

My Feedback: (16)

Bowing to pressure from my two flying buddies (and thanks to a trade with one of them) I now have my first heli - a Shuttle. It's ready to go.
My question. Why the HELL are heli's so expensive? The mechanics? On the average $500 heli it's a load of threaded rod, some delrin, plastic and aluminum. And that's a .30 to .50 sized heli! Geez! Where does it come from? And since it seems with this hobby that price and size are pretty much directly proportional, it doesn't make sense! $500 is one darn big gas engined plane!

maac16324

My Feedback: (6)

You want to be careful with this heli thing Nik! Before I got started about a year and a half ago one of my friends ...a heli flier ... warned me against taking up heli's. He said that from the day he started flying heli's his fixed wing have sat gathering dust. I scoffed at him and said to myself .. this heli thing is going to be a pleasant diversion but I will never abandon my fleet of fixed wing.

WELL IT HAPPENED.

I havent completely abandoned them but I have to say the fixed wing fleet has not had much attention. I am currently building my eighth heli and have not built a new fixed wing for myself in a year and a half. Which brings me to the answer to your question. The heli manufacturers know all of this and they charge based upon an index of enjoyment. You enjoy flying your heli more so you pay more, nothing personal ... just business.

Brian

GM1

Your big gas airplane doesn't have 49 ball bearings and sprague bearings and thrust bearings. I bet if they did, you wouldn't get them as cheaply as in a heli kit. By the way, my new sailplane was $1150, and it takes micros servos.....

BladeRunner

I think I can sum it up for you, and yes I have my nomex suit all buttoned up! This is just a bit of humor, but it does have a ring of truth to it.

Q. "Whats the difference between RC airplane pilots and RC heli pilots?
A. RC airplane pilots are interested in aviation too, they just don't have the nerve to try it!"

The point? Well it takes a whole different set of skills to pilot a heli successfully, a lot of patience and practice, and certainly a comittment.
It's usually the people that don't have those qualities that hate helis the most. But once you hook up and start to get there, flying fixed wing seems almost boring sometimes.

Sure the collection of plastic,threaded rod, aluminum and nuts and bolts are expensive, but when you stuff a fixed wing hard it's usually history. When you stuff a heli you just remove a few parts put on the replacements and you're off again.

Everything is visable so it's fairly easy to see the damage, not so on a fixed wing with everything covered up you don't know what you're into without a complete tear down.

OK, I'm ready-let me have it! ------BladeRunner.

Steve Campbell2

Brian,

The circle is round; you'll get back to your planks eventually. It took me over ten years. The X-Cell 30 I'm working on now is the first new heli project I've done in two years; and that only because my other ship besides the X-Cell 60 was a Kalt Baron 30. When it became apparent that HPI was not going to get serious about keeping Kalt going, I sold it and needed a replacement. Gots to have at least two, ya know...<G>

In those two years, I've built five new airplanes. Just finished up a GP Super Sportster last week, and I started a GP Contender this past Monday night. When the airplane building urge returned, it came with a vengeance. I have a Hangar 9 CAP 232 due in any day at the LHS...

Anyway, you'll get interested in airplanes again. After five planks one after the other, I'm actually burning out on balsa just a bit, and am hopping back and forth between gluing/sanding and wrenching.<G> But fitting this 46 glass canopy on the 30 is turning out to be an ordeal; every time I turn around, I find there's yet ANOTHER bit or small part I need. I THINK I've finally got everything- when that #0347 servo tray bracket gets here sometime this week. Postage between here and Orlando has been eating me up...<G>

Steve

pileit1

SUPPLY AND DEMAND



Capitalism at its' finest.

Ergo60

My Feedback: (1)

I think that it would take a bit more than 500.00 to put a big gasser kit togather. I mean the kit alone for any descent giant scale plane will be around 250.00, add to that a few good size bottles of CA, the Epoxy, The wheels, The cockpit kit, the covering, and not to mention several weeks of your time breathing balsa saw dust, and 500.00 for a nice metal helicopter kit that bolts togather nicely, with no trimming, and no sanding. And when they are both done I would pay to see you hover that giant scale plane on the first start up

I too, used to fly planks, and loved them, but then I was converted, and frankly I am bored to tears when I pull out the old planes (Sig Wonder). And it is not because it is a dog plane, it in fact is quite a screamer(Sig Wonder + .25 FX motor = fast), but it just lacks that thing called challange. I mean I can fly the crap out of my wonder while carrying on a conversation with someone else who is flying, but when I pull out the chopper, I am 100% focused on only the chopper. And I' sorry, but you just cant beat the fact that I do NOT need a runway, I dont have to mow the grass, usually the first spin up does that for me, and there are no concerns with cross wind landings, or takingoff into the wind. I just spool up, bring to a hover, take a breath, and peel away. NOTHING COMPARES, AND I MEAN NOTHING!!!

Oh yeah I almost forgot this point, one that was made in another post, when I have dumped it, and I have, it did not take long to put it back in the air again. I Challeng you to put your giant plane in the ground at about 3/4 throttle, and be ready to fly the next day. I have done it, and after a few bolt on parts, and a few tanks to setup te curves I was back buring nitro. And it did not even take all night to do the repairs.


Nothing was more dipressing than spending a month or so building a nice plane just to see it fit in a paper bag after a missed approach on a landing.