Hi everyone,

I have been flying and building planes for 15 years...from 20 size to giant scale. I am looking to get into copters now. I was wondering what you suggest is a good beginner copter. I am looking at the Century Hawk Pro, 30 size. It says it is good for beginner and advanced pilot and accepts scale fuselages, which I am interested in in the future. Any suggestions, comments, help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Dean

You have several good options for a beginner heli. In the 30 size range the ones I recommend are the Raptor 30, Caliber 30, and Sceadu EVO 30. You can pick up an OS 32 pretty cheap now but might want to consider getting an OS 37 for a little extra power. If you are interested in getting into aerobatics I would recommend a 50 size heli. In this class I would recommend the Raptor 50 or Sceadu EVO 50. The Raptor has excellent parts availability and parts cost is less (very important when learning) but I am a big fan of the Sceadu EVO design and flight characteristics. For a 50 sie heli the OS 50 Hyper engine is great.

You have picked a winner with the Hawk Pro, they are an excellent flying helo, cheap parts and economical to fly. I recommend the OS.37 motor and standard ball bearing servos on all but the rudder, get a 401 with matching high speed servo there. What I used to do when I was flying Hawks (the old SE version) was to put the old OS.46 in it. With the .46 it had more power than the old .32 on a pipe and I could us regular 15% instead of the way more expensive 30%. To put the .46 in I had to get the .46 engine mount and the pinion gear from the .46 size Century Falcon. The cost of those parts and the added expense of the .46 was almost equal to the cost of the .32 and a good tuned pipe. I used the Century "tuned muffler" on the .46, it was cheap... The new OS .37 has more power so I would use it... The Hawk Pro comes great "out of the box". You'll hear a bunch of people cut the Century helos down, don't listen to them, they are great helo's. The support from Century isn't the best but if you call them and have done your homework and know what you need they are okay, just don't call and say you're not sure what you need but you think it's a plastic thingie....

You'll have a bunch of people on here try to convince you to go with brand X or something. Most of the people on here have only flown brand X or have a brother of a friend that used to fly brand Y and it was crap, so take what they say with a grain of salt. Especially when they talk down to a brand. Almost all the .30 size helos you'll fing are engineered to do more than 95% of todays pilots. You really can not go wrong. A good idea is to see what people in your area fly so you can have some experienced guidance if you need it, though most of the helos out today are very simple to understand and set up. The two most popular helos are the Raptor and Scedau Evo, both .50 size. Both are great helos, and along with the Hawk, you would be very happy flying them. Good luck and happy heloing...