WELL IM THINKING ABOUT MAYBE TRYING A HELI OUT. ID LIKE TO MAYBE GET SOMETHING THAT ISNT AN ARM AND A LEG TO START OUT WITH. WHATS A REASONABLE BEGINNING SETUP? AND HOW MUCH CASH DOES IT USUALLY TAKE TO GET STARTED? THAT MAY KEEP ME AWAY RIGHT THERE FOR AWHILE IF ITS TOO HIGH.. IVE ALREADY SPENT AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT ON PLANES. BUT IF I CAN FIND SOMETHING REASONABLE ID LIKE TO TRY A HELI OUT. ANY SUGGESTIONS? AS I SAID BEFORE IM JUST THINKING ABOUT TRYING ONE, WAS ALWAYS CURIOUS ABOUT THEM. ANYWAY ANY INFO WOULD BE APPRECIATED AS WELL AS WHAT SITES TO VISIT AND SO ON.. THANKS

Your best bang for the buck will be getting a Hawk Sport with an OS 32 engine. Pretty much any .30 sized is a good choice, but the Hawk delivers great quality for the price.

Your biggest initial expense is going to be the transmitter, reciever and servo package. Most people will tell you not to cheap out on this and so would I. Rock bottom, I would get the HiTec Eclipse, but would really recommend the Futaba 9C for not a lot more.

Then there's the gyro. Lot's of choices, but save yourself headaches on the cheap stuff. Get a Futaba 401 with Digital 9253 servo combination. Best gyro value bar none.

Get yourself a simulator to learn to hover on. This will repay you 10 times over in crash avoidance and $$$ in parts.

If you try to cut $$ corners at the start, you're setting yourself up for failure. You're looking at around $800 bare, rock bottom to get set up, but you really should expect to shell out about $1200.

Try these online stores for more help, they all have pretty good beginner info:

http://www.heli-world.com/
http://www.ronlund.com/
http://www.heliproz.com/index.html

-edg-

what I have told many new to the hobby is it takes as little as $650 to start (and less if you find good deals) and approx $1000 per year to stay in and enjoy. Fuel costs can run as little as $100 to as much as $500 (or more) per year. Factor in a couple of crashes at about $200 each and a new ship every other year and well you get the idea. I have capped my spending at $2000 per year. Hey it's cheaper than golf or a par of season tickets for pro basketball/football/baseball.

I agree with davidj, hobbies are expensive. Now since you allready fly plane you probabbly have most of the tools and field equipment required to fly. An electric starter is a must. Then, you need a starting wand. Allen wrenches, screw drivers, pliers, ball link pliers (optional), pitch gauge (required), fuel pump, ect. Most likly all you would need would be the pitch gauge and the starting wand. Then you need a radio, I would recomend an Airtronics RD 6000 as bare minium. It has 5 point curves, two P-mixes, and the other NEEDED helicopter porgrams like idle up and throttle hold. I would recomend AT LEAST cheap ball bearing standard servos. You can get by with a non heading hold gyro but at around $200 for a Futaba 401 gyro AND digital servo I don't recomend it (if that was confusing, I am trying to say the Futaba at $200 is VERY good).

So let's see...
Hawk Sport, $159.99
Thunder Tiger, $109.99
Airtronics RD6000, $279.99
ACE Starting Wand,$13.99
Helimax Pitch Gauge, $25.99
Oh, yes, and the gyro, $200



Hours and hours of fun, PRICELESS.

Your looking at around $800 + shipping which usually isn't too much and is sometimes free. Sometimes you can save if you find a good used setup. Now is the time to do it! It's an RC Buyer's market! Lot's of items being sold and not a lot buying.

If you allready have a TX that can do helis then a good Futaba flight pack is around $100 from tower. That's what I did, saved me money until I got my good ol' 9Z!