Hi I'm new to the site, i'm looking to get a helicopter that I can modify to get longer flight time 30 minutes plus. Any suggestions? Model? and the parts I need to make the modifications. Something with a rotor 24 inches or less.

Thanks

The size of battery you would need to fly 30 minutes, a little 24 inch rotor heli would never carry it. 30 minutes of straight flying is a "LONG" time for any electric RC model.

http://www.addonics.com/products/pow...2v_adapter.asp
fly all day but don't go inverted or you might get tangled up! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXRWA9&P=FR
This battery on a 450 size machine would give you a long flight time but not 30 min. and it wouldn't be able to do much due to the weight.

At the house I have a Gasser type helicopter (weed eater / chainsaw engine type) that could fly for more than 25 minutes on one tank of gas.

The drawback? It is huge! One blade alone is over 25 inches in length. Put them both together and you have close to 60 inches of rotor head diameter.

I think you need to go back and do a little more research.

Why do you need 30 minutes of flight time? On my nitro birds, after about 8 minutes I'm ready to take a break. With my gasser with a "relaxed" type of flying, i could go for about 15 minutes. After that my neck and my arms need a rest. I can't see flying more than 20 minutes at a time.

Rafael

60in rotor diameter [X(] holy crap what is that one?

I too can't fly for more then 12-15 min straight, I start getting distracted and that will equal crashing [:'(]

A Gasser slinging 710mm blades. 710mm = 28 inches. 2 blades = 56 inches. add the rotor head ~ 60 inches.

Rafael

Here's one where you can fly all day if you wan't to.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...?article_id=34

A modified Trex 450XL has been flown for 35 minutes, but it had about a 27 inch rotor span. Such a setup gives you an all but useless helicopter that's heavy, barely flies and uses 3 batteries at once. Plus it would be difficult to recreate, as you would have to make your own rotor blades.

My Hirobo Freya 90 swings 710 blades and it will fly about 10 to 15 minutes on a tank of fuel. At that time I am
ready to set it down and take a break. There is a lot of mental work that goes into flying helicopters.

I really can't see a T-rex 450 swinging 710 blades and even then, I would think you might be able to buy stock
large heli blades.

Most manufactures understand that the more fuel you add the more weight you add. The more weight you add
the more power you need to fly that weight, it is a never ending cycle. Manufactures have found aa happy mix
of weight and power and fuel so that the heli fly for around 10 to 15 minutes.

How much experience do you have with helicopters?

Why not just buy 4 or 5 battery packs and change every 5 to 7 min? I don't see the usefulness of flying for 30 min at a time.

Let me give a little more background. I want to convert a conventional helicopter (electric) into a UAV. As part of the requirements it needs to fly for 30 minutes. I need to carry some electronics in addition to whatever I need to get 30 minutes of flight. Does anyone have any experience modifying a helicopter to get better performance. Motors, batteries, rotors etc.

If you want an aircraft that can haul payloads for extended time periods, stick with airplanes.

There are reason of national security that have kept UAV's to specific to the military and specific
research and developement outfits that are also approved by the US goverment. I am afraid what
would happen to this industry if anyone wanted to create UAV's for whatever reason they wanted.
Personally, I would need more information before I gave advise on how to create a UAV out of
any hobby materials.

The R/C hobby industry has come under the gun since 9/11.

If you want prolonged flight times, you will need to use either a gasoline or a larger nitro powered helicopter. You will also need some type of autopilot. The Co-pilot from FMA direct will stabilize the helicopter and allow you to hover for thirty minutes without becoming disoriented. It is very inexpensive last time I looked it was $130. The co-pilot works with helicopters and uses four infared photodiodes to detect the difference between sky and ground. It can easily stabilize and hover a helicopter. Remember you will also need power for the radio, auto-pilot, gyro, etc. To get enough power, you will need a larger helicopter than a small electric. Next you need to think about cost, this vehicle will easily cost $1500.

jamesc43 ,
There are a lot of people doing UAVs in the RC hobby in booth planes and Helis. Nothing that can currently be built with Hobby quality and scale components comes anywhere near the point of being a National Security problem , where do you get your information?

mikebow16
I saw a pic of a British military UAV coaxial heli, it was a small full sized heli. To get 30 min and a electronic payload and long range that’s about what it takes.

I have also seen several videos of 450 trexs being flown from a 2.4 ghz wirless video camera. They are very hard to fly that way and don’t have much range. I also ran across an add at Hobby- Lobby.com for a camera / goggle combo. They are working on several modules for the setup including HUD style video overlays for flight data.