i live at 9,000 feet and i bought a eletric indoor outdoor helicopter that did not work, but down in lower elivation and was wondering if there was an eletric helicopter that would work at 9,000 feet or mabe a gas heli.


thanks
justin

Interesting. I know higher altitudes will affect gas and nitro mills, as the air is less dense, but I wouldn't think electronics would be affected by elevation. I would figure the main limiting factor for them would be the ambient temp. To high, and things overheat quickly and tend to let out the magic smoke. To low, and things start working sluggishly and gyro's don't like to initialize in the cold as much as when they are warm. It will be interesting to hear what some of the more electronic savvy folks on here have to say about this.

Nothing to do with electrics or electronics.

High Altitude = lower air density = rotors produce less thrust.

Any form of engine has the additional problem of less oxygen to burn also producing less power.

The only solution is to buy / build a heli that is vastly overpowered by normal standards.

You should increase the blade pitch and/or area to get a better bite on the thin air. Your helicopter cannot get enough "grip" to fly, like a car on ice.

If we are going to be able to help you the best we can, we really need a little more info. More specifically, what heli do you have, and what do you mean "did not work, but down in lower elevation"? What exactly did it do or not do, and how did the operation change at a lower elevation. Also, exactly how much experience do you have with helis? The more information you can provide about the problem, the more exact and helpful answers we can give. Hopefully we can get you sorted out and in the air so you can enjoy this hobby without any grief!

i bought a rotofly helimax but would never get close to off the ground with full power but when i take it down to denver it flys perfectly fine

Rotofly, that one is fixed pitch right? As archiebald said, the thin air makes less thrust. I don't really know what you could do with that one. The only thing you could change is headspeed, and I don't know if it could handle that much of an increase in headspeed without making the tail hunt or just plain overpowering the tail motor.

I live at 5000 fts , and i have a Blade CP its fly cool here in medellin(mi house , for example), but my RC Club its located at 7000 fts , and the strust its low, but it flies.

Bugzilla is correct.

The thin air at 6200 ft (Colorado Springs) is a real challenge to those of us that fly marginally nitro powered heli's. You really need to
overpower then to get them to fly here. The electrics do not have as much of an issue because the nitro engines loose about 30% of
their power here. The air is still less dense and the rotors still do not work as well here. I've never seen anyone increase the blade
pitch as you get higher in altitude.

Fixed pitch heli's are not very good above 6000ft. There just isn't enough adjustability in them to tuneable higher than that. Most of the people that know how to tune them are already flying collective pitch machines already.

I've made various adjustments on the realflight simultors to try and fly at 6000ft. I've lowered the engine power to around 70% and then had to lower the blade pitch from the regular 11 degrees to 9.5 to 9.0 degrees. The high angle of attack (11 degrees) on the blades pulls to much engine power. Once I lower the pitch it flies similar to how mine flies at the same settings.

James in CO

My RotoFly is marginal here in Boulder at 5400. As said before, you need the power and blades. I run over sized blades on my nitro machines, so far I have all the power I need. As for a small electric, I'd suggest you go with a 400 class, like a trex and make sure you put a good motor on like the scorpion 2221-8, and a good pack to deliver the power.

If you are looking for an indoor flyer, I don't think you'll find one off the shelf with enough power at all, or able to handle an upgraded motor.

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; ">I'm actually curious on what challenges I'd face on flying a heli at 9000ft? I dont have a real RC one yet though I am playing with a toy heli to get a feel for it and it refuses to move forward and back with any response (the tail prop is only 2.5-3"). I understand the air is really thin here and that likely more RPM's would be needed to counteract the thin air. I am looking at running an electric heli at some point fyi.

Basically I'm curious if a heli or a quad copter would be easier/better to fly up at this elevation and if so what adjustments would I need motor or blade pitch wise to get em to fly "right"?

What would be a recommended heli for something like a go pro hero camera (about 5-6oz)? I've seen everything from Parrot AR drones that can lift these to trex 450's though I'm curious with the air.

How would a larger heli perform at higher altitudes, 450 vs lets say a 700?

</div>Any suggestions would be recommended or if its even worth it to fly this high with an RC model and still have it perform responsively just like at lower elevations.

Is there anyone know the general diameter that the radio can control

It seemed the radio control distance is always within 1kilo