pmt411

I took the plunge today, bought myself a 450se. Dont know squat about assembling one so I am paying the guy at the Lhs to assemble it for me. It was quite expensive(everything together was $1640 dollars, probably could have done much better ordering the parts myself but I have no patience to wait and order and said to hell with it, lets get her going), but I went with all his recommendations on it. Bought myself at Dx-7 to go with it. Bought 3 extra battries and a charger for it as well( plus the bigger aftermarket carrying case). This is a big step up for me from the Bade CX(that I have flown for about 2hrs) I have but I can tell that this new hobby I have found is something that I will stick with so I decided to go quality right out of the proverbial gate. Lhs has a large supply of wooden blades so I guess I will soon be blade poor for months( no money for anything else after I crash it daily and have to pay for repairs). I shall no doubt be frequently asking for advice and assistance with my new hobby.

VinceHerman

My first piece of advice would have been to build it yourself. Do you plan on paying the LHS every time you tip it over? YOU need to know how it goes together so that you can do repairs, replacements and troubleshooting. These are very necessary skills.

Now that that opportunity has passed, plan on doing the repairs yourself. Use this forum for all kinds of questions. Go find the Finless videos and watch them all waiting for the LHS to get done.

What components are you putting in the SE?
Which cyclic servos?
Which tail servo?
Which gyro?

I hope that the answers are 3x HS65 on cyclic, Futaba 9650 on the tail (or HS65), and a Futaba gy401 gyro. There are some other choices that are also acceptable, and there are some choices that are just bad ideas.

If your total experience is with a Blade CX, I highly recommend that you get a simulator before you try to fly the T-Rex. Nothing about how a CX behaves prepares you for the T-Rex. A good sim would be Realflight G3, or Reflex XTR. There are some other good ones that I have not tried, so I cannot recommend.

The cost of the sim ($200 or less) will quickly be eaten by the cost of repairs if you try to jump straight to the T-Rex without a sim.

Good luck. Read a lot. Watch the videos. Ask a lot of questions. Let us know what components the LHS is installing.

Raserx

Congrats...welcome to the ADDICTION!!!

My best advice is.....learn patients.

Patients will teach you how set it up, rebuild it and eventually how to fly it. Nothing is easy about heli's...That said, nothing is more rewarding than getting that amalgamation of plastic and metal to do what you want.

P.S. If you forego the Pateints advice..I'll be happy to buy the pieces when you are tired/frustrated with all of them....lol[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

pmt411

Here is what I bought, probably still not to late to change things in the next day or so. 450SE V2-, futs9650,hrc GY401,Three hs56hb servos, three 2070 lipo batteries,Accu cycle elite battery charger,Trex aluminum case, Dx-7 radio tx. Anyting I should change or upgrade before the heli is built?? I am a complete newbie so I am not interested in anything but learning how to hover and simple basic flight and manuever in the future.(I doubt I will ever be interested in 3d fight, but heck, someday way way down the road maybe. Probably have another chopper or two by then if that happens).

The Hedgehog

Ive been testing the new Phoenix Sim, and they have a t rex 450 model that flies just like the real thing. I highly recommend it and its cheaper than Realflight.

VinceHerman

Good component list. The HS56 servos will be fine. That is actually what I am running in mine. The HS65 is more common now, since it has replaced the HS56 in the Hitec line. But the HS56 is great.
What brand name on the batteries? I prefer ThunderPower, because I have had great success with them. Out of the 28 packs that all of us have, only one has failed, and that was due to physical damage. But there are many good brands.

pmt411

Got lucky on my Trex 450 decision, guy I hired to put it together who works at my LHS, hadnt started yet, and so I told him I wanted to exchange it and pay the difference for the upgrade to the new 450 due out any day now. After further reading on this and other threads, I am leaving the 56' behind and going with the 65mg's, I will keep the 401 gryo I have and the batteries and charger and the Dx-7 radio, but am upgrading everything else. I am really excited about this. I "fell" into this lucky break totally by accident because I have only been in this hobby for three weeks or so, but I would have felt ill to have gotten my new heli only to see an improved version of it out a week or two later. Just reading these threads is in and of itself a real learing tool in helping a newbie begin to understand at least a rudimentary concept of what is happening in this hobby. Great place to nose around a get at least some idea of which end is up. My thanks to everyone!

Flying Foot Doc

My Feedback: (2)

PMT, Congrats on the new heli. I have been learning on the Blade CP & I have a 450 SA that I will be starting on soon ( life gets in the way of hobbies). The best learning tool I found so far is Radd's School of Rotary Flight. http://www.dream-models.com/eco/flying-index.html If you don't like it just ignore the lessons or skip thru them. If you want to learn, it is great step by step instruction. There is ALOT to learn about what is going on with these complex machines before you get air under the skids and commit aviation. Good Luck, let us all know how you do. Doc

blacksheep1998

Wow that price seems high to me. I just paid $550 for 450 SE black, with 3x HS65 servos, GY401, and S9650 for the tail. Of course I still need to pick up a couple of Lipo's and a TX/RX. Going to go DX7 or Futaba 7C have not decided yet. Already have the Hobbico accu-cycle elite charger, that thing works great for all of my batteries.

Pete

ZX11

Did you mean you got the $200 450SA kit, the $225ish GY401/S9650 combo, and $90 in servos? Thats about right. If you got the $489 450SE kit with the extras, the store forgot to ring up somethings Did the 450SE kits drop to $300 somewhere?


PMT411, I did the same CX2 - 450SE route but with JR digital servos. The simulator is a good idea even if it is expensive. You will get the money back in parts saved (so I hear) and you can fly it anytime. Also, those sims have tons of great RC aircraft to test out and are worth it even without the part savings. I have the Realflight G3.5

blacksheep1998

450SE kits range from 320-499 on Ebay. Here is what I got:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=280081013669

Should be at my door next week, will let you know if it is the real thing. From looking 530 + 50 shipping, minus $15 paypal coupon = $565, so about $100-$150 less then the sellers other auction or heliproz same combo.

Even if I paid $700 for the Heli, and servos. $900 more for 3 batt's, TX/RX, and a charger seems high. I guess the install fee to make it RTF is a big part of that?

Pete

armycopter

Looks like a good deal to me. $530 looks like a steal for all those premo components. That's the exact same component list I have in mine and I know I've paid more so far (piece by piece).

blacksheep1998

Yeah, I really hope the guy got my note I want the black one. The only neg feedback the guy has is he shipped the wrong color (misc car parts) but that is only 8 times out of the last 1600+ transactions.

I am looking at $565 + $104 (2 batts) + $289-$349 (TX/RX) Total cost of $950 - $1018 depending on TX/RX selection. Already have the $140 Elite Charger.

Pete