I bought a t-rex sa not knowing how much it would cost alltogether or how to build or set it up so now i have taken it to my lhs to have them put it together for me. I feel bad now that I didnt try to build it myself. Has anyone ever done this with there first heli?

A lot of us (myself included) bought a "ready to fly" (RTF) model as our first heli. Mine wasn't a T-Rex, but came assembled and ready to fly out of the box. So, that's similar to your experience. However, the best way to fix a heli is to know how it was put together in the first place. This means building it yourself. After all, you can avoid that step by buying it RTF (or having it assembled as you did), but as soon as you crash it, you're going to have to learn how to fix it. So you may as well build it and understand how it works from the start.

To those who don't feel comfortable building the T-Rex, or feel it's too complicated or confusing, it's probably not the right time for this particular heli, and perhaps time for something simpler first.

All those parts can be a bit intimidating in the beginning. And you crash and need to make repairs you'll learn what goes where. I still get out my manual on occasions to make sure I put things in the right way.

Ndoren, i have had 3 other ready to fly helis already blade cx2, Dragonfly and a bcp with lots of mods bell-hiller lipo symetrical blades aluminum swash and others.

I started with a Hummingbird RTF, then I build a Rappy 50 Titan, I learn a lot by building it from scratch and I just build a trex se.

-Doug.

Bretd123, my case is similar to yours... given the experience you have had, especially with the BCP, I'm surprised you didn't jump right in and build the T-Rex. You should have had plenty of confidence after fiddling with that BCP.

I have found the Bob White (Finless) videos incredibly valuable. Several have to do with setup and maintenance, and are valuable even after your heli is built. I strongly recommend them. I've downloaded all 32 that apply to the 450 SE V2. They average about 5 minutes in length, are very high quality, and TOTALLY Free.

http://www.helifreak.com/viewforum.p...04f87bd2ae4316

Neall

I second the Bob Finless videos. They are incredible. I was in a similar situation as Bretd123 when I got my Trex 450 SE, and without the Bob Finless videos, I would have never gotten the Trex setup properly. It flew beautifully on the first flight thanks to those videos.

Doug

So its not that hard to set it up? the soldering and setup were the only things i was worried about

Several of Bob White's videos specifically address soldering. Be sure to check them out.

I just bought a 450 SA, but I built it myself. The only thing I had trouble with was the DX6 radio. I could just NOT program that sucker, so I had to get help from my LHS........and I don't feel bad about that at all!
After all, I just want to fly it right.......so why not have someone that knows how to program it right.

Jack

I just bought a 450 SA, but I built it myself. The only thing I had trouble with was the DX6 radio. I could just NOT program that sucker, so I had to get help from my LHS........and I don't feel bad about that at all!
After all, I just want to fly it right.......so why not have someone that knows how to program it right.
This is my first ARF. My first RTF was a Blade CP Pro, which I still fly.

Jack

The Trex is pretty tricky to setup compared to a Blade CP, but it's not too bad when you have the Finless videos showing you how to do everything the right way.

If you've never soldered before, then you'd probably want to practice a couple times on some old wires or something. Soldering isn't that hard, you just want to make sure to heat your surfaces properly so the solder flows into the connections. The Finless videos explain how to solder the deans connectors on the ESC and batteries and he does a great job explaining it for the beginner. A google search on soldering will provide good info on how to solder too.

Doug