rc helicopters

clay · February 26, 2007

anyone ever mess around with rc helicopters?

dlo22 · February 26, 2007

yep all the time,

kindof what made me take the final step, I knew I always had a desire to fly helicopters, then when I started playing with RC cars, The guy at the store kept telling me how cool airplanes were and I wasn't listening to any of that, just wanted to see The rc helicopter section. the rc helicopters are usually more than airplanes and the require about twice the maintenence that airplanes do. They auto and fly pretty much the same.

I have about ten thousand dollars invested in Rc helicopters over the last couple of years. I have a 2,000 dollar nitro helicopter that is 90 size and just flies awsome, then I have a few more nitro helicopters of varoius sizes. One big electric helicopter, 30 size, the battery costs 250 dollars for just one battery to fly it. then I have a couple smaller electric ones that fly pretty good. I fly them inverted all the time and do all sorts of tricks with them, I learned auto rotations pretty quick when I started with all of the engine failures and radio problems I was having, no I can safley auto all of my birds, except the really tiny electric one.

they are alot of fun and really fly just the same, the do require meticulous maintenence because everything has to be in balance and functioning properly, so when you crash it can be time consuming and expensive. Now when I fly my nitro airplane every now and then, I don't worry about anything on that cause I can land that no matter what happens. one time the engine fell completly off the front of the airplane , cause the motor mount bolts just finaly all pulled out, the engine was hanging 6 inches down by the rubber fuel tubing and I just landed the plane on the grass field without any problems.

Some cool sites to look at helicopter, rc helicopters. www.runryder.com is the main forum for rc helicopters. kindof like vr is for real helicopters.

then if you want to look at new prices and products, I recommend www.heliproz.com, but you can buy used rc helicopters of all kinds on the runryder website, it is a buying, trading, talking website full of information...

nbit · February 27, 2007

I used to fly them competitively. Been flying them since before they had the fancy solid state gyros, digital servos, etc... Really, in a way, I wish I never flew them. I could have saved thousands of dollars to use for training. It is an definitely an addictive hobby if you like a challenge. Not much unlike the real ones... For a few years there, I was buying the fuel for them in 55 gallon drums at $900 a pop, and flying about one drum of fuel a year.... Yes it is a disease... I still have 5 of them. Want to buy one? OK, maybe staying away from them is better...

clay · February 27, 2007

i have a little electric one made by e flite. its a blast indoors. super stable.just wonder who all played with them

DerekM · February 27, 2007

Me and my brother have an e flite as well...great fun, in the winter time we go out in the garage and set up table's to land on or cans to knock over.....there fairly resonable to buy and pretty hard to tear up, other than blades of course...

clay · February 27, 2007

thats what i tend to break the most. i have the cx.. it has the counter rotating blades so it is really stable. i love it

dlo22 · February 27, 2007

thats what i tend to break the most. i have the cx.. it has the counter rotating blades so it is really stable. i love it

the blade cx is a really stable and fun heli to fly indoors, you really cant screw it up, after you have mastered that heli, you ought to try and fly the blade cp pro. this is the heli with two rotor blades and a real tail rotor. it has the built in gyro in the receiver pack and it comes completly ready to fly with radio for 250 buck. Now I have flown rc helicopters for a long time and if you can fly the blade cp outside and do some patterns and if you can hover this heli in your living room without smacking it into the wall, then you really can fly any rc heli out there. for the money, the blade cp pro is a good buy and you can have lots of fun with it. but it is the most unstable , power limited rc helicopter I have flown, kindof twitchy like the r22 and just as power limited.

the blade cp is different than the blade cx and it is much much harder to fly. your main blades have a brushed motor and your tail rotors have another smaller brushed motor mounted in the very back. the blades get expensive to replace at 15 bucks a pop and you can ruin those wooden blades in 2.2 seconds. you cannot fly the blade unless it is perfectly balanced and the blades have to be in track and in perfect condition, it doesnt climb very well when things are wobbley.

If you really want to get a good taste of rc flying and get into the hobby in a very inexpensive way, I suggest buying the rc flight simulator. called Real flight G3.5, it sells for about 200 bucks and you can crash all you want without working on your ship, just press the red button. it will save you thousands in parts and the simulator is very realistic. If you can fly the simulator very well then you shouldn't have much problem flying a real rc helicopter... Anyhow they are addicting, expensive and very fun to fly. some people really enjoy just building them, alot of people get into scale building now, where they make an exact repleca of a real ship, they are pretty intense. some take two or more years to build. Then alot of people now will throw a real turbine engine in them for the full effect, now that is really cool, sounds just like the real thing. If you want a basic looking rc helicopter with a turbine engine, you can buy them used for around 4-6 thousand, usually ready to fly. but that is a little much for me.

The_Sandman · March 5, 2007

Been doing RC Heli now for about 18months.....love it. The BLADE CX is the counter rotate design (two main blades) the CP PRO is a COLLECTIVE pitch with a (basic) gyro and enough power to do some rolls and loops.

I learned on the FIXED PITCH choppers and moved to the BLADE CP PRO.

Since then the AXE CP is a great deal as well with a better body design and aluminum tail.

Both use a SEPERATE motor for the tail and are arround 200.00 - Ready To Fly (RTF) = Comes with radio, electronics and battery - right out of the box.

The new VENOM AIR CORPS: Nightranger 3D XL...is a 400 sized RTF heli for arround 450.00 - best RTF 400 size I have seen.

Comes with a powerfull BRUSHLESS motor and the tail is BELT driven. Price is awsome. Sounds like a lawnmower when it flies. IS SUPER STABLE and the gyro is a full heading hold type for a rock solid tail.

PM or post any questions you may have....would love to advise anyone interested.

Sandman.

Bob Loblaw · March 6, 2007

I've flown a bunch of different heli's (gas & lipo)... They are great at giving you an idea of the physics involved in real helicopter flight. Even though they do have gyros for the T/R, it was still pretty challenging learning to hover one for the first time. The hobby does get expensive after a while though... Between crashes, batteries (they are pricey), fuel, and other wear-and-tear items; you will be dropping some serious dough into one.