RC Helicopters
Discussion
Red Firecracker said:
One of the guys in our office has one of these micro 4ch helicopters and they are stunning to watch flying around between the desks!Best of all you get to stay nice and warm inside while you fly
The engineering on these is quite amazing, well worth the money me thinks.
I got one of these a few months ago......... (Walkera Dragonfly 4 Channel)
trouble is I have no idea what Im doing, so havent managed to set it "neutral" enough to rise vertically in a wind free garage. Looks nice sitting on the shelf though.
trouble is I have no idea what Im doing, so havent managed to set it "neutral" enough to rise vertically in a wind free garage. Looks nice sitting on the shelf though.
Edited by Wanchaiwarrior on Thursday 6th March 01:55
Get out while you can! i started with a little contra rotating heli 12 months ago and i'm now nearly 5 grand short in my wallet lol, it must be one of the most frustrating expensive nerve racking anoyingly haaaaaaaaard hobbies i have ever got my self into but it is soooooo addictive.
Be prepared to spend a lot of money once you become hooked! That's what happened to me.I started with an indoor contra-rotating twister Bell Medevac.They are the easiest model to learn with,but to be honest there is nothing easy about learning to fly model helicopters,and it's even harder and more expensive if you go it alone as I did.Learning to hover is just the begining,wait 'til you try nose-in hovering.I now have 2 T Rex 600's and I'm about 3 grand worse off but it's the most rewarding hobby I've had.My best bit of advice is for anyone serious about learning to fly RC helis is to get one of the top end simulators like the Reflex XTR,I now have one and wish I'd got one when I started,it would have saved me a fortune in crash repairs,and also if you can,join a club as it's also very dificult learning how to set up and repair the helis as well.But as I've found out,it's not impossible and it is a very quick learning curve,but as I said at the top,it'll cost you a LOT of cash!
Miles
Miles
I am going backwards in the heli hobby. I started out with a Thunder Tiger Raptor 30 v2 and subsequently acquired a Hirobo Shuttle Plus and a Protech Zoom 400. The Shuttle was rebuilt (original builder had made a hash of it) and sold on. I then went on to acquire a few vintage Kyoshos whcih I really like. This 'affliction' now leaves me with the following:
- Raptor
- Zoom 400
- EP Concept
- 8 Concept 30's (various flavours)
- 5 Concept 60's (various flavours)
Last weekend I bought an E-Flite Blade CX2 to dick about in the house with. It's brilliant fun, but the contra helis just don't fly like the real thing...! My kitten seems to have a healthy interest in it. I plan to put velcro under the heli, land on him and then try and take off
Have fun and enjoy your heli - as I and others have demonstrated - it's a slippery slope, but much better than buying soft furnishings, "finest" supermarket food, fancy bubble bath and other s
te that the missus would spend the money on otherwise...
the kitten thing was a joke btw
ETA: I forgot about the £7k worth of spares for the Concepts...! Slippery slope indeed...!
- Raptor
- Zoom 400
- EP Concept
- 8 Concept 30's (various flavours)
- 5 Concept 60's (various flavours)
Last weekend I bought an E-Flite Blade CX2 to dick about in the house with. It's brilliant fun, but the contra helis just don't fly like the real thing...! My kitten seems to have a healthy interest in it. I plan to put velcro under the heli, land on him and then try and take off
Have fun and enjoy your heli - as I and others have demonstrated - it's a slippery slope, but much better than buying soft furnishings, "finest" supermarket food, fancy bubble bath and other s
te that the missus would spend the money on otherwise...the kitten thing was a joke btw
ETA: I forgot about the £7k worth of spares for the Concepts...! Slippery slope indeed...!
Edited by Roop on Friday 14th March 10:30
Have any of you guys considered joining an rc heli club?, you'll have less crashes if you get some proper instruction.
I've been flying fixed wing and rotary for 23years now - it still amazes me how many people buy helis/planes on a whim that they will be some sort of flying ace instinctively!!
If you really want to save yourself some money then get a book on the basics of helicopter flight- at least that way you will have a good foundation knowledge on how to set up a heli and subsequently only have yourself to blame when you lose another set of blades.
Also if you dont want to fork out a fortune on reflex xtr use phoenix flight sim - £80 (you need to have a jr/futaba etc transmitter though.
PS: gas turbine rc heli's - thats where the going gets good!!
I've been flying fixed wing and rotary for 23years now - it still amazes me how many people buy helis/planes on a whim that they will be some sort of flying ace instinctively!!
If you really want to save yourself some money then get a book on the basics of helicopter flight- at least that way you will have a good foundation knowledge on how to set up a heli and subsequently only have yourself to blame when you lose another set of blades.
Also if you dont want to fork out a fortune on reflex xtr use phoenix flight sim - £80 (you need to have a jr/futaba etc transmitter though.
PS: gas turbine rc heli's - thats where the going gets good!!
I taught myself on fixed wing and rotary. Managed to get to a level where I was competing in aerobatic competitions around the country. Used an Acrowot to learn on, and it only got destroyed when the battery pack failed in midflight. I still have the Acrowot that I replaced it with, which is probably 14 or 15 years old now.
I agree that it is probably best to join a club to learn, but some people don't have easy access to a club, and it is possible to learn by yourself if you have a knowledge of flying principles.
I agree that it is probably best to join a club to learn, but some people don't have easy access to a club, and it is possible to learn by yourself if you have a knowledge of flying principles.
DIW35 said:
I taught myself on fixed wing and rotary. Managed to get to a level where I was competing in aerobatic competitions around the country. Used an Acrowot to learn on, and it only got destroyed when the battery pack failed in midflight. I still have the Acrowot that I replaced it with, which is probably 14 or 15 years old now.
I agree that it is probably best to join a club to learn, but some people don't have easy access to a club, and it is possible to learn by yourself if you have a knowledge of flying principles.
Totally agree its possible but in most cases its not going to be cheap, I agree that it is probably best to join a club to learn, but some people don't have easy access to a club, and it is possible to learn by yourself if you have a knowledge of flying principles.
If you are not flying at a club then you are probably not insured - good luck when you slam a heli into a small child/ adult/ dog /house.
Unfortunately a lot of people dont have a basic grasp of flying principles when they go and buy a heli from the model shop/ebay - the model shops love it though, garaunted income for the next 6-12 months until the person gets better or gets bored.
I stand by what I said earlier - its better to join a club for a number of reasons.
If you need to find a club in your area then go to www.bmfa.org or google "model flying club" there's loads out there.
PS i liked my acrowot too, then got into 3d and pattern so i had to move on.
Edited by hman on Tuesday 25th March 18:15
I'm in the same boat, my other half bought me a cheap helicopter (Skyace)which was a nice thought but its kak. I'm glad she got it because i would'nt have thought about R/C helicopters before i love trying to get the bloody thing flying i'm after a better one that will actually fly now.
Wanchaiwarrior said:
I got one of these a few months ago......... (Walkera Dragonfly 4 Channel)
trouble is I have no idea what Im doing, so havent managed to set it "neutral" enough to rise vertically in a wind free garage. Looks nice sitting on the shelf though.
Part of the problem you'll be having is that it's a Walkera... I can set up any of my heli's to hover hands-off for substantial periods, the Walkera I bought on a whim (it was sooo cheap, and I was bored!) was incapable of hovering period - the quality of parts was appalling, verging on dangerous. I actually reported them to trading standards and threw it in the bin!trouble is I have no idea what Im doing, so havent managed to set it "neutral" enough to rise vertically in a wind free garage. Looks nice sitting on the shelf though.
Edited by Wanchaiwarrior on Thursday 6th March 01:55
Wanchaiwarrior said:
I got one of these a few months ago......... (Walkera Dragonfly 4 Channel)
trouble is I have no idea what Im doing, so havent managed to set it "neutral" enough to rise vertically in a wind free garage. Looks nice sitting on the shelf though.
On the strength of this rarely visited thread, last week I bought myself an almost identical model called a Honey Bee or something similar.trouble is I have no idea what Im doing, so havent managed to set it "neutral" enough to rise vertically in a wind free garage. Looks nice sitting on the shelf though.
Edited by Wanchaiwarrior on Thursday 6th March 01:55
After an almost full 9 minutes of extensive simulation training (which is surely enough), I took to the garden.
Sadly I lost control almost immediately and several small black plastic things were broken. I sent off for the £1.49 part paying £10 rush delivery charges and, by the next morning was back in training. I added another full 5 minutes of simulation work.
Once again I took to the skies.
This time there was a major coming together of terrace and helicopter. Having got the 'copter (as I now call it in a semi-professional slur) to roof height, I basically bottled out and cut the power too quickly.
The bits are in the attic.
NDA said:
Wanchaiwarrior said:
I got one of these a few months ago......... (Walkera Dragonfly 4 Channel)
trouble is I have no idea what Im doing, so havent managed to set it "neutral" enough to rise vertically in a wind free garage. Looks nice sitting on the shelf though.
On the strength of this rarely visited thread, last week I bought myself an almost identical model called a Honey Bee or something similar.trouble is I have no idea what Im doing, so havent managed to set it "neutral" enough to rise vertically in a wind free garage. Looks nice sitting on the shelf though.
Edited by Wanchaiwarrior on Thursday 6th March 01:55
After an almost full 9 minutes of extensive simulation training (which is surely enough), I took to the garden.
Sadly I lost control almost immediately and several small black plastic things were broken. I sent off for the £1.49 part paying £10 rush delivery charges and, by the next morning was back in training. I added another full 5 minutes of simulation work.
Once again I took to the skies.
This time there was a major coming together of terrace and helicopter. Having got the 'copter (as I now call it in a semi-professional slur) to roof height, I basically bottled out and cut the power too quickly.
The bits are in the attic.
ninjaboy said:
What problem did you have? mine is very unstable when it hovers and seems to tilt which means it starts speeding up and crashes or when moving forward and turning the nose drops or it climbs slightly and tilts backwards then i lose control.
Major problem was lack of skill!It would appear that hovering is not a diving right - it's more akin to the work of Satan.
By increasing the throttle gradually I could see it wanted to take off to the right (for example) - so that's adjustable with the trim. So I could just about get it to take off and go forward etc.
It's just so darned fast. I should say 'was' as it no longer technically exists.
It flew for probably under 2 minutes in total and is now in several pieces.
NDA said:
ninjaboy said:
What problem did you have? mine is very unstable when it hovers and seems to tilt which means it starts speeding up and crashes or when moving forward and turning the nose drops or it climbs slightly and tilts backwards then i lose control.
Major problem was lack of skill!It would appear that hovering is not a diving right - it's more akin to the work of Satan.
By increasing the throttle gradually I could see it wanted to take off to the right (for example) - so that's adjustable with the trim. So I could just about get it to take off and go forward etc.
It's just so darned fast. I should say 'was' as it no longer technically exists.
It flew for probably under 2 minutes in total and is now in several pieces.
sounds about right for a first timer with a micro heli!Of all the heli's, the micro's are the least stable. Of the micro's, the poorly set up / cheap are the least stable. Put a poorly set up / cheap n nasty one in the hands of a learner and the only thing that'll happen is tears before bedtime.
Hovering is the hardest part of flying a heli, and unfortunately one of the things you need to master first. Think of it as trying to balance 2 balls, one on top of the other - that's pretty much what you are trying to do.
I learnt with a micro originally, but I spent the first 10 battery packs scooting it around on the kitchen floor, only getting light on the skids, then putting in different commands to see what happened. First hover I actually took off, I flew in control. For a while
A friend of mine sells these walkera ones (I've had 2 and onto a newer model now).
They are very poorly set up from the factory. You will struggle to get them to hover easily. It's also partly to do with the poor quality transmitters (what do you expect for £150?).
I've upgraded mine to futaba gear and it's much better. Simply because you get more granular contol on the trims (I always found with the walkera set that I was always between trims..i.e. 1 click was too much and 1 click the other way to little)
The 2nd thing to mention is simply patience.
I've probably spent a good 20 hours just learning to hover. It's the most important skill to posess... If you can get back to a hover then you might just get away with a few daring moves!! But, it's like anything else, try and do it on windless days, with plenty of space and just take your time.
It's also worth getting some balsa wood and a few plastic practice golf balls and making yourself a bigger frame thing to go on the bottom of the skids, that way perhaps giving you a bit more chance. The standard ones are too flimsy and are a bit short... (Make a bigger X with the balls on the end of the X and zip tie to the skids).
Anyway, not sure if you can advertise, but :
http://www.internetmodelshop.co.uk and he always sets up every single helicopter he sells to your skill level.
Edited to say, that most of the pictures of the Heli's on the site I was flying at the time and Jonny was taking the pics! Same for the aeroplanes as well!!
They are very poorly set up from the factory. You will struggle to get them to hover easily. It's also partly to do with the poor quality transmitters (what do you expect for £150?).
I've upgraded mine to futaba gear and it's much better. Simply because you get more granular contol on the trims (I always found with the walkera set that I was always between trims..i.e. 1 click was too much and 1 click the other way to little)
The 2nd thing to mention is simply patience.
I've probably spent a good 20 hours just learning to hover. It's the most important skill to posess... If you can get back to a hover then you might just get away with a few daring moves!! But, it's like anything else, try and do it on windless days, with plenty of space and just take your time.
It's also worth getting some balsa wood and a few plastic practice golf balls and making yourself a bigger frame thing to go on the bottom of the skids, that way perhaps giving you a bit more chance. The standard ones are too flimsy and are a bit short... (Make a bigger X with the balls on the end of the X and zip tie to the skids).
Anyway, not sure if you can advertise, but :
http://www.internetmodelshop.co.uk and he always sets up every single helicopter he sells to your skill level.
Edited to say, that most of the pictures of the Heli's on the site I was flying at the time and Jonny was taking the pics! Same for the aeroplanes as well!!
Edited by Cheeky Jim on Thursday 17th April 14:39
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