Any other RC Helicopter pilots here?

[ManOnTheMoon]

Well I have decided to give rc helicopter's a try have always wanted to own one. I stared with a micro twister 3ch from dick smiths for $49. Its an indoor dual blade heli ( cant handle any wind ) but is very strong and quite versitle and soooo much fun:). I also bought a 6ch skyartec Vasp 3 off ebay for $200 which came with rc simulator and usb lead so I can connect the controller to the pc and practice flying a virtual rc heli first ( great for getting a hang of what the controls do without crashing your real heli ). Ive now got a training kit on it to prevent tipovers and Im getting the hang of basic hovering and turning etc in the gararge. And ive just bought a 9ch scale Airwolf 500 heli ( which is an airwolf fibreglass body with guns! on a trex 500 heli ) Its 1.1m long and is awesome. I wont fly that untill I master the 6ch cause it cost me $1000

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi, Matt.

My wife and myself are going to give each other RC helicpters for Xmas. We've been talking about it for the last 6 months, our kids will be else where for Xmas so it's our turn to be kids for a change.

Never too late for a second childhood.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Stardrifter_WA]

Growing old may be compulsory, but, growing up is optional....TAG, Your it! :D

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi, Peter.

Ain't that the truth.:lol:

Cheers,

Justin.

[TheDecepticon]

Not RC Choppers, however, my son and I are into Nitro Cars. He has a Hyper 7 and I have a HRT VE Touring car.:driving:

[DavidTrap]

Congrats on the new toys, sorry machines!

I've flown RC helis for 10yrs, but haven't touched mine for 18mths. Astro has taken over my hobby time.

Best advice I can give is to join your local club - somewhere safe to fly and usually good advice too. Simulators are great for your wallet too!

DT

[Mark_Heli]

Hi Matt,

About 3 years ago I bought an Align T-Rex 450 helicopter. They are seriously difficult to fly and as David mentioned you need somewhere safe to fly them. Seach on YouTube for "align trex" for some amazing videos.

A good Australian retailler is wattsuprc (www.wattsuprc.com.au (http://www.wattsuprc.com.au)). Apparently they are the Australian distributor for align helicopters.

R/C Helicopter simulators are very realistic and are great for learning to fly without the fear of crashing or injury. I have RealFlight G5.5 (http://www.realflight.com/) which includes a USB controller. I spent 6 months just learning stable flight and some basic maneuvers.

More recently I have spent all my "hobby" time with astronomy. It seems like I spend too much time at work and not enough time on hobbies...

Cheers,
Mark

[gbeal]

Not me, too hard, LOL.
Gary

[cfranks]

One word of warning! This hobby has a similar problem to Astro's 'Aperture Fever'. There is always a bigger, faster more bling model somewhere. My biggest heli has a 26cc petrol engine and cost $7K.
Other than that it is a really great hobby. David's advice (above) about joining a club is very sound.

Charles

[csb]

I have a 3ch chopper bought in Adelaide at a market for $30 - similar to the Dick Smith.

It is stable and control is quite good - I can now fly from one end of the house to the other, through 4 doorways. More fun when someone else has a chopper also.

If anyone is thinking of getting a chopper make sure has a gyro (electronic). The gyroscope is a must as it stabilises the chopper by sending signals to the servo to stop wobbling. Any choppers without gyro will not be able to be controlled well - we have tried a few and no fun.

[cventer]

I have a few. Good fun indeed. but somewhat costly hobby

My list in order of size includes

Blade 120 (electric)
Raptor 50 Nitro
T-Rex 600 Flybarless LIPO (electric)
Xcell Stratus 90 Nitro

Like others here, have not flown mine for a few month. Work plus asto plus family taking up time.

Simulator is a MUST when you decide to move to 4 Channel Heli's

Cost is nothing compared to money you will save in crashes

[csb]

I can imagine choppers with more channels will be more difficult to fly. The 3 channel is easy but still took some practise, and confidence, to fly through doorways.

My 3channel chopper (approx 15cm long) has crashed many times but nothing has broken. It included a set of spare blades but the chopper is very light and the blades are fairly solid. Some crashes have been from over 2metres.

As I improved there is less crashing.

My total flying time is about 2-3 hours so far. Each charge lasts about 20min (probably would only be 1min if non-stop) so plenty of time to enjoy.

I also disabled the "sparkly" LEDs - too childish and waste of power.

[BlackWidow]

I fly chppers and have a few of them from the toy style to full house. With the introduction of toy typ choppers, many people think they can fly all choppers. However full house hellie's are very very hard to fly and joining a club or finding a skilled pilot is essential or you might as well just go out and jump on it.



Cheers
Mardy

[acropolite]

i've got a cheapy indoor one, after a few flights they become a little boring without "proper" control. I've also got an old hirobo shuttle which I bought in pieces, too many years ago, not much work needed to get it operational, motivation is all that's needed.

[DavidTrap]

The 3 channel ones with counter-rotating blades are inherently stable.

The 4/5 channel ones have full cyclic and collective control, plus tail rotor control. It takes a while to confidently hover one, but learning on a simulator and then training undercarriage means this can usually be accomplished without crashing.

Unfortunately, crashing almost inevitably involves damage with a bigger chopper - much more mass and inertia of the moving parts.

The gyro on the bigger choppers is only for stabilising the tail, it has no effect on the cyclic control.

DT

[csb]

The counter-rotating twin-blades don't actually make for stable control, David.

Some family members and myself have owned various choppers with this design without the gyro - control was hopeless. None of us thought they were worth flying.