Sugestions ????

Here is my story. I have been into RC airplanes off and on for 27 years. In my early days everyone steered me away from Helis saying that they were too hard to fly. (this was before gyros and the new systems available now). I have had the itch for quite awhile to get into this side of the hobby. I even made the mistake of getting a small electric, it was a Walkera Dragonfly 22E. In the right hands it probably would have been OK, but in mine it was a money pit. I have no one local to help with set up or instruction.

Here is my questions. Should I be looking at electrics or glow fuel powered machines. I'm wanting something that will be a good trainer with the capabilities of more advanced flight as my skills improve.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

Wizard

I don't know much but I do know I have always had better luck setting up glow planes and my glow heli.

might be a good idea to start out with a Raptor .50. I learned how to hover my heli after a couple of days and a couple gallons of gas.

Its fun once you can fly around.

One thing I forgot to mention. Budget. I'm not as concerned with initial cost as I am with the cost of the learning curve. The cost of the repair parts on the electric I had was equal to the replacement cost after two days. Even a tip over would destroy most of the parts in the head.

To give an Idea of what I spend on the hobby, I spent in the neighborhood of 6-7,000 in the last year.

Hmmmm let's see... electric micros have a high initial cost due to batteries... but the replacement parts on most are pretty cheap. I have a TRex 450SE and after a swashplate fail in FFF I spent about $50 in repairs (includes the $35 new swash) pretty decent concidering what happened! Blades are another thing that are cheap! If you go for the TRex you can get 325pro (woodies) that rock for around $12 a set. I love my Rex because I can just go out behind my house and tear up the skies without bugging my neighbors.

Now as for the nitro birds... I definitely agree with starting out with a 50 rather than a 30... you'll out grow the 30 way to fast. As far as brands it's all just a choice. I dig the Raptors because alot of people fly them and parts are very easy to come by. I would even suggest buying second hand birds... although you don't get the building experience, you can tear the bird down once you get it and ensure all is correctly assembled and locktited. Nitro birds also require more support equipment as with planes.

The Trex's also have a carrying case out that you can carry on an airliner and take it on trips! The case also carry's your xmitter and tools.

Good luck on the decision and if you don't already have it... I recommend a simulator... they pay for themselves in the first week or two of learning

	Quote:
	To give an Idea of what I spend on the hobby, I spent in the neighborhood of 6-7,000 in the last year.

Man I could only DREAM of spending that much!! I pretty much have to wait til I get my income tax check each year to make a big purchase! HAHA. One day...

I love this question because it is so easy. Raptor 50 with an OS 50 Hyper, some Futaba 9252 digitals, and a futaba 401 (if your looking to save a little) or gy611 if you want all out performance. You're looking at about $2,000 but this heli will take you from beginning hovering to competition with no upgrades (besides maybe some 3d paddles $10 and a metal head). I started out this way, learned how to hover and forward flight in 1 day, after properly breaking in the motor after 2 gallons I was flipping it, trying to tic toc, etc. Now I have also jumped into the electric helicopters as well (Align Trex 450se). While they fly awesome, they are still not in the same league as the nitros in my honest opinion for a couple of reasons. One, a 450se micro helicopter just doesn't have the stability and control of a larger 30/60 size nitro bird, the rotor disk just doesn't allow for it. Secondly, maintenance, the align trex for me still has a few issues it needs to fix with its quality control. I've crashed mine a total of 4 times really, all but one were due to parts falling off (after I specifically thread locked and in one case even glued the part in or replaced it with a brand new (in this case washout arm). Now it's one thing to dumb thumb a helicopter into the ground, but when a part falls off in flight and you have no control, I don't think there is any worse feeling then seeing your machine go in knowing it wasn't you that caused it.

To make a long story short, the raptor 50 has a proven track record, and now with the coming of new 50 size helis' your choice is becoming even more open. If you want something to invest in and see it through, I would highly suggest a 50 size nitro. The 30 size nitro are okay for hovering, but again, they feel like they are on a bungee cord when your flying them, a 50 has the added power to start and stop on command (like when tic toc'in and you only have inches to spare) a 30 will stop and then slide a foot or two where the 50 and 90 helis just lock in and don't move.

And to compare it to airplane terms here, a 30 size nitro is exactly like a 40 size Sig LT 40 trainer, it can fly, but will it hover and do those wild blenders like you see the other planes doing, no. A 50 size nitro is like a 50cc gasser, it's inbetween the big boys and the smaller planes while giving you all the performance of a big plane for 1/2 the price while sacrificing very little. The eletrics are still new and batteries are going to cost you $400 a set for a 30 size machine. If you plan on doing more than 4 flights a day, your going to be spending a thousand or more on just batteries.

Just my opinion, Steven

You want extremly stable but full aerobatic capable. There are other brands but I woul recommand ThunderTiger Raptor 50 plus OS 50Hyper for glow and Align Trex600(non carbon version) setup for electic. They both have very low part cost so you can stock few crash kits so your downtime will be minimized.

Get a G3 (not reflex) and start flying there and once you can do each manuever on G3 you transfer that to field flying. It will not be easy as sim is much easier to do and keeps your nerve in check. I would say spend at least 10 hours on sim for evey 1 hour of field flying.

Good Luck!

You would get much more flying time in with a 50 size, nitro machine than you would with a 600 size electric. You would also have much less start up expense with nitro, batterys are still quite expensive and not foul proof, there have been many battery related fires with these types of batterys.

TT aslo will have thier new 600 sized Raptor available in just a few week, the one intorduced at ircha. It's going to be a well priced machine, but again the electronics are expensive to get it in the air that will make it have the same flight performance.

For a beginner, I would not suggest an elec machine other than a micro sized.

I would not suggest to you a micro sized, because it looks like you will want a little more out of it.

G3 sim... thats a good idea!! once it saves your heli one time... It just paid for itself.... and its fun besides!

Thanks for all the input guys. It looks like I will probably go with a .50 size bird. Now to finish the project on the bench now and start getting things ready for the next evolution of my life in RC. If all goes well I will have a machine in the air by spring.

Thanks again for the help.

I just posted an answer to this elsewhere in the forum, here it is

If you are looking to learn to fly helicopters then I would highly recommend a 30 size nitro model. It is not as expensive to get into as it used to be and you will be much better off in the long run. Go to your local flying field and check out what people are flying there, it is a good idea to get something similar so that they can help you out with setup etc.


The reason I say to start with a 30 size instead of a small electric is that the small electrics are notoriously difficult for beginners. They are much more unstable than a 30 size and difficult to setup correctly without investing in a lot of upgrades. Also if there is any amount of wind you will be chasing it around. I know of a number of people who ended up getting frustrated with the them and never went back to heli's because of it.

I let my friend (who is just getting into heli's) hover my Sceadu 50 on a buddy box and he was amazed at how stable it was, even in a strong breeze. There are a number of places you can check out for inexpensive 30 size heli's. Check out:

http://www.centuryheli.com
http://www.heliproz.com
http://www.ronlund.com

Don't forget, if you have questions or problems then we can help you out here too! Hope this helps.

I almost forgot, get a sim to practice with - it will help you a lot.
Oh....and the Raptor isn't the only heli with a proven track record

Just get a 90! J/K!!!