Deanwvu

I call myself a "future beginner" because I have not yet begun any sort of heli flying....


As a future beginner, I do not want to spend a lot of money. When I say "alot," I mean $600 or more for my first heli, or maybe even my second. There is the chance that I may give up, sell off my stuff, and never pick it up again. I am a patient person, and I understand that flying helis takes a lot of time and patience, and the $$$ for repairs. What I have to learn for myself is--is the time, patience and $$$ worth it? Am I having enough fun to justify these headaches?? I hope the answer is yes, but only trying will tell....

That being said, I have choices to make. My first choice is an easy one--I will be spending a lot of time on a sim before I ever attempt to fly a real model. I see sims as economical in many ways, and with a ton of different planes and helis to fly--the sim itself should be fun!

My second choice is a little harder... As I said, I dont want to spend a ton of money... So, which heli to buy first? Definitely electric. As I have heard a lot about them, the Blade CP looks like a good choice to me. There is more praise for this heli than criticism (as far as I have read), it is cheap, and, as others have said, easier to fly than other small helis. I am torn between buying the Blade, or perhaps a fixed pitch heli that is designed more for beginners. My concern is this--what happens when I become a competant flyer of the fixed pitch heli? Will I want more? Can I sell the heli (ya I know I CAN sell it--but will I get any money out of it--is it worth it?) (basically, what is the resale value of a used fixed pitch heli?). Should I learn on the Blade, knowing it is not designed for beginners, but hoping that a lot of sim time will make up for my lack of experience???

I am sure alot of beginners have similar concerns, and those who have been through this ^^^^, I would appreciate any advice you have!!

Dean

sparkling_fist

$600 is more than enough to start off with..

what you can do (what i should have done) is at first buy a faily cheap fixed pitch heli.. (you can buy 1 for around $75)
and fly that for about a month, and then move on to a collective pitch heli...

reason - its easy to learn with and costs barey anything to repair a fixed pitched heli.
and personally.. i dont think very much of sims.. a good sim costs a fortune and wont give you the anywhere near the same thrill of flying a proper heli..

after you fly the fp, get urself a good cp like blade/trex/x400
or if you have the money, buy a logo 10. they are one of the best electric helis

IMPORTANT : Avoid walkera electronics!
most walkera electronics have problems. except the brushless motor and esc
The walkera helis are decent but if u are going to buy a walkera, buy the heli without electronics and instal your own..

anyway hope it helped

jakjr

My Feedback: (18)

Just so you know, I am just a begginer myself, so don't put too much faith in what I say

I got an Eco-8 for my first heli, mostly because I liked the way it looked but also because its pretty big (probably twice the size of the blade), the reason I liked that its big is because everybody says the micro heli's are a lot harder to learn on.

I have been flying heli's on the RealFlight sim for over a year, and still yet this Eco-8 is quite hard for me to fly. Based off how hard this big thing is for me to fly, even with tons of sim experience, I can't Imagine being able to learn on a micro.

I don't know about heli's, but a good condition R/C car will only get about 50% of their original price, I'd assume heli's are the same way.

Best advice I can give is no matter what heli you get, give it a thorough checkover before atempting to get it off the ground for the first time. Be sure the blades are tracking right, be sure they are balanced, be sure all the linkages are right, be sure the servo's are working correct, be sure the radio is setup properly, be sure no screws are loose, etc. etc. Unlike a car or plane, something as minor as a loose screw could do $100+ worth of damage. Heli's dont glide [:@]

thecheatscalc

AND if you get a 3D heli MAKE SURE you have a good ( align420LF suggested) burshless motor with matcing esc, AND it MUST be belt drivien, doesn't matter which one just has to be belt driven, It'll save you money and belt driven heli's are just better quality, if you do go walkera go with the 36 it's the best one they have, but you must have a brushless to make it lift off. so it total you should have spent 300 on ABS blades and a brushless system, one last thing make sure you have a li-poly, yes the free ones off ebay work fine as long as you make sure that you have a good brushless system. that's it, besides don't be afraid to buy off ebay as long as they have high ratings, parts store: grand rc.

sparkling_fist

also used 4ch helis hardly ever sell on ebay..

all the 4ch helis on ebay are all cheap and new..
so no1 wants an old one

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

Dean,

I too was once in your situation. I had been flying planes for years, and always wanted to fly a helicopter, but never tried it because "heli's are hard to fly". That was until I saw a little electric helicopter called a Hirobo XRB. Steve Rojecki brought his XRB to our local indoor flying meets. He took off, and then once it got about chest level, he let go of the sticks, and it just sat there hovering.

After seeing that, I knew for the first time that I could actually fly one of those, so I rushed right out and bought one. Its a complete kit ready to fly, and is BY FAR the absolute best beginners helicopter out there. Most people can have it hovering within minutes of getting it. Within a week, they normally will have enough skills on it to do a little flying around. Its small enough to fly in your bedroom.

You can see a cool video of me flying the XRB here:
www.revolutionaircraft.com/IMAGES/HiroboXRB.wmv
That video was taken ONE week after I first started flying helicopters. Thats right, I learned all that in ONE week....and so can you.

The XRB is a fixed pitch dual rotor helicopter. I normally will hand my XRB to just about any pilot of any skill to try it out. Most of them figure it out pretty quickly once you explain how the controls work. It wont do any inverted or 3D maneuvers, but for learning the basics...you cant beat it. It runs around 300 bucks and thats for EVERYTHING you need to fly....even the included radio, and a lipo battery, and extra blades.

If your ready to start learning on a full CCPM machine that you can grow into, the E-flite BLADE is a fantastic helicopter. It is not really a beginners helicopter. It is capable of full aerobatics, so keep that in mind if you choose the Blade. You can learn on it, but it may be fairly expensive as you may ding it up a little learning. It comes complete just like the XRB, and flys great. If you plan on learning on a Blade, I would strongly suggest getting a little time on a XRB or a simulator at the least before attempting to fly it. Do a search in here for Radd's Flying Lessons and follow them, they will help you alot.

I learned on the XRB, and flew it for about 2 months before I moved up to the Blade. Ive been flying the Blade for Im guessing about 6 months, and I can fly it around just fine. I'm even flying it with NO gyro, and doing the same stuff that I was doing with the XRB.

I can tell you this, I'll sware by the XRB. Without it, I probably would never have learned how to fly helicopters. Its like flying in a sim, but way easier, and LOTS more fun. I still fly the XRB in my house, when I cant get outside or to a local flying field. There are LOTS of people here that have learned on the XRB. There is even one older glow pilot who scoffed at helicopters and swore he would never fly one.....he was at our local weekly indoor electric fly-in last night......you guessed it....flying a XRB.

Congradulations on your choice to join us heli pilots. Welcome.....and have fun

Deanwvu

Looking at the XRB, it is tempting...

Will keep an eye on EBAY for new ones...


The remote that comes with it--will it work with a sim?? It needs a special port--for which I can buy a cable yes??

Thanks!

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

There is no port for a sim on the XRB heli's radio....but honestly, you wont need one. Follow the instruction manual page by page to get it all tweaked out, and it will fly flawlessly first time up.

The Blade radio does have a "trainer" port on the back, but Ive heard mixed reports on how it plugs into a sim.

Here are some pics of me flying my gyroless blade last night. Its a great helicopter.
And yes, that is master pilot Tony Stillman in the background.

Deanwvu

One more question, about the XRB...

Any extra batteries I might buy for the XRB--will they work with the Blade??

Thanks!

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

No, they dont have the UMPH you'll need for the blade. The XRB batteries are 7.4V lipos, and have a special connector on them. The blade will require at a minimum a 8.4V to get airborne, and most people go to a 11.1V lipo to get it to fly great.

The good news is that both heli's come with everything you need to fly, so when your ready to upgrade, you dont really have to go buy all new equipment.

sparkling_fist

ur camera has a big red eye problem..
or ur some sort of weird amphibious demon..

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

It wasnt my camera. One of the local pilots took it, not sure what he took it with.
He sent it to me in a e-mail. I think it was a Kodak digicam or something.

Ill get you guys some better pictures if you want them. I have a Fuji digicam that will shoot at 12mp, and I can assure you there will be no red-eye.