Advice needed regarding start up costs.

[mt3]

Hi, looking to get back into flying helis and have booked a lesson with a local flight school next week, I am thinking of purchasing a 500-550 size heli and looking for some advice please.

Is it better to get a new model as a combo kit or get the basic kit and spec out the electronics individually with regards to cost and ease of use/ set up.

How many batteries will I need to start with as a bare minimum, probably 6s. Also bar the heli,electronics,blades, transmitter are there any other items you can think of that I will need straight away, any specific tools,cables or items for transportation.

Thanks in advance for any advice/ help you can offer.

[DaveJones]

I would think for a beginner you would be just fine with a combo deal and will save a good few quid. FBL controllers are about the only area you might need to think about, 3gx works but BeastX is easier to setup and a good choice

Decent charger and power supply should be on your list, a small 50w job would get you going but can guarantee you will want something bigger a better soon (budget around £150 for a decent one), best option for psu would be a converted server supply, either do it yourself or buy from Ian on here.

Batteries really depends on how often and how long you want to fly for in one session and if you have power near the field. I have 5 batteries for my 500 and that gives me about 40mins to an hour at the field.

[mt3]

Have also been looking at a small indoor heli like the blades mcpx or 130x to practise on over the winter to speed up my learning curve, are these suitable for indoors and helping to progress into circuits or are they just good for orientation practise? Or would a sim be a better long term bet?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Malc.

[SGD]

A decent sim would be a better first option as you can practice on them any time any weather and any damage is quickly repaired by the click of a button! A Blade nano or the mcpx are good little helis that can stand a fair bit of abuse and come back for more plus can be used in small spaces but the 130X is a bit more fragile and needs more space, especially if you're just starting out.

[DaveJones]

I leant to fly with a mcpx, spent many a happy hour trying to get the damm thing to hover over my bed in the winter. Once mastered moved onto doing the same side on and nose in. Then moved straight on to a 500 with only nerves to contend with. Circuits needs a bigger room, more concern that you damage something in the room rather than the heli. They do handle wind remarkably well when you get the basic hover mastered.

I would recommend one, more realistic and fun than the sim.

[tomatwalden]

Have also been looking at a small indoor heli like the blades mcpx or 130x to practise on over the winter to speed up my learning curve, are these suitable for indoors and helping to progress into circuits or are they just good for orientation practise? Or would a sim be a better long term bet?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Malc.

130x is good fun when it works, but it can be a bit fragile in some ways. The mcpx is a brilliant little heli - both the V2 and the brushless (BL).

[tomatwalden]

When you say "get back into helis" - How proficient were you before you stopped?

[mt3]

When you say "get back into helis" - How proficient were you before you stopped?

To be fair i had learnt to hover tail in and was doing mild figure of 8`s and side on hovering exercises, and a bit of nose in on the sim but once outside on the real thing i got stuck at this level and unable to progress to circuits. I have recently had the urge to try again though so trying to get some real flying done with a school for now and take it from there. Thanks for the advice.

[tomatwalden]

To be fair i had learnt to hover tail in and was doing mild figure of 8`s and side on hovering exercises, and a bit of nose in on the sim but once outside on the real thing i got stuck at this level and unable to progress to circuits. I have recently had the urge to try again though so trying to get some real flying done with a school for now and take it from there. Thanks for the advice.

FWIW - the mcpx (v2) was the heli that moved me beyond that phase. You can practice stuff like fig 8's, nose-in and eventually inverted with little or no worry. Don't get me wrong, you get the odd break but 9 times out of 10, a crash goes completely unpunished.

For example, this (mcpx first inverted flight! - YouTube) was me last year learning how to hover inverted. That crash at the end did nothing - I flew again immediately afterwards....

[KevDavies]

I notice your in Macclesfield. Not too far from me in Crewe. If you wanted some guidance and general prodding in the right direction, im more than happy to help mate. Ive recently taught a lad that turned up at the club with no experience at all. Hes doing flips and rolls now within 3 months (I hate him it took me much longer LOL).

[Varelco]

Welcome mt3, or welcome back more like.


First off you are likely to save more money purchasing a combo kit rather than buying everything individually. It's pretty much safe to say Align has a lot to offer when it comes to this, their Trex range is well proven, popular and good value. Parts availability is excellent and parts are also cheap. There isn't really much difference in difficulty when building a combo compared to getting all the parts for a kit individually but you do have the advantage of having a well matched set up with a combo (motor size and kv, ESC choice, all the servo hardware will be correct etc).

Both 500 and the 550 are popular, there is a notable difference in size and cost between the two, if you are conscious of the costs then perhaps the 500 would be more suitable. However if you willing to invest initially, then I would go for the larger 550, although I haven't flown the 500 it will be more stable and deal with the wind better, not to mention it will have a greater presence in the air, but that's upto you, I know some prefer smaller models.

Battery wise I'd say 3 or 4 would be suitable to start off with, you won't need high end stuff so Turnigy blues, Haiyin or Zippy flightmax batteries would be more than adequate and will save you a whole bunch of cash. Obviously battery costs vary between a 500 and 550, with the budget end batteries there is probably about £20-25 between a 6S 3000mah 500 battery and 6S 5000mah 550 battery.

A decent charger should be on your list too, like Davejones says you will get frustrated if you can only charge one battery at a time or all 3 or 4 at a slow rate, nobody likes waiting for batteries to charge! IChargers and those offered by Revolectix are good choices. A power supply to match your charger too, High power DC power supplies are usually more expensive than the charger itself so you'll find a lot of people now make their own power supplies from old server power supplies, it's a hell of a lot cheaper. There are people who will build one for you such as coolice, it will still save you a lot of cash and be more than enough power. Another additional cost will be a parallel charge board if you want to charge more than one battery at a time.

[tigeral]

mt3, the one thing missing is if possible join a club if you havnt already, it could have saved me from buying some of the rubbish i first bought my son! but as for helis im currently learning on a 130x indoors and out and a trex 500 fbl, i have a clarke 1000w genny for the full day experience recylin 5 batts

[dogbiscuit]

A few tools will be needed as well. decent set of hex drives, ball link pliers, swash leveling tool, digital pitch gauge, battery checker..... all essential really. £50 to £70 on this little lot to factor in to the budget

[mt3]

I notice your in Macclesfield. Not too far from me in Crewe. If you wanted some guidance and general prodding in the right direction, im more than happy to help mate. Ive recently taught a lad that turned up at the club with no experience at all. Hes doing flips and rolls now within 3 months (I hate him it took me much longer LOL).

I may take you up on that offer some time in the near future, thank you.