New Heli

[tomatwalden]

"But the mSR is a micro, and he already has one of those. It looks like the OP is looking for a larger 4 channel helicopter, as opposed to moving up to the more expensive CP models".

myxiplx, that's exactly what i'm looking for, i haven't got £500 to chuck on a heli, i just want to get a better one and have fun.
I'm not looking to dance it around the sky on it's tail or cut the lawn with the rotors, it's only a bit of recreation for me.

And that's the point I think. They're not really _better_ ... Different, bigger, but not better. If you simply want a bigger heli, fair enough, but don't expect bigger to equal better.

[Peteski]

myxiplx, that's exactly what i'm looking for, i haven't got £500 to chuck on a heli, i just want to get a better one and have fun.
I'm not looking to dance it around the sky on it's tail or cut the lawn with the rotors, it's only a bit of recreation for me.

If you want better then the Blade 200 SRX is the one to get and just about within your £100 budget if you buy the one James mentioned, but you will need a transmitter too (another £50 or so used). It's both bigger and better than what you have. The ones you mentioned are just bigger versions of the one you've already got, not really better. You certainly don't have to spend £500 to progress from where you are, but £100 is really pushing it a bit. The models you have been looking at will not take you any further into the hobby and you will be none the wiser about where to go next.

Another option for well under £100 is the Blade mCPX. It's a micro, but it is collective pitch and will teach you everything you need to know about flying bigger helis. Despite being a micro, it can handle wind far better than the fixed pitch micros you have now and it will fly rings around the bigger fixed pitch models you have been looking at. It's not easy to fly though, so be prepared to go through a steep learning curve. But if you fly it over grass you can crash it as many times as you like and just pick it up and fly again. If you master this heli, then you really will have made some good progress! The mSRX mentioned earlier is a fixed pitch version of this and also very good. A bit easier to fly and less intimidating, but ultimately not as good.

[DD_Arthur]

i haven't got £500 to chuck on a heli, i just want to get a better one and have fun.
I'm not looking to dance it around the sky on it's tail or cut the lawn with the rotors, it's only a bit of recreation for me.

Hello Buckshot. I've read this thread with interest as you're at the same stage I was a couple of months back. Had a couple of cheapo fixed pitch 4 channel helis and wanted something more....substantial.

I ordered one of these;

WLtoys V912 Sky Dancer 4CH Single Blade RC Helicopter With Gyro RTF - US$61.66

It arrived ten days after ordering, was well packaged and worked perfectly out of the box. At forty squid it's unbeatable value! The large, chunky TX it comes with works well with a range of around one hundred metres. The heli itself is very sturdily constructed and is simply tough. The stock battery gives around seven to eight minutes flying time but when running out of charge the heli looses power fairly abruptly so you don't want to be caught with it forty feet in the air when this happens as it tends to plummet!

Battery replacement on the stock model is a bit of a fiddle but I got round this by the use of velcro straps. The heli also has a white LED mounted in the nose which is very handy for orientation but dosen't help battery replacement too much either. A nice touch is that the heli itself is fitted with an on/off switch which allows the battery to be connected up without the heli becoming 'live'.

After flying my micros my initial impression of the V912 was how stable in hover it is and Wow! - Sounds like a real chopper! After you've mastered the hover then the fun really starts. The chunky, sturdy build and big metal flybar gives this heli a weight and inertia totally different to the micros. Its good fun but it is clumsy. Luckily my flying field of preference is the local village cricket pitch which is large, soft, sheltered and green and most importantly of all; free of innocent bystanders.

Spares are easy and cheap to source if you're prepared to wait on the postie. I bought this and a couple of spare batteries too.

34 PCS Replacement Spare Parts for V912 RC Radio Control Helicopter | eBay

I haven't needed them......yet but the heli has bitten the dust heavily more than a couple of times during which the flybar has put a few dents in the tail boom and I've got a few scratches on the canopy. So I'd say it's great value and great fun. Is it "better" than my couple of four channel micros? Well............

This last couple of weeks my go to helis have been the micros. i just get more out of flying them. The V912 is big, impressive and thats about it. What it has done is confirm my interest and enjoyment in this new hobby. As I type this I have one of these on order - should arrive this week too!

Hisky HCP100S 6CH 2.4Ghz Dual Brushless RC Helicopter With New X-6S Sale-Banggood.com

So in conclusion; yeah, I'd recommend a WL Toys V912. Buy it, fly it, enjoy it. Look after it and if you decide you do want to progress to six channel, collective pitch helis you'll be able to realise around eighty per cent of your outlay on the V912 by flogging it on Ebay! The V913 will be just as robust, slightly more expensive to buy but rather clumsier than the V912 and certainly not in the same league handling wise as your current micro.

Good luck!

[Guest]

Hello Arthur,
Thanks for sharing the info, i bet you're looking forward to the postie knocking on your door.
That Hisky looks insane. It's like an angry sparrow hawk on steroids!..AWESOME.
Respect to the pilots who can throw it around the sky like that. I'de need it in slow motion i reckon.
Anyway bud, i ended up getting a MJX F-45 a few days ago and i'm pleased with it (for now) as it's a step up from my others.
I'm not sure where to set the ailerons/rudder percentage wise. Should i run them at around 75% and bang the throttle setting to 100%?
I suppose there's no substitute for getting out and having a play around.
One thing i did notice was that after i got it trimmed the heli is hovering ok but seems to be leaning over to the right, is there some adjustment that needs to be done?

ATB.

[tomatwalden]

...
One thing i did notice was that after i got it trimmed the heli is hovering ok but seems to be leaning over to the right, is there some adjustment that needs to be done?

ATB.

That's normal for all single-rotor helis. http://www.rcheliwiki.com/Translating_tendency

[Guest]

Thanks Tom, i didn't know that. I just noticed it was canting over slightly and my co-axial didn't.

[tomatwalden]

Indeed. Co-axials without a tail rotor don't suffer from it. But all single-rotors helis are affected by it. Some full-size helis have the main shaft at an angle so that passengers are held level, but with RC helis, they simply lean in the hover.

[DD_Arthur]

I'm not sure where to set the ailerons/rudder percentage wise. Should i run them at around 75% and bang the throttle setting to 100%?

ATB.

@Fraid I'm not familiar with the TX set up on the MJX F-45 but this sounds like the "Hi" or "Lo" options on my two micros and the V912. The Lo option is supposed to be for beginners and Hi for more advanced users. The Lo option merely limits the amount of travel of the servo arms and the Hi option gives you more. In my opinion a completely daft idea as the weight and inertia of these helis means you need as much control authority over them as possible. The V912/913 also have a gimmicky "turbo" button on the top right of the TX which has to be held down continuously to get yet more servo travel. There's a number of YouTube vids. showing how to take the back off the TX and replace this button with a proper switch so this mode can be enabled permanently.

Had a good look at some photos of the MJX F-45 and surprise, surprise the rotors, flybar, swash, motors, tail, boom, chassis and skids look identical to the V912/913 series so its odds-on that they're made in the same factory and then badged for their "makers" be it WLToys or MJX.

My little Hisky - which arrived on Saturday - can also be purchased as a WLToys V922, albeit with a different TX. Oh yeah, the Hisky - WOW!. At first it was like juggling a bucket of frogs but in between this summers horizontal rain we've had three completely calm evenings. As of tonight I'm merely juggling a bucket and a frog! Been researching pitch and throttle curves on t' interweb tonight.

[Guest]

I'm pleased i haven't got a "turbo button", i reckon i'de need another thumb!
Enjoy your Hisky bud.

[Peteski]

That Hisky looks really good, I think it's basically a Blade mCPX BL clone or at least very similar in concept. Also very good that you can add a DSMX sat and use it with a decent Spektrum TX. One thing you guys will soon come to realise if you progress in the hobby is how much better a decent programmable TX is. It gives you so much more fine control.

[bigpops]

I also have a HiSKY HCP100S. The first time I flew it I knew my 180CFX was for the chop.

I flew the 180 again after putting about 50 flights on the HiSKY, and I hated. Needless to say it's gone to a new home.

Tail dead band is a problem (it's massive) but can be totally mixed out with a Taranis or Devo transmitter. Negative Expo (Spektrum) will also do the job in a less accurate but perfectly flyable way. I flew mine both on the DX8, and my Taranis with OrangeRX module in it. Now I use the Taranis with the HiSKY HT-6 module instead after getting lockouts with the DSM2 sat (genuine spekky one) I was using.

My HiSKY is currently out of action though, after a very hard impact stripped a servo. That was the only damage though, which is impressive given the thud it made. I keep saying I'm going to get another for spare so I still have a flyable one while I wait for parts. But, I keep hoping they'll bring a newer one out with better tail holding in funnels and backwards flight, and the deadband problem fixed.

[Peteski]

How was the HiSky better than your 180 CFX? Easier to fly? Better suited to flying indoors or small garden? Less crash damage?
I just don't believe it could possibly fly better, the 180 is awesome for its size and I can't think of any better heli in that class.

[bigpops]

How was the HiSky better than your 180 CFX? Easier to fly? Better suited to flying indoors or small garden? Less crash damage?
I just don't believe it could possibly fly better, the 180 is awesome for its size and I can't think of any better heli in that class.

If you don't count funnels and fast backwards, the tail is better on the HiSky. The thing barely moves even with extreme collective changes. The collective feels better. Much better actually. I found the collective to be pretty much dead on the 180 around centre. It's less intimidating than the 180. I usually fly the HiSky in the park, where the 180 was borderline in my comfort zone without a spotter.

It also takes a hit much better than the 180, but it's half the size and much less than half the weight. Over long grass (4-5inch plus), you have to either be slow to hit throttle hold, or really drive it in at some speed to break anything. I fly over short grass unless I'm at the field, and out of probably 30 crashes, I've split 2x tail booms, stripped about 4 main gears, and stripped one servo. Total cost for all those is less than a tenner. A crash kit including 2x booms, 2x main gears, skids, blades, 2x tail props, tail fin/motor holder, and a canopy is just over £7.

My one and only crash on my 180 broke the landing gear and stripped a servo. Not an expensive crash, but more than I've spent on HiSky parts in total.

Honestly, if they could get the tail to hold a bit better in funnels, get rid of the dead band, it would be perfect. Maybe move to a solid tail boom too.

All the linkages on mine are all nice and snug. No fitting o-rings like on the mCPX or 130X. For £56 shipped (or about £62 with the HT-8 module), for a double brushless micro with piro-comp, you can't beat it.

[tomatwalden]

To be fair, looking at it ... that HiSky is more akin to a Blade mCPX/BL rather than the 180CFX. Probably not the right comparison to make in terms of which is "better".

[bigpops]

Better to me, means more fun and rewarding to fly. For that, HiSky HCP100S > 180cfx, at least for me it is.

It's most similar competitor is the Trex 150, which is also a double brushless heli with piro compensation of almost the same size. I have had a Trex 150 owner fly it, and he says the Trex can hold the tail in faster funnels than the HiSky, but the tail is better overall on the HiSky. Power wise, there's little to no difference.