Beginner seeking advice.

[mjkearns]

Hello.

I'm about to venture into the wonderful world of RC helicopters, once my Christmas present arrives - a Snelflight Hoverfly. It's my intention to get the basics down with this, as well as a simulator, and then progress onto a larger electric, possibly something like the TRex 450XL...

I believe the Hoverfly will come with an e-Sky 4ch tx, which I could use with Reflex-XTR (my software of choice), and so I don't anticipate the need to upgrade to a better tx until I move up in heli, but is this correct ?

TX wise, I was looking at the Futaba FF7 (I don't think I'll need the 9ch, for a long long time), but as I don't want to move to the larger heli for a fair few months, I guess I can leave this purchase as well ?

Any advice would be welcomed. I'll no doubt head down to my local group, once I feel I can at least hover, to see what they get up to. I know that everyone seems to favour the raptor, but I really would rather stick with electric.

Thanks,

Michael.

[Ade_Law]

You have made a couple of good choices. I have found myself spending hours on a friends hoverfly without realising!

I wouldnt like to say either way if the tx will work with reflex (good sim) your best bet is to drop snelflight an email and ask them. It would be nice to know what they say, feed back to us if you can.

If their tx doesnt work with reflex then you will need a FF7 Which is an excellent radio for the money, whips the competition. You should be able to save a few UKP on the hoverfly if you go this way too.

as for electrics, I am well known for not being a fan. They tend to be finicky and require much fettling to get them to fly nice. Its worth taking a trip to the local club and seeing what they are like and what they fly that will govern what you get as getting models they are familer with will help them a lot.

Ade

[mjkearns]

Thanks for the reply, Ade.

The Hoverfly arrived this morning, and looks great, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to try it until Christmas morning - my wife's let me check everything is in the box, but that's it !

The TX is a Dynama Ne-Ko. Not much info on the net about it, and I've emailed Snelflight to see if they know its compatibility, but it seems to have a small s-video type socket. Is this likely to be a six-pin DIN, and would a lead for a similar type of controller be okay ? I guess I should email the Reflex guys as well.

Anyway, I'll just have to practice my patience waiting until Sunday now (and then the continuing patience learning to fly !).

Michael.

[Captain_Bodge]

as for electrics, I am well known for not being a fan. They tend to be finicky and require much fettling to get them to fly nice.

That's definitely an opinion, but really that only applies to the micro electrics. The larger ones require no more fiddling than a nitro heli and have the huge advantage that they don't smell or make an annoying screaming noise. Each to his own

[mjkearns]

I'm assuming that a decent larger electric may be an Eolo ? How does that compare in size etc., to the TRex ?

[Sao]

The Eolo is larger than a T-rex it's kind of inbetween a t-rex and a 30 sized heli. It's a good electric heli, had some issues with the tail when it first came out but they have now been solved.

Deffinately NOT an indoor machine but it will cope much better with wind than the micro and mini helis.

The Eolo does not require as much finessing as the smaller e-helis thats for sure, the bigger they are the less faffing is required as a rule of thumb. My Hornet flies beautifully but it did take a lot of carefull set up and balancing to get it to fly like that, on the other end of the scale my 3DMP was built up out of the box and flies great, no balancing flybars, paddles, blades, sourcing vibrations at certain frequencies etc etc etc, just build and fly 8)

[Ade_Law]

I have flown Thomas's eolo (spirit pro I think) a few times and that thing is nice. Flies like a "proper" heli seems to have plenty of power.

i flew it at calshot indoor, lots of space there tho and lots of plank dodging.

Not had a chance to give it some stick yet hopefully he will let me soon :-)

Ade

[Jamez]

What were you thinking flying such a BIG machine indoors hmmm ????

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Janek]

and have the huge advantage that they don't smell or make an annoying screaming noise. Each to his own

Smell, SMELL, nitro heli's smell sweeet (unless the fuel contain castor 8O )

Screaming, SCREAMING, every electric I've ever heard sounds like a gigantic Bee, buzzzzzzing about all over the place. . . . . . .where are those pills :?: :?:

How's that for a couple of opinions :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Choppy]

Hi, I'm a total beginner here. Hello and Happy Christmas to everyone.

I was looking at getting Reflex XTR and an FF7. But, having a little difficulty getting the cost past the wife right now. Did anyone find out if the Dynama Ne-Ko Tx will work with XTR yet?

Thanks.

[mjkearns]

Hey Choppy.

I've found out that the Hoverfly cable used with the Dynam Ne-Ko is the same as the eSky (I think) cable, so I've placed an order for XTR with this cable, and once it arrives (not sure I'll see it before 2006) I'll be able to confirm one way or the other.

Michael.

[Choppy]

Thanks Michael. I'm wondering how much it will limit the functionality using the (4 ch?) Tx. Hopefully it'll be okay though, I look forward to hearing more. Hope it works, good wknd

[mjkearns]

As a follow-up to my previous posts:

The Dynam Ne-Ko controller works perfectly with Reflex XTR using the eSky cable. I can supply the channel assignments if anyone's stuck, but it's not difficult.

I did notice that a couple of the channels won't stay 'still' - they vary by a point or two constantly, which I assume is because it's a cheap controller ?

Anyway, it's fantastic fun, and is going to save me lots of heartache - I flew the hoverfly for around 15 minutes on Christmas day, but eventually had my first disaster and broke a rotor (I have many spares though). I guess my 5ft square space is a bit small, and I just couldn't keep it in a steady hover.

HTH,

Michael.

[TomN]

Hi Michael

I'm another newbie with a Hoverfly (+Hirobo XRB SR). I presume you broke a propeller and not the carbon rotor arm 8O

I can hover OK (most of the time) but would agree you need a bigger space than 5' by 5' at least to take off. If you don't take off absolutely vertical which is most of the time there is a period of wrestling the controls until a stable hover can be established. I think some of it is due to the cyclic controls not working 100% until full rotor speed is reached which only happens after lift off!

Does your Hoverfly nod due to an imbalance. I have followed the balancing instructions and even spoken to Phil Jermyn (Inventor and a Director at Snelflight) but haven't quite eliminated this. Phil did give me some balancing tips not in the manual if you are interested.

I haven't gone down the route of a simulator.....yet. My computer is 5 years old and I don't think it would run the latest bestest software and I would rather spend my money on helis than a new computer at the moment!

Keep us informed of your progress.

Regards

Tom

[mjkearns]

Hey Tom.

Yes, it was a prop that I broke, and not one of the rotor arms... I bought a couple of spare packs though, so I'll fix it at some point.

I haven't really tried to fly it enough to work out if the initial movement is down to me, an imbalance, or something else, but I'll hopefully try some more after practising on the simulator (which allows me to faithfully replicate my uselessness very well !!).

Once I can use the controls successfully in a virtual environment, I'll have another go.

Whatever happens, it's excellent fun !