Where to start?

[john101]

Hi all
I've just join your community. I'm interested in getting a helicoper and I've been looking at a few web site shops for ideas.

The question is where to start.
Probably don't want to spend more than £150 to get it in the air.
I have not got that much room in doors, so something that can fly outside, I think.
What is a good make?

I would appriciate your advice

Thanks

John

[HELIMAD]

Hello mate, im no expert but i suggest you get a blade 400, great quality heli with a very good spares and support service. Only probs they are £300 new, but you do get a dx6i transmitter which makes tuning down the heli a lot easyer. Im sure there will be others who will agree. Cheers

[Bugster]

After playing with a little coax Twister Bell Medevac I bought a Honey Bee FP. That's a fixed pitch heli. It teaches you the right stick movements to fly the more advanced CP (Collective Pitch) helis. It's rugged and you will have crashes which it will often absorb without damage unlike a CP. I put over 300 batteries through mine mostly in the garage and garden on calm days and had a lot of fun with it. I still have it though I've now moved on to CP helis. For less than £70 I reckon the Honey Bee FP is a great learning tool so don't be put off by the low price

Cheers

Bugster

[Photex]

Blade CX2 RTF £135 inc transmitter and vat. Brilliant and easy.

Chris.

[stuskimac]

Hi John, welcome to the site & hobby.

you have a choice of starting out with contra-rotating/ co-axial helicopters, fixed pitch or ccpm helicopters.

firstly contra-rotating/ co-axial - for your budget i would recommend the Eflte CX2, comes with 2.4ghz radio, or the ESKY LAMA , both ready to fly out off the box, and fairly easy to fly.

Fixed pitch, can't comment really, because i never tried them, all i would say is you might be better spending on a ccpm heli rather than a fixed pitch heli because if you buy FP then progress to ccpm, the fp heli may become redundant and money tied up, sat doing nothing ! I.M.O. only !

finally ccpm, a true heli ! blade 400 is worth saving your pennies for, trex even better, but will cost more and blow your budget, they aren't easy to master either. Esky belt cp's are popular and more within your budget, i wouldn't recomment the king though, it has issues. another option is the Eflite cp pro 2, slightly cheaper around £200, rtf with 2.4ghz radio.

there are other options, and views, its worth reading some of the posts on here before you buy to get first hand experiance of wether there any good or not.
also if you live in atherstone in Warwickshire ? then why not pop into Midland Helicopters @ Hinckley and talk to them ! ( if i've got the wrong Atherstone i appoligise )

hope this helps to point u in the right direction, best of luck and happy flying.

best regards, stu.

[swampy]

hi John, welcome mate, you're best move would be to trot along to a club local to yourself, and check it out, in my (limited) experience, it has been my best move so far, must have saved me hundreds, you will then get a good idea of what you want to fly, and more importantly, how to set it up and fix it.
I started out with the CX2 coax a couple of months ago, the bug bit, and I now have a full "hanger" , and despite having as couple of 450 size cp heli's (mini titan, t-rex) a 200 size Gaui and a few projects on the go (Century Swift and a Predator 90 with a Wren turbine) I still have a great deal of fun with my CX2, it has been a fantastic little heli to learn on, and play with, (crash's really well with Extreme boom and skids on) and is cheap to fix (usually blades and main gears)

[Matt Gill]

I would echo what swampy has said. Take a trip down to your local club (you will find your local club on the BMFA website (British Model Flying Association - the body responsible for model flying in the UK) and ask a few questions. You will probably find that someone is selling good quality gear at a cheap price and that is usually a great place to start. You need to soak up the advice like a sponge and listen to what people have to say. It can be a very expensive, dangerous hobby if you think you know best. Alternatively, it can be the best, most addictive hobby in the world! Pick your path wisely!

[GravityKills]

I wrote down my thoughts on the topic here:
http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/beginn...tml#post288436
It is, of course, only one opinion. Many roads lead to Rome (but: many more lead to the lower levels of heli hell)

[john101]

Guys
Thanks very much for all the advice. I have just purchased a second hand CX2 from Stuart the administrator, so hopefully I will be testing my skills by the weekend.

Stu
Yes it is atherstone, warwickshire. I will visit Hinkley shop this weekend, now I know they have one.

Thanks again for the advice

John

[Farmer Giles]

Guys
Thanks very much for all the advice. I have just purchased a second hand CX2 from Stuart the administrator, so hopefully I will be testing my skills by the weekend.

Stu
Yes it is atherstone, warwickshire. I will visit Hinkley shop this weekend, now I know they have one.

Thanks again for the advice

John

It's a good starting place but it will have to be a very still day to fly it outside. Any kind of wind and it will just disappear into the sky.

have you thought about getting a simulator for your PC, assuming you have one that is... most people on here use Pheonix, about £60 s/h and it's a tool that you can use to learn to fly basic stuff right up to full on 3d flight so you won't every grow out of it. If it saves you the cost of one crash on the CP heli then it's paid for itself..

HTH