You guys must get fed up of being asked this but HELP

[sad_old_man]

First of all, hello to you all.

For those of you who are able to control any sort of model egg beater, 'WELL DONE'. I however, cannot yet claim such a victory over the laws of gravity which has brought me here in search of help.

When I first considered this challenge years ago, the only model helis that exsisted where the price of a family car, made about the same amount of noise and you needed an area the size of a sports stadium to use them.

However, for Christmas my two young sons (I do everything late in life, something to do with being a slow learner) each received a Pico Z MX-1 amoungst their gifts from Santa. When I stopped laughing at the thought of watching my two sons trying to learn to control them I noticed that they had already taken them out of the box, charged them and were flying them around the room with confidence. To my surprise, when I eagerly grabbed the controller I found that I also could defy the laws of gravity and fly them and I cannot begin to explain the feeling I experienced at seeing this little egg beater flying around the room, actually under my control. I fell in love all over again!

However, I now lust afer something bigger (yes before you say it, 'I AM SAD', look at the user name) and this is where I need help. apart from help from doctors that is).

To assist anyone mad enough to attempt to offer advice in this area, I have listed certain criterea that I would like from my new heli.

1. I would like to use it for a little more that 8 mins before having to recharge it for the rest of my life.
2. I would like it to look something at least similar to an every day heli and not a piece of flying plastic with the words 'Helicopter' on the box to help identify it.
3. Be at least user friendly enough to enable a normal person (retarded in my case) to progress through a normal learning curve and achieve flight.
(think about it. if real helicopters were as difficult to learn to fly as model ones! they wouldnt exsist. who could afford to crash a £1.2M helicopter five times just learning to hover? Ever seen a Chinook with a training undercarriage on it!)

Anyway thats my request over. I have several choices in mind but I will not mention them at the moment because I will not get any advice, due to the fact that you will be too occupied with attempting to stop laughing and getting up off the floor.

Any help in a choice of new heli would however be much appreciated

Thanks

[glyn]

Hi SOM, there's a guy called Ian, lives in blackpool and has a website that goes by the name of chopperaddict, very friendly, helpful and knowledgable kind of guy, have a look at his website, he may be local enough to you to get some first hand info...G

[Brian Gifford]

Welcome to the forum. You should look at a Blade mCX, or if you are feeling brave, a Blade mSR. These are both very small helis suitable for indoor use.

With standard batteries, the flying time is about 5-8 minutes per flight, charging time between 1/2 to 1 hour. The solution is to have a lot of batteries.

[paul35]

Are you looking at flying in doors or out? are you aware of any heli clubs in your area if so might be worth popping along one weekend to see what everybody else flys

[coptermanic]

Get something coaxial for starters, like an Eflite Blade MCX, parts readily available and a nice little indoor thing to play with. Next up, it's single rotor brother the Blade MSR.
A sim would be invaluable too; we would suggest Phoenix.

[tiddler]

Welcome sad old

Learning to fly helis can be very rewarding but the larger more serious ones are a quite challenge if you've never done it before.
The Blade mCX is probably one of the best first time entry helis you can get. Their small enough to fly indoors, light enough to not cause any serious damage to either you, your furniture or itself. It is a full function 4 channel set up which will give you a good grounding on the layout of the controls of the more serious models. And best of all, They are great fun

[brin]

great first post S.O.M. and welcome to the forum but there are a lot of sad old men on here so name please.now as you have a selection already in mind you will be aware that not many helis will give you the sort of flying times you are looking for
with the blade cx2 i was getting about 10mins on an upgraded bat but 6/8 mins is about the average

[GravityKills]

you could have a look at the "Innovator" from Thunder Tiger.
There is one "scale" version that doesn't look like a flying broomstick. It's bigger and designed for beginners.

I picked a random link:
Thunder Tiger Innovator MD530 Super Combo R/C Helicopter RTF [TTR4720-F05E2]

Usually I wouldn't recommend it, because it's in my opinion much too expensive. That aside, it might suit your needs quite well.

[tiddler]

you could have a look at the "Innovator" from Thunder Tiger.
There is one "scale" version that doesn't look like a flying broomstick. It's bigger and designed for beginners.

I picked a random link:
Thunder Tiger Innovator MD530 Super Combo R/C Helicopter RTF [TTR4720-F05E2]

Usually I wouldn't recommend it, because it's in my opinion much too expensive. That aside, it might suit your needs quite well.

Although I thoroughly recommend the Innovator (I have one myself) It is a massive jump up from a Pico Z, and should you decide to go this route, then getting the Phoenix simulator and putting in many hours of learning first would be the thing to do in my opinion.

Coaxial helis on the other hand are far easier to learn the basics on, hence the mCX recommendations.

[HeliJosh]

Hello sad man (god that sounds weird) welcome to the forum and you have come to the right place and dont feel silly we have all been in the same position so no one here is going to riddicule or mock you because of your post you have probably saved money by coming here tbh wish i did what you did before i went out and spent £150.

I basically went through the same situation as you but i made a mistake and went straight for a buzzfly be and couldnt fly it what so ever so then i opted for the msr which i found alot easier but still not the easiest i would have to recommend the msx co-ax as these are the best learner heli's In my opinion i would also suggest you buy a good transmitter as it will help you in the future and if you stick it out save you money. i would reccomend the dx6i good value for money and can also be used with the simulator. i have to mention also the alloy shark 3ch it gives 10-12 mins flying time and at 39.95 isnt bad at all i think last week it was 29.95 maybe a cheaper alternative.

Your Options

Blade Msr bit more of a challenge but will get more hours of fun
Blade Msx great learner heli but after you have mastered it bit restricted
Alloy shark 3ch only 39.95 maybe a good start

another good point to remember if you buy a Mcx when you wish to upgrade to say the Msr you can use the same standard transmitter so will save you a few bob.

whatever your decision im sure we will speak again.

good luck

[GravityKills]

Although I thoroughly recommend the Innovator (I have one myself) It is a massive jump up from a Pico Z, and should you decide to go this route, then getting the Phoenix simulator and putting in many hours of learning first would be the thing to do in my opinion.

Coaxial helis on the other hand are far easier to learn the basics on, hence the mCX recommendations.

yes, definitely. It's also too big for the living room. And, for anything beyond coax, a sim is always a good idea.

Although: the innovator can be set by software to fly "almost" like a coax. In that sense, it's maybe the easiest single-rotor heli.

[heliTV]

Hi S-O-M and welcome.

I would look at the Blade MCX as a starter heli. It's about the same size as the PicoZ but has "proper" heli controls so anything you learn on it will translate onto the bigger stuff (sort of!) The MCX is so stable its really easy to fly, and so small it can be flown anywhere.

If this goes well and you become a complete addict, the next step I would go for is a sim - Phoenix is the one I use. this allows you to fly loads of helis and will show you how much more complex the single rotors are.

Hope this helps...

[whirlybird]

Hi S-O-M

Welcome to the forum.

Can't disagree with any of the selections offered by other members.
From experience, would like to point out one thing.

In your post, you ask for a machine that will fly longer than 8 minutes.
As you skills increase, so does your concentration level. At that point, a 5 minute flight feels more like 15.
You will find you need to land and get your breath back fairly frequently.
IMHO, you will find 8 mins plenty long enough. Better to get two or three battery packs.
Also, a characteristic of LiPo's is they lose very little charge in storage, so if you charge your batteries immediately after flying, they will be ready for use even months later.
This way, you won't have to worry about long charge times.

Hope this helps

Jeff

[Mojo]

Welcome to the forum and what a great first post

Good luck with your decision.. If you follow the advice given by the members of this forum you're not gonna go wrong, and would probably save yourself a fortune making expensive mistakes..

[sad_old_man]

Firstly, thank you all for taking the time to reply to my request for help. I didnt expect such a response to a question you must all have been asked hundreds of times.

Anyway when I first asked for help I did have the urge to go out and buy a full blown jobbie with all the bells and whistles, but after much reading about CRASHING, I have decided to wait until firsly I can spell colectiff pich properly and that I also know what it means.

After a very quick look on the net for something I like the look of, I have found three that interest me. (oh how many times have I bought a car that looked great only to find............) and here they are:

1. Esky Dauphin
2. Lama V4
3. CX2

Well there you are then, thats got you all rolling around the floor laughing.

If anyone can stop themselves from having hysterics and from thumbing through yellow pages in an attempt to find me a mental home to book into, are these things any good?

I must keep taking the pills!