New member from Cambridgeshire

[cambs flyer]

Greetings everyone.

My name is Wayne and I live in the Fens 20 miles south of Peterborough and have just got into the heli' flying game.

I have a Blade CX2 and its a joy to fly, I've had a few rota hits indoors but a little super glue to fix them then reattach soon has it back up as if nothing has happened.

I've ordered a pack of upper and lower blades from a supplier in Kent and they cost £5 for a pack of four, so I'll wait until I've had a bit more practise as two of the blades look a little beaten up, but work perfectly so once I'm a little more confident then I'll put two fresh blades on the chopper.

Its fantastic fun, and I've learnt loads in the last few days, plus I look forward to taking it outside in claim conditions and having a play on the grass.

I was going to upgrade shortly to the Mini Pred, as the dealers have said it's a super piece of kit, but after reading a few messages here I'm rather unsure right now, and may well just go for a Honeybee CP, but hopefully I'll get some good advice on buying tips, as I don't really want to spend more than £250 at the most on a chopper, what with my photography and astronomy hobbies I need to budget myself a little.

Anyway I just wanted to say Hello being the new guy on the block, and look forward to times ahead.

[Rick Rotorhead]

Hello matey, I'm new here myself, but welcome.
Yay! CX2. I love it. You can bulk order CX2 blades from Readyheli in America waaaay cheaper than we get 'em here.
Sell your telescopes and cameras and get Trex 450!!!!!! hee hee.
I went down the 'small CP' heli route and ended up spending £200 on the Twister CP and another £100 easily on repairs. If you really like heli flying, a Trex 450 and a flight sim would be a great way to get into it. Your eventually battered to death HB CP would just end up on the shelf (or in the bin) anyways. The Trex costs more to get together, but its a real RC heli. Stable, responsive, smooth and you can grow with it as your abilities develop, eventually doing hard 3D one day if thats your thing.
IMO, don't waste your hard earned on a 'CP' RTF mini copter of any type - some folks DO get them to perform well, but usually only after countless upgrades and repairs. A good heli flyer can fly a stock CP machine well, but as a beginner they are a nightmare. Twitchy and zippy with dreadful tail gyros and if you do get past the hover with one, they get small in the sky real quick. If cash is tight consider a good Tx that you can use with a Trex later on, and use it with a good flight sim. That way you'll get the feel of heli flying and lots of practice whilst saving up for the real thing!!!!
Just a thought, or three,
Regards
Rick

[cambs flyer]

Cheers Rick and thanks mate )

Narr, I won't be selling the Canon or Meade anytime soon, lol, but right now I'm having great fun with the CX2, the blades fix very well after a glus fix, and I was amazed they didn't cause any wobble being unbalanced.

I would however like some impute so far as RTF models go, I agree with everything you've said mate, but I've seen to many expensive aircraft crash at the Warboys airfield with grown men crying after there pride and joy crashes into tiny pieces.

So I'm budgeting myself for the time being to around £200 when I buy my next more serious chopper.

If anyone has a model there'd suggest as value for money and flys well I'm all ears, as I know sod all right now and I need a few words from the wise to what would be a worthy upgrade from the CX2 in RTF format as I'll be on the hunt around Christmas time, once I've had loads of practice with my current bird.

But I do like to explore before hand so I don't end up buying a lemon. )

[Randall]

keep an eye out on the Forums for the second hand stuff that way you can get more for you £ if you want to stay electric then the 450 seems the way to go but will put you over budget i have heard alot of goodthings about the Honey Bee King and i have now seen one fly and it flew ok for what they are but dont expect t-rex performance out of it have a look at it its item number 250156120185 on our favorite bidding site and it comes well within your budget and comes RTF

[Thomas]

Forget the Mini Pred - these things are terrible, nice cheap price tag but you start looking at the cost parts and it is not the good deal it seems, if you can get hold of them that is - plus I know couple of people who have tried them and both had the motor go on them.

All the other tiny things are not much cop either, unless you are experienced as they are hard to set up and even harder to fly. The olny one to think about is a Trex 450. Forget the second hand stuff at the moment too, if you don't know what you are looking for you'll end up with a load of tat that will cost you more than a new one in the long run

My advice would be to but a SIM for the PC ( http://www.phoenix-sim.com/welcome.htm ) and a radio - DX7 and learn at home, then slowly save up and get a proper heli. You will save loads in the long run and not feel like you just chucked a load of cash down the swanny.

[Mike W]

Heya and welcome, am pretty new here as well ... must be a load of new hli flyers taking up the hobby .. I have flown fixed wing for a while now and thought I would delve into helis as well .. I purchased a Mini pred after having a look at other Cp helis ... and I cant fault the thing .. It flies nice and stable and the parts are cheap and easily available .... the couple of times I ditched it I have had the new parts next day from midlands so cant fault them either .... One thing I did do though is dump the Tx and go for a FF7 but seeing as I fly planks as well it dont really matter ...Guy I knew set it up for me and even he said how well it flies and as for the motor dieing I have had over 30 batteries through it and no probs what so ever ... I think that like n e thing theres good and bad things of n e make of heli so its each to there own ... but I would rather spend £200 plus a Tx than £400 + for a trex and then decide I dont like doing Helis , one thing I have seen where I fly indoors is that the Trex's seem to glitch a hell of alot more than some of the other makes of Heli's I seen flying ..... Also after a few flights with my mini-pred i realised I enjoyed it so went out and bought a .30 size heli as well so in my opinion the mini-pred has done what I set out to do and get me more into enjoying this hobby .... It's like the old argument with fixed wing flyers over mode 1 and 2 and what is better for you in the end ... If ya read the american forums on " falcon 3d" than ya will see most of the posts are nothing but praise for it so in the end make ya own mind up ... Me I love this little heli and after whacking it on it's side last night and apart from knicking the cover on a blade i cant complain

[warboysastro]

That's the thing, personal knowledge of something good always gets less publicity than something supposedly bad, usually heard from at least 4th hand heresay from a bloke down the pub who's mate's brother-in-law's uncle had one.

Wayne - if you want to have a go with any of my heli's any time, give me a call or let me know, and nip down and have a play

Cheers - Rob

[Pipistrelli]

Wayne,

Welcome to the magical world of heli's, they are all brilliant, but some are better than others!

I have about 8 or 9 on the go just now, all for different reasons, but my favourites are:

1. Fixed Pitch Hummingbird, which flies extremely well indoors or out. Most folks don't believe its fixed pitch when they see it flying, although I haven't looped or rolled it yet. It also bounces quite well off the wall in the gym with very few major breakages, just clip it back together and go fly. Very economical on spares too.

2. Hummingbird CP Pro, I wanted a micro CP for garden use, although the Trex will fly well in the garden, the few inches smaller rotor diameter make the garden seem 10 times bigger for throwing this one about. This heli is slagged off for the shaft driven tail, my machine was 2nd hand when I got it and flew nicely for about 8 hours and when I replaced the gears, it just didn't work as it should. However, I converted it to the RC-Helitech belt drive and its very much a micro Trex, fun to fly and the battery slots under the canopy, so you can just about use any battery for it, not like the Twister Pro, or some of the walk(crap)era range!

3. I also have a Trex 450X, with basically a standard setup, but with hitec servo's, CSM Gyro and Castle creations speed controller. Please don't get drawn into the world of 'bling'. Yes it looks nice and yes its strong, but ALL T Rex 450's are very capable heli's. Unless you are flying extreme 3D, I doubt you will notice the difference between an 'X' and an 'SE'. I have seen too many loose screws from metal rotor heads and never one from plastic. If you don't have a weak link somewhere in the chain, something else is just going to break, probably big too!

This is my heli-osophy, I am just down the road, also in Cambs, village is Earith, so if you want to come over sometime I'll be happy to demo what I have. Warboysastro is a pal and I recently had the privilege to fly his newly-built TRex 600, I'm hooked, but need to do some serious saving for one of those!

regards

Pip

[cambs flyer]

Wow, thank you all ever so much, your all most kind.

I have loads to think about, but having the luxury of time gives me plenty of space to take on board the good advice given by you all.

Pip, I've known Rob for a few years, we usually meet at Star Party's being a fellow astronomer, hence the empty bank balance, lol.

Well you know where I am, I have a few difficulty's in getting about so if you ever want a meet up PM me and we can sort something out mate.

At the moment I need a few more batts for the CX2, there's just too much dead flying time between flights, well, hops around the living room, but I'm getting better.

Again many thanks to the kind welcomes and I thank you all for giving me your time and advice. )