Beginners and New to Heli's ... Read this FIRST

[Rodsport999]

Maybe options such as categorised by budget amounts

The £100-£200 range, 200-500 indoor and nitro options.

That would give three categories, small electric large electric and nitro starter heli's.

Would be easy to make into a pdf or sticky labels?
This would cover most starter related questions and if they want any further details they could then come to the forums to post any further questions?

I do think this whole subject is a good idea and would save every one a bit of time!!

[Steve]

Maybe options such as categorised by budget amounts

The £100-£200 range, 200-500 indoor and nitro options.

That would give three categories, small electric large electric and nitro starter heli's.

Would be easy to make into a pdf or sticky labels?
This would cover most starter related questions and if they want any further details they could then come to the forums to post any further questions?

I do think this whole subject is a good idea and would save every one a bit of time!!

I agree, and I also believe that these documents should be listed in the FAQ section of the website (currently unused), rather than in a thread.

[Stuart]

see here...

http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/faq.ph...#faq_beginners

Also created link to creators profile and .pdf version at the bottom.

I'm more than happy for FAQ to be used as a glossary of technical points and I can bring it more into the look of the site. I just don't have the time on my hands to get into it big time. But working on bits at a time I can live with.

[RcHeliwidow]

Well thank you Bubblefish. Being a mere observer of flight I actually found your post very informative. As my youngest son has been showing a talent for flying on the sim, I may now have to speak with hubby about buying one of these helis for us both to play with. Yes I have to admit I may have to give into temptaton!! Hubby went straight out and bought a rappy 30 'gasser?' which cost loads when it went down. I think you become reluctant to fly for fear of crashing. So thanks again.

[Jamez]

Fair point, but there are pro's and cons to both ways of learning, a Co-axial is so stable that it can give a false confidence and when the newb moves on to say a 450, they pile it cause its not as stable, where as going to a 30 ( or 50 ) although alot more scary, may well be a more stable platform to learn on. Also you didn't cover the Buddy Box / Trainning Balls method of learning to fly a larger nitro. The importance of joining a club and getting your heli ( which ever it may be ) set up properly by some body who knows what they are doing cannot be stressed enough ( especealy if it is a larger nitro but a badly setup 450 can do you and your surroundings alot of harm ). You have put down your opinion of the best way to start, but it might not be the best way for everybody. Depends on who you listen to and what you want to do.

[Puppy]

Hi Guy's, I signed up to the forum just to post this.

Firstly Bubblefish777 thanks a lot for the post, from a true beginner's point of view its exactly what i wanted to read. This is what i did. This is what i shoudl of done. And this is why i did it.

And in my mind everything you have said made complete sence. And i was ready to go and buy a CX2 on my way home from work.

Then i started reading the reply's... And now i am almost back where i started.

Up until i read this post i was almost ready to buya Raptor 30 with training gear and a DX7 Transmitter. As many others in this post seem to have learned well with.

But here is my problem.

I work 9 - 5 5 days a week, and the girlfriend gets most of my time on the weekend. So an indoor heli i can play with in my lounge all night. But with the raptor 30 i can sit out on my patio with a beer ( full flood lit garden for the evenings ) and with the training gear hopefully not crash the thing.

I have always been a very patient person, and am more than prepared to spend weeks learning how to move the thing up and down ( or not move it i guess )

I have been playing with the simulator for almost a month of 2 now ( that and i have played Battle Field 2 on the PC for 3 years ) and can hover most of the heli's on that without problem using the keyboard :S

Now the cost of the indoor heli is of course a lot lower, and repairs cheaper.

But after 2 weeks ? 2 months ? sooner of later im going to want to move up, and when i do move up to a bigger heli, am i not goign to be gettign used to it all over again if comming from the indoor heli, in comparison to say a raptor 30 to a raptor 50 ?

On top of that my lounge is not very big, mabey 12 x 14 feet with many obsticles.

I woudl love to see a similar post from someone who started with a 30 or similar heli, to compare the 2. Or mabey someone would be able to get hold of me and maybe have a talk with me about it ?

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this

[moyesboy]

The CX2 is a good move and you can fly it outdoors on calm evenings and move it about a bit. main thing is to get your sticks going the right way hovering in all directions.

In my opinion the CX2 is a bit like doing the basic stuff on the simulator, though being real it might well hold more interest than the sim. But the simulator remains useful for learning every new manoevre no matter how skilled you have become.

As others said though you don't need to get a cx2 if you dont want, and you can hop your way with training gear into flying with a trex450, or a larger heli. Repair bills may be more expensive, but the heli will still be interesting and you will never outgrow it. No matter how hard you crash it, it will almost always be cheaper to repair it than buy a new one and they go on like "Trigs broom".

Unless you live at Balmoral a floodlit garden is not going to be big enough to fly a raptor30 in during the evening, and you will upset your neighbours with the noise.

You might be able to fly a 500 size electric, but more likely a 450 size electric in a garden.

As bubblefish said a trex450 is a real model heli capable of all aerobatics, however it is more difficult to fly than a larger heli becuase the little helis are nearer the ground and you have less margin for error and if you fly it high and further away you cant see it so easily. All helis are more fun in more space. A 450 needs about a football pitch of space, a tennis court size is a bit restrictive. A 30 size heli needs a lot more than a football pitch.
A real expert can fly an impressive demo in a very small space but even quite a skilled 3D flier needs a lot more space to have fun.

The larger hleis and nitro helis need to be flown somewhere with a lot of space and where the noise can be tolerated for nitro. Many of the people who start with a 30/50 nitro have some model plane flying experience in which case the learning curve for using the engine is not a problem. I can see how that might be off putting. however if you are in a club with a 30/50 nitro then you will get help with that, maybe also some buddy box help (you don't necessarily need to pay for commercial lessons, it depends on the club).

Thert eis no substitute for flying time, be it on the sim, or with a CX2, or at the club field. Stick time is what improves the pilot. So be sure to buy load of lipos, or fuel!

[Puppy]

Thanks a lot for the reply.

When i was refering to flyign it in my back garden, i ment for the weeks when i was just hovering up and down, and learning the diffrent directions. I live in a resonably remote area, nearist house is mabey 500 - 600 feet away

and my garden is not much smaller than a football pitch.

But of course it is a lot more hassle to go out and fly a nitro, than it is to just pick up the controller in my lounge and practice keeping it 2 inch's off the floor.

I think the deciding factor coudl well be the money savign i would get from the indoor optoin

On another note, whenever i look about the only clubs i can find near me ( Ascot berkshire - UK ) are all full of planes, cant fin any heli clubs.

where coudl i find a good place to look at local clubs ? if there are any ?

[robgt]

Plan on spending several months longer than you currently have in mind for learning to hover and control it in different orientations... it takes some time

Sounds to me like you have a decent patch of ground for flying outdoors on - in my view this brings your decision down to budget really.

Joining a club would be the best bet as you get to chat with likeminded people and pick up all sorts of useful information. Check the BMFA website for clubs near you?

Cheers,
Rob

[Puppy]

Yeah, i had a look through that site, and there are many that say they are RCH, but on there site, all i see are plane pics / chat.

And of course if i turn up with a little CX2 there is probably not much I can do in the great outdoors except get it blow into a tree lol.

The 2 that are closest to me are Maidenhead ( where i work ) and bracknel ( about 5 miles from me ) however both seem to be dominated by Planes, only 3 heli pics found lol, and very little mentioned about it. I dotn want to be a black sheep lol.

I will have to stop down at a few of there fly days, and see how i get on with them

Mind you in this weather i cant see all that much flyign getting done :S

[Puppy]

On a side note, i like the olook of the Trex 450,, it look a bit more liek a 2 proper RC heli " if you know what i mean, i know that is somewhat irrelevant.

If im honest, a raptor 30 is well within my budget. and yes i have taken repair costs in. But that does nto mean i want to throw the money away lol.

The Trex 450 is a very similar price to the Raptor 30, but which would be better to learn on, as the Trex is " similar " design ( im no expert ) to the rap30 and many others ive been oogling at, and has the same motor mechanics ( i hope you understand what i mean ) when compared to the CX2 twin system anyway.

Will it be better for me to learn with this, even if it will be harder to start with ?

And i guess once i start gettign comfortable with the heli, i coudl hover it in my lounge when i get home from work ( with learning balls of course )

Or am i just completly wrong.

Please dont see this as me pretending to knwo what im talking about. If i am completly wrong, and i may be, just let me know

Thanks for taking the time to help me with this

[pompeyjohn]

I think both the raptor 30 and trex 450 might be a bit big to hover in the lounge

[Puppy]

Well i dont realyl want a Raptor 30 in my lounge, i can see the fumes being a small issue, however i have about 10 square feet of open floor in the lounge ( and a 42" plasma )

for the soul purpose of hovering, woudl i really not be able to keep it inside tat space ?

even after i have been outside / in the garage with it for a few weeks ?

[Guest]

10 square feet is approx 1 sq meter
I think the rotor and tail just fits in that

[Puppy]

i can see 1 small slip, and the blades gogin right through my Plasma.

And that scares the hell out of me.

Now with a CX2 there a lot smaller. But would they seem a little erm... little if you understand.

and to cough up 100 odd or however much they cost, just to have in the lounge.

but its dark every day by the time i get home, so if i had a heli i coudl only fly out doors, i woudl only get to fly it on the weekends :S

so from a " stick time " prespective it woudl probably be worth getting a little CX2 as i coudl practice with it every night.

Would it not ?