450 size heli most suitable for beginner? HELP?

[ChrisT4]

Hi all, I am looking to go straight from a co-ax to a 6ch as I want the challenge and am prepared to take small training steps with a heli and join my local club near Poole. I have flown planes at club level back in the day so am used to inverted controls ect and now fancy the world of heli. So my question/s is this: I have seen many 450 size models from cheaper ones to blades/Trex. I want a good quality model ideally with good programmable tx or DX6i. Does anyone know of a good beginners 6ch 450 size model, reasonably priced (max £280 ish inc tx& RTF). So far I was looking at (Esky belt cpx, Interceptor 400, Blade 450, new KDS 450 QS). Any info about which of these models if any I should buy or other recommendations to get would be very appreciated!
It seem that just when I find a model I like the spec of, you check a forum and find someone has had problems with it! Is this just the nature of Electric RC heli flying?

[tourerjim]

Welcome to the forum, personally with that price in mind i'd hold out for the blade 130x that way gives you spate money for parts

[Ruston]

You could get a Thunder Tiger Mini Titan flying with cheap gear and a DX6i for that budget. Sussex Model Centre are doing the heli for about £105 with motor at present. I have one and it flies just like the TRex 450 that I tried, at least while you are only doing basic flying. Being plastic framed, it is also a little more tolerant of crashes.

[NosingIn]

Hi Chris, welcome to the forum.

I started in a similar place with the cx2 co-ax, and went through a few heli's before ending up flying what I do today. In my honest opinion, I'd recommend going straight to a trex 500 second hand, and failing that a trex 450 second hand. There is this on bmfa right now, and all you've have to add is a DX6i to be in the air, inside your budget.

The BMFA Classified Ads Service / Trex 450 sportI do also understand this is not the advice you want! building the heli's and learning to build them with finless bob's videos is for me as much fun as flying them, so getting a heli someone else built is not as appealing - there is a simple solution to this - take it apart and rebuild! to be honest you'd want to do this anyway for safety and it's great fun.

The trex 450 is great because parts are everywhere and everyone has one. However, I think the Trex 500 is perfect for the beginner because it's presence in the air is so much greater. This means its more stable for you to build up your vision and learn your orientations. If you get a small flitty thing (e.g. esky thingywhatsit or blade something) you will spend you whole time battling it, and yes you will learn to fly but you will learn to fly with the nose down ragging it about the field to keep it under control. Getting a trex 500 and learning to have it sit stationary in all orientations, auto it, float it about where you want it to be vs. chase it is (imo) a much more fun way to learn.

$0.02 deposited! good luck! I suspect I'm about to be disagreed with!

[Ruston]

+1 on the Trex 500 as I have one too and think it's great to learn on for exactly the reasons stated. Just can't see you getting a decent one with tx in your budget.

[Scratch]

+1 on the Trex 500 as I have one too and think it's great to learn on for exactly the reasons stated. Just can't see you getting a decent one with tx in your budget.

+1 on the 500. I've just bought the 500e with belt driven tail and it has already become my favourite heli. I've tamed it down as I'm a relative beginner and can't get over how stable it is, much more so than my Blade 450.

[helimadness]

I went straight from a coax to a trex 500 after a couple of months on the sim. Is great to learn on. I actually totally surprised myself how far I got before a decent crash. I have done about 120 flight and had a couple of pathetic roll overs on take off and one proper crash. Cost about 100 quid + for a decent crash. Figure the average crash cost per flight is ok :-)
When I was looking at a 450 vs 500 9/10 people will say go the 500. Its a lot bigger and more than twice the weight of the 450 which I guess is why it is more stable. Doesn't get blown around as much by wind either.

[Geordie1]

Hi there, speaking purely as a nooby here! I went from a 4 Channel single rotor heli to a Blade 400, i found that the blade was cheap to buy (£120-£150) Ready to fly of fleabay.it comes with a reasonably good TX and parts are very easy to obtain and reletively cheap! beleive me i know as i have replaced ha;f mine already LOL!my friends has also just bought a Trex Clone, again very similar priced however doesnt come RTF. if i had any recomendations that would be, firstly invest in a quality Simulator like the Phoenix. This WILL save you in the long run!and my other bit of advice, stay away from the un named chinese coppies! although cheap RTF they will fall appart! Look in the Classifieds on this site, visit shops, fleabay etc! me persoannly i am biast to the Blade 400 as i think its the best bang for your buck! especially if you can get a bargain of somewere like fleabauy!!Just my 2 pence worth :-) Carl

[matjonze]

The Gootch 450's from helisfromdevon are a good quality 450 clone. Steve Crabb is a top bloke too.

Stay away from the likes of the super cheap hobby king clones.

[Nick1975]

+1 on the gootch :thumbup:
That's what i started with the 450Pro and 100% of parts are align compatible.

Superb fast service from HFD as well.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[ChrisT4]

Thanks for all the information everyone, most helpful! I think all in all I would like the size and stability of the trex 500, I think it will make for a good learning platform and parts are comparatively cheap and widely available. I just need to save up a bit or sell another model, out with old in with the new. Cheers heliaddict forum goers!

[cjcj1949]

There are lots of good choices. I would buy the biggest heli that you can afford to crash. The bigger they are the more they cost and the easier they get damaged. The bigger the heli the more often wind is less of a problem. Flybarless is also better in wind apparently. Tarot flybarless is cheap. Personally I would start with a 450 from HelisfromDevon and get the 500 later. Servos, radio, battery, charger and gyro are as important as the heli. Helis are much more difficult than planes when nose in or upside down. I've flown inverted circles on planes for a long time, but nowhere near it with a heli. The best advice with a heli is to take it slowly. Get used to the noise and the controls and just take off and land (hop) to begin with. Most people use the Phoenix sim.

[MarkG_R1]

The Gootch 450 is a great bit of kit and top quality service from Steve at HFD

I went with the SE V2 after doing some research and hearing a belt drive tail is better for beginners

I've just converted mine to flybarless and i love it

[Guest]

Whatever you do, dont get an ESKY belt cpx, it is one of the hardest heli's to fly.

[kaymassive]

for the budget you are better off getting yourself a Sim then practice while you save up for a quality 450 unless you really want a clone