Newbie here needing advice on options

[gemich]

Hi All,

We have recently (the wife and I) gotten into this hobbie having bought a pair of Silverlit Sky Dragon's! Great fun although took a while to get the hang of! Well, its my birthday tomorrow and we were thinking of looking to buy a bigger model and something we can fly outdoors.

It seems to be a blimin minefield, like many hobbies when you start from stratch we are in need of some expert advice...checking ebay there are loads of different models, but we dont want to waste our money on something not up to the job

So our basic requirements would be
Budget of £60-£100
Outdoors flying
Large (my wife wants that)...gawd
battery operated not petrol!

Really appreciate any suggestions, oh and also where on earth do we go to buy helis as there dont seem to be many around Brighton/Hove where we live

Thanks
Geoff & Mich

[gemich]

Hi all,

Weve just been out and picked up the Syma S033G. Does anyone have one?
Regards

[holtneil]

hi mate i have a fixed pitch wltoys v911 can fly in doors and out in low windy parts are easy to get heli is about 20 to 30 range i also have a hubsan lynx it very brittle and dont really like any wind most guys recond on a quad like a hubsan or wltoy x4 great to learn on if you want to go up to a cp heli but not easy to fly but you will learn a load from it and the step up to cp wont be a big jump .... i am on the v911 fixed pitch so it will be a bigger jump up to a cp heli but i love a challange and will stick at it till i can do it lots of guys have the blade etc but it really up to you if you look up mikeys rc on you tube he does tell you loads about starting and 4 ch up to ful cp heli hope this helps i am still learning my self so sorry if i am not 100% right may be one of the other guys will help you more but if its first heli big is not always best 4ch is a good start 6ch will be a full cp thats sort of last to get ,last thing if you see some thing you like look for it on you tube there are lots of reviews on there that may help you happy flying mate

[NoFixedAbode]

Re: Newbie here needing advice on options

It depends on what you mean by large. That budget will by you 1 large battery.

Look at align-trex.co.uk. midland heli or fast lad performance.co.uk

Mcpx is not large but a very good deal with a spektrum tx cheap and bullet proof.

[tomatwalden]

Geoff,

RC helis is a wide subject area. The helis you have currently are really in the class that most people here would call toys. Roughly speaking, the different classes are :-

1/. 3-channel co-axial toy helicopters. Mostly sold in toy shops
2/. 4-channel co-axial helicopters. Mostly sold on the internet by a variety of sources.
3/. 4-channel fixed-pitch, single rotor helicopters. Very similar to (2)
4/. 6-channel collective pitch, single rotor helicopters.

Really, anything below £100 complete, including transmitter, batteries, etc. is only ever going to be (1) or (2). The thing about these helicopters is that they really are just toys. They're designed to be very simple to fly - and have very stable flight characteristics. The downside of this stability is lack of speed - they are just useless outside realistically. To be able to cope with anything but dead calm conditions, helis need to be somewhat unstable and have collective pitch control.

The cheapest, semi-decent collective pitch heli you'll find is the Blade mCPX. All-in, including TX, batteries, etc. you should expect to pay around £150. This really is entry level pricing for non-toy RC helicopters. The next stage - 450 sized - "big"(*) - expect to pay around £200-£400 (nearer £400 really for something decent, with charging equipment).

(*) I'll get abuse for calling a 450 size big, but to you it probably is with a disc diameter of about 70cm. Big here is 700-class with a disc diameter of about 1.4M and costing several thousand pounds ....

HOWEVER ...

The Blade mcPX is a fully collective pitch helicopter. It's small (probably no bigger than your current heli), but it's an advanced heli, and can fly *really* fast - even in fairly windy conditions. For example ... Blade mCPX v2 - YouTube

To give you a better idea of the range of different types of RC heli, take a look at this page : RC Helicopters, The Most Fun And Rewarding Of All RC Hobbies.
and
Toy Helicopters Are Fun And Easy To Fly

Hope this helps!

[tomatwalden]

PS. Forgot to say, for 6-channel, outdoor helis, you'll need to learn to fly properly ... This will take time and perseverance (and a deep wallet). Again, take a look at
Are RC Helicopters Hard To Fly?
and
How To Fly RC Helicopters

[tsangbou]

nice one tom

[tomatwalden]

Hi all,

Weve just been out and picked up the Syma S033G. Does anyone have one?
Regards

Geoff/Mich. I doubt anybody here will have that heli to be honest. Syma make toy-grade (rather than hobby-grade) RC helis. I'm sure you'll have fun with that heli, but you'll only be able to fly it outside when it is dead-calm.

Without wanting to get too technical too quickly, the limiting factor with all these toy helicopters (and the reason they're so cheap!) is the lack of a swash plate. The swash plate - and corresponding cyclic pitch (blade pitch or angle of attack varies around the rotor disc) is makes a helicopter go forward/backwards/sideways. Without swash/cyclic controls, a heli can only ever just go up or down.

But I hear you saying, this heli can go forwards and backwards!? Well, yes, it can - but it does it via a slight fudge. Instead of the normal (vertical) tail rotor that single-rotor helis have to counteract torque from the main rotors, these have a little fan lying horizontal. This fan tries to tip the heli forwards or backwards, thereby generating forward or backward movement. The problem is, because the main rotors are inherently trying *NOT* to fly forwards or backwards, this little fan can never really pick up much speed.

Consequently, the smallest breeze will blow it off course.

As I say in my other email, if you really want to enjoy RC helis outside, you need to look for something with a swashplate ( Swashplate (helicopter) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ). The cheapest/smallest one I know of is the Blade Scout ( BLADE Blade Scout RTF 3-Ch Heli (BLH2700) ) - Notice the lack of tail fan on this contra-rotator as it has a swash-plate!

To see the difference that true cyclic controls make over the toy-grade helis - take a look at this video of the Blade nano-CPX. This is a 6-channel, RC helicopter that's about the size of the palm of your hand !

[tsangbou]

good morning tom!!! just another nice one lolz

[gemich]

Just to say thanks very much for all your replies. We will let you know how we get on with our new toys.

Regards