Very New

[libbykarl]

To the hobby, theres a club 5 miles away and those guys recommend the raptor 30 as a starter.

Is it recommended to go straight to nitro or have a cheaper elec copter first, like the blade cx2? I am planning on a sim so thats good.

Appreciate your thoughts

Looking at a raptor at the mo on ebay for £315 without transmitter - sound about right - says seen some flying time

[The Gagsy]

Mate if you like throwing your hard earned cash in the bin, you go for it, trust me this Helicopter flying is the biggest pain in the a** I have come across but it sure is addictive, Personally i wouldn't dream of flying anything else but a contra right now and thats hard enough when you start,(as I have, just have 4 weeks at it) they are very very difficult to master and If you tried flying your raptor I would take an educated guess you would rap it up, lose heart and think twice if the hobby was the right move. On the other hand start off with cheapish contra Helli and good simulator, you can crash them in Sim and don't cost you Nada, then you can have practice with your contra with the costs are cut to minimum for your repairs. If your club is good one i would imagine they would not let you fly anyway until they think your good enough and as long as your on buddy box you could be lucky. But if like me,, If I had that the temptation to fly it on my own some day would defo get the better of me.

[M0nkeyj1m]

I suppose it depends how much cash and time you have to spend on the hobby.

Having chatted with folks here prior to buying, I worked out that I wanted to start with a reasonably low out-lay and keep running repairs to a minimum.

The Blade was the rght choice for me, cheap to buy and maintain/repair, parts are almost eveywhere. Once setup properly the Blade is great to fly. I've flown mine at home mainly but recently, I hired a local hall to fly it there.

More space and a good setup, makes for great flying.!

[Sesame]

It will entirely depend how you go about it. If you were to buy a raptor take it to a field and have a go, then I would guess that you will end up with a pile of bent parts and be thinking sod this. But It sounds like youve headed off in the right direction and approached a club, when starting the most important thing is to have a machine that is setup and ready to be flown, this can only really be done by someone who knows what they are doing.

I know a great many people that are flying quite successfully having learnt on raptors. if your talking of buying secondhand again make sure you get someone that knows about them to look it over £315 could either be a bargain or a huge waste of money, depends on the state of the airframe and what comes with it.

When you start flying at a club and once the heli is setup (remember you can calm them down for a beginer) youll probably start with the training undercarriage which will stop the machine tipping over and hopefully save some blades. youll start with little bunny hops and then work on to getting a steady hover before moving on to actually moving the heli, depending on your ability and your time on the sticks will depend how long this part takes. certainly a good simulator will speed things up. around here its commonly accepted that Pheonix is the best for helis plus you can get online and fly with others.

[pxr5]

i think a second hand raptor 30 with all you need to fly is a good start cos if you decide its not for you you will get your money back on ebay. this hobby is expensive no matter how good you are at flying so go for it.

[kevinh]

Hi,
i started out on a raptor 30 with a training undercarriage with bunny hops and eventually longer bunny hops.

but before this i used a sim for weeks and weeks until i could hover it,

join the club as this will help no end with advise and if somebody is there to buddy up with on a lead to avoid those expensive repair bills

as somebody mentioed earlier buy yourself phoenix sim and practise practise and even more practise.

[libbykarl]

So a Blade CX2 may be better for an initial insight to the hobby? And practice?

Just obviously this would be no good at the club, and the raptor is the copter of choice for beginners there - so the chairman said

Guess going to a flight could be worthwhile as a member may have 1 for sale?

[xygax]

BCX2 and Pheonix (£200 new)

The blade is an easy fly coaxial that will teach you hovering and oritentation without lots of expensive dings.... Floor a rappy and it will cost you £100 to get it going again the blade comes with a radio that works with the sim. Floor a CX2 and is going to be less than £30 a time to fix it....

When you can hover in the sim for 5 minuites in the same place with one of the nitros then go out and have a couple of lessons with someone who can really fly one... Then think about buying a Knight sport (with a 3D canopy cus they are butt ugly) but fly realy well. By that time you will already have a raido taht came with the CX2...

Steve

[t4ttyt3ddy]

I just bought a CX2 with phonix yesterday and have to agree with the sound advice I was given before I purchased it!!
I put the sim on and thought well i'll try a CP heli, A raptor 450 and guess what two seconds off the ground and its nose first, down she goes and no more flying for that little beauty!! But now after a few hours on the sim can hover my CX2 ok, going to try it again on the real one later!!

So listen to these guys they definately know what they are talking about!!!

[libbykarl]

How much was the setup from Midland Heli mate, they quite near me?
Also do you get a go before buying?

[t4ttyt3ddy]

I didn't get a go before I bought but then didn't asked, everyone on here said they were awesome little helis and I believed them,(They were right).

It cost me £224 thats with the CX2, Phoenix, Spare set of upper and lower blades, spare battery and the current Model Helicopter Monthly magazine!!

Pop down there they are really good guys, and the customers are nice too one of them recommended I get the extra battery for added fun,

Hope this helps!!

[libbykarl]

Whats the flight times per battery charge on the BCX2? Roughly 10 mins?

[t4ttyt3ddy]

Yeah between 10 and 15, as soon as it started to rotate on its own I stopped flying because the manual says thats when the Lipo packs are running down!!

Takes about 1 -1.5 hours to charge which is the only bummer!!!

But the more batteries you got the more fun you can have in each burst!

[libbykarl]

The lights and kit on this blade look cool

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAsdk-FhfRg&feature=related[/ame]

Easy enough to install???

[libbykarl]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVqeeJJibGA&feature=related[/ame]

Made me chuckle this one!!!