Important helicopter life decision.

[tbourner]

My first heli.

So for background; I do give up on toys however I do also have a bit of aspergerish obsessiveness about things. I also love helicopters and I'm an engineer; albeit not really a tinkerer. I think I will love R/C choppers although I may not have time/inclination to go out and do it specifically, would be more of a spur of the moment or garden flyer; so there's an issue. Unless I manage to join a club and go to their meetings/events/shows etc.
Also; money, I don't have a lot. I'm not averse to spending it on things that are important though, which my hobbies are.

So from reading a few bits of the forums, the choices I've fashioned for myself with which I need your help:

1. Buy a cheap 4CH RTF like a WLToys V911. See how I go. Eventually move on to option 3 or 4, or otherwise throw it in the bin and give up. Negs are that the cheapness may persuade me to give up unfairly.
2. As 1 except with a cheap 6CH RTF like a WLToys V977. Negs are that the 6CH stuff may scare me into giving up unfairly - ie: should've started on something easier.
3. Splash out early on a Spektrum DX6 or similar and SIM software. Practice. Eventually buy some BTF heli, maybe a Blade 230s?
4. As 3 except a "better" 7CH transmitter (DX7?).

Obviously 1 and 2 are relatively easy for me to do now, but I get that generally the advice would be to not waste money, and buy stuff now that you can use going forward - otherwise the cost of the cheap transmitters will basically go in the bin.
3 and 4 are expensive (for me, for a hobby which I may or may not continue with), but as above is stuff I can make use of essentially forever throughout upgrades. I will need advice on these ones as I don't really understand the 6CH/7CH business, I don't know about modulations or whether/when I'd need receivers to go with them.

[tomatwalden]

If option 3 is expensive for you, keep an eye on the classified sections - both of this site, and the BMFA classifieds. AVOID EBAY THOUGH! (unless you're confident you know what you're doing!)

[trexamanic]

buy a cheap eflite blade heli with transmitter.
Your options 3 and 4 are pretty crazy
you could go 4 or 6 channel but i think a little 4 channel would do you great.
you could also jump in with a rtf 230s and if it wasnt your thing then sell it on.
Now to horrify the purists, you can get cheap copies of the main flight sims for around £9 from china.

[hedge]

There is a fifth cunning option....

buy a new mode 2 spektrum dx6 tx (only no rx) keep it mint keep the box mint don't lose anything - approx £120.
download a free copy of neXt flight sim (runs for 2 mins only in trial mode)
get a USB dongle from hobby King or off eBay - approx £8

neXt is a very life like sim. If you decide you like helis then you have a good tx that you can use for many years. It will also bind directly to all the popular beginner models from blade.

if you hate it all the you should only lose between £30-40 selling the dx6 - keep it mint. Alternatively if you buy a mint second hand dx6 and decide you hate it in the first couple of months you will probably only lose a few £££ selling it on again.

[myxiplx]

I don't think you would be disappointed with the v911, it's great fun to fly and if you ramp the rates up is pretty lively. It definitely doesn't have the finesse of a full CP heli, but it's still good fun at a bargain price :-)

If you're willing to spend a little more there are some much more interesting options out there now, and in terms of value for money and investing in things that will last a while, Blade micros are hard to beat IMO. You can get a nQX quadcopter RTF pack for around £85, or the nCP S RTF for around £95. Both are easy enough for a beginner, with more advanced modes as your skills improve.

[tbourner]

Hmmm OK so consensus seems to be towards future proofing and cutting my losses in the ads section if I don't continue with it

I'm thinking I should have added the proviso on option 1 that it could include an RTF quad instead, that Blade nano QX seems to be available for £60 odd. YT reviews make it look good and fun.

[tbourner]

Hubsan X4? Is that something I could bind to a DX6 in future? Which I assume I could with a Blade nQX?

[tomatwalden]

Hubsan X4? Is that something I could bind to a DX6 in future? Which I assume I could with a Blade nQX?

The Hubsan comes with its own TX. It's not compatible with any other. The Blade nQX will indeed bind to a DX6/7/8/9

[waveydavey]

The title of the thread is 'My First Heli', why bother with a silly little quad that you'll be bored with in 5 mins and wondering why you wasted your money on something so limiting.

Take the advice on the other thread and go for something that can at least handle a little bit of outdoor stuff. Quads in my opinion are a small diversion to flying helis apart from fpv racing which is great fun.

If you really want to try a quad I'll send you one, just cover the postage but I'd go for the heli option every time. As Hedge says above go with the sim, give it a go and see how you get on.

Edit : You can bind the DX6 to the Hubsan but you need a little 3rd party box of tricks that converts the protocol

[tomatwalden]

The title of the thread is 'My First Heli', why bother with a silly little quad that you'll be bored with in 5 mins and wondering why you wasted your money on something so limiting...

I'm inclined to agree with this. I know some feel that micro quads teach you the controls needed for a heli - but helis they are not. I find quads a little boring too ...

[tbourner]

Fair points. I think why I'm edging now towards a quad or cheap RtF 4CH is because the SIM option seems a bit fake, I'm sure it'll be realistic in graphics and physics etc., but it's still a game, and I don't really play games. I can't help but think I'll spend £120 plus on a transmitter and SIM software and be bored after an hour, then be pestering the missus to let me buy a £200 BtF heli!
Maybe I'm just at the crossroads of a rather expensive hobby and not sure whether it's worth it or not! hedge has the right idea I suppose.

[Peteski]

The title of the thread is 'My First Heli', why bother with a silly little quad that you'll be bored with in 5 mins and wondering why you wasted your money on something so limiting.

Well for me the Blade nQX was a godsend last winter. I used it in the house specifically to learn cp heli skills (along with a sim) and it made my transition to cp helis in the spring totally and utterly painless. I never even crashed my first Blade 130X once thanks to this silly little quad. It's still my favourite house flyer a year later. I upgraded the motors recently and it rips around the garden too and it's so precise and agile compared to say an mCPX. Obviously no good for 3D, but up to that point it's a lot of fun in a small space and virtually indestructible.

To answer the poll, I invested in a DX8 up front and used it (and still do) for everything including the sim (NeXT). The Blade RTF radios are rubbish, I bought one with my mCX2 just to try it for an additional £10 and wish I'd bought a pizza instead.

[jimmyhorns]

Your options 3 and 4 are pretty crazy

Im not sure they are so crazy......

If you buy a toy there will be nearly no re-sale value in it. No-one is queuing up to buy WLtoys kit second hand, and you will not get back anything near what you paid for it if you decide that the hobby is not for you.

Although the sim does not have the same buzz as real life flying, it does give you an idea of whether you have either the aptitude or hand eye coordination required to get the basics right, and is very cheap in terms of crash costs.

Getting a decent Tx, and by that I mean anything that is meant for the hobby rather than as a toy is a good start. Given the number of bind and fly models available with Spektrum compatibility it would make sense to go with a DX6, or an 'old' DX6s, DX7s or even DX8 if DSMX compatible, especially if you pick one up second hand as you will not lose much at all if you end up giving up and selling up (as has been pointed out by others).

Almost everyone who is seriously into this and started in the last few years will have one of the blade bind and fly helis sitting doing nothing and I expect would part with it for sensible money in the wanted section (I gave mine to a friend who was learning because a contrarotator for indoors or the garden no longer interested me).

So for a 'modest' outlay you could be good to go with a setup that can easily be expanded without too much hassle.

[waveydavey]

Well for me the Blade nQX was a godsend last winter. I used it in the house specifically to learn cp heli skills (along with a sim) and it made my transition to cp helis in the spring totally and utterly painless. I never even crashed my first Blade 130X once thanks to this silly little quad. It's still my favourite house flyer a year later. I upgraded the motors recently and it rips around the garden too and it's so precise and agile compared to say an mCPX. Obviously no good for 3D, but up to that point it's a lot of fun in a small space and virtually indestructible.

Fair enough, it's just my opinion Pete I just can't see where a stabilised multirotor fits into a 'My First Heli' thread/poll. I learnt with an Honey Bee King 2 amongst others silly little quads weren't around then so it might have worked for me then. But, being able to fly helis I still can't see how it helps, maybe an orientation thing I suppose but that's about it, no collective to manage, no rudder. Yes, I know they go up and down and they yaw but it's just no the same IMO. To the OP it's what works for you, but you asked what first heli and I would go for the Tx and sim.

[Peteski]

Fair enough, it's just my opinion Pete I just can't see where a stabilised multirotor fits into a 'My First Heli' thread/poll. I learnt with an Honey Bee King 2 amongst others silly little quads weren't around then so it might have worked for me then. But, being able to fly helis I still can't see how it helps, maybe an orientation thing I suppose but that's about it, no collective to manage, no rudder. Yes, I know they go up and down and they yaw but it's just no the same IMO. To the OP it's what works for you, but you asked what first heli and I would go for the Tx and sim.

All I know is that my nQX quad responds exactly like a cp heli (with stabilisation switched off of course) to all stick controls. Obviously you don't have the equivalent of negative collective (which you don't need anyway at first), but otherwise it feels much the same as flying a cp micro. In many ways it's better because it doesn't suffer from many of the micro cp heli quirks and it's a lot more furniture safe! If you can fly an nQX in full agility mode, you can simply pick up and fly any of the Blade micros without any problem. I'm living proof of that!

Obviously you could just start with a cp micro in the first place, but that would be a much harder intro with potentially a lot more down time - fiddling with setup, broken bits, dodgy servos etc. I got maybe 500 straight flights out of my nQX without touching a single thing and the setup is perfect every time. I just found it a fun break from using the sim and a really good transition from sim to real life. It's just another option for someone starting out and really worked well for me personally. All these little helis are really a means to an end, so you may as well choose the one that provides you with the fastest progress onto the good stuff.

Tx and sim I agree with you. I'm just suggesting the nQX as a painless alternative to micro cp helis as an intro to real life flying.