Getting Back Into It!!

[gooner]

Hi All,

I have been out of the RC Heli world for some time and never, when I was flying, achieved anything great.

I am now starting over again and back to basics. However, for now I will just practice with small electric models and have decided to sell my Futaba FF8 and Hirobo Shuttle.

I never got fully to grips with the FF8 and it, along with all my heli stuff, has just been sitting around!

How are electric helis now seen compared to nitro? Can an electric heli fully compare to the nitro?

Electric seems far more convenient and cleaner compared to nitro and I wonder whether its popularity has gained on nitro?

[waveydavey]

Welcome back, I think in the main apart from flight time the electric models far outstrip nitro in the power stakes. I think the top 3 in the Masters were all electric. No mess, seems to be less maintenance, less vibration, cheaper and the list goes on, just writing this it seems futile to stop nitro.

[gooner]

Welcome back, I think in the main apart from flight time the electric models far outstrip nitro in the power stakes. I think the top 3 in the Masters were all electric. No mess, seems to be less maintenance, less vibration, cheaper and the list goes on, just writing this it seems futile to stop nitro.

I am surprised that the electric models are more powerful as I would have thought it would have been the Nitro`s. No doubt with time the battery technology will provide much greater flight times.

The `clean` aspect of electrics is a big plus for me and saves so much time.

There`s some great heli`s around that I have seen. I recently bought a £28 metal body gyro mini 3ch heli to play around with in the living room and its great fun!

[Mart61]

Welcome back and to the forum too!

[MartinH]

Ive only been flying nitro for a few months and love it, the smell, the noise. Im far from a petrol head but theres something very orgasmic about flying nitro.

I like flying leccys to though, you can plug batts up and go theres hardly any cleaning or tuning. At the moment I dont like the thought of charging 12s up so 500 is the biggest id go possibly 550 but I dont plan on getting one of them perhaps a .90 soon though.

[waveydavey]

I am surprised that the electric models are more powerful as I would have thought it would have been the Nitro`s.

You wouldn't be doing this sort of flight with nitro, no matter how well tuned.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPoLKl7WdsY&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Kyle Dahl-Masters Flight to Music-2010 3D Masters[/ame]

Nice aint it.

[gooner]

Ive only been flying nitro for a few months and love it, the smell, the noise. Im far from a petrol head but theres something very orgasmic about flying nitro.

I like flying leccys to though, you can plug batts up and go theres hardly any cleaning or tuning. At the moment I dont like the thought of charging 12s up so 500 is the biggest id go possibly 550 but I dont plan on getting one of them perhaps a .90 soon though.

I can understand the attraction of nitros especially if you like tinkering with engine settings and mix etc.

I`m not so fascinated with that part of it and the electrics take that away for me.

[gooner]

You wouldn't be doing this sort of flight with nitro, no matter how well tuned.

YouTube - Kyle Dahl-Masters Flight to Music-2010 3D Masters

Nice aint it.

Great vid and thanks for posting.

I cannot for one minute think what must go into those sticks to achieve that display!!

I don`t think my brain would be able to process such manoeuvres!

[trillian]

I can understand the attraction of nitros especially if you like tinkering with engine settings and mix etc.

I`m not so fascinated with that part of it and the electrics take that away for me.

Obviously everyone's experiences may be slightly different but my nitro helis have been the most trouble-free by a long way. I have had a string of issues with electric helis. I like my 450s for the size and quietness in contrast to the others but it has been a real battle keeping them flying.

By comparison my nitros have been so easy to deal with from day one.

I had an issue with an engine once where it kept hydro-locking and eventually discovered it was the pipe that was the culprit, but aside from that one issue they are pretty much completely reliable.

[gooner]

Obviously everyone's experiences may be slightly different but my nitro helis have been the most trouble-free by a long way. I have had a string of issues with electric helis. I like my 450s for the size and quietness in contrast to the others but it has been a real battle keeping them flying.

By comparison my nitros have been so easy to deal with from day one.

I had an issue with an engine once where it kept hydro-locking and eventually discovered it was the pipe that was the culprit, but aside from that one issue they are pretty much completely reliable.

What has been the trouble keeping your 450s flying?

[trillian]

What has been the trouble keeping your 450s flying?

All sorts of things. Some issues are not related specifically to them being electric powered and some are.

I had a Trex 450-S that self-destructed on the ground where every plastic part was broken, the feathering shaft broke and both blades went flying in opposite directions.

I got a Century GL450 2nd hand and bought it without the original ESC because the original one fried out early on from new. I put a Castle Creations Phoenix in it. On my first flight the elevator servo failed causing a crash. After fixing it and replacing the servo it was fine until earlier this year when it suddenly lost power and fell out of the sky (bounced OK and no damage). Then it happened again. I didn't know if it was the motor, ESC or RX. (Oh and this was after 2 motor wires had come un-soldered one at a time and I had resoldered them). Then I thought I had it traced to the satellite unit on the RX and last time out it happened again, flying along fine then sudden loss of power, fortunately it regained power before plummeting. I am now changing the motor and ESC to see what happens.

On my Trex 450SE I had two crashes caused by the pinion coming loose. The one-way bearing started locking up unexpectedly so I replaced that.

I have had a few issues with gyros and tail control on both helis but I think I have that sorted by giving the tail more authority via upping the headspeed using a bigger pinion.

I think the Trex is fine now and we'll see what happens on the GL with the alternative motor and ESC.

Anyway, that's the 'in a nutshell' version as I have forgotten all the little detours along the way.