Blind buying Align 550E 3GX

[hedonist222]

So I bought a Syma108g and a Syma S026G and have decided to get a proper helicopter. Yes, you may now chuckle at the Symas.
I've alays wanted one But never had time and so on.
Initially i was going to buy a 450 pro but after some reseRch i decided on the 550E 3gX.
Primarily because of wind issues and how it gets smaller at distances.

Which transmitter should I get the dx6 or dx7 or 8?


Also, how can you bear to only flight it for 4 to 6 mins?
That's why i bought 2 Symas.

I assume that if i were to charge up to batteries for the align I'd still need to let it cool down before flight sessions right? How long?

Which batteries (mAh and voltage) should I get?

Money is not an issue.

Thank.

[scuba steve]

'Money is not an issue'
you need to fly me out there as your full time heli consultant....all expenses paid of course

[challis349]

Wow, so many questions, lol, welcome to the forum.

Buy the best TX you can afford, as money is no issue, I would go with the 8, as it has a nice backlot screen lol.

Get Phoenix simulator, or an mcpx to aid you in your training, its no where near as easy as some make it look,

All these motors are brushleas, I have seen people fly there 550 back to back, it just depends how many battery's you have.

Battery wise, you need 6s lipo battery's, I don't know the mah, about 5000 I seek to remember from others

You will then need a decent charger like a cellpro powerlab 8, and also a decent psu to go with that.

Lol, and lots of reading and learning haha

[SaneAdam]

You will need a 5000 mah lipo. It needs to be this size to balance the heli. 550 is pretty tail heavy. A 5000 will balance it out nicely. I tried some 4400's on mine, but it didn't balance nearly as well and felt odd in the air.

If money is no issue just get your self 4 Optipower 6s 5000's. About 20 mins flying. 5 to 6 mins of flight is more than enough when your concentrating that hard. Or just buy 10 of them and have about an hour in the air

I personally would recommend seeing if the dealer will swap out the 3gx for a Beastx with the kit. The 550 is better with the Beastx in my opinion after flying one with a beast and one with 3gx. Just my preference though

[kylelnsn]

Money is no issue, I need a Mikado Logo 600SE, Trex 700E FBL and several other helis please! heheheWelcome to the forums!

[ghost2212]

Get the DX8, I just got one for christmas and its a really nice radio for the money. Where you are I woudl think you need to let stuff cool down a bit between flights in the shade :P. for packs as others have reccomnded get some optipowers or maybe gens ace in the 6s 5000mah range. If you get a decent charger like a icharger 306b/3010b or powerlab 6/8 as well as somethign to power them at the field then you shoudl be able to charge 4 packs up in ~40 mins.

+1 on the Sim, The 550 is an easy heli to fly compared to others but a big step up from a syma.

[Downdraft]

Money no object

Buy once and get yourself a JR DSX9 It will last for most of your flying life.
As far as batteries go you wont go far wrong with Optipower 6s 5000mah packs and you'll need a good charger, may I suggest a Cellpro PL8. Probably the best money can currently buy

[hedonist222]

Thanks everyone. Super helpful. Cheers.

What C rating for the batteries?

The guy at my lhs said that 30C or 45C are better because i don't plan on any aggressive flying and that 60C batteries would drain my battery faster and than say 30C or 45C.

Whats the advantage of Cellpro PL8 over a Cellpro 10s?

[Downdraft]

Not so sure about 60c making the batteries have a shorter duration, I think you'll find he ment that you won't need the extra available current as hovering around uses much less power than 3d type flying.
30/40 C is ideal for the 550 and you should find they'll come off the heli only luke warm after a 6 minute flight.

The cellpro 10s is an excellent charger make no mistake of that but its only capable of charging one 6s battery at a time in theory and the PL8 is capable of charging 9x 6s 5000mah at once as long as you have a suitable power supply. The 10s can charge 2x 5s batteries at the same time so it would be great for a 450 pro or something using upto you guessed it 5s

You could also consider the PL6, its almost the same as the PL8 but is only capable of upto 6s batteries rather upto 8S batteries. Oh and it does'nt have quite as large an output power but would still be just fine for the job you have in mind

[hedonist222]

Alright.
They had a lovely 50" flat screen and top of the line pc set u with both real flight and Phoenix.
After 10 mins on real flight i deduced that it's better to learn on a sim than literally crash $1,300 lol.

So I bought Phoenix and the Spektrum DX8. Maybe Real Flight is better but at least i can use my own transmitter.

[Downdraft]

What ever happened to "MONEY NO OBJECT" I dunno you people ask all this advice then do something totally different to your original idea

There's no better way to learn though in my opinion and Phoenix is an excellent choice if I may say so. Crashing is so much cheaper on the sim

[hedonist222]

I'd always intended on getting a sim.
But I meant by blind buy it would be my first time ever buying/flying a plane.
And by money is no issue , I meant I'm willing to spend extra on the dx8 , pl8 and Optifuel as opposed to a dx6i , am entry level charger and generic and batbats.
But I'm not willing to throw my money away.
You have me confused with an idiot lol.

I'm still going to get your reccomendations in a month or so.

As soon as I can hover the damn thing lol.

[Stu girdler]

Hi there and welcome to the forums, ok well pack side 5000mah 45c thunder powers balance a T550 perfectly. Charger definitely a power lab 8 with the 1 Kw supply that they are bringing out, this is way over the top for the average user but if you get caught in this like we all are you have a power supply that is future proof.

Fly a pack let it cool whilst flying number two, three packs is ideal as two packs allow cooling on the first and charge.

Flight time, impossible to answer for you as we all fly differently and load the heli in different ways. If you are just getting into hovering and slow flying back and fwd tail in style you will get 5 mins, start fwd flight and circuits and you will get more, it's all about using the air cushion under your disc and save on power usage. This just comes with time.

The absolute best advice is Simulator, get one and practice lots. A MCPx would be perfect too.

Be careful of money is no object as you will soon be spending a fortune.

Cheers
Stuart

[Downdraft]

You must have me confused with an idiot lol.

No, not at all. All said very much so tounge in cheek

Good luck with your eventual purchase and I also have to agree with Stu, If you've not flown a collective pitch heli before the little MCPX is an excellent first time machine. I have one myself and it bounces off walls brilliantly with little or no damage every time.

[hedonist222]

Thanks STuart and Sean .