Electric smallish helis with good flight times?

[trillian]

The thing is, you can make a 450 size heli very stable but you'll always have the limitation that it is a relatively small mass and will get thrown around by the wind more. The Beam E4 flies very 'big' for how small it is but you feel it when it's gusty (and for me the difficulty is often more with the low light making it hard to see this time of year).

The Trex 500 is a great inbetween size and is just heavy enough to handle a lot more wind than a 450 and the bigger canopy profile makes it easier to see at a distance. At the moment I have my timer set at 5.20 to leave a safe margin in the packs (6s 2650, mostly Turnigys along with a Gens Ace and an Optipower). Sometimes I could get a bit more but I don't think could really stretch to 6 minutes unless I flew the whole pack just hovering and circuits. I really love the 500, to me it is so so useful, just small enough to be easy to carry around but not too small and LiPos are relatively inexpensive.

[Lynx.1677]

Maybe a 500 ESP is the answer then Pete. With the the Pro out I am sure you will get one cheap. I personally didn't like the 500 ESP, nothing but problems with 4 I had and they never made good power (for my liking) but I am talking first gen ESP here so perhaps things have moved on.

[stanley1]

I agree totally, the 500 has become my favorite heli since I overhauled it. Its a perfect balance of size/power 5mins on mine with 3300 thunderpower 65c G6's

[xygax]

Just get a TDR... 12S 1200 head speed and at least ten mins..... and they tear about the sky..

Steve

[PeteStewardson]

Just get a TDR... 12S 1200 head speed and at least ten mins..... and they tear about the sky..

Steve

Sadly a TDR does miss a few of my original objectives

[LaurenceGough]

I think you should look into flybar weights, expo settings, bigger blades and perhaps a lower headspeed. Make sure you have a level swash throughout the pitch range with a swash leveling tool and no trims (only sub trims for leveling).

450's when set-up nice can even be flown pretty nicely in the wind.

[cjcj1949]

I get 6 to 7 minutes on a 450 Sport (2300mah 3S Tipple). Duration does depend on the temperature of the batteries. If you can get them close to 30 degrees C you'll get better duration. If you have a lipo alarm on board set to whatever voltage you feel happy with ( I use 3.6), you can get the last few seconds out of each battery. Surely the easiest thing is to fit a slightly bigger battery. This will also add mass and calm it down. Extra mass on the flybar will help as well. I'm not sure I agree with your comments about progress. You can only progress at a certain rate that depends on you. Extra practice may not help that much, especially as the sim is always available. A different motor might help. You would have to decide on the smallest thrust that is acceptable and get your setup optimised for that. I would think that more than 10 mins is possible if you just want to hover in ground effect.

I do understand your point about flight times and the warming up effect. It does take a while to feel comfortable. This time does seem to decrease as you get more experienced. It used to take me about 5 mins to feel comfortable with a hover. Now I can do that almost immeditaley. Anything close to my limit does still take 5 mins though, if the flight lasts that long.

[killer4557]

get a canopy for 450v2se and some 2800 mah to 3000mah packs, strap battery to battery mount then put the sev2 canopy on and move canopy gromits to allow canopy to fit with bigger packs on 2800mah 40c packs give around 7 mins flight providing u dial throttle curve down dont change pinion down keep pinion high maybe 14 tooth but run around 65% flat throttle curve maybe even less iv had mine at flat 55% and still flew nice, high discharge packs also help flight times

[scallybert]

For my sins, I like precision (?) hovering, and an FB 450 Pro wasn't good for this, even with FB weights, etc, etc. By comparison G5s were pretty good.

I went FBL with the 450 Pros (RJX head & Mini V-B, then Skookum), and they seem good. 3050 RPM, easy 5 minutes with stock 3S 2200 packs, ample power.

I had both a G5 & 450 Pro out on Saturday. Both SK-720 FBL. To be fair, it was a very calm day, but they were both very good at precision hovering and zooming around the sky. I'd be hard to say which was best. G5 gets an easy 7 minutes, but has the pack & parts issues. 450 Pro is common stuff (though maybe RJX might be a problem at times).

Packs for 500s are ~twice the weight to carry, plus extra expense.

I reckon an FBL 450 Pro has a lot to commend it.

[alioth]

My T-Rex 500 ESP (FBL) gets almost 10 minutes on 2700mAh 6S packs when not being thrown around the sky, for "sport flying", 8 minutes. For a couple of years I was running it on a 2x 3S 3700mAh packs (the canopy would *only just fit!* and I could get 15 minutes out of it. It would "sport fly" fine on those packs, but I don't suppose the 3D people would have liked the weight.

[simplyraptor]

Have you thought of trying these blades, they work well on my Rave.

http://www.fast-lad.co.uk/store/spin...5-p-14414.html