Newbie to choppers

[ndb8fxe]

Hello everyone. First of all I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Chris and I'm from South Florida. Drinks are on me today. :D

I had driven model airplane's for around 10 years before I quit about 5 years ago. Now I'm looking to get back into RC aviation and am considering a heli.

Since I've been away from the hobby it seems like there's been alot of advancement with electric motors and I'm leaning toward electric for power for my first chopper.

I need help choosing the right beginer chopper. I'd like something that I can grow into even if it's a little harder to learn to fly. Keeping it economical would help too. What chopper would you all recommend?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[rocknbil]

Welcome aboard Chris! :D

Your first stop is a very large cup of coffee and read this cover to cover (http://www.swashplate.co.uk/). You will then be able to determine where you want to go.

Helicopters are not for the feint of heart or wallet, even with the advances in lipo technology. To quote the EHBG above,

If you like building and tinkering with things for hours, and enjoy the challenge and satisfaction
of learning difficult skills, then this is a great hobby for you.
If you don't like building and tinkering with things for hours and are easily frustrated by learning
difficult skills, then you may want to consider another hobby.

That being said, if you just want something you can take out and fly around the house, or even outside in low wind conditions, a coaxial micro helicopter like the Eflite Blade CX or Esky Llamas are the ticket. They are stupid easy to fly and require a lot less time and dedication.They do not do acrobatics, their expandability is limited.

If you fall into the category described in the quote above and visualize yourself flying inverted and doing all the whacky stuff we do with helis, a CP (collective pitch) tail - rotor heli is what you're looking for. Depending on the budget you can get into a nice one like the Align Trex or the lower budget ones like the Blade CP or Esky Honeybee. The smaller you go, the more difficult they are to fly simply because they get lighter and lighter, but I'm pretty happy with crashing my Blade CP. :D

Simulators are good for learning the stick motions, but IMO they are nothing like "real life." Take them or leave them, just get out and fly is how I see it. Or in my case, crash.

On last word: lipos are not like normal batteries. If safely handled they are awesome, but if overdischarged or abused they can explode much more easily than other rechargeables. This is a must read (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197410) before your first charge.

Welcome aboard and happy hovering. :D (Had lots of corn this weekend)

[streetracer]

Hey and welcome. Im new as well.
Also, listen to roknbil, he really knows his stuff, and he wont feed you a line of bull. Very good guy. ;)

[Dennis Flora]

Do yourself a favor, stay away from anything that has a tail motor. Those little jewell's go out all the time, and then ya crash. Then the 4 in 1 unit gets damaged, and it escalates from there. If ya don't already have a Real Flight simulator, get one of those instead. 2nd choice, Blade CX or Blade CX2. I have been flying heli's for a year now, and the little electric heli's were a disaster for me. Then I got the simulator, then I got my 30 size nitro heli (used Kyosho Nexus), and I ain't even come close to crashing yet !!! In my opinion, the simulator should always be the first purchase, then a good quality heli, and beleive me, then you'll be able to easily fly any quality heli. This is from my experience, I ain't makin it up. lol I wish someone had told me the same thing $1000.00 ago... Dennis Flora

[Dennis Flora]

I agree when he said the simulator doesnt feel like a little electric heli, but I'll tell ya what, my Real Flight G2 feel exactly like my Kyosho Nexus 30... I can fly my nitro heli just fine, like ridin a bike, but I still can't control a BCP or Venon night ranger 3D. I could probably easily fly a Trex, Swift, Corona, or similar quality heli, but the two chinese electrics I mentioned are not easy for even an experienced pilot to fly, I know, I handed the TX to several of them, and they all lost too. lol If it has a 4 in 1 unit, or a tail motor, it's going down !!! Dennis Flora

[LuvEvolution]

I'll add my two cents worth here also. I agree as above.....a sim is worth it's weight in gold to learn the basics, but nothing compares to the real thing. in my oppinion, you can't go far wrong with a Blade CP Pro. I've had none of the rear motor problems with the rear motor, except once which was pilot error. gotta watch those tail boom strikes. but you get that on any other tail drive too if you boom strike. it's cheaper to replace a rear motor than a belt(or worse). the pluses of the Blade are the costs of crashing(fairly light compared to others) and if you can learn to fly the Blade well, you can fly anything out there, because my Raptor is way easier to fly than the Blade and so I'm greatful to my Blade apprenticeship here. absolutely buy the Pro if you can afford the extra, but make sure you buy flat bottom blades initially.......you will have an easier time and deffinitely buy training gear......these can be a "life saver" to the heli. I say buy the Pro because if you buy the CP, you are eventually going to do all the upgrades to the par of the Pro and it's going to cost you more than the initial Pro cost. hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. happy hovering

[shaggybirdman]

isn't the blade cp pro a tail motor heli? i read in another thread that theres a belt drive upgrade for the blade cp pro. anyone hear of it and have a link to it?

[Dennis Flora]

I thought the pro had a belt... bummer... fact is, those little tail motors are just not as accurate as a driven tail rotor with variable pitch blades. Personally, I would never own anything with a tail motor again. I've had 2, and bought maybe 10 or 15, plus crash parts. Auto rotation is a must also. My 2 heli's didn't have auto, and when anything went wrong, it would just fall out of the sky. The engine died on my nitro heli once (it has auto rotate) and I was able to land it ! That blew me away ! Whatever you get, make sure it has auto rotation ! I think it's just a one way bearing...