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Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Helicopters / August 2006Recommendation on Micro Helo
I'm looking for a micro electric helo. Any suggestions on brand & model? Fixed wing flyer...green at helo flying. Thanks John > I'm looking for a micro electric helo. Any suggestions on brand & > model? Fixed wing flyer...green at helo flying. > > Thanks > John T-rex or slightly bigger but unless you have a indoor site to fly in go for a 30 powered helicopter these are so much easier and stable than a honey bee or similar, forget the little cheap electric ones they are not worth the bother IMHO and this is from a fixed wing pilot dabbling in helicopters I have flown a nexus 30 a honey bee 2 and a T-rex XL CDE CCPM and I would go for a T-rex again, but I would spend more time on a sim than you would first imagine so your comfortable with the controls before even trying a hover, this I believe helped me to ditch the training gear after 3 tank fulls of fuel and now I can quite apply hover a tank dry,this was learning hovering a helicopter using a FMS and a microsoft 3D joystick with twist for tail and separate throttle now I have real flight G2 and a proper TX I can fly circuits do limited 3D but all I need now are some big balls and 3d the real ones >> I'm looking for a micro electric helo. Any suggestions on brand & >> model? Fixed wing flyer...green at helo flying. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] >have real flight G2 and a proper TX I can fly circuits do limited 3D but >all I need now are some big balls and 3d the real ones I disagree. A T-rex is NOT a micro and is another order of magnitude more expensive to start with. Yes, it will be more stable than a HoneyBee or Blade CP, but a Raptor 90 will be much more stable than a T-rex. (and even more expensive) I would suggest an E-Flite Blade CX or an Esky llama. Both are dual, counter-rotating rotor designs and come ready to fly. Just add batteries to the included transmitter and charge the battery for the helo. Roughly $200 and you're airborne. Easy to fly and replacement parts are pretty cheap. Definitely not for outdoors unless it's dead calm. A Trex will run you around $600 to get airborne as you'll need the kit, the radio gear, a gyro, batteries and a battery charger. My Trex (450SE V2) cost right around $1,000 to get into the air, NOT including the transmitter or battery charger. My Raptor 50 cost about $1,500 to get airborne, again, not counting the transmitter. My Trex 600 will probably end up pushing the $2,000 range by the time I get two battery packs for it and the charger capable of charging them - again, NOT including the transmitter. My micro is a highly modified Blade CP and flies well for a micro, but I would not reccommend a collective pitch helo as a 1st bird. Very twitchy to fly. Again, try the Blade CX or the Esky Llama. Your local shop should let you try it out in the store. Good luck!! >>> I'm looking for a micro electric helo. Any suggestions on brand & >>> model? Fixed wing flyer...green at helo flying. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] >> have real flight G2 and a proper TX I can fly circuits do limited 3D but >> all I need now are some big balls and 3d the real ones I disagree. A T-rex is NOT a micro and is another order of magnitude > more expensive to start with. Yes, it will be more stable than a > HoneyBee or Blade CP, but a Raptor 90 will be much more stable than a > T-rex. (and even more expensive) trouble is a lot of people see the micros as a cheap easy way to get into helicopters but they are not,the price of a t-rex on ebay is £120 or $230 then all you need is a tx rx and a charger as everything else is included but unless you need or can only fly indoors buy the biggest one you can afford & you wont regret it > I would suggest an E-Flite Blade CX or an Esky llama. Both are dual, > counter-rotating rotor designs and come ready to fly. Just add [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > Good luck!! >trouble is a lot of people see the micros as a cheap easy way to get >into helicopters but they are not,the price of a t-rex on ebay is £120 >or $230 then all you need is a tx rx and a charger as everything else is >included but unless you need or can only fly indoors buy the biggest >one you can afford & you wont regret it Well, they are cheap and "easy" - "easy" being relative. Buying off ebay introduces an entirely new set of problems. I've read thread after thread on various forums about perfect Trex's from Ebay showing as piles of crap. Let's say you buy a Trex off Ebay for $200. A decent Tx/Rx another $250 with servos. 2100mah battery, another $75. Decent charger, another $75. You probably need a gyro too. There's another $80 for a low-end unit. What's that? $680 and you have no idea how good/bad the Trex is, or how to put it all together and get it set up. Buy an RTF micro out of the box and you're looking at $200 and you're in the air. >> trouble is a lot of people see the micros as a cheap easy way to get >> into helicopters but they are not,the price of a t-rex on ebay is £120 [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Buy an RTF micro out of the box and you're looking at $200 and you're > in the air. or not as the case might be I brought a Honey bee 2 that was un-flyable out of the box due to problems with the servos moving at different speeds which was a right pain in the arse when you used the collective it affected cyclic as well, as you raised the collective it would go say forward and right and lowering it it would go aft and left the TX have all the servo reverser's in the wrong sense and the gyro was way off so as for out of the box and your in the air not in my case and this was brought new from a seller who claimed they test flew every helicopter that left them ? I just think unless you have a big enough room/hall to fly circuits in daily forget the micros and buy something bigger, the OP is not a raw beginner in modelling and I doubt if he's flown aircraft straight out of the box and I would have thought he's met at least one person who can set up a helicopter If I would have based my whole experience of helicopters with my honey bee being my first helicopter I would have not bothered continuing in trying to fly as I would have thought it was two hard but as I already could hover my nexus for 15 mins straight I realised how hard the micros are , so I sold it and asked the experienced people in my club what to buy and it was a zoom 400 or a T-rex and brought my rex which is so much easier to fly and it will fly hands off for quite a few seconds which the honey bee would never do Kevin (yes another one in England) >> On Sun, 06 Aug 2006 09:53:15 GMT, funfly3 <dontemailme@ntlworld.com> > or not as the case might be I brought a Honey bee 2 that was un-flyable [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > to fly as I would have thought it was two hard but as I already could > hover my nexus for 15 mins straight I realised how hard the micros are , I've been warned against buying expensive machines as it is most likely i wouldn't be able to fly them. I was actually recommended the jpdistribution version of the honey bee 2 which is the twister cp. Did you manage to correct all the problems with this machine? It would seem from my researches that if you want true ready to fly out of the box you buy a venom air corps model. They are exact duplicates of the walkera craft except that they really are setup to fly properly out of the box. >or not as the case might be I brought a Honey bee 2 that was un-flyable >out of the box due to problems with the servos moving at different [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >was brought new from a seller who claimed they test flew every >helicopter that left them ? There's a thread on RunRyder that's entitled something like "test flown by drunks". My Blade CP did fly right out of the box and only required a slight tracking adjustment. Granted, it didn't fly nearly as smooth or as stable as my Trex, but it did fly. >I just think unless you have a big enough room/hall to fly circuits in >daily forget the micros and buy something bigger, the OP is not a raw >beginner in modelling and I doubt if he's flown aircraft straight out of >the box and I would have thought he's met at least one person who can >set up a helicopter Perhaps not. Flying planks is different than helicopters and very little transfers over when learning helis. >If I would have based my whole experience of helicopters with my honey >bee being my first helicopter I would have not bothered continuing in [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >the honey bee would never do >Kevin (yes another one in England) My CP will hover hands off for 3-4 seconds, but it's far from stock and it's taken me quite some time to get it to this point. I also ditched the stock Tx and set it up on my Futaba 9CHP. My point was for around $200, the OP could get a CX or a Llama and be in the air right out of the box. | There's a thread on RunRyder that's entitled something like "test | flown by drunks". Heh! http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/t276427p1/ | Perhaps not. Flying planks is different than helicopters and very | little transfers over when learning helis. As a guy who recently picked up helicopters after years of flying R/C planes, I can say that a lot transfers. For example, in forward flight, your reflexes will probably be pretty close to right. However, there's still a whole lot to learn. Hovering is totally alien, and if you're flying backwards, your reflexes tend to cause you to do the totally wrong thing and crash hard. And most of what you know about setting up planes, trimming, dealing with the radio gear, batteries, etc. transfers too. But the #1 piece of advice I can give you? Simulator! Learn to fly on the simulator first! Turn up the turbulence and wind a bit, and if you're using RFG3, remove the heading hold gyro from your models and put in a rate gyro instead! Especially if you want to start with something like a Blade CP, the simulator helicopters are far easier to fly. Going back to a less functional gyro will help make things more realistic. Also, spend some time practicing with the trims out of whack, and also spend some time on putting the heli into wierd positions and then recovering once you get down hovering -- but start with hovering, first tail (where the tail faces you) and then tail out (the nose faces you) then random orientations.  SignatureDoug McLaren, dougmc@frenzied.us I'll make the money by selling one of my livers. I can get by with one. --Homer Simpson >| There's a thread on RunRyder that's entitled something like "test >| flown by drunks". [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >planes, I can say that a lot transfers. For example, in forward >flight, your reflexes will probably be pretty close to right. I'll agree with that, but like you say below, there's a LOT more to learn. Unless you're doing tailslides, you can pretty much bet the nose of an airplane will always be pointed forward. (I too am a plank flyer) >However, there's still a whole lot to learn. Hovering is totally >alien, and if you're flying backwards, your reflexes tend to cause you >to do the totally wrong thing and crash hard. Absolutely! >And most of what you know about setting up planes, trimming, dealing >with the radio gear, batteries, etc. transfers too. I'll agree with the radio gear, but trimming a helo is a LOT more involved than an airplane. >But the #1 piece of advice I can give you? Simulator! Learn to fly >on the simulator first! Turn up the turbulence and wind a bit, and if [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >fly. Going back to a less functional gyro will help make things more >realistic. I agree 100% here. If you're going to get even remotely past the "Gee, that looks fun" stage and want to avoid learning the old school "Crash, Buy Parts, Repair, Repeat" method, buy a good sim. >Also, spend some time practicing with the trims out of whack, and also >spend some time on putting the heli into wierd positions and then >recovering once you get down hovering -- but start with hovering, >first tail (where the tail faces you) and then tail out (the nose >faces you) then random orientations. I've been practicing my nose-in stuff on the sim with high wind and gusts to build muscle memory. Can't quite nose-in a full battery on my Trex, but it's kept me from wadding it up in my attempts to do so. | I would suggest an E-Flite Blade CX or an Esky llama. Both are dual, | counter-rotating rotor designs and come ready to fly. Just add | batteries to the included transmitter and charge the battery for the | helo. Roughly $200 and you're airborne. Easy to fly and replacement | parts are pretty cheap. Definitely not for outdoors unless it's dead | calm. I've got a Blade CX. It's extremely easy to fly -- it never really lets itself tilt very far, and the moment you let up on the controls it's back to level. It's just the thing for flying around around the house. However, as Kevin said, for outside it just doesn't work. Not only does it have very little control authority and is therefore very easy to lose to just a bit of wind. But it gets worse than that -- a bit of turbulence can easily cause the top and bottom blades to collide -- they call it `blade clash' on the forums. If you're lucky, not much will happen. If you're not lucky, several things can happen -- 1- blades can break, which usually leads to a crash 2- you can much of the momentum in the blades, causing you to lose lift, often causing a crash. This happens most often when you have the right stick pushed all the way in one direction, but it can happen even when the sticks are in the middle. My CX is sitting in the garage right now, with a smashed 3-in-1 unit (damage seems to just be to the case), pretty much destroyed canopy and two bent drive shafts, because of a clash that caused #2 and it came down from about 20 feeet and I couldn't get it back in time. But inside, it works great. Blades are cheap -- $1 each. I'm guessing that my crash cost me about $20 for shafts, maybe $40 if I buy a new canopy. (It's torn up, but tape can fix that. I don't really care how it looks.) An added bonus is that the hobby shop has parts for the CX, CP and the T-Rex helis. You might want to check and see what your hobby shop has parts for -- you'll be going there a lot. The Blade CP is MUCH harder to fly. In fact, it's one of the hardest helicopters out there to fly -- not because it's bad, so much, as that it's twitchy. I'll bet a heading hold gyro would help a lot, but if you're going to hack that in, why not just get a better helicopter to start with? Parts for the Blade CP are a bit more, and it's not nearly so forgiving of mistakes. You can crash the CX and it'll probably be OK. Crash the CP and odds are much higher that you'll be going to the hobby shop. Any other brands are going to be a lot more expensive to fix. SignatureDoug McLaren, dougmc@frenzied.us Everyone talks about apathy, but no one does anything about it. >An added bonus is that the hobby shop has parts for the CX, CP and the >T-Rex helis. You might want to check and see what your hobby shop has >parts for -- you'll be going there a lot. That is a huge part of the equation right there. If the local shop has the parts, chances are someone there is flying the same machine and can offer some help and get you back in the air ery quickly. >The Blade CP is MUCH harder to fly. In fact, it's one of the hardest >helicopters out there to fly -- not because it's bad, so much, as that >it's twitchy. I'll bet a heading hold gyro would help a lot, but if >you're going to hack that in, why not just get a better helicopter to >start with? The stock CP is hard to fly because the response between stick input and reaction of the helicopter is so slow. The Bell-Hiller upgrade helps quite a bit, but then it's a matter or keeping up with the thing. Definitely not a beginner's helo. I went to the local shop 2 days after Christmas to pick up parts for an Edge 540 foamy I was building and the helo guys had a good half dozen bent up CPs on the counter waiting to be repaired. Seems a lot of people got 'em for Christmas and wadded 'em on on their 1st flights. >Parts for the Blade CP are a bit more, and it's not nearly so >forgiving of mistakes. You can crash the CX and it'll probably be OK. >Crash the CP and odds are much higher that you'll be going to the >hobby shop. Any other brands are going to be a lot more expensive to >fix. My most expensive crash with my CP cost me about $30. New blades, new mainshaft, new tailrotor and a flybar. Most crashes now involve a new mainshaft (6 bucks) and an hour or so to rebuild and set it all up again. All responding: Your dialog is great and I'm getting a lot of good info. Still watching the posts. Thanks much!! John >>An added bonus is that the hobby shop has parts for the CX, CP and the >>T-Rex helis. You might want to check and see what your hobby shop has [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] >mainshaft (6 bucks) and an hour or so to rebuild and set it all up >again. For beginners, you can go for the Esky Lama 2 or Blade CX, these are the great beginners rc helicopters. If you want more challenge helicopters, then go for the Trext, Esky CP2, or Blade CP You can check the flying videos for all the helicopters here: http://www.linknety.com/modevideos/demo/index.php If you want to go into the nitro helicopter, then go for the Raptor > I'm looking for a micro electric helo. Any suggestions on brand & > model? Fixed wing flyer...green at helo flying. For newbies i would recommend dual rotor systems. Esky llama. These are so small they are strictly indoor. Slightest breath of wind and they get away from you. All this type of design get through rotor blades quite quickly. At least with esky you can get 8 blades for £8.50. you will have to buy packs of upper and lower seperately. If you are looking for outdoor then go for the ones with two 370 motors. They aren't that more expensive. £130 ish instead of £100. Don't even consider single rotor 3d models until you are an accomplished flyer. The Twister Medevac is reviewed in the current edition of RotorWorld magazine. This is a new improved vesrsion of the Twister and has addressed the criticsims that were levelled at the previous version. The 'Medevac' bit is that like the previous version it is made to look like a Bell 47, but to distinguish it, this version is coloured in the US Medevac colour scheme of MASH fame - looks very nice. The review is very complimentary and sounds like just the thing you are after. Also, the term micro heli isbeginning to take on a new meaning. Also reviewed in RotorWorld is Buzzflyer Micro which is one of the new generation tiny helicopters which are small enough to sit in the palm of your hand. These make the Hummingbirds and Dragonflys look like giants. All the small helicopters (Twister Medevac included) are really only suited for indoor flight. If you have a really still day then they can be flown outside but are really susceptible to gusts. Cheers, Nigel |
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