just wanted to say hello, and RC helicopter thread .....

[cayuse]

Nice flying, Danny! You've been practicing a lot!
WW - Danny's Trex 500, with the radio control, a couple of batteries, charger, gyro, etc. will add up to the best part of $1000. Am I right, Danny?
It's good that you've got a spotter/cameraman with you in that public park. The last thing we need is for someone to wander into your landing zone and get sliced.

[Water Warrior 2]

OMG, so much for a new hobby. Think I will just keep spending money on my bike. Gotta be cheaper to drop my bike than crash a helicopter.

[cayuse]

IMHO, the most economical way to get to Danny's skill level is to go out and spend a couple hundred on a good flight simulator (Realflight), and another couple hundred on a Chinese knockoff machine like mine, HK450. Then spend most of the winter practicing on the computer. The good simulators are exceptionally good. It's all about hand-eye coordination and learning to fly in and recover from adverse attitudes and the simulator lets you do all sorts of stupid things without costing a dime in parts. Then get somebody knowledgeable to set up and trim your machine so you aren't fighting it. When you feel real comfortable flying the simulator, the real thing will seem familiar and you'll be far less likely to 'dumb-thumb' it into the ground (although that will happen sooner or later :roll: ). You could skip the simulator but you'll likely spend all that money on parts learning things the hard way.

OTOH, you could get one of these Blade MCX2, which practically fly themselves. They're fun for buzzing around the living room, but if you are looking for the least bit of a challenge I predict you will quickly become bored.

$.02

[Water Warrior 2]

Hmm. Maybe I'll do some snooping around town to see what is available locally. Could be a good way to spend my fixed income. :2tup:

[dannylightning]

got to get to work but you can get a blade SR, 180 bucks, it comes with every thing you need to fly, and u will be happy with it after it gets a good set up on it and a few simple modifications, when you are at the point of learning loops and flips and stuff, u can do it on the sr but it does not hold up well for it. i learnd most stuff on a sr and moved up, i would pass on the blade 400 check out helifreak.com if you are intested in flying

my t rex 500 is big and it cost my 550 bucks uese, it came with a lot of spare parts, 6 batterys, 3 of them are top of the line crazy expensive batterys too. buying used is the way to go if you get them from some one you trust on the heli forums. i als received a free gaui 200 witch is a really small heli that is made to do every thing the 500 will do but in your back yard.

that crash on the 500 was about 70 bucks. but i bough stealth blades witch seem to be the best value brand of blades..


a 450 size align T-REX sprot or pro is reasonable priced, tough in crashes small enough to fly at a lot of parks, u dont need a ton of room, the batterys that hobbyking sells are pretty cheep and it fly, the sport or pro will fly almost just as good as a big one , the 500 is easier to keep in the air due to bigger blades and a lot more stability but i would not reccomend starting out with a 500 u would probably way to scared to try and fly it..

[dannylightning]

ok, this is for any one wanteing to get in to flying RC helicopters and what you need to kow first

my email is bmx13132000@yahoo.com if you have any heli related questions feel free to shoot me a email but it would be better if you sign up on helifreak.com and find me on there, i am always postig in the eflite blade 400 and SR section and the align t rex 500 section and it would be easy to find me on there.

first off it is a very hard and challenging hobby, it can also be extremely expensive, extremely fulfilling and amazing. the joy i get when i learn something new is amazing. its also a great adrenaline rust...

i started out with a e-flite blade MSR witch is a verry small heli that you can hold in the palm of your hand, it is simular to the air hogs that you get at walmart,target or toys r us but it is a good quality little machine, it is made to fly in the house and will cost you about 150 dolors. it will hover it's self and it is verry easy to fly, it is fast and the controlls are precise unlike the air hogs that are just a kids toy. if you get one of these and get really good at it you now are ready to move on to a collective pitch rc helicopter witch does not hover its self and you have to correct every single move ment it makes to keep it in one spot, a collective pitch helicopter is verry hard to fly when learning you will probably crash a lot and when learning new tricks you will probably crash alot. here is a video of a blade MSR, the guy fling this is verry good with it, i just hover mine around my living room, it can not be flown out side unless there is pretty much 0 wind. there is also a e-flite blade SR120 (not to be confused with the blade SR) it is just like the MSR only bigger and can be flow outdoors in 5-10 mph winds, it might be a little too big to fly in the house but you can hover it around in the house but i would not try to fly it fly it in the house. it is also around 150 bucks, the second video will be of the SR120

[youtube:3rn11q8y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sCus3wolLM[/youtube:3rn11q8y]

[youtube:3rn11q8y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6mh_22wOrw[/youtube:3rn11q8y]

now we move on the collective pitch helicopter, witch can be flow upside down and any witch way you can imagine. after getting good with the MSR or SR120 and you are ready to move up i would definately get a flight simulator phoenix and realflight are the best, phoenix is superior for helicopters but not great for air planes, realflight is verry good for helicopters and great for air planes. i started out with the blade SR, i crashed it well over 100 times, repair cost was only a few bucks and some times nothing broke at all, just depends on how hard you crash. it was the best CP (Collective pitch) trainer i could ask for. i ran carbon fiber blades on it and as long as i crashed in the grass those blades did not break, one crash on concrete and the blades would get chewed up really bad. the wooden blades will break on every crash no matter what.. i learned to fly wit the blade SR i learned to do loops, rools, fly upside down and every thing esle on it. the little SR could barley handle it but it can do it. than i moved up to a blade 400, it needed about 200 dolors in upgrades before it flew good but it does come with a great programabel radio witch is verry important. i fly every thing i have off one radio now. the 400 is not the greatest quality and after every thing i upgrades i could have got a t-rex 450 for the money witch is superior to my upgraded blade 400, the align T-REX 450 eats my 400 for lunch so you would be better off going streight for the T-rex 450, you can get a T-REX sport package that comes with every thing but a receiver and a radio for 400 bucks if you shop around online. only thing is when you get in to the good quality helicopter them come in a small box, when you open that box u find many pieces and a manual that tells you how to build the helicopter, it is important to know how to build one so that is not a bad thing. when you start crashing you need to make repairs. when you buy a already built heli when you crash it and the manual barley tells you any thing you are like OMG i have no idea how to fix this.

now we get in to set up. the good programmable radio has several menu's to adjust your rates, throttle curve, pitch curve, how far the servos move and many other things. it is verry complicated but once you do a lot of reading and research it becomes easy. helifreak.com has many great set up videsos witch will blow your mind when you watch them but aftert you start doing it you will realize its really not all that hard it just takes some getting used to. the head assembly on a heli has several adjustable linkages and they all must be adjusted properly to get a good flying heli, you halve to adjust how much pitch the blades have at low stick full stick and mid stick, part of that is in the radio and part of that is with the linkages, there is more too it but i think this will give you the idea. all i could think was what the hell did i get my self in to when i had to start learning to repair and set up a heli after i crashed it.

RC air planes, easy set up, easy to work on, easy to fly (compared to helicopters) you can get a small micro air plane like the hobby zone champ that a 2 year old can fly, i have one and its fun, i also have a aerobatic micro air place that also cost about 100 bucks. i have crashed it in to the ground over and over and over and over again, i finally snapped the body in half the other day, u must be thinking o crap, no the styrphome can be glued back togeather with gorilla glue or even elmers glue. she flys just as good as she did before, the small micro planes can take a beating, i get crazy with mine and that is why i crash it so much. i just dont care if it hits the ground, i almost aloways walk over to it. pick it up and put it right back in the air.

how much does this hobby cost. it depends on how much you crash, how fast you progress and want something better, but if you start out buying a good ship in the first place that will save you a lot of money,

if you have a good heli, a flight simulator and you are past the learning to hover it and learning to fly it at the field you can stop crashing alot. and the hobby becomes inexpensive. this is a extremely fun and fulfilling hobby. i can make it as expensive or inexpensive as i want right now. if i keep pushing my self hard to learn new tricks witch often ends up in a few crashes before i get the trick down it will be expensive, if i just stick to the things i am good at already it will no longer be expensive cus i wont halve to spend money on parts all the time.

here is a video of my friend testing out his brand new Align T-REX 450 sport a few weeks ago
[youtube:3rn11q8y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DZ6wc41lOM[/youtube:3rn11q8y]

[mrlmd1]

How many dogs does that guy go through in a year? When those blades chop up the dog, his vet bills will be much higher than the cost of the helicopter. Not really smart to do that. At least his kid(s) aren't in the room. :shocked:

[Water Warrior 2]

The 450 sport is a pretty slick machine. Handles much better inverted than a bike too.

As for the dog, well, he needs the exercise by the looks of him. But I do agree with the danger factor. Thanks for the vids Danny.

[cayuse]

100% right, Danny. The learning curve is ultimately constrained by the budget, since learning new stuff wears out or breaks things which costs money. Airplanes can be somewhat more forgiving since you have more opportunity to glue things back together.

Gotta work on my flips..... :cool:

what camera are you using for that last vid?

[alanmcorcoran]

Any interest in flying a real one? I mean, you probably wouldn't be doing flips or much upside down flying, but it seems the adrenaline rush/joy factor would be at least as good as the RC. Plus, you could maybe be putting out a fire or taking someone to a hospital. Also, a very handy skill in the event of zombies...