Any RC Heli pilots about?

Been flying my Blade CP for a little while and recently picked up a used TRex 450 SE V2. The 'Rex should be airborne in a day or two.







-Joe

ugh I wish I could fly those, they are so damn hard I hear to learn! I was thinking about getting into planes when my son gets older as I use to do the nitro truck thing years ago. Figured I would start out on the trainer style planes and work my way up!

I used to fly the T-Rex 450 SE, I had a blast with it, just spent a lot of money on them, and decided to put that money into beer brewing instead.
That being said, damn, they were a lot of fun.

Aleforge said:

ugh I wish I could fly those, they are so damn hard I hear to learn! I was thinking about getting into planes when my son gets older as I use to do the nitro truck thing years ago. Figured I would start out on the trainer style planes and work my way up!

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PLanes are definately a lot more fun and easier to fly. Definately get a good trainer, and find a club that can teach you how to fly, it can save you lots of money, headaches, and instill good flying techniques.

If you need any help or have any questions, just let me know.

Sherpa FE said:

PLanes are definately a lot more fun and easier to fly. Definately get a good trainer, and find a club that can teach you how to fly, it can save you lots of money, headaches, and instill good flying techniques.

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I'll give you easier, but I don't know about more fun I flew R/C planes for many years, everything from slow fun flies to screaming fast Quickee 500 race planes. I was actually going to compete in aerobatics at one point, but the amount of practice to get the precision needed for that took the fun out of it for me. Instead I built a .40 size Mustang and beat the heck out of it

Here she is chasing down a .60 sized Spitfire I built. They're both retired and flying in my garage now.



But I'm really enjoying the helicopters. They're certainly a big challenge to fly well and take a tremendous amount of concentration. Once you get the hang of them they're not too tough. But they can be flown pretty much anywhere, any time. A big plus for me, since R/C fields are few and far between here in NJ.

-Joe

I've always wanted to get into RC planes. Loved helicopters but wanted a mustang. My favorite car and favorite prop plane (fighter anyway). Now I guess I'll have to wait until financial system is more stable.

Oh well, I have too many hobbies anyway.

I used to fly a lot of those wire controlled scale planes (fly by wire, in a circle). Spent more time building and re-building the planes than I did actually flying them. Used to love doing the dogfights.

Came across a model heli (Bell Replica) several years ago and almost bought it, til I remembered how much more was spent repairing than enjoying.

Since then, I have destroyed a few cheapo electrics while trying to entertain my son. Perhaps some day, my boys and I will re-visit the hobby.

Control line combat. Good stuff I don't know how you guys don't tie each other into knots.

[youtube]oAkxpJfGLBk[/youtube]

-Joe

nostalgia said:

Control line combat. Good stuff I don't know how you guys don't tie each other into knots.

[youtube]oAkxpJfGLBk[/youtube]

-Joe

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Would somebody just kill that damned moskeeto already!

Hah. Was more fun doing than watdching. Most of the dogfight consisted of clipping a flag tied to the back, but all too often propellers and tails were lost in the process.

Thats crazy, do people do any dog fighting off the wire?

Yeah, do a search for foamie combat. It was big a few years ago; dunno if it still is.

-Joe

Holy crap that looks like a blast! So are they trying to knock the streamer off or just destroy the other plane?

Aleforge said:

Holy crap that looks like a blast! So are they trying to knock the streamer off or just destroy the other plane?

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Just the streamer but, "accidents" happen and it also depends on the group. These being foam, I think would make it a LOT more fun. Back in the day when I did it on the previously shown wired system the planes were balsa with fabric or paper skins.

It'd take weeks to get flight ready again after someone "accidentally" clipped the tail off your plane.

nostalgia said:

Control line combat. Good stuff I don't know how you guys don't tie each other into knots.

[youtube]oAkxpJfGLBk[/youtube]

-Joe

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I stopped watching at 2:19. That had to be the most boring,annoying video I've ever pressed play on! Why didn't they try filming the planes!

GilaMinumBeer said:

YouTube - Lagoon Valley Air Combat with DW Foamies Xtra Combat

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Now that looked fun!

I love flying RC heli's! I've been flying coaxials for a few years and got into single rotors last fall. I learned on one of the most squirly little fixed pixed helis out there. The Walkera 4#3B. It is a handful, but the learning curve was quick. After flying this little guy the larger CP heli's seem like lumbering giants, LOL!

I've got a CP Pro 2 now and, my favorite, the Blade 400! BTW, any one considering getting into RC heli's, do yourself a big favor and get a good flight sim, like Realflight or similar. It comes with a transmitter that plugs into a USB port. It will save you countless $$$$ in repairs. Much better to crash a sim a few thousand times and just hit "reset" and your flying again. The sim has increased my skills by a factor of 10 in a very short time.

If you are really serious about combat RC:

Okay, that looks like two blind dudes dancing....

That is the most rediculousw thing I have seen in a long time!

I have Realflight G3.5 and am pretty good with hovering in any orientation, forward flight, basic rolls and loops.

In real life, I can hover my Blade CP in any orientation decently well and do a bit of forward flight.

My first shot at taking the 450 off? You decide.

[youtube]hnr3lWWgBMA[/youtube]

*sigh* And the wait for replacement parts begins.

-Joe

Sorry I keep posting under my vendor account because I'm not paying attention. That's me up there

-Joe

I bought a Blade mCX about a month ago and spend the mornings buzzing my daughters. The best part is if I do crash into them it doesn't hurt. I the countless crashes I've had thus far, I've only had to replace the top rotor twice (about $6 a pop).

With the upgraded controller and a few extra batteries (battery life is 6-8 minutes) i was able to walk away with an indoor R/C helicopter for less than $200.

I bought one of those last fall, it's pretty fun to fly around the house.

Flyin' Lion said:

I bought a Blade mCX about a month ago and spend the mornings buzzing my daughters. The best part is if I do crash into them it doesn't hurt. I the countless crashes I've had thus far, I've only had to replace the top rotor twice (about $6 a pop).

With the upgraded controller and a few extra batteries (battery life is 6-8 minutes) i was able to walk away with an indoor R/C helicopter for less than $200.

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I've had a TRex 450 XL for 3 years now, and didn't even get it out last year... Kansas is so windy!

Crashed once, I've got parts on order. Hopefully I'll get to fly it some this year. RealFlight is necessary.

I learned on a Raptor nitro heli in college, and flew a 12 hp Bergen Industrial Twin as part of my college senior design project - that was AWESOME. About a 6 ft rotor span, and loud as heck. It was carrying 20 lbs of computers/GPS/AHRS, so it was kinda weighed down. The whole package was probably ~$30,000 and lots of hours of work. I crashed it.

Twice.

Flyin' Lion said:

I bought a Blade mCX about a month ago and spend the mornings buzzing my daughters. The best part is if I do crash into them it doesn't hurt. I the countless crashes I've had thus far, I've only had to replace the top rotor twice (about $6 a pop).

With the upgraded controller and a few extra batteries (battery life is 6-8 minutes) i was able to walk away with an indoor R/C helicopter for less than $200.

Click to expand...

Where is a good place to buy those? I wouldn't mind picking one up!

These guys are pretty good. There are a number of smaller outfits you can find with a search, too.

-Joe

I bought a cheap one from Walmart about a month ago for $35. It was a blast around the office while it lasted. You get enough people flying it into walls and it doesn't last that long.

jcarson83 said:

I bought a cheap one from Walmart about a month ago for $35. It was a blast around the office while it lasted. You get enough people flying it into walls and it doesn't last that long.

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Yeah. Same here cheapo "Air Hog" IIRC. Didn't care much for it tho'. Control was bad, flight time was short, and going in circles was boring.

Finally got trashed after my son ran up to it on take off. The rotor happened to just clip his nose, the heli crashed, and he stomped it in anger. Can't blame him tho', it did draw blood and t his act of stomping it kept him from screaming in terror.

Holy crap... lol

Like a scene from Godzilla!

This one has good controls. We made a landing pad out of paper and see who can land on the H.

Air Hogs Radio-Controlled Havoc Razor - Blue : Target

Aleforge said:

Where is a good place to buy those? I wouldn't mind picking one up!

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I bought mine at a pet shop of all places, but you can pick them up online (or ebay) for roughly the same price.

Aleforge said:

Where is a good place to buy those? I wouldn't mind picking one up!

Click to expand...

nostalgia said:

These guys are pretty good. There are a number of smaller outfits you can find with a search, too.

-Joe

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What he said.

Aleforge said:

Holy crap... lol

Like a scene from Godzilla!

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Yeah. It's amazing how little there is to those mini-heli's.

I started years ago with RC Planes, moved to Heli's and still love it. But one hobby takes a backseat to the next. I fly a Raptor (Nitro) and play with a Blade (Inside fly toy)

here's the beast in the passenger seat of the car on the way to a corporate sponsor presentation to try to get more money.


me flying manually for a photo-op next to the school's iconic belltower.



The project got canceled the year after our team took it to the AUVSI competition.

I learned basic flight in order to be the pilot whenever we flew it manually, and the CS guys had developed some neural network code that was eventually destined to begin learning from a human, supposedly. We got it to the level of basic flight stability before it got canned.

Gotta show it off because this is all I have to show for a year of intense work and late nights.

Ugh. Someone had their aileron swash mix reversed. I won't say who. Once I fixed that...

[youtube]I-WXNqYBtZw[/youtube]

-Joe

SWMBO bought me an Air Hogs Twin Thunder after I came home raving about the cheap little foam heli that one of the guys brought to work. At first, it was nearly impossible to control, but after a few tweaks and a bit of study as to what the controls are really doing, I can keep the thing airborne for nearly the entire battery charge. I can't count the number of times I've crashed the thing, and it's still going strong. It freaks the dog out a little, but what a fun toy!

I picked up one of those Blade mCX over winter for some fun. Pretty entertaining flying around the bartop.

Here's a pic taken while practicing hover flight...

I have a blade CP and a Heli-max 400

The blade CP was my learning heli and I haven't flown it in quite some time

The heli-max is my main machine and i've been slowly upgrading all the parts on it to aluminum. But I haven't flown it in over a year since the LiPo battery died and my son was born.

I should really dust that thing off and give a go.