Any RC Heli pilots about?

[Flyin' Lion]

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

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

 

[Flyin' Lion]

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

What he said.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Holy crap... lol

Like a scene from Godzilla!

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

 

[RonRock]

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)

 

[PintOfBitter]

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.

 

[nostalgia]

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

[youtube]I-WXNqYBtZw[/youtube]

-Joe

 

[Yuri_Rage]

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!

 

[mmb]

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

 

[Flyin' Lion]

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

 

[jcdillin]

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.

 

[mmb]

... 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.

Might want to dust the blade cp off first. All I know about full helis are that they are expensive when the break.

 

[jcdillin]

tell me about it, even with the CP I think short of the R/C receiver i've pretty much replaced every part on it.

I even had a nasty crash on the heli-max, still don't know what happened, I was flying one day and all of sudden it just took a horrible dive to the right. I tried to correct but it was too late and it went down hard. Broke off the rotor head, bent the main shaft, destroyed pretty much the all the linkages and the cyclic servo. But replaced all the parts and got some new main blades and all was well again.

 

[Mutilated1]

PLanes are definately a lot more fun and easier to fly. .

Really ? In my experience its just the opposite. The planes are harder than the helicopters. Well truthfully, I don't fly either one -- I'm just judging from the amount of times I've had to repair my son's planes compared to his coptors, and also how he feels about playing with them. He only wants to fly the coptors now -- he thinks the planes are too hard and they break too much. I gotta agree with him on the breaking too much part.

 

[Aleforge]

I think it depends on the style of each. Most people I have spoken with that fly both say the trainer style planes are head and shoulders easier to jump right in and fly. Either way I want both, but don't have the cash. My son is only 8 months old so I might as well wait until he is old enough to make it my excuse for spending the money.

 

[mmb]

I think it depends on the style of each. Most people I have spoken with that fly both say the trainer style planes are head and shoulders easier to jump right in and fly. Either way I want both, but don't have the cash. My son is only 8 months old so I might as well wait until he is old enough to make it my excuse for spending the money.

Agreed. A fully symmetrical airfoil on an overpowered sport plane with high wing loading and no dihedral will be very tough to fly for a beginner.

A flat bottom air foil trainer with loads of dihedral, over sized trike landing gear and low wing loading will literally fly itself if you take your hands off the controls.

My son is 5 now. I've got the excuse to buy toys.


dihedral = upward tilt of a fixed wing that effects stability and acrobatic ability

wing loading = weight of aircraft divided by area of wing effects lift at different speeds. low wingloading allows lower speed. higher wingload needs higher speeds to achieve the same lift.

 

[Mutilated1]

We have one coptor thats really hard to fly. I say its a coptor, but really its more like a flying disc even though the controls are similar to helicoptor controls. It has an LCD light array around the outside so while it spins it can make patterns and words in the air. Its very hard to fly though - any wind at all crashes it, but it does fly pretty good indoors.

 

[Aleforge]

I have seen those before, does it look like a UFO if you get it high enough at night?

 

[Mutilated1]

I suppose it would, but its hard to fly outdoors because if you go more than a few feet off the ground it will encounter some wind and wipe out.

 

[caspio]

Never done any R/C helicopters, but I used to do planes. At one point I had two thermal gliders, two electric wings, and a Big Stik .40 trainer. Flying all of them was a blast, and two of my neighbors had matching foam wings. We did dogfighting, but we didn't mess with any of the sissy streamer stuff. The goal was to knock the other plane out of the sky

Those wings were indestructible. We hit lamp posts, fences, trees, stop signs, and sometimes nearly ourselves. I even bombed mine into a pool while trying to recover from a hit. Just let it sit out for a few days to dry off and started flying again, it never harmed any of the electronics.

Note- this was all done safely of course - the buddies I flew with lived at the end of an otherwise undeveloped cul-de-sac that backed open fields. Their kids knew to stay inside when we were flying

Anyway, I still have all the equipment in storage. I'd really like to get back into flying, but I can only support so many expensive hobbies at once. Right around the time I stopped my NiMH packs were on their last legs. I checked it out, to get all my planes back in the air with LiPoly I'd be looking at $350+. That, and the place I live now doesn't have a convenient flying location a block away like I had before. Instead I'd have to join the local club and drive ~20 mins to their field.

 

[phillc]

If anyone is interesting in purchasing one, let me know. I upgraded my Blade CP to the point that it no longer flies! At least, I can't figure it out. Very aftermarket. Spent hundreds, but could never figure out the ridiculously complex all aluminum head I bought. I just don't have the time for it. I would have to figure out how much I have into it, but offers are welcome. The head alone was well over $200. There isn't actually much stock left on it.

Pics:

Bigger View: Aftermarket Blade CP

Fun note: The box it is setting on just came from Midwest today. Dextrose and yeast for 15 gallons of Apfelwein!

 

[nostalgia]

Is that the Microheli head? And the stock 4-in-1 electronics! hehehe

PM me with what you're looking to get and shipping to 07849.

-Joe

 

[phillc]

Is that the Microheli head? And the stock 4-in-1 electronics! hehehe

PM me with what you're looking to get and shipping to 07849.

-Joe

The head is this one:
HDX 300 Blade CP Head

I recalled paying more, but it must have been in conjunction with the rest of the junk I put on it. Servo's, better battery, carbon fiber blades, heat sinks, aftermarket frame and skids and gear, and, and, and...

Stock transmitter would come with it. Let me think of a price. I have to figure out what is fair...

 

[HSM]

I was going to say I have 4 copters but I realized one died in order to save and build up another.

I have my first "Frankencopter" which is a combination of 2 previously upgraded fixed pitch walkera and feda dragonflys. Still lots of fun to fly but not as much fun as the...

2nd copter, Honeybee King II. First CCPM copter and I love it. Have already done many upgrades on it and it's responsive and quick. Not doing any aerobatics, but am comfortable in a hover and slow forward flight.

3rd copter, AXE CPL... the "L" stands for lipo... and when I bought this I found out before it even arrived that there was a recall on the battery. I'm not going to burn down the house over a battery so as soon as it arrived I opened it sent back the battery for the recall. Got tired of waiting so I bought copter #2 above. I've never had the copter out of the box and never even opened the new battery they sent. I just love flying the king II.

I saw a few "planes vs. copter" replys, and I have a J3 Cub as well, but have never flow it. It was a cheapo but did upgrades (ie replace all electronics and servos) and I'm sure it will be a good flier, but my backyard is only so big and heilicopters fit in well. I've spend over a year on FMS flying this model so I'm sure I won't crack it up first try, just need to get my butt to a field.

We have a couple coax heilis but I don't count them as mine, the kids have fun with them. Both were extra cheap at dealextreme.com if you don't mind waiting for the long shipping time.