RC Heli : Which one should I start with?

[JJ650]

is there one with a camera that can stream to your computer?

Parrot AR drone 2.0 - but is a quad copter. Controlled with iOS and android devices but can be hacked to use a traditional 5 or 6 chan TX/RX. I'll let you know how well it does once it arrives.

I got into the heli stuff for a bit. It's fun until you demolsh them a few times. Still got a CP-pro in box somewhere collecting dust.

 

[radhak]

The Hobby King 136 should suit your needs. Got one for about $40 shipped. Make sure you get a Mode-2 transmitter. Very stable, easy to fly indoors. Can go outdoors with no wind. Has 4-channels so you can also go side-to-side. Radio controlled and not IR like the SYMA's. Definitely a step up without spending too much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8aiV_MWcWc&feature=related

Wow, that video is so impressive! Looks like either I need to really learn my flying skills, or I've not got the best of pieces in my buys. Even the S108G, which I'm happy with, does not fly with such ease. I gotta have this!

 

[brainhulk]

Parrot AR drone 2.0 - but is a quad copter. Controlled with iOS and android devices but can be hacked to use a traditional 5 or 6 chan TX/RX. I'll let you know how well it does once it arrives.

I got into the heli stuff for a bit. It's fun until you demolsh them a few times. Still got a CP-pro in box somewhere collecting dust.

How much zoom does the lens have, and how is the video quality

 

[Aikouka]

I saw that there's a Groupon for a Yiboo UJ4703 today ($24). Any thoughts on how good it is?

 

[JJ650]

How much zoom does the lens have, and how is the video quality

I dont think there is a zoom function, but it is supposed to be able to take 720p video.
If that doesn't do it for you, it's fully capable of lifting a GoPro camera. There are bodies that have built in holders for the goPro setups.

 

[MasterAndCommander]

I saw that there's a Groupon for a Yiboo UJ4703 today ($24). Any thoughts on how good it is?

It's a clone of the Syma 107's and should have the same characteristics. You can get the real thing for a bit cheaper at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ords=syma+s107

 

[radhak]

The Hobby King 136 should suit your needs. Got one for about $40 shipped. Make sure you get a Mode-2 transmitter. Very stable, easy to fly indoors. Can go outdoors with no wind. Has 4-channels so you can also go side-to-side. Radio controlled and not IR like the SYMA's. Definitely a step up without spending too much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8aiV_MWcWc&feature=related

Hmmm... seems to ship from outside the US... least is $18 ...

I saw that there's a Groupon for a Yiboo UJ4703 today ($24). Any thoughts on how good it is?

That feels good, though might be iffy, looking at the reviews

 

[MasterAndCommander]

Hmmm... seems to ship from outside the US... least is $18 ...

Yes it does - from Hong Kong. I had the fortune of ordering one right before Chinese New Year...took a month for it to arrive! You can do a search for the Xieda 9998 which is the same thing. There may be some US dealers that have it.

 

[randay]

Well, like I said, the 3+ channel toy is good enough, and it does what I want it to do as a helicopter toy. It hovers, it moves about as I want it to.

Also, I've crashed the darn thing so many times, it's not even funny. The blades have nicks on them (although I have another set of spare parts that I can replace, but why bother when the thing still flies?). Hey, best $20 I've ever spent if you ask me. Good luck with the fragile 4 channel though.

Quick question though, I know the mCX2 is 4 channel, but looking at the remote, where's the fourth channel control? (strafing - yaw left right, I suppose?). Wow!

the mcx is just as durable as the one you have. durability comes from the light weight of the thing, not the amount of channels. its like dropping a sheet of paper on the ground, its not likely to break.

the channel which you are referring to is roll. aileron/roll is left to right, elevator/pitch is forward and backward, and rudder/yaw is left to right rotation, then throttle which is up and down.

If anyone is serious about learning to fly helis as a hobby, then you cannot learn on a 3 channel heli. if your goal is just to play with a toy heli, then those things are just fine, and you can just ignore us "snobs".

if youve ever seen a video on 3d heli maneuvers, then you should know that none of that is possible without 4 channels at minimum. you cant even begin to creep towards that level of skill without a good 4 channel model.

 

[Narse]

the mcx is just as durable as the one you have. durability comes from the light weight of the thing, not the amount of channels. its like dropping a sheet of paper on the ground, its not likely to break.

the channel which you are referring to is roll. aileron/roll is left to right, elevator/pitch is forward and backward, and rudder/yaw is left to right rotation, then throttle which is up and down.

If anyone is serious about learning to fly helis as a hobby, then you cannot learn on a 3 channel heli. if your goal is just to play with a toy heli, then those things are just fine, and you can just ignore us "snobs".

if youve ever seen a video on 3d heli maneuvers, then you should know that none of that is possible without 4 channels at minimum. you cant even begin to creep towards that level of skill without a good 4 channel model.

This, this this


The 3 channel toys will hurt you if you ever want to move up. Coaxial helis to guys like me that fly CP(Collective Pitch) are slow and unresponsive but they are where everyone should start. If you have a 4 channel coaxial like the mcx2 the control scheme will somewhat transfer to the more advanced helis. I used to say to move to a fixed pitch heli after a coaxial but now with flybarless systems and the mcpx I say go from a coaxial to the mcpx. The mcpx will be where the addiction comes from. There is just nothing like flying a true collective pitch heli.

 

[SSSnail]

The video that I made was on a 3 channel heli. I get it, it's missing yaw, but it still flies. For buzzing around the living room, I'm OK with that. It does precisely what I want it to do (yes yes, no yaw) and goes exactly where I want it to go. Good enough.

My R/C passion is (or was) on-road racing - requires infinitely more skills.

 

[Narse]

The video that I made was on a 3 channel heli. I get it, it's missing yaw, but it still flies. For buzzing around the living room, I'm OK with that. It does precisely what I want it to do (yes yes, no yaw) and goes exactly where I want it to go. Good enough.

My R/C passion is (or was) on-road racing - requires infinitely more skills.

If you think on road racing even comes close to skill with a full CP Heli you are clearly misinformed.

 

[SSSnail]

If you think on road racing even comes close to skill with a full CP Heli you are clearly misinformed.

LOL, so the biggest learning curve for you is to keep the damn thing in the air, is that it?

Oh, and I said on-road racing, not milling around a parking lot, just in case you missed it.

 

[randay]

LOL, so the biggest learning curve for you is to keep the damn thing in the air, is that it?

Oh, and I said on-road racing, not milling around a parking lot, just in case you missed it.

ill try to explain further, i hope youre not just being facetious. ive gone very deep into everything remote controlled except for RC boats, ive raced rc cars, on road, off road, drift, drag, whatever. and ive flown airplanes and helis. gas and electric. I have to honestly say that helis require the most hand eye coordination out of them all. and then you add in the clench factor and it gets out of hand. you crash a car and maybe you have to fix some a-arms, you crash your heli and theres a good chance of total destruction.

saying that the biggest learning curve for helis is just keeping the thing in the air is like saying the biggest learning curve for cars is just passing the start line.

You flying around that heli is equal to some guy driving his rtr off-brand rc car around in circles in a wide open parking lot. if he manages to not hit a pole or his own foot he would consider his time invested as worthwhile. but in actuality, hes barely scratching the surface of the rc car world.

he could be tweaking his diff oil to get his car to turn in better or cutting down his foams to change his overdrive just as you could be doing tick tocks and inverted funnels with your heli.

 

[SSSnail]

The point is not to crash , and collect that trophy at the end of the race.

And racing isn't just shaving foams (not cutting). If you crash and you're just fixing an A-arm, then you aren't "racing", probably hitting your foot in a parking lot. If you've truly "raced", you'll then know the infinite work, knowledge and skills require to race on-road gas cars. It is truly a scale down race car and not just a toy.

Doesn't matter what you do with a heli, it'll always equivalent to driving around in a wide parking lot, because that's exactly what it is (inverted funnel cakes included!)

 

[randay]

The point is not to crash , and collect that trophy at the end of the race.

And racing isn't just shaving foams (not cutting). If you crash and you're just fixing an A-arm, then you aren't "racing", probably hitting your foot in a parking lot. If you've truly "raced", you'll then know the infinite work, knowledge and skills require to race on-road gas cars. It is truly a scale down race car and not just a toy.

Doesn't matter what you do with a heli, it'll always equivalent to driving around in a wide parking lot, because that's exactly what it is (inverted funnel cakes included!)

sorry its tire cutting, look it up. anyway I give up, its like talking to a wall thats suffering from dunning-kreuger effect. as long as you have fun thats all that matters really. so just have fun.

 

[SSSnail]

Actually, the correct term is "truing", but shaving is what it's akin to because of all the shavings of foam afterward. Good nite Mr. Dunning-Kruger!

 

[JJ650]

I have done racing (on and off road) and still get into some nice off road truggy races, but the flying takes a lot more concentration if you're doing something other than a park flyer in an empty field lazily zooming back and forth.

I've tried my hand with a Walkera doing some "light" 3d stunts. I was having to watch and concentrate and lot damned harder than any of the racing I have done before.

Drifiting in breezes is a headache...doing it inverted, trying to maintain a specifi altitude and watching throttle, yaw and pitch is hands down harder. I considered the racing cake walks.
After just playing around with it, I was working up a good sweat. I would much rather have to replace arms, shocks, shock towers and knuckles than replace most of a heli on a good crash.

 

[Narse]

I have done racing (on and off road) and still get into some nice off road truggy races, but the flying takes a lot more concentration if you're doing something other than a park flyer in an empty field lazily zooming back and forth.

I've tried my hand with a Walkera doing some "light" 3d stunts. I was having to watch and concentrate and lot damned harder than any of the racing I have done before.

Drifiting in breezes is a headache...doing it inverted, trying to maintain a specifi altitude and watching throttle, yaw and pitch is hands down harder. I considered the racing cake walks.
After just playing around with it, I was working up a good sweat. I would much rather have to replace arms, shocks, shock towers and knuckles than replace most of a heli on a good crash.

Couldn't say it better if I tried. I used to race 1/10th scale nitro stadium (long live the Losi XXX-NT) trucks, Just learning to Hover my Raptor was harder than any race I was ever in. He is just clueless, no harm no foul.

 

[SSSnail]

So, basically you sweat because you were afraid of a crash? Yeah, that is in every way directly related to how difficult it is to fly.

It's OK, life is a bitch when you're not that bright.

 

[Narse]

So, basically you sweat because you were afraid of a crash? Yeah, that is in every way directly related to how difficult it is to fly.

It's OK, life is a bitch when you're not that bright.

Well that and crashing into yourself can kill you. Never worried about that when I was racing. Don't get me wrong, running top slot in on road RC is hard and requires skill but it simply does not compare to collective pitch helis. Your coaxil flies nothing like a CP heli, it wants to stay level and does not drift and roll. Just hovering a flybared CP heli takes more skill than local level RC racing.

 

[Narse]

This is skill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYxxEzJ9EZw

 

[SSSnail]

Tell you what, let me know which of these things are capable of doing the stunts that you linked to in your "skill" video. http://www.xheli.com/6-channel-brushless-rc-helicopters.html

 

[Narse]

Tell you what, let me know which of these things are capable of doing the stunts that you linked to in your "skill" video. http://www.xheli.com/6-channel-brushless-rc-helicopters.html

Most of those are all clone trex models, they will do 90% of the tricks he does, maybe all in the hands of the right person. I have seen people do 3D with the Blade CP and that is known as one of the worst flying CP heli ever. But to you they would all seem unflyable, I doubt you could hover one without crashing and thats the simple truth.

This is a better choice, You could learn to hover it in an hour or so if you are really good at RC. Its also cheap to fix and rarely breaks.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/products/blade-mcp-x-v2-rtf-BLH3600

 

[mmntech]

I have done racing (on and off road) and still get into some nice off road truggy races, but the flying takes a lot more concentration if you're doing something other than a park flyer in an empty field lazily zooming back and forth.

I've tried my hand with a Walkera doing some "light" 3d stunts. I was having to watch and concentrate and lot damned harder than any of the racing I have done before.

Drifiting in breezes is a headache...doing it inverted, trying to maintain a specifi altitude and watching throttle, yaw and pitch is hands down harder. I considered the racing cake walks.
After just playing around with it, I was working up a good sweat. I would much rather have to replace arms, shocks, shock towers and knuckles than replace most of a heli on a good crash.

This is why I got out of flying and bought a short course MIRV. Cars and trucks are significantly cheaper and far easier to repair if they get damaged. I flew planes for many years, both nitro and electric. They were just a huge money pit. Even minor damage and wear was time consuming and expensive to fix, let alone a crashed plane. Thankfully I didn't plant many Balsa trees but I just had too many maintenance issues that it ceased being enjoyable. Last time I flew, it was annold Piper Cub that I had just beautifully restored. Everything checked and quadruple checked. Calm day. Did a death roll on takeoff and nose dived. Unrepairable. I don't know to this day why it crashed. Not pilot error, not engine failure, not electronics. I think one of the control cables inside the wing must have snapped. After that, I decided I'd had enough. Plus the guys running the club I was at we're downright pricks. It's developed quite the bad reputation in the RC community since I left two years ago. Just a bunch of old farts running the show who never flew, harassed other members, and liked making arbitrary rule changes to drive others out.

With my short course truck, I can just take it out and slam it around the local fair grounds. Even after upgrading the diffs, axels, push rods, putting in high lift shocks, and buying three extra batteries, it still hasn't cost me as much as just assembling a plane of the same size class.

Helicopters largely have the same problem as planes. They're expensive, complicated and tend to break easily. It can get to the point where you're spending more time just maintaining them than actually flying.