Remote control helicopter

snuggles said:

Quick story here, my brother has been talking to me for YEARS about how he wants to get an R/C heli(so he can drop water balloons on his neighbors house)
...
Anyhoo, he's telling me about the Syma helicopters he saw online.
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he goes nuts and says...THAT'S THE ONE I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU ABOUT!!!!!!!!

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That's a cool story. My brother and I have surprised each other with stuff like this over the years.

How long did it take him to realize that there's no way the Syma heli can carry a water balloon? And even if it had enough lift to carry one there'd be no way to release it on command.

I think he's finally realized that it's more difficult than he thought.
Mark

RocketManDan said:

I remember this helicopter. I was at FRY's about 2 weeks ago and they had all kinds of helicopters on sale. They had one that looked to be about 2 1/2 maybe 3 feet long for $140 and it came with an on board camera. They also had a few others that were progressively lower on the price range...FRY's has a lot of cool stuff.

There's a lot of cool stuff out there on the market. I'm think about getting into another hobby aside from rockets. Helicopters and planes are cool.. I thought maybe going for a TRAXXAS 4x4 truck...undecided?

https://traxxas.com/

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i bought my son a truck the same time i got the helicopter, they helicopter is gyro stablized .. sooo the truck and the heli are easy compared to a plane.....
which has roll... (heli is harder if your flying the full 4-6 channel un-gyro versions, like the trex) But even a 3 channel airplane is dang hard to fly...

I bought him this truck https://www.nitrorcx.com/51c803-stripblue-24ghz.html the bad thing is that these trucks do not get parts in your local store, replacement axles and such need ordered online... but chipping is only 5.00.

next, we will build a foamy park flyer trainer with a small brushless motor for him to learn aircraft on... (3 channel... then we will add the alerons once he can land it.)

You could always do a 2 channel glider as well. Super easy to fly once trimmed and very relaxing. My Gambler is a 50" hand launched glider that I can chuck up to 100 feet or so. On a no lift day I can get around 60-65 seconds of flight time. The neat thing is there are rarely no lift days. Flight times in the 30 minute range are routine in the summer. My longest flight was over 45 minutes with numerous speck out altitudes. I could have flown longer but my neck was getting tired and I was getting hungry. A truly wonderful hobby no doubt.

grouch said:

You could always do a 2 channel glider as well. Super easy to fly once trimmed and very relaxing. My Gambler is a 50" hand launched glider that I can chuck up to 100 feet or so. On a no lift day I can get around 60-65 seconds of flight time. The neat thing is there are rarely no lift days. Flight times in the 30 minute range are routine in the summer. My longest flight was over 45 minutes with numerous speck out altitudes. I could have flown longer but my neck was getting tired and I was getting hungry. A truly wonderful hobby no doubt.

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WE have perfect areas for glider.. i need to find some open source plans.

Here is one of mine.
This is a Hirobo Freya Eagle 90 sized.

Nice George!

grouch said:

Nice George!

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Thanks,

This is my competition bird, this pic was taken at the 2010 Heli National Championships.

Just upgraded to Real Flight 6 from 3.5... Now back to practicing my hovering...
At $650 in R/C Helicopter... oye vey... and thats like an entry level T-Rex 550... I rather crash it on the sim a million times first!

Jeff as you know the sim is a invaluable tool.
I recommend using the sim to learn to hover in all configurations ( tail in, nose in and 90 degree hover).
Also correct set up of your heli is and absolute must.

Falcon195 said:

Jeff as you know the sim is a invaluable tool.
I recommend using the sim to learn to hover in all configurations ( tail in, nose in and 90 degree hover).
Also correct set up of your heli is and absolute must.

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Understood! Indeed I do not have a heli yet. I listen to the R/C Today Show podcast, All Thing That Fly podcast, and the old Inside Heli podcast. So I know setup is key once you can hover in all orientations and forward flight. Good setup keeps you from chasing the helicopter because of binding parts, servos that don't center, or bad pitch or swash setups etc. I know once I get a 500 class ship, I'll have the experts around here in LA give it a good once over. I've heard bigger flies better so I'd like to start around a 500 class electric ship. Someday! :wink:

Thanks for the info!

I have quite a few of the Align series helicoptors all the way up to the 700. What I'd say to anyone wanting to get into the helicopter hobby is to get a "hobby" quality helicopter. By that I mean one that you can buy parts for! Most of the "Mall" (amazon) helicopters are cheap and once they break...oh well. Look at the Blade series by Horizon (e-Flight). They fly great (except the SR...man I hate the SR...the SR su#$s....oh sorry, I digress ) With helicopters, It's not "if" you are going to crash, but more "when" you are going to crash and maybe "how soon" you are going to crash! :y:

My brother and I both bought a blade 400 great deal as it came with the spektrum d6i radio. Mine has been through a few minor crashes and one major crash (first roll went well. second.. not so much ) Now my Blade is 50% trex parts It is nice knowing that I know every bolt screw and gear on the bird and can obtain and replace them myself. oh and I still use the sim.

-Z

Yer, the syma mini helicopters are pretty good, but in the last month or so these new $50 quadcopters have arrived and they are crazy good. Search youtube for syma quadcopter to see what I mean. Amazing.. Ive got a mini remote control helicopter as well, but these new quads are in a different class, but were $300 a year ago so only possible now for the mass market.

LiteHawk makes a good heli and easy to fly and the prices are reasonable on all their products. My girlfriend got me a LiteHawk II Great indoor helicopter and fun to fly. Well made too.

Here's their website

https://www.litehawk.ca/

I might add that all the parts on these helicopters can be replaced without draining your wallet. I'm thinking about getting the LiteHawk AERO so I can have something to fly outdoors. It has a LiPo battery and I have a ACDC LiPo charger I use on my RC Truck....I'm sure I can use it on the helicopter... that's the only thing. You go out flying and you get about about 10 minutes of fly time before it's done.

In post number one I mentioned buying these at $26 each. I just bought 2 more a month ago for $16 each.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004A8ZRB0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I just picked up a pair of 4CH fixed pitch helis....holy cow, I need practice!

Coaxials are easy, and a lot of fun. These move a LOT faster, and are a lot easier to get into trouble with!

-Kevin

troj said:

I just picked up a pair of 4CH fixed pitch helis....holy cow, I need practice!

Coaxials are easy, and a lot of fun. These move a LOT faster, and are a lot easier to get into trouble with!

-Kevin

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Yep, the 4ch FP's are great. I've got a little Eflite Blade MSR, which I haven't flown in a while, and it really zips around the house! I'd love to be able to fly it in a larger space, though. Maybe when I get some more practice I'll be able to fly it outside on a calm day. There can't really be any breeze at all with one that light (1oz with the battery) unless you have very good control over it. They are definitely a lot more responsive than coaxials!
The good thing about the Blade MSR is that it's too light to really damage anything, including itself. And if it does break, repairs are simple and cheap. They literally sell every single part of the helicopter individually.

RocketManDan said:

I remember this helicopter. I was at FRY's about 2 weeks ago and they had all kinds of helicopters on sale. They had one that looked to be about 2 1/2 maybe 3 feet long for $140 and it came with an on board camera. They also had a few others that were progressively lower on the price range...FRY's has a lot of cool stuff.

There's a lot of cool stuff out there on the market. I'm think about getting into another hobby aside from rockets. Helicopters and planes are cool.. I thought maybe going for a TRAXXAS 4x4 truck...undecided?

https://traxxas.com/

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My brother's been heavy into RC monster trucks... he's got a couple of Traxxas trucks... (can't think of the names offhand ATM tho). He loves the electrics and has hopped them up... his "spensive" one has a metal frame, metal shocks, twin electric 7 turn (IIRC) racing motors, a two-speed servo-shifted transmission, and lipolys for power... it'll SCOOT... He can jump about 5 feet high and about 10-15 feet off his sand berm "jumps" in the back yard, or get it up to about 40 mph on the highway. We went together and bought one of those Boostervision transmitter TV cams about the size of a sugar cube and mounted it on the truck... made some cool video... we have "suspension cam", behind the bumper "jump cam", FPV "driver cam", and put the camera on the undercarriage so we have "driveshaft cam"... pretty neat video. He's got a car too that he bought from a buddy, but it's strictly for racing in parking lots... it can't handle grass and off-road stuff... he occassionally goes up to the school in town to run it.

I need to get that boostervision cam in a rocket... never have gotten around to it yet... got some Maniac former Astrocam carriers capable of lofting it...

Later! OL JR