Getting Back into R/C Helicopters

[SlowWhite]

Well been out flying my 60sized P-47 lately and talking with the guys at the club got me the itch to buy another Helicopter. And hopefully by next weekend I'll have one. Right now I still can't decided which one I want.

My 2 choices of Heli's I've found are:

1)and older model Miniature Aircraft 60sized heli, ready to fly comes with Radio, Servo's, Gyro, engine, muffler, etc. Looks just like my 1998 Graphite 60SE I used to fly. Except!!!! it's Metal Frame not Graphite. And I'm not even sure if they make parts for it anymore however I'm sure the parts I salvaged from my old heli will work with this one. Total cost is only $750 out the door. - I like this one basically because it's painted better and it's a familiar model to me so might be easier with setting up.

If I can get the pictures working it'll be the white heli with the stripes.


2) the 2nd one is basically Min Air newest stuff It's the Fury Extreme 3D This is like the cream of the crop so to speak in the type of flying I do. (extreme aerobatics) comes also ready to fly. I'm waiting on a return e-mail but pretty much just plug in my reciever and set the radio and off I go. This one is $850 out the door. And considering the kit brand new alone is $1600 this is a steal.

The Pro's for this are the best of the newest technologies, New govenor, Latest Gyro, New Min Air kit with parts readily available in case of a crash.

Con's - have no idea how to set this up and I don't really care for the paint scheme, would probably either repaint or buy a nicer looking canopy and matching tail fins.. But might be able to talk the previous owner into helping me set it up or find someone locally that can help me.


What are your opinions?

[Swifty1638]

I can say, after being in helis, that there are some other things I'd consider. look into the raptors. v2's. I had a 30v2. GREAT beginner heli outta the box. really well crafted. assembly was easy. I'd opt for the 49bb upgrade. Also, try to get the os 32 motor, rather then the TT-39h (I think that's what they call it-comes with the heli if you get it that way). the os is more user friendly, and doesn't burn up as much. also, parts for these helis are EASILY found at most stores, and are cheaper to maintain then others ive seen. the 50v2 is the same heli essentially, just with a few different parts, longer boom, main rotor blades, (I think the newer ones come with a biffer swashplate) and a bigger motor. Other then that, it's the same. I'd LOVe to go back to the heli, when I start to fly again. also, get a good, solid 1-piece muffler for the motor. those 3-pieces from TT fall apart tons, and just didn't cut the bill.

for electronics I had the airtronics 8000 radio. 8 channel. You don't need something this fancy, but i liked it's layout and got it. For a gyro though, i'd go no further then the futaba gy401. GREAT gyro, and pretty cheap! Other then these key elements I'd say, jsut practice TONS! setting the heli up by a professional would help tons too. TRy some simulators or whatnot. it's not a matter of if you crash..it's WHEN you crash..cause, you will.

-A. Swift

[SlowWhite]

I definetely want a 60 sized heli. So the Raptors won't cut it unfortunetely and I'd prefer to get something carbon fiber vs plastic and the company has to be Miniature Aircraft. I passed up a chance to be a sponsored pilot by Horobo as I was waiting to get picked up as a sponsored pilot by Min Air but decided to quit the hobby and missed it by 3 months (the year I bought my first Eclipse and couldn't afford to fly anymore due to repairs on the car)

I still have most of my gear from my old heli. Futaba 8UH radio, 501 Gyro, GV-1 govenor, OS.61SX motor with the 1 piece muffler, as well as upgraded Fins, Tail Blades, and Light weight paddles for faster menuverability.

These Heli's just happen to come with the equipment and are ready to fly which is Key for me since I've never built anything but my old Nexus .30's. when i was first learning to fly which are trivial compared to the complexity of the Graphite stuff.

Thanks for the info swifty it's good advice, I should have posted that I flew for 6yrs before getting out. And I'm sure I'll crash during the re-learning stages. But some good news is I've been using a flight simulator and so far so good. I can't believe the advance's in the technology since I got out of the hobby.

I have some video of me flying when I was first learning aerobatics on my myspace page, as well as my old roommate doing a night fly. Nash, Seth and I think Gil were there for the night fly.

[Matt D.]

Brian, after skimming your first post I wouldn't get a heli that has questionable parts availability. You KNOW something is going to break, and if a part breaks that you can't get anywhere, then what? It isn't what you entirely want, either. Do it right the first time.

[Swifty1638]

yea, you look into the raptor 60? or is a 90 too big? Man, you are making me miss this shit!

-A. Swift

[SlowWhite]

I actually saw a Raptor 60 today for the first time. - Looked like a sweet machine. Man things have changed since I last flew. Was fun actually the heli guy wanted to see if I really could fly so he took me back to his house to see his heli's, and then to play with his flight simulator. And I think I impressed him just a bit. Which I guess is good news since I really hadn't flown in 6yrs other then the 2 times I played with the simulators at the local hobby stores.

I priced out the white heli and even that one is a good deal also. I set up appointments next weekend in Georgia to see the white one and the owner of the red one mentioned that I could come down and check out a demo flight if I wanted he also lives in Georgia. So I guess we'll just see when I get down there. I could buy the white one, and part it out for more then I bought it for that's for sure.
Still waiting to hear back from the owner of the red one so still not sure what all it comes with.

[9guy9]

post up some vids when you get one. Its always fun to watch a good pilot.

I tried the elec mini helis and determined I do not have what it takes, as well as gaining great respect for the people who have it.

[JET]

I am not near as advanced as you are Brian, but the advances in the last few years in the heli's is crazy. I would get a newer one, even if you have to go smaller for the price. From what I have seen the electrics easily outperform the "gas" ones now. I know you can't get them as big, but the T-Rex's are pretty awesome and not all that spendy.

I got my dad into helicopters and he just got a FP King. Pretty cool chopper that you can still fly indoors. He is loving the unfinished basement in the new house, he loves to come visit

Here is a great forum for Heli's. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/index.php

[scheides]

How about one of those $50 ones they have at the mall. Play with it around the house and whatnot, and put the rest of hte $$ into getting your DSM back on the road/track!!!

[Swifty1638]

www.runryder.com. That was the site I was on before..

brian, ever think of doing a scale heli?

-A. Swift

[SlowWhite]

Well I bought a Heli tonight. And as soon as I got it home I went to town on changing it the looks. Oh and for X-mas I got one of those $50 heli's from my brother it's great with cats they go nuts however you can really only make right hand turns with it. They don't fly anything like in the commercials but are still fun.

I bought the Red one that is pictured above However - after spending almost 2hrs chit chatting with the guy. (how things are down here if you start a conversation expect it to at least last 30 minutes) He was getting out of Gas and going Electric, And he was showing me his massive boat collection, etc and found some parts he had from his crash 3 years ago with it. (and yes I had him test fly it for me) He found an extra canopy ($85 unpainted but this one is painted with sweet flames), and extra Skids. And he gave me a Gallon of 30% fuel (retails for $27). Also got invited to a Heli Fly in in Georgia this weekend where I'll get to meet the current world champion Heli pilot. who just happens to live 2hrs from me and flys at the local field in Columbia (40 mile drive, vs the 7 miles my local field is but for that kind of experience/help I'm going to make the trip a few times)

Anyways I have pictures of the finished product on my myspace page. started off with red/yellow canopy, red Landing Gear, and red/yellow tail fins.. But is now White/black Tail Fins (off my old heli), White/silver Landing Gear, and White/Silver/Black Canopy. Hope you guys like it.

I already priced out the parts $2200 worth of equimpment for $850.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/inde...ageID=15648145

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/inde...ageID=15648435

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/inde...ageID=15648673

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/inde...ageID=15648934

If those don't work hopefully this will:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/inde...lbumId=1337368

or

http://www.myspace.com/brianrbarton

[SlowWhite]

I also have White/Black Carbon Fiber Tail Blades that I'm going to put on (if they are the same size, etc) if not then I'll just order a set when I get a new set of White/Black Main blades for it. They are much easier to see in the air and help to figure out the positioning of the heli during 3D aerobatics

[SlowWhite]

Well after alot of work last night and tonight I finally found the answer's to all my set up questions, and seems like everything is now working perfectly. Had issues with the CCPM programing with my old Heli radio but got lucky Futaba had instructions on there website to manually program the radio to do CCPM contol mixing.
So tomorrow being the nicest day this week mid 50's with 5mph winds. I'm thinking I'm going to head to the field and see about putting the first flights on it.

[Swifty1638]

good luck! I know that was the most hair raising moments..liftoff.

-A. Swift

[SlowWhite]

Well no go today after driving nearly 250 miles around S.C. to find a Hex Starting system..a $16 item....I couldn't get the Hex adaptor off, so I could put my Pegi system on whichforced me to have to find a Hex drive starting shaft for my Engine Starter.. And I have a $70 glow plug starting unit, but wasn't long enough to reach the damn glow plug. So I had to get a remote Glow Plug adaptor. ($8)

I went to 2 different Hobby stores 1 being 66miles each way, and the next one was 47 miles from my house each way.

I finally found everything finished up the install and went to start the damn thing and the cone to my starter (ie: airplane propeller cone that I put the hex shaft into) kept unscrewing.... I didn't have a nut on the end of it like I was supposed to and of coarse I didn't have the right size nut around the house.
So found some JB Weld and am now waiting for it to cure. 4hrs to go. OH and wouldn't you know forcast for tonight is SNOW!!!! yes here in S.C. we are supposed to get SNOW!!! TONIGHT.. wonder if this is an OMEN? Like I shouldn't try to fly it till this weekend?
But tomorrow it is supposed to get back up into the mid 50's in the afternoon so who knows. I'd still like to at least fire up the engine and at least hover it.

[Kevin 1G Drummer]

Heaven forbid a little snow falls... :P haha

[SlowWhite]

Yep pretty much if it does snow tonight I'm sure nothing will be open tomorrow.
A guy I fly with used to work at the Dubro plant here in camden and he said one year they called for snow, and they shut the plant down except for 5 people . He said you could go out and wipe your window's off with your fingers it was so light.

[JET]

Did you just say you JB welded the starting cone on? Tsk, tsk Good luck with the first flight!

[SlowWhite]

I JB welded the starting cone to the starter not the heli section.

Let me tell you I'm off to a Terrific start with this helicopter. haahah So today I finally got it started only to realize my throttle servo was reversed. So instead of being closed it was WOT (damn fan shroud hides the carberator) it sounded like it was closed and for the longest time I couldn't get it started so I figured it was closed. Nope wrecked my starter (thing was so hot you could hardly hold it, so off to the hobby store tomorrow to get a new one)

And I'm praying I didn't wreck the clutch in the heli, I definetly smoked it, I found clutch dust on the bottom of the heli and it smelled pretty good afterwards. still turns freely but I'm hoping that I didn't take off to much so it can't engage the motor. The clutch is less then 2 weeks old and only has 6 flights on it.

Goods news is that the stupid Hex starting system that I couldn't get off to save my life and spent all day yesterday driving around to find the Hex starting shaft came off when I wrecked my starter, so now I can use my pegi (sp) starting system. Which I like way better then the HEX style. would have saved my starter as it allows it to free spin once the motor starts where as a hex system doesn't. Bad news is I wasted all that time driving around yesterday for nothing now.

Oh I hope this is the begining of something horrible. I know I'll work out all the bugs but I'm hoping it happens sooner vs later. It's what I get for being impatient

[SlowWhite]

Well First flight is finally overwith. - And man do I hate wasting my time drove down to get a new starter only to get home to find it doesn't have enough torque to turn over the motor.
So broke out the old trusty power drill riged up an adaptor (drill bit) to fit my Pegi start system. And she fired right up.

Not used to the 90 motor I had to slow the head way down by lowering the Throttle to 15,20,25,50 % (going up in incriments of 1/4 stick, 1/2 stick etc)
And increased the pitch by 6degrees (can electronically do it from my radio via knobs)
And after about 5 minutes she went threw the 1/4 tank of gas I had in it. Forgot how much these heli's suck down fuel. And you thought your DSM's were bad, try $25-$27/per gallon, and a full tank would probably net me about 15-20minutes of flying, and is about an 1/8 of a gallon worth of fuel.

One thing I did notice is I now have a vibration someplace in the heli the Gyro is way to sensitive and the tail just keeps wagging, and the faster the head spead the worse it gets (Another reason I slowed the head down)

Anyrate I can think of 3 things this might be from, the clutch, the Pegi start system, or the Gyro sensitivity might be up to much, there is a bolt that almost touchs the pegi so the adaptor might not be on there 100% straight (looks good via eyeballing it but you never know) or if the clutch material is down to much that the clutch is rubbing on metal that'll cause vibration (but sounds good, no metal on metal, however to be safe I'm going to see if I can buy either a new clutch, or at least by the clutch material and replace it)

Anyways again she hovered just fine and a little bit of moving around however I have way to many trees/bushes in my yard to move more then 6 feet in any direction.

So Although it's supposed to be in the 30's tomorrow I'm still going to head to statesboro GA for the fun fly and see about having a pro look at it and see about figuring out the tail wagging.