Im interested in buying an Rc Helicopter.

Looking for a good quality learners copter just to start on with a reasonable price >100$.

So im wondering if anybody on here flies them or knows what i should get.

Also if anybody has any tips for learning how to fly, that would be nice.

Thanks Guys,
Chris

I think you meant <$100?

Not many choices outside of the "toy" section at that range BUT this one believe it or not is a GREAT place to start. It'll help you develop the stick skills a bit (they're pretty washy helis and very forgiving...kinda like a big old Arc vs a fixed bridle), weigh nothing which helps crash surviveability and are a low cost way to experience the feeling of flying an RC Heli.

THEN get a simulator and fly that for a year. Really. It'll save you ten times the cost of the simulator. RealFlight is a great one. AND you can connect with friends and fly together.

THEN get your heli. The bigger they get the more stable (sluggish) they will be but also the more $$$ they'll be. I've got four MX400's (electric) that owe me a fortune so great I'll never be able to sell them without eating my shirt, pants, socks AND skivvies. Had far more fun chasing the dog around the house with the Blade mCX than I ever really did with the MX400's.

In the day, the Align TRex was the 400 of choice. Lots of parts available and good support network through forums (lots of fliers). Not sure what today's go-to electric is.

Seriously though. Get the simulator. It's as good as being there - so accurate. Saved me many crashes and injuries.

Buy a flight simulator for your computer. I have realflight G3 (I think they are on G5 now.) I think about $250 for the program and controller, but will save you a lot more in the long run. Small counter rotating blade helis like the blade mCX2 are close to your price range. They are fun but if you really want to see what an actual collective pitch rc helicopter can do, head to youtube and look for things like ep t-rex 700 3d flight. Pretty amazing stuff.

Dunno about bigger being sluggish. My buddy was doing demo flights last year with a 12 hp ep trex 700 that was probably capable of 140 mph. He broke 40g stickers with a 10 hp ep.:eekdrull: 'Course sponsorships are nice

Wow some good information. Thanks Macboy and heliboy

What those guys said, software is a great start, it is not cheap for a good package, but helps learn those hand-eye skills, and crash repairs are FREE!

When it is time for a 1st bird, stay fixed pitch (FP) think of it as a 2line foil. With FP, rpm = lift. Maybe when you get the software, also get yourself a small indoor mini FP to practice with, they are twitchy and a great way to practice your handling inside when the weather does not permit outside. Walkera makes some nice mini's, the CB100 jumps to mind as highly recommended. Same idea as starting with a small 3m foil to learn on. smaller, less dangerous, lot cheaper..

When you ready for a bigger unit, look for something like the honeybee FP, probably the most recognized one out there.

After you have those down, then look into Collective pitch (CP) birds. Those are your 4line speed kites..

I have a Walkera 4B3 mini and a old honeybee FP. I started building a kit FP by Guru when I lost interest.

Heli is right about the "sluggish" reference. There are some amazing machines out there. I'd heard in my learning days that the 4-600 electrics were considerably harder to learn on than the bigger entry level nitro helis hence my generalization. The nice thing about the 4-600 electrics is that you can probably find an indoor club flying in a local hangar which takes the wind variable out. I've heard rumours of a guy being chased through a hedge by a drifting nitro heli being pushed to him by the wind. Might be urban legend but I doubt it.

Here's the local guru - Leon Luke. Guy's amazing. He helped me at our indoor hangar years back setting up the finer points of my first MX400.


Sounds like Star Wars!

Save your money and do an autogyro the give the feel look and fly allot easier and you can do tandems the best part is you can take off and land in the same manner

Indoor flight is nice. I used to hover, practice pirouettes, and do a lot of no wind fine tuning in the warehouse at work. They most assuredly are not toys. The year that I got into the hobby an ama flight instructor was killed by a .60 sized nitro. I see pros and cons to both ep and nitro, but am really leaning toward electric. Power/weight not as much an issue, although the relative frailty of li-poly batteries still bugs me. One simple and nice thing about the electrics is a rather substantial reduction in some aspects of crash damage. Not having a nice chicken dance to add injury to injury.:roll:

I really like my little blade msr. Fixed pitch so no inverted flight but great for around 150 bucks
Scott

A great intro heli is are any of the r/c hogs, you can find them in the toy section at wal-mart. They run about $20 but are tons of fun and pretty durable. Great to get the feel. From there move up to a Blade CX or CP depending on your budget and skill. I had a Blade CX (fixed) and have flown a friend's trex 3d and honestly I have a lot more fun with the r/c hogs. I'm just not scared of crashing! Heli's are very easy to crash and even the smallest crash can cost you hundreds of $$ on a bigger heli's.

I may come off sounding bias but if you want a good flying toy that is cheap user friendly and looks and acts similar build an auto out of blue foam from lows
I know I can get 25 plus planes out of a bundle that only cost 40 bucks I re use the electronics and repair them many times before throwing one a way unless I just don't like it then I throw it away I am not worried about crashing them because most can be built in a few hours and repaired in 30 m or less usually less than 5
If I do demolish a whole airplane I am only out 5 bucks lost o fun for the money and more free plans than u could build in a lifetime new ones come out at least a couple times a week

Not biased at all. Just different strokes for different folks. Fixed wing, rotary, whatever. Anything that leaves terra firma, and even takes us with it occasionally is just good. That's why we are all on this forum, like minded people. I think i'll give the autogyro a shot, especially since my raptor is in the repair bay.

Don't get me wrong if I had the cash is be flying the snot out o some Hellas
But an Apache longbow that will do some sick acrobatics and is an auto and only .runs 5 spot who can argue with that

Get one of these and build from there :D

http://www.wrenturbines.co.uk/engines/helicopter/wren-44-hel...

I wish lol

I know a guy with one pod and boom, and two 1/5th scale MD500's, one with a scale 5 blade head, all turbine. He had a turbine fixed wing, too, but it got detonated. RC turbine crashes are nasty. Speed+HOT exhaust+80-100,000 rpm turbine blades+a can each on board of propane and jet-A= total loss. I asked him if he needed any step kids, but he said no.:roll:

the best place to start is here

runryder.com you will find all of the info you can possibly need.
i've been in rc helis for a long time,unless you just want a toy heli to play with indoors,i wouldn't go with a fix pitch and a tail rotor set up facing upwards for the forward and reverse flight,also with no swash plate you can't do the side to side..

you can get good used set ups on the forum i mentioned.
you need to chose between nitro or electric.pros and cons on both models.

nitro - a good .30 size like the raptor from thunder tiger is a great start and electrics they have so many now i wouldn't know witch one to recommend

to realy enjoy it find something with a swash plate where your right stick controls forward/reverse/left/right
and the left stick controls colective pitch/tail rotor-left right and throtle.

the toy ones are good in helping the nose in hover to some point but that's about it.

when you start !!get training gear (a huge x shape with balls on each end to prevent you from tipping over ,start mastering the hover no more then 24" off the ground then slowly go higher,the higher you get the smoother it will become
then slowly turn the heli to hover it sideways (both sides) one is harder then the other !! to finaly nose in.

you will practice going forward and reverse to doing small circuits and figure 8..after this you will progress to what ever your plans are be it full 3d to scale flying..

i could go on and on about the set up and excesises but this is just a little info that will help you out..

100$ might be a little hard to find but i'm sure if you search you will stumble on to something great.seen lots got for 150$ all included and spare parts to boot..

good luck and have fun very adictive

steff

My experience is that a coaxial twin rotor will not keep you interested for very long. A fixed pitch single rotor will be a little challenging at the start, but be interesting for longer.
I like my Blade SR 120 more than my MSR. It a larger version of the MSR.
The most important thing is to get one that you can get parts for locally. You will need new parts and you will not want to wait for them to come by mail.
S

i am 4 months past where you are now...
learn the difference between toy and hobby grade. generally-toy means break anything on it and your garbaging entire unit. hobby grade means if you break a part that part can be replaced.
YOU WILL BREAK STUFF.
i'd say cheap= not very accurate flight characteristic [for me easy to fly/cheap= fun at very very beginning and less frustration but then turned into no satisfaction due to low challenge factor and does not gain much skill set and then upgrade to different more expensive heli.) .
buy something that your LHS (local hobby shop(s)) stocks parts for or you'll be waiting weeks/month for parts.
RC heli is a much more expensive play time than kites (upgrades/replacement parts). i couldn't guess how many trips to the local hobby shops i have made in past 4 months.
i have all Blade helis (hobby horizon) cuz it's a reputable bran and LHS stocks parts., mCX coax (which my 5 yr old now uses) then i got a Blade mSRX (fixed pitch), it took a good while to learn but it is go to heli for indoors (living room and gymnasium) and i can throw it around at speed pretty well even in living room.
i then bought a collective pitch Blade mCPX (good deal). i do not do 3D flying (yet) but this small CP is capable. this isn't much bigger than mSRx but it is a whole lot more dangerous...it has drawn blood.
i also have a Blade mQX which is a 4 rotor unit and is a different story and not nearly as easy to fly as one may think.
there is tonnes of e-lit for us beginners.
there are lots of used stuff too cuz people break/can't fly then decide to cut losses/sell.
i have a good Tx(programmable and controlls many helis) and macboy borrowed me a good flight sim too. those two help out nicely.
generally i've found the smaller the bird the more hits it takes between trips to LHS but it can be more difficult to learn to fly.
also for outdoors the small birds quickly become hard to see (which way it is heading) and is more affected by wind.
we were out in 15-20 kph and the mCPX and MQX were actually very very stable (gyros=another story). the MQX was almost at a 30degree lean into the wind to hold itself steady.
so, yes, the newer the unit generally the better gyros(computorized automatic stability [maybe not so technically correct explanation]) it will have.