Getting started

[Gareth Child]

It's not as easy as it looks, is it?

I jumped in and bought a Twister Bell 47 - which I crashed after just two minutes of use because I thought that 'getting the feel of it' 15 feet above the garden would be better than 'walking' it around the carpet like the instruction manual said. It only took a few seconds of that flight for me to run out of talent.

It could have been worse - the only thing that broke was the bit of the rotor hub that holds the fly bar in place.

So I've gone back to basics, and spent half an hour 'walking' it again.

Is it reasonable to try to set the trim while walking the heli? I am having trouble because the trim isn't very consistent - so would it be easier to trim it in 'clean air?'

Or am I just being impatient? After all, I have only been flying for about half an hour.

[Peter Bark]

Get a training undercart and thread it through the skids, makes walking it round much easier. When you feel ready to lift it higher the plastic balls will take the strain when you chop the throttle to avoid the settee, cat, kids, wife etc. Until you get used to it, land before setting the trims. Once you get the hang of hovering, not necessarily well, avoiding a crash will do, take the training balls off and lift off quickly. If you have enough space to get it head high and no walls too close you will find it very stable and a good trainer.

[Steve Loates]

I second the advice given by Peter Bark, having recently learnt the basics and progressed to a much better heli (Honeybee King II from a Honeybee 4Ch), I can absolutely and categorically state that training undercarriage is invaluable. I did the same as you and got a little ahead of myself, unfortunately so did the heli and a fairly extensive repair job was the result. I had a set of undercarriage but was too manly to use it. Put it on after the spill and found that not only did it take the shock out of crap landings but also made the heli a little more stable in the hover. Granted ground effect still throws it around a little, but above about 30 cms the heli is held reasonably steady by the extra weight. I have progressed quickly, having only been flying helis for about 4 months now but have upgraded as I mentioned earlier and I am having a blast, just wish I had made it all a bit cheaper in the first place by looking past my ego and fitting the training gear earlier....remember, no matter how daft it may look, if it saves you money, hassle and heartache, it must be a good thing. Good luck.

[Gareth Child]

Thanks. I never did get round to buying a training undercarriage - the shop didn't have them in stock. I just stuck at it and learned to correct trim with the cyclic controls to work out what the trend was before adjusting the pitch controls. Since repairing the flybar mount (Twister now sell the mount and inner shaft as one piece, so the parts diagram is no longer accurate - which meant I ended up with a £7 bag of parts I don't need... yet) I've clocked up about 12 hours of flying time and I'm pretty happy with the progress I'm making. It was very still at 6am today, and I had great fun hovering and flying circuits 30 feet above my garden. I've destroyed three blades and at the moment the upper two have narrow slivers shaved off the ends, which gives the heli a rotation that the trim control can't compensate for. So I've ordered a few replacement blades and a one-piece canopy. I'm already thinking of upgrading at Christmas, and definitely want another electric heli. I like the look of the Falcon 3d and the HoneyBee King 2, but can't really see what separates them. What would you recommend?

[Peter Bark]

I've posted looking for a second trainer without response. Local model shop recommends a Century UK Mini Pred 3D, I've seen both good and bad reports in forums on this so I'm still looking for guidance.

[Gareth Child]

There is quite a lot of choice in this part of the market; I've been looking at the Hummingbird 3D Pro this morning and, just as with the others, the reviews are mixed. It's just a shame that there aren't any demonstrator models anwhere - I would be prepared to travel if I was given the option to 'try before I buy.' Mind you, what kind of shop owner would allow a customer to wander in and fly a couple of hundred quids worth of heli on the off chance of a sale...? I know that there are a few YouTube films of helis, so I'll have a trawl through there this afternoon to see if I can pick up any tips about how well they fly. On a slight tangent, the slivers of damage to my upper rotor blades seem to have been just the visible damage they had suffered - I think there was some damage I couldn't see, too. I was in a park this morning practicing circuits and in the middle of a fairly fast turn both upper blades broke in half at the same time. The lower two blades, which are brand new, are fine. There is no evidence that the two rotors touched. The heli was moving rather quickly at about 30-40 feet above the ground, turning hard under full throttle, so it came down pretty heavily. I've tested all the electronics and it all works fine, but the tail boom is a write-off. I know where there is a replacement boom in stock for a fiver, so that's not a problem - but it's taught me a lesson about the brittleness of Twister blades. Even if an impact only shaves the tip off the blades, the shock seems to weaken the whole blade.

[Steve Loates]

I can heartily recommend the honeybee king ii to anybody looking to upgrade from a trainer. I did just that and have thus far found it to be a remarkable heli. it is fast, responsive and I think easier to fly than the 4channel models I have tried. I have probably around 50 hours on various helis and have gone to the king ii as a 3d option. In summary it is stable, maneouverable, rewarding and fun to fly, what more can anybody want. the choice is obviously yours, hopefully any decision you make will bring you both joy and hours of entertainment.

[Gareth Child]

Who needs a tail boom? New blades arrived today and for a laugh I've just flown for a full charge with lots of controlled landings on bits of furniture around the room, all with no tail boom. It needed a good boot of backward pitch to stay stable, but it was a very impressive performance from the little machine and an absolutely indecent amount of fun. In terms of upgrades, though, I've been looking around and I don't think I want to go down the 3d route; I'm more interested in scale models than aerobatics or stunt flying. I love the look of the look of the Century Bell 47G - that is what helicopters look like when I imagine them. I'll look into the possibility of getting one (or something like it) with an electric engine. Obviously I'll need a better trainer in the meantime - especially as I'll want to keep on flying while I build something more interesting. In the absence of scale ARTF helis, it looks like the HoneyBee King II is the one to go for, as you recommend, Steve. Thanks for the tip.

[Bill Jowitt]

Gareth,

 I recently faced the same predicament as you. I plumped for the Deluxe Falcon 3d from Heliguy and have been very pleased with it. Apparently it is pretty much identical to the Mini-pred, for which spares are readily available - Heliguy's service is good though. I cannot compare it to others in the market like the Honeybee King II. Whatever you go for, make sure that it is brushless and Lipo'd and that it is shaft driven rather than belt driven as that appears to be slightly superior in handling and knock resistance.

 Other good advice is to go for a decent sim - Phoenix has a good reputation. I currently use RealFlight G3 which has probably saved me a wallet load.

 Bill

[Gareth Child]

...hhmmmmmmm.... not many flight sims for Apple users, are there...? And are belt driven helis really inferior to shaft driven? I was really taken with the Esky Belt CP...

[Bill Jowitt]

As I have said before, I cannot make a direct comparison between belt driven and shaft driven, but comments that I have seen on other forums indicate that there is a small lag between putting in a tail rotor input and the belt tension and speed increasing to make the effect.

Another advantage of shaft driven rotors is that they may be more resistant to damage. I have certainly flown my Falcon3D after blade strikes on the boom have left very heavy dings in the boom and bent it out of true whereas I suspect that a belt driven heli would not have worked so well.

As for Apple sims - well if you do insist on being in a small minority who want to pay over the odds for flashy toys... oh, hang on a mo, that describes us r/c heli nuts!

Get a dual O/S machine so that you can play with the rest of us...

[Gareth Child]

"As for Apple sims - well if you do insist on being in a small minority who want to pay over the odds for flashy toys... oh, hang on a mo, that describes us r/c heli nuts! Get a dual O/S machine so that you can play with the rest of us..." I've just fallen about laughing... When OS Leopard is released next month, I'll get that - it has a Windows mode as standard. Mind you, it is a buyer's market for mid-range helis, innit? There is some very tasty kit on the market at very reasonable prices. Do you receommend getting a Falcon 3D? I want something I can sling around in an amateurish way, and very slowly build up confidence and skills on. So it needs to be tough as old boots, rewarding, and easy to fix.

[Bill Jowitt]

Getting a Falcon 3D Deluxe certainly has worked well for me. I am still learning so whatever I do is amateurish. I would not say that it is tough as old boots. I have broken a blade holder, but they are 3 or 4 quid for a spare pare, and trashed a boom, but again a complete boom replacement with the bearings and shaft fitted is about 12 quid. If you are a masochist for repairs, you could look at the Falcon3D forum on Heliguy for advice on getting the bearings and shaft out and straightening out the blade strike. I have replaced the original blades, but they lasted a surprisingly long time. The only other thing that happened was that my ESC burst into flames after a bump, but I blame myself as I had put the leads under mechanical stress which probably caused a short. I think that it has done well considering that I must have racked up quite a few hours with my limited skill levels. It is certainly easy to fix, and the parts are cheap and easily available as it is basically the same as a mini-pred.

 However, other people have not had such happy experiences if you trawl around the other heli forums. I guess it comes down to budget - if you can stretch to a proper heli compatible computer Tx and something like a TRex 450 or Mini Titan and decent gyros, servos, brushless motor, ESC etc., then go for it. In the mid range (£100-250), I think that the Falcon 3D is a good package, but don't take my word for it. If you have the time and inclination, look at some of the other forums like Heliguy and Heliaddict and read what others say about other models. If you have a friendly local model shop, see what they fly and hence recommend and can support and also what the locals fly if you go to a club. On the spot support and advice is always helpful.

In the end it comes down to you get what you pay for. If something is cheap, then there is probably a good reason. Even though I think that I have got very good value from my Deluxe Falcon3D from Heliguy, it is a compromise. The Tx, servos and gyro are not top of the range, but for my budget it is fine.

I hope that you are happy with whatever you plump for and have fun with it. Good luck!

[Gareth Child]

Well, I've just ordered a Century Mini Pred - which, as you say, is essentially the same as a Falcon 3D. The clincher, as they say, was the advice of a local club. Members there much prefer shaft to belt driven tail rotors. If the people I want to give me help, advice and instruction prefer shaft drives, then I will buy a shaft driven heli - and then buy them a pint after they have helped me. The other advice they gave me was simple: don't crash.