First collective pitch helicopter

[Eric Hartley]

Hi

I have flown fixed wing for a number of years and for a change built several quadcopters which have been fun to fly but mainly used for camera platform. For the last few months I have been flying an indoor micro (Blade 120SR which incidentally seems to burn through tail motors at a fair rate) and a Phoenix Flight Sim. with Futaba 14SG. I would like to try a collective pitch and was thinking of the Align trex450 plus - flybarless which according to the blurb is suited for beginners! Has anyone got any advice/suggestions'

Eric

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

yes eric

give it a go, heli's are easier to fly than they have ever been

get help with setting it up and your chances are much increased

trex is a well regarded heli, I learnt on a raptor 50.

flybarless is much better I hear

[Fats Flyer]

The 450 size is perfect to learn on,i have 6 450's now and love them.

They are a good size ,relatively cheap to fix when you crash (and you will).

There is plenty of information around for the 450,Heliguy forum is excellent and I recommend it.

The key thing for successful flying is setup.Get this right and it makes learning to fly easier and take it slow.

Good luck with it.

F.F

[Allan Bennett]

I was almost sold on a T-Rex 450 by a club member who worked in a model shop, but then I didn't see him for a while and, having read about their capabilities in windy weather, went for a 500 instead. I'm glad I did, for I was able to practice with that on days that other flyers with 450s (and many fixed-wing clubmates) were grounded.

The disadvantage of 500 over 450 is the initial expense; bigger batteries required (6S 2600 instead of 3S), and the higher cost of blades. Other spares are, of course, more than for 450s, but not so much; it's the blades that hurt! You can keep repair costs down by using 3rd-party fibreglass blades instead of the carbon ones that come as standard.

I started by learning on a Twister Bell 47, and with my 500 properly setup for me by an experienced flyer, I was able to hover it, after a fashion, straight away. I think I had three crashes requiring blades, main gear, and tail boom (nothing more) before I was able to hover a full battery. Mine is flybarred, by the way. I have an fbl 550 now too, and agree that if it's properly set up, fbl is potentially more stable than a flybar. I'm not a fan of the stock Align 3Gx flybarless controller though -- I swapped mine for a MicroBeast because I just couldn't get the 3Gx to fly, even with 2 years' experience under my belt.

I would also recommend getting a kit, rather than rtf. That way you'll know how to fix it when you break it. The Align manuals are very good, and I needed no help with my build until it came time to fine-tune and test-fly.