All helicopters can not be this bad !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tigerman]

I have just taught myself to fly helicopter .I can honestly say I can fly these Helicopter with no problems now.I have only flown electric helicopters from a well know brand .and had nothing but problems with these helicopter going wrong (not from crashing just parts failing) I have just come home from a session down our club flying field and now the gear cog on the electric motor has sheared of for no reason ,just crap parts.I have lost count of the money this is costing me and if this a part of flying helicopter you can keep it This was on a 450 size helicopter.Is this part of flying helicopters or are there some more reliable helicopter out there because I refused to buy anymore parts for this helicopter I think I could almost of brought a full size one by now .I have decided to go back to fix wing flying .It is a lot cheaper.No more helicopter for me

[rcaddict]

what you need my friend is a 3D printer !!!!

 

http://www.stlfinder.com/?search=align%20main%20gear&params=IFRoaW5naXZlcnNlIFlvdW1hZ2luZSBNeU1pbmlmYWN0b3J5IEN1bHRzM0QgUGluc2hhcGUgVHVyYm9zcXVpZCBTaGFwZXdheXMgR3JhYkNBRCBDR1RyYWRlciBUaHJlZWRpbmc=

 

Edited By oldgit on 15/02/2017 17:31:56

[Don Fry]

Yer penultimate sentence is sense. Why do you think that those vibratory things should have any chance of flying.

I refer you to the depressingly regular incidents of these flying egg whisks dropping on their victims. Full size.

[J D 8]

The only reason helicopter's fly at all is because they vibrate so much the earth rejects them.

[Jon H]

Which heli do you have? I have a blade 400 from eflite which is donkeys old now and I can probably count the number of spares its had on one hand!

[Denis Watkins]

If Helis were so poor, I think we would hear about it Tiger. Assembly is important, and damage can be done at that stage, as well as blade balancing and initial set up. You have been unlucky, and something is amiss

Edited By Denis Watkins on 15/02/2017 20:22:57

[Don Fry]

Jon, your are far too fair.

[onetenor]

Bang Good sell bags with selections of gears Really good value

[Peter Miller]

WE have quite a fewl helicopters flown in our club. IT is very rare for a spare to be needed except after a crash.

Some are very old collectors items, some are pretty new types

No, I don't fly them. I have more sense

Edited By Peter Miller on 15/02/2017 20:51:31

[Richard Wills 2]

Tigerman, what heli is it you have. I have to say the only ones I have had problems with are clones, and even those are pretty reliable these days. Normally only need parts after a prang.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by J D 8 on 15/02/2017 18:41:54:

The only reason helicopter's fly at all is because they vibrate so much the earth rejects them.

I thought they simply beat the air into submission...

[Allan Bennett]

I don't have much sense, so I fly helis as well as fixed-wing (all electric) and multi-rotors.

My helis are Align brand 500 and 550, and a HobbyKing 500 which needed a whole bunch of Align replacement parts to make it fly properly. But none of them has ever suffered a failure in flight -- just the usual breakages when they crash.

It would be helpful to know what brand heli you're talking about, in case there's any specific issue with it that others may be able to help you with. One thing that's common to all helis though is that you should loctite every screw that goes into metal -- and that includes the little grub screw that holds the pinion onto the motor shaft. If your heli comes assembled and ready to fly, you should check each screw for tightness, even removing them so you can put loctite on before replacing them.

[Cuban8]

There is no way that I could ever have afforded to fly helis without the machines from Hobbyking. I have their 450 and 500 clones and for what I use them for (no 3D, I'm too old, too scared, and too poor for all that) they are fine. Yes, a few parts do need to be upgraded to Align originals (particularly on the 450) but they key is careful assembly and to loctite everything. At a fraction of the price of Align machines, you do get what you pay for, but if you're happy to fly them appropriately they're fine.

Forget high head speeds and hard 3D, if that's your bag then it's going to cost both in terms of machinery and crash spares.

We went through a heli mania at my club a few years ago but its fallen away a bit of late. A few still fly regularly and one or two have been seduced away by the 'devils instruments' and even race them! Quite a lot of interest in autogiros; not as simple as they look, a challenge to build correctly and the single rotor types need getting used to.

[tigerman]

I did not want say the make of it but I will it was a Blade 300X and a 450. I must of been unlucky.

Now I have had my rant I think I will persevere with the helicopters I have sold the 300X and the 450 .I have decided to stay with the helicopter but I have decided to stay with the smaller type helicopters because my little Blade 130X has been no problem with it and when it crashes it it just bounces with very little damage and also I can fly it a small field at the back of garden .So next question is I have been looking at getting the Blade 180CFX.or the Align 150 not sure which is the best ,any suggestions please

[Colin Carpenter]

I started heli's back in 84 when the Morley Hughes 300 arrived . No Bell Hiller mixing ,computer radios , gyros, and throttle / pitch ganged on 1 servo ! But eventually managed a bit of success ! Of all the newbies to choppers in Bath MFC i was the only one to get past hovering ! Never had much of a problem with mechanical failures but sevos would fail with vibration. Now flying lots of indoors heli's and most of us only get crash failures . One or two Blades pack up straight of the box but not much else happens. You must be unlucky !!😨 Perseverance is the key to success . Now using a Blade 450x picked up for a song and that's ok so far. Weirdly , a clubmate has been given a brand new , unused Morley Hughes ! Ah ! The nostalgia ! Tempted to try and get it up !!! Colin

Edited By Colin Carpenter on 16/02/2017 12:34:27

[Barryorbik]

Tigerman, I have been flying and crashing helicopters for about six years now but the first two years were a disaster until I joined a club where help and support (plus the usual banter!) from the other helicopter pilots was always freely offered. I started with an ESKY King 2 which regularly fell apart in the air despite very careful assembly and building/rebuilding. I dread to think how much money and lost flying time I spent trying to keep her in the air before I finally shelved her an bought a Thunder Tiger Mini Titan. Despite still having plastic frames, head and tail mechanisms she was a revelation and soon help restore my confidence and my flying became very enjoyable. Then I bought a GAUI 550 which terrified me with its size and the blade and motor noise but eventually after much perseverance I fell in love with her too. All of my fleet started out as flybarred but I have gradually converted them to flybarless which does reduce set up and takes care of a lot of the fine flying control needed for flybarred helicopters and makes the experience much less stressful. Today Blade do some brilliant RTF helicopters with safe technology to remove some of the crashes. The 130x is great as a trainer and bounces well, whereas the 180CFX and Trex 150 are a little more fragile and crashes normally take out the servo's and other bits. Have you considered the Blade 230 which has bail out and other safety related flying modes?

Best of luck with your next purchase and keep up the practice then as is often the case "the more you practice, the luckier you get" and you will soon find yourself taking your helicopters home complete and in the boot of tjhe car rather than the glove box!

Have you joined a club yet?

[tigerman]

Yes I have joined a club and have my BMFA membership ( you would have to be a complete idiot to fly without insurance)The club I am in is mainly fix wing with only one other person that fly helicopter and with out being rude I would not like to fly like him ,he scares me and how he does not crash is a mystery to me.I do not think he realizes that a helicopter has a rudder!.Thanks for your advise I will persevere with it .It is not the crashing that has been the problem, it is that I seemed to have had a lot of parts fail or wear out quickly but you are right the more you fly the less you crash.If the damage was through crashing I could cope with that it just that I keep paying out for parts that are crap.I am sure thing will get better

[Barryorbik]

Hi tigerman, Is your 450 a flybarred or flybarless? I bought a clone flybarred Trex 450 off E Bay some time ago and although it had been well built it had unbranded servo's and gyro and it was rubbish until I changed out pretty well everything for genuine Align parts and Hitec cyclic servo's with a Futaba digital tail servo and Spartan gyro looking after the tail. Still preferred my Mini Titan though, so I sold it to fund a V Bar and digital servo's to convert the Mini Titan to FBL.

Pity you are not a member of a club with more helicopter pilots, as like Colin many pilots in our club started out without gyro's in the 1980's and many still fly Kalts, Shuttles, Concepts and quite a few have nitro Thunder Tiger Raptors still using old technology and one still uses a 27mHz transmitter!!, so we have a wealth of helicopter pilots to ask questions of. Our latest members know more about programming flybarless units and ESC's than setting up a flybarred helicopter but everyone chips in when a member is in trouble, so the learning process is much less painful than trying unaided.

Keep your chin up and see if there is a local helicopter club you could join.

Barry