First Heli.

[Phil May]

I'm looking to get 12 year old son his first heli for X-mas, he can fly a fixed wing  but wants a heli. I was thinking of getting him a contra rotating model for approx £100-£150, something he can hover at the local fields as well as our club.

Any ideas on a reasonable  tough  and reliable model. 

 Thanks in advance, Phil

[Tim Mackey]

I am no heli expert Phil, but for that money you could get a "proper" electric chopper like the blade 400 or similar. I suspect that he will very quickly outgrow a contra rotating model.

[ken anderson.]

big phil-you'll waste your dosh with a contra for that price-the young fella-will be bored asap-plus they hate the wind....and really only good for calm/indoors --- as timbo say's - i would go for a c/p model he can fly outside......best option especially for £150.00 ..

 

 ken anderson.......

 

if you want to give him a taster-get him one of the new perkins mini twisters for £30.00...seen one go in the shop and they are excellent...

[wlfk]

 I think that budget is a bit low for a properly fitted out blade, even if he already has the radio. Helicopters are expensive if done properly, and a real waste of money if they're not.

 

Running costs are rather high too - I think it cost me about £100-£150 in parts to get to a point where I could fly about in a rather staid manner, and not crash except when I was trying something new. 

 

How about a good helicopter/fixed-wing simulator?

[Steve Colman]

Personally, I think something along the lines of a Blade 400 is far too ambitious as a first heli. Every minor crash will require not insignificant amounts of cash to fix and the heli will then have to be properly set up to fly again.

 

Far better in my opinion to go for something like the Esky HBFP V2. This new version of the Bee almost completely fixes the problems that the V1 had. It is very durable, easy to set up and easy and cheap to fix when the innevitable happens. And, it will happen very often! it is not easy to fly initially but will teach your son all the skills necessary when he wishes to move up to a CP heli.

 

An alternative to the HBFP is one of the new Walkeras - CB180D/Q. Slightly smaller then the Bee and almost as easy to fly as a coax as it has a 45 degree flybar arrangement much like the Blade msr and Hirobo Quark. However, it won't be such a good training heli as the Bee.

 

Steve.

[wlfk]

Do you have personal experience of the Walkera helicopter in question?

 

I don't knock people's products lightly, but in the past my flatmate bought a Walkera helicopter and it was truly appalling. It hardly had the power to take off, and even though I can fly a collective pitch helicopter with ease, I couldn't control it. Quality was very low and the parts, when they broke, were actually quite expensive and hard to get.

 

It's always possible their recent models are better, but I would buy with caution.

[simon burch]

Phil,

 

PM sent.

 

Cheers,

 

Simon

[Gaz Elliott]

As a few have said this budget is posibbly in the reasonable quality contra rotating range. (Heli is an expensive environment) I  bought a blade 400 and found on one of the heli forums a guy called boggy who gave a list of the settings for the dx6i required to help tame the blade 400. I have used these and not had a single crash. Mind you I only hover and circuit.  The 400 does not mind a bit of wind but it can get blown about with the small size. Have you got a sim he can practise on to help reduce the expensive repair bill . I got mine on the BMFA classifieds bargin second hand all in with dx6i . It had only flown 4 - 5 times.  Although i appreciate possibly not second hand for xmas present. but £100 buget is the MCX MSR twister bracket.  A friend has the MSR and it is an awesome intro to helis can be flown in very light calm out doors and in the house much more realistic handling and failry robust to the odd gravitational pull towards terra firma!!( I fly my MCX round the lounge in the hall and up the stairs. Never grow up cause then you grow old!!!!!))

 

If you go into the Trex range the price is higher although I have heard the Copter X is a reasonable clone at lower pricing

Good luck

 

[Allan Bennett]

My personal experience, which I'm happy to recommend to anybody, is that after 20+ years of fixed-wing flying I bought a Twister Bell 47 (now replaced by Twister Bell Medevac) contra-rotating heli.  After about two years with that -- hopefully a youngster will be quicker to master it -- I bought a T-Rex 500 and am practicing the hover with that.

 

The Twister Bell is distributed by Perkins, so parts are easy to come by and simple to install.  The only downside, as with all contra-rotating helis of this size, is that it can't fly in anything more than a very slight breeze.  I do most of my hovering practice in the garage, but I have flown outdoors in the calm we sometimes get a dusk.