Newbie madness - Need help deciding

[thedude0901]

Greetings,

I've been flying fixed wing for about 15 years and could never understand the fascination with those "floppy wing mechnical nighmares." :lol: Then I was given a CX-2 and everything changed. I've been flying the crap out of this little thing and am doing very well with it. I can hover as long as the battery will allow and can fly it around the house with no trouble. I've tried it outside when there is very little wind and I can keep up with it, but we all know these don't do wind and that leads me to my next purchase.

I'd like something that I can at least hover indoors and maybe do some basic stuff (I don't have that much room) and more importantly, fly ouside on slightly windy day. I'm looking at 3 birds and need some advice on what to get so I'm not wasting money.

Let me start off by saying that I already have LOTS of equipment that I would like to put to use. I have boxes of servos from micro to 1/4 scale, chargers, lipo batteries, ballancers... you name it. Also, I have a DX7 radio for the fixed wing fleet. Any new heli I get would go on this radio.

Here is what I'm considering and my perceived pros and cons of each:

1. Blade CP Pro.

Pros:
RTF is nice.
LHS has a massive inventory of parts.
Can be flown inside and outside.

Cons:
Fair quality.
Direct drive tail rotor seems to cause problems. Motor burns out quickly.
The 4 in 1. I _hate_ all in one packages.


2. Falcon 3D from Hobby Lobby

Pros:
RTF is nice
Separate components so switching to DX7 is not a problem.
Seems to be better quality, a little larger with more "meat" on it.
Already has "upgraded stuff" such as brushless motors.
Small enough to fly inside but big enough for outside.

Cons:
That radio has to go! I want my DX7. :D
Motor and ESC quality seems to be questionable. (From multiple forums)
Spare parts must be ordered.


3. TREX XL

Pros:
I can get a kit at the LHS for $150. I don't mind building a kit.
Already have most of the necessary equipment (servos, ESCs...) so buy in cost is low with higher quality than ARF.
Can use DX7 without wasting money by throwing away unwanted radio equipment. (See above)

Cons:
Probably a little to advanced. This is probably more of a 3rd heli rather than a first.
More expensive. Out of pocket will be about double of the above selections.
To big and dangerous to fly inside.


I'm leaning toward the TREX since I already have lots of equipment and it is more customizable. Though it's more advanced, I feel that I could grow into it rather quickly. However, after flying fixed wing, teaching fixed wing, and seeing the newbies crash and burn with too advanced equipment, something tells me the TREX is to much to soon.

If I think about this any more my brain will melt. So, can anyone comment or help me with this decision?

Best Regards,
The Dude

[MarkD]

You've been flying outside with the planks for 15yrs so why the try and stay indoors with the heli's

Bite the bullet and get the trex - you'll love it

Also spares seem to be readily available worldwide

[Pinecone]

I would get an S series though (SE, SA, S) over the XL. Direct to swash CCPM is the big reason.

SE has all aluminum parts, they break less, and if you buy an XL and upgrade it, you will spend more than buying the SE upfront.

[Rick Rotorhead]

Trex for sure. Now when you say 'indoors' I take it you mean your house rather than say a gym or a warehouse.....

Trex can be hovered and slow ff around in a large indoor venue, but you'd have to be either really competent or totally mad to risk it in your house!!!!
Trex is very stable when setup correctly and vids of HF show it can handle loads of gusty wind in the right hands.

I've got a Twister, which is a sort of Blade CP clone, its very mobile and twitchy, I can just about get a hover going in a 10 foot room (with furniture), but the rotor wash quickly starts to make it hard to keep station and there is zero room for error. So, although a Trex is bigger than the others and you can't sensibly fly it indoors, don't think you will get away with flying the others helis indoors either.

On balance go for the Trex, you won't be sorry - just read the posts in the Trex forum. Lots of happy Trex flyers there.

[cholyoake]

i just bought a t rex se, i havent flown it yet but the person at the lhs says it would be good because if i got something cheaper then i would be able to fly it quickly and just have to upgrade later, so it would cost more money (something i don't have much of). also as you already have all the servos and everything you would need to run it then a t rex would also be good because like you said you wouldn't get a transmitter or anything with it that you wouldn't use.

[vera]

I have confidence in you, if you're not greedy. :lol:

What I mean by greedy is... wanna do it ALL RIGHT NOW without going through the learn curve. Ya gotta pay yer dues to the learn curve.

If you can arrange a 10 foot radius in the house you can start there... sit on the couch and play soothing music. Seriously, you're used to the plank, which requires that you be going somewhere at all times, but the heli doesn't have to go anywhere. And, learning to hover is all about learning how NOT to go anywhere. Put training gear on that thing and set it down in the center of your space and work on keeping it there, not leaving the ground by more than a few inches. WHEN it gets near the limit of your space shut down and pick it up and put it back in the center. You won't break it if you do this.

You don't have any wings to look at to know the attitude of the thing, but you can see the rotor disk, and you should strive to keep that somewhere near level and not let it get into any wild angles of tilt. The heli is going to be going somewhere pretty quickly if you allow the rotor disk to get tilted very much. The rotor disk will need to tilt just slightly to the right side of the heli to compensate for the thrust on the tail rotor, and that much tilt will be roughly constant. Any other tilt will cause it to go some direction.

To start with keep the heli aimed away from you so that your left agrees with the heli left, and so on. One less thing to have to ponder. Focus on keeping the rotor disk close to level, small tilt to go whichever way you wanna go, and keeping very near the ground.

You should be able to keep the heli within a radius of just a few feet, while pointing in any direction, and keeping the altitude within a foot of the ground. That will take some time. But it doesn't take much space. Even if you're outdoors, you should work on keeping that heli over a target spot. If you get this hover thingy down pat then you will be way down the road to success. And once you get pretty good at it, take off the training gear and practice some more, because the training gear provide a visual reference that you won't have anymore and you may need to adapt your skills to the now "naked" heli. With the training gear removed, try very hard not to contact the ground with any sideways motion, and as soon as you're on the ground dump the throttle. If it tips over be very quick to drop the throttle.

If your TX has a expo adjustment it may help to make use of it.

I'm sure you can master the T-Rex. My first heli was a Schluter .35. I was greedy... wanted to do more things than I had learned to do... exceeded my expertise by awesome amounts. I bought a lot of parts... may have impacted the stock market. I finally learned not to be greedy. I put training gear on it, stayed low. I finally extracted my head from that dark place and learned how to drive that thing. It's very tempting to go buzz around in the sky, but I found out that it's best to earn your way there and not bite off more than you can chew... I learned that cuz I was running out of money for parts.

[spork]

You probably have all the pros and cons right. I will say that the Rex is far more capable than the others. The parts are unbelievably cheap and plentiful, and the amount of support/knowledge in the heli community is staggering for this model. If you think you're likely to end up with one eventually, I'd suggest you go ahead and make the move now.

[Pinecone]

Although I don't think starting out ina 10 foot circle indoors is the greatest idea.

At 2000+ RPM even woodies can do some damage. And in small area, especially sitting down, you can't run away if it gets away and comes after you. And yes it has happened.

[octotus]

me a noob too.
i have flown both a hummingbird FP and a T-Rex 450SA indoors -

this is HB-FP video inside home.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7019340233222014826&hl=en

this is t-rex 450 SA in a 5x5 space indoors - crazy but yes damn easily possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHhehBpRcyQ

notice the difference in stability? so - in my opinion go out and out for a T-Rex (but dont try to fly it indoors lest u r absolutely crazy).:mrgreen:

k

[Jermo]

<cut>
Cons:
Probably a little to advanced. This is probably more of a 3rd heli rather than a first.
More expensive. Out of pocket will be about double of the above selections.
To big and dangerous to fly inside.
<cut>
Best Regards,
The Dude

I disagree with your Trex Cons. If you plan to fly Heli's rather than play with heli toys then the T-Rex offers you an entry into Heli's with potential up to and past 3d. "More Expensive" - perhaps you can argue that the up front costs are higher but add up the costs of all the upgrades you'll want on anything else you get plus repair costs and you've already bought a T-Rex plus the T-Rex is cheaper to fix..yes cheaper... "To (should be too) big and dangerous to fly inside", define inside? define dangerous? Any Heli you fly inside that isn't a toy is dangerous. That's why you do your best to be safe. How big of an area inside? Gym? living room? basement? what? Regardless of inside or out you should be wearing safety glasses as a minimum, Keep the heli away from animals and people regardless of where you are inside or out.

I don't know your situation but this discussion comes up alot and some folks have successfully learned on the CP... many have quit due to frustration and run away repair costs.

I'm a newb and had to make this decision. After the ink was dry and my calculator stopped smoking the T-Rex was all that remained.

*shrug* I'm not saying it's right for you. Just sharing my thoughts.
Jermo

[kgfly]

Trex = Yes, forget the others
Indoors = No, unless you have a large barn or basketball court and even there, just hovering
To learn: (a) Get a sim and (b) check out Radd's School of Rotary Flight

Happy flying

[stevejr72]

I never owned or even used an R/C until this past November when I purchased a Blade CX-2... Like you, had fun with it. But soon became bored with it (2 weeks).
Went out and bought a TRex 450SA and a DX-7... Very happy with my purchase with one exception. I wish that I sprung for the SE model because I spent more to upgrade it later.
That's my $0.02

[MikeR.]

I started with a CX lots of fun! Bought a cp-pro. It seems to like to fall over :arggg: @ 20-35$ when it does ( which is almost every time) Bought a SE DX7, 65mgs, 401,9650. WITH big time help from finless, I have hovered 12 packs till the first crash :D 20 bucks to fix it. Spend the extra on the SE.
ANY FREAKS IN N.W. Arkansas could use some lessons. Mike R.

[Xwing Pilot]

I've been learning on a sim, with a Trex in my sites.

I strongly recommend a sim first...it's an eye opener to how these birds fly.