newbi Please Help

[Blasto1]

Im looking for help, I want to purchase my first heli and I thought about starting out with a RTF. Right now I'm looking at a 200.00 dollar range. could someone please give me some good advice on what to look at. I looked at a few hobby sites and I was interested in the 3d Dragonfly and the Raptor. I have never flown a heli or any aircraft. I would like to start out with a heli with at least a little 3d capability. one more thing, Thank God I found Helifreak.com! Thanks!

[ClayK]

Read http://www.helifreak.com/viewtopic.php?t=27891

I hate to brush you off to another post, but there are some good answers and questions in that thread that you might find pertinent.

[kgfly]

You will get many opinions, here are mine:

Starting with a 3D-capable heli for under $200 can only mean trouble and disappointment. The CP helis in that price range are poor quality and very hard to learn to fly. The ones you mention like the Walkera Dragonfly and knock-off Raptor (that's not a real ThungerTiger Raptor heli) are very likely to cost you a lot more than it seems by the time you have replaced the lousy electronics, upgraded to a decent brushless setup and acquired a decent Tx to drive it.

Your best options are:

a) Get a simulator and learn to fly on your PC at no ongoing cost while you save up for a real heli. I am assuming you don't have a radio yet so that means your best choices are:

* ClearView (rcflightsim.com) + ESky USB Tx controller
This will cost you $30 for the sim and $40 for the controller (from Ebay). ClearView is exceptional value for money. It is a high-end sim at a low-end price.

* RealFlight G3.5
This will cost you all your money but includes it's own USB Tx controller. This is one of the most popular high-end sims with lots of training aids plus you can fairly easily find others online to fly together.

b) Get a BladeCX2 coaxial
These coaxial helis are excellent learning tools and lots of fun. They are pretty much indoor-only unless it is truly dead calm outside.

Then you save up and down the track decide whether you want a TRex 450S, TRex 450SE or Raptor e325 (all 450-class eHelis swinging ~325mm blades) or something bigger (500-class swinging 400-450mm blades, 30-class swinging 450-500mm blades, 50-class swinging 600-650mm blades or 90-class swinging 700-1000mm blades). The bigger you go the more stable and easier to fly, the easier to see and the more expensive to by, equip, maintain and repair.

In terms of good value for money and low operating costs a common path would be:

$200 = Sim
+$300 = BladeCX2 with 2nd battery and some spares
+$1200 = TRex 450SE and decent computer radio (eg Spektrum DX7)
+$2000 = TRex 600

Of course having said all that, take a look at the Walkera and BladeCP forums on rcgroups.com and you will find a wealth of information and plenty of folk who have managed to get the in the air and learned to fly. Browse through to find out what it takes them to get there.

[Blasto1]

Thanks for your time and help!