Is the Trex 450 safe

[MasterCrash]

I have been fly the Sabre with plastic blades that releases when they hit my leg. Not is even a bruce. I may be taking things lightly flying the Sabre SE so I am very concern about buying a Trex 450 on how dangerous it can become. What happens if a Trex 450 hit your leg when you are hovering, anybody had that happened to him? What is the difference in terms of safety between the 2 birds? Does the Trex 450 blades release when they hit? I have been flying my Sabre inside my living room and when it accidently hit the dry wall, it just leaves a small black mark without any cuts. I just straighten the blades back and start over. I need your help in accessing the safety level of the Trex 450 before buying it. Is this a bird that I can hover on my drive way? What happens if the blade hit my aluminum garage door or stucco, because my Saber leave it with no marks or damage at all.


Take a look for yourself...

http://www.alexander-praetorius.de/index.php?section=media1&act=download&path=/media/archive1/Modellbau/Fremd Videos/&file=Beinverletzung_Durch_Modellhubschrauber.wmv&PHPSESSID=pdrtmathksc1dcob1sdo6cl1m5

Cut and paste the bottom one if the first one didn't work.

http://www.alexander-praetorius.de/index.php?section=media1&act=download&path=/media/archive1/Modellbau/Fremd Videos/&file=Beinverletzung_Durch_Modellhubschrauber.wmv&PHPSESSID=pdrtmathksc1dcob1sdo6cl1m5

[windisevil!!]

thanks for putting me off buying a trex :bawl
just kidding, EVERYTHING is unsafe... you name it, theres always a chance of something happening

[Rick Rotorhead]

Too right! Just be as safe and responsible as is practicle to do so, then get on an enjoy the hobby. The fact is you can not totally guarrantee safety with ANY model, let alone a helicopter. Anything can go wrong - loss of signal, mechanical failure, pilot error, spectator interferance (including pets) etc. One ball link coming off during a hover could see that heli chewing your face off in a second, a plank losing control on approach can veer of the landing strip and into the flight line, even a RC nitro truck at full speed could hurt your ankle bad enough. However, we can't comfortably fly dressed in baseball backstop armour or from the confines of a bunker ! So, you have to accept some risk, just by turning up at the field. All you can do is make a deliberate effort to keep your gear in good order and fly safe, the rest is upto God...........

[eyeflyhelis]

sick cut on that video

[BirdManNJ]

It is really simply, flown correctly heli are perfectly safe!!! Used Correctly a 12 gauge is perfectly safe. We have all seen the idiots on you tube catching helis in flight, flying them to close or just being complete morons with them.....I am curious where are the videos of someone shooting a 12 gauge at there friends head??? I mean come on bird shot is a tiny pellet, can be that dangerous right???:lol:

[great_life2]

I don't recommend anyone to fly a Trex 450SE before having an intensive training in front of a simulator plus field training with low RPM Sabre or Dragonfly#4 equivalents. Until you are able to hover them nose-in second nature, stay away! If you are newbies please do not start with Trex. It is not meant to be a training machine, especially the 600. Trust me when the Trex blade shatter, it's like exploding glass that can shatter out as far as 30 feet. Last year, I was able to hover a Sabre nose-out and thought I could handle the bird. Was I wrong, it was a frightening experience, fortunately nobody got hurt. Need I say more, now my friends are paying great respect to the bird from a distance. One of these days, the factories are going to get sued for not properly labeling the box as "Surgeon general found RC helis over 1,000 rpm head speed are hazardous to your health.". Word of advice, keep your Trex at least 50 feet away from everyone except yourself who is at the mercy of the blades. Land your heli as soon as there are kids around. Unfortunately this is the risk that comes with the hobby. The least you should do is equip yourself with protective eyewear, thick jeans, safety hat and jacket. Cos, no matter how good you are, accidents do happen. Indy 500 drivers still put on their seat belts, what makes you different? Oh, when you are flying with newbies, wear a bicycle helmet and bring your baseball bat, lol. Last, don't drive your BMW when you go flying, unless you are fully insured and I am not kidding on that one.

[gdbontly]

Here's a picture of me in my Heli Flying Gear. :)

[Crashalot]

Man are you right I had the bands that secure the lipo fail on an E325 and I found out what happens in a hard recovery from a tail slide when you pull out inverted TOO HARD can you say boom stike I never saw rotor blade pieces fly so far or fast on their own!!!!!!Thank the HELI GODS that they all went in the direction away from me!!!!

[felborn]

I don't recommend anyone to fly a Trex 450SE before having an intensive training in front of a simulator plus field training with low RPM Sabre or Dragonfly#4 equivalents. Until you are able to hover them nose-in second nature, stay away!

Umm, I could not agree less. Most would recommend a 50 size heli for starters. Sure it CAN be bad IF you run the thing into yourself or it starts trowing out parts. But how likely is that? If your pumping your Sabre into drywalls, legs and stuff like this, I would venture to say your pushing yourself to hard in a to confined area. I go flying in a big open fields, and theres not much to hit cept for the ground. Trex not gonna hit you if you fly close to your limit. Hovering a trex some feet away a few inches of the ground does not really translate as a big risk. If you cant hold a somewhat stable hover and fly it at head level or above close to yourself tho, your asking for trouble. The problem then is not with the helicoper, but the pilot not using common sence. With the lack of common sence you can just as easely strangle yourself with your shoolaces...

I been flying now for about 3 years, and never seen anyone get hit by a helicopter, og seen a single injury cept for some bloddy fingertips from starting planks using said finger...

Compared to rock climbing, diving, hiking, mountain biking, soccer etc, helicopter is practicly a none risk hobby. Im not saying that accidents dont happen, nor that you should not treat your heli with respect, I just dont share your opinion on not flying anything without plastic blades untill your an experienced hoverer.

[White Dove]

A gun doesnt kill a man.

It is the finger that pulls the trigger. :...:

[sleddog7]

To the original poster,

If you're often hitting yourself and your house/apartment with your current bird, you're NOT ready to TRY to fly anything else that what you have right now.

Stick with your harmless "toy" heli until you feel you can control it and put it where you want.... without hitting yourself, other people and property.

[great_life2]

Sleddog7 thanks for promoting safety. Felborn, you are obviously lucky. Last year when I was a newbie and I was on open space flying a 450 once. It was about 20 feet away from me when I was landing then the blades hit the ground and shattered. The debries flew some 30 feet and missed my friend by a couple of feet. Just because you have not seen someone hurt does not mean it never happened or never will. I personally have not seen somebody got killed or hurt in a car accident but I don't tell my friends who have never drove to start with a 18 wheeler. Do I tell them this 18 wheeler is safe just use your common sense, drive on wide lane and keep it away from people? Common sense should tell you to start them with a DF or something that greatly reduces risk. You are obviously an experience pilot or a natural when you started, how do you know others wouldn't mess up and have the heli coming toward themself. Trex can be extremely fast and you can be inches away from 20 feet in a second. I agree, open space and common sense should be used always but experience is a necessasity to fly a Trex. I have spend countless hours on posting helicopter safety because it almost hurt me a couple of times both in open space where I have exercised common sense. Better safe than sorry, so if you disagree you likely to be the person to start with a 18 wheeler! We are here to promote safety and not to take any high speed helicopters lightly.

[great_life2]

Trex is not a gun. It is a very unpredictable missile to an untrained thumb.

[felborn]

It was about 20 feet away from me when I was landing then the blades hit the ground and shattered. The debries flew some 30 feet and missed my friend by a couple of feet.

Beeing hit by flying helicopter parts does not mean your serisoly hurt, how often do we really see real damage to people? A small cut, a bruse or some minor damage aint gonna kill you. You would need the a broken blade flying in a perfect straight line straight into your eye for it to actually damage yourself. Beeing showered in pieces of a broken 450size heli prolly wount do anything to you at all. They simply aint got the speed and weight to damage you unless you get VERY unlucky and get a

I have seen plenty of cuts and dings to people here on the forums, and alto it looks nasty, a few stiches really aint a big deal. Compare the risk and damage we face during a flight compared to that of a footballplayer, or even a golfer (My dad onces saw a guy got hit by a ball in the hand, all bones shattered).

Okay, I know im gonna rubb alot of people the wrong way now, and that really aint my itent. I just think a few people go overboard with all this talk about injuries and risk. How many actually seriosly damage themself flying RC helis? I know there has been atleast 1 death, a recent chines who damage himself and a few cuts here and then. But how does that compare to any other outdoors activity? The risk of kiling yourself in the car, or walking along the pavment is prolly 10 times higher than actually serisoly harming yourself with an RC heli... IF you exercise some common sence! If you cant fly without bumping the thing into yourself and got no real controll, dont hover it more than inches of the ground.

Telling people to stay clear of a 450Size heli because of safety issues is just paranoid and unwaranted in my humble opinion. We fly those several times a week, from hard 3D to people using trainer gear and hovering. Never onces has I seen anything remotly close to someone beeing hit. And even if your hit, the oods of it actually doing real damage to yourself is minimal, it would need a perfect hit by the blades into your head, eyes or possible neck, and even then I think you would be okay 9 times out of 10.

So relax, enjoy life and enjoy a wonderfull hobby. With some very basic skills and basic sence, the risk of damageing yourself or anyone around you is minimal. Most accident happens in the kitchen anyways, so staying out flying your heli prolly keeps you safer anyway

[Skarn]

I tend to agree with you for the most part felborn. But we do know SOME people go way overboard as well.

But for greatlife to say a trex450 is NOT a good beginner heli, I just simply have to disagree completely. At a local heli field recently, I saw an experienced pilot setting up the club trainer....it was a Raptor 50. So now would you say that is unsafe and irresponsible to use such a large heli to learn on? All over forums you see "the bigger the better" to learn on since they are so much more stable. Again, I have to agree with that statement. Can they do more harm than the smaller helis? Sure, but if you use proper safety procedures as mentioned, they are fine in my opinion.

Oh and BTW life, a gun in an untrained hand is MUCH worse than a "trex missle"!

Skarn

[sleddog7]

Skarn is right.

GL2, I have to say that a LOT of your misfortune in flying helis MAY very well be the equipment you have..ie.. heli and/or radio. The Sabre is not the best and 'tightest' heli out there amoung small electrics, BUT if it's set-up right it can be very managable AND enjoyable.

The Finless vids are worth GOLD to a new and even an intermediate pilot. Watch them one at a time, OR even better... find an established heli guy at a club or hobby shop and ask if your heli can OR should be set-up better.

FWIW, The T-Rex is a little more money, but as EVERYTHING goes in life it's.... "You Get What You Pay For" .... Yes, the Rex IS better. It's less 'work' to fly.

[great_life2]

For the beginners, you decide what you want to do, it is your life and if you don't mind the stitches, just remember the bigger the higher the chances (common sense, lol). I happen to value and enjoy life greatly (hence the name great_life), I do take risk but not unnecessary ones like tackle football (now I probably get the football fans upset) and flying 450 as a first timer and I do agree there are more dangerous things. Except you should compare flying RC helis to less dangerous games, not more dangerous games. Life is too short, enjoy the process and there is no need to rush into something bigger right away. I do highly recommend you buying a 450 after flying a DF or equivalent so I am not trying to scare anybody away from this hobby particularly the 450s. Because this is the one of the greatest helis. Keep in mind a DF can be setup almost as stable as a 450 and can be just as enjoyable. It is practically impossible to need stitches if you mess up. I can fly a DF under and through a picnic table which I can't do on a 450 and that is fun. Some people like tackling others just want to hit a tennis ball across the net ( now someone is ready to argue, a tennis ball can hurt you too). I own two 450SE v2, 3 DF 4#1, 2 Sabres, one Walkera 4#3 so I am not biased. These safety advises come from my personal encounters when I was a beginner so I don't know why the arguments. They already happened to me and will happen to somebody else. Some people perhaps will never have the experiences I've had but others may have them worse, just hope you are not the latter. A couple of close calls happened to me when I was a newbie and I don't even come close being a wreckless guy, I was 20 feet away. Make a good judgement call, either way you choose and good luck. I want to thank those who spend their valuable time explaining about the 450 safety when I was a newbie who originally started this thread. This will be my final post here because I think we are beating around the bush, repeating ourselves and getting some people may be a little fired up. After all my sole purpose here is safety. Have a great flying day.

[felborn]

Im just trying to offer a different view on the whole deal, I dont want to start a fight really :)

To be enjoying life to the fullest also means putting oneself in a certain but minimal risk. I do rock climbing and scuba diving, both things can go horrible wrong if your unlucky or skimp on security. Equipped with some common sence tho, I came much closer to serius injury riding my bike to work than I ever have from RC heli's, rockclimbing and scubadiving. Mostly cause there's so many factors you can controll when driving/riding on a public street.

I avoid and minimal everything putting myself at great risk, the damage and pain I get from a tennisball tho, I just laugh of and bounch back from. Im married and my wife is 3 months pregnant, last thing I want is to keel over and die at this point :)

[sleddog7]

Well that settles it then, I'm getting into model railroading :YeaBaby:

Seriously though... GL2, I'm glad you're concered about heli safety.

[Snarf]

Well that settles it then, I'm getting into model railroading

http://www.youtube.com/v/rC8VzVmNPOI

[Tim Smith]

NON Safe Flying ! Why would you even think about flying a Heli or and airplane of these types indoors or near your leg? Stick with the blade cx if that is your goal in flying.Don't be stupid and even think these flying machines are not dangerous.:wow2:

[Tim Smith]

Im just trying to offer a different view on the whole deal, I dont want to start a fight really :)

To be enjoying life to the fullest also means putting oneself in a certain but minimal risk. I do rock climbing and scuba diving, both things can go horrible wrong if your unlucky or skimp on security. Equipped with some common sence tho, I came much closer to serius injury riding my bike to work than I ever have from RC heli's, rockclimbing and scubadiving. Mostly cause there's so many factors you can controll when driving/riding on a public street.

I avoid and minimal everything putting myself at great risk, the damage and pain I get from a tennisball tho, I just laugh of and bounch back from. Im married and my wife is 3 months pregnant, last thing I want is to keel over and die at this point :):hug:The group and I say play Hard but be safe.walking across the street presents a certain danger ( if your don't check for cars first) you do look before you cross the street first don't you? When you climb do you use any safe gear or tackle?
Playing dangerous games is fun.

[great_life2]

People are very sensible here and that is why we all still lived to fly.

[squeakywaffle]

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of percentage of r/c heli pilots seriously injured vs. some other activities. I think a lot of other common activities are probably a lot more dangerous.

However, a t-rex 450 is still dangerous, especially in the hands of a new pilot. When tiny, harmless models like the BCP are available, I don't see why it's a bad idea to buy one and use it to learn... the cost is insignificant compared to what you'll spend once you really get going with the hobby. I learned on a BCP and crashed it many, many times just messing around... if I had been flying something like a t-rex 450, I would have a) been super paranoid and probably would have progressed more slowly and b) I would have no experience with the basic principles of the model and would have been likely to make a costly mistake. The BCP required no repairs after most crashes, and dings on the rotors could be covered up with tape.

However, I just bought a 600n and it's a blast but it is also terrifying and very dangerous. I honestly think I'm going to be less likely to hurt myself with this thing than with my 450, just because it commands respect.

[Craig9080]

http://www.youtube.com/v/rC8VzVmNPOI

Dear god that video was horrifying, i will never go near a train set again! Brb, gotta go trim the hedges with my rex lol.

Seriously, to :DH , i wouldn't fly any 450 in a room smaller that 25x25 (thats free space, no people or things to hit) and thats just to hover. Additionally, think of it as a rotay saw that coincidentally flies. Keep you distance, have plenty of room, and never skimp on safety.