Are the SR's days numbered?

[nbells]

Originally Posted by TomC

Right, until you get much better tools.

"Ignorance is bliss", comes to mind, just kidding, lol!

Seriously, if it's your main heli and you are happy with it that's great imho.

Cheers,
TomC

Obviouly doesnt look at signatures

[Diogenes]

The SR is a turd. I sold mine after spending too much money on it

[TomC]

Originally Posted by nbells

Never had a real problem with my SR .... its my main heli to use .. real nice docile and very easy to maintain and fix.

If they are set up correctly, they fly just as well as any other heli.
Its a bad craftsman who blames his tools.

nbells

Originally Posted by TomC

Right, until you get much better tools.

"Ignorance is bliss", comes to mind, just kidding, lol!

Seriously, if it's your main heli and you are happy with it that's great imho.

Cheers,
TomC

Originally Posted by nbells

Obviouly doesnt look at signatures

Wow, sorry mate. What's your second main/favorite heli, your Align 100, lol!

Cheers,
TomC

[Titan2010]

I was going to start a thread asking how SR owners love their Heli but i guess a few of you have answered that. Hope you guys dont mind if i kinda stray from the main topic but i need to know why folks are not happy. I haven't owned a larger Heli, a belt driven one or flown with it with dx6 or higher but most locals say those are the main issues with the Heli. But for most of you that say its crap, what makes it that bad to were you hated having it?
I'm more of a Rc buggy racer and wanted to take up flying so I started off with a new Trex 100x then people say its crap. Then I got a new Sr to begin and now being told thats crap. I tried to resell both to get a fair penny back but only offers of 1/4 for what I paid came in. So that kinda told me maybe I bought some bad investments. So I plan to just buy a 450 size soon. What can I expect compared to the Sr? I'm still a beginner with daily hours on the real flight sim. I take the Sr out once a week and always come home with a broken Heli. Usually spur, boom and blades. And that's not from flying. That's from learning to hover about double my height around 12ft. I'm repairing those three weekly. I'm blaming myself not the Heli but starting to wondered if people were right. Is this Heli to hard for a beginner? Does it suck with stock radio? Are tail driven Heli's harder to control? If I get a 450 with carbon blades and boom will I be repairing less?
Again sorry if I strayed from the topic. I figured if people post here then they could help more seeing they owned or own a SR.

Chad

[TomC]

Originally Posted by Titan2010

I take the Sr out once a week and always come home with a broken Heli. Usually spur, boom and blades. And that's jot from flying. That's from learning to hover about double my height around 12ft. I'm repairing those three weekly. I'm blaming myself not the Heli but starting to wondered if people were right. Is this Heli to hard for a beginner? Does it suck with stock radio? Are tail driven Heli's harder to control? If I get a 450 with carbon blades and boom will I be repairing less?
Again sorry if I strayed from the topic. I figured if people post here then they could help more seeing they owned or own a SR.

Chad

My advise is to try to get some local heli-training help. Should be a club not too far from where you live. Even if it is a bit of a drive, it will be worth is.

Baring that, make sure you put some training gear on your SR's skids and restrict your initial hover practice to no more than ~4-5ft high. Begin with tail-in hovering. When you have mastered (can hover it say 4ft high, +/- 1ft, and can keep it within a 4x4ft area) then start to move the nose around and practice this until you can hover nose-in (or with the nose pointed in any direction). Anyway, just a start but there is no reason for breaking anything during this process. Don't rus it. This first step could take you a couple of months to master.

Imho the SR is a crap heli, mainly compared to what is now available. But, if you have one you might as well get your money's worth (because you will not sell it for squat). Just do not pour too much into it.

If you are serious about flying larger/better heli's then the only thing you must do 'now' is get yourself a good radio (Spektrum Dx7 or Dx8 would be best imho). Learn to program heli's (like your SR) on this Tx (since you are not learning any of this with the stock Sr Tx) and this will help a lot too.

If you cannot, or will not get local help, and your SR starts to become a money-pit, I suggest using your nice new Tx (Dx7 or Dx8) and get yourself a Blade Mcpx bnf heli. You can make some nice little cf training gear for these and on low rates it will be almost as easy to fly as your Trex100. On high rates it is soft 3D capable. Most important thing is that if you fly it over soft grass and learn to hit throttle hold, you will hardly break anything!

Good luck and cheers,
TomC

[Titan2010]

Hey Tom thanks for the reply

I put trainging on right out of the box and haven't taken it off. No problem in the take off area or hovering it in a small area. Took a while but pretty much got it. I practice nose in on the sim and often on my Trex indoors. That's coming along also. The Sr is mostly fwd and back movement and I'll try side to side something's. Most crashes come from over compenstation when correcting. I dont really have a issue with the Heli itself but after reading feed back just wondering if it's slowing my learning curve due to it not being that good. I got to fly areas to watch and ask questions but haven't taken the SR. Can't lie it's gotten to the point of shame for having it as many have told me to ditch it and go align 450. They say even a HK clone would be better. So I usually just go to local kid parks early when it's empty. Again I enjoy and trying to make the best of it but can't understand why most have looked down on it. Guess I have to pick up a bigger Heli to find out.

[TomC]

Originally Posted by Titan2010

Hey Tom thanks for the reply

I got to fly areas to watch and ask questions but haven't taken the SR. Can't lie it's gotten to the point of shame for having it as many have told me to ditch it and go align 450. They say even a HK clone would be better. So I usually just go to local kid parks early when it's empty. Again I enjoy and trying to make the best of it but can't understand why most have looked down on it. Guess I have to pick up a bigger Heli to find out.

Do not be afraid/ashamed to take your SR to get exp guys to check it out. A few simple setup changes might do wonders. Don't think that going to a bigger heli is going to make everything that much easier. A mcpx with a good radio might help though.

Cheers,
TomC

[FailureToFly]

Hey Titan, I've only flown the SR about 5 times but every flight was terrible.

The heli has no power and is so dumbed down it is difficult to fly. It's tail is nutty and isn't in any way progressive, smooth or locked in. The heli's ESC and gyro work together to attempt to control the tail but for a newer flyer it's not intuitive.

Also, the heli isn't tough like an MCPX either!

If you are looking for a 450 class heli that 'just works', get a Blade 450X. It's the very best heli Blade makes and will take you from starting out to 3D.

But...here is key to all this...get a sim

No question...you can get training helis like the SR, the MCPX etc etc but you will only spend more money in your quest to learn to fly RC helis.

Get phoenix, practice every single day for 20min and in a year you will be flying great 3D.

Once you've competently learned to hover (maybe two weeks) take the 450X with sport settings (dumb it down) and have a hover. It'll freak you out at first but it will be awesome.

Once you learn something competently on the sim, try it on the real heli. Never try anything you can't do easily on the sim on your real heli.

3 months and you will be doing great sport flying and possibly inverted flying if you put the sim time in.

Bigger heli = more expensive heli to fix but at least it'll fly properly! You'll crash and learn to be a heli mechanic but if you continue to put the sim time (it's absolutely essential IMHO) you'll crash less and less and get better and better. If you want to be a sport flyer in a few months you won't crash much. If you want to learn 3D, there are a couple of years crashing ahead but it's not too bad considering how rewarding it is.

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

The main problem with the SR is the direct drive tail. It only pushes the nose of the heli right, and relies on torque to turn it left. Smaller helis can get awat with this due to inertia (or lack thereof) but larger helis can't do it. Pair that with the poor gyro on the SR and you see why it's no good. A 450 3D or X will be a substantial improvement.

[Titan2010]

Thanks for the feedback guys

TomC
I should of chosen a different word. Not ashamed but I'm a begginer still and don't want to be crashing everywhere and or having people say get a belt driven heli or better bird. I did want a mcpx and went in to buy one after reading reviews. But the hobby shop owner knew I was coming from a co axial and said the sr120 or Trex 100 would be better to learn with. Should have gotten it. Do I think bigger is better? Not sure yet. Just going off what others have suggested to get to learn with and what will be kept for a long time.

Failuretofly
I have real flight sim and use it nightly before bed. Some nights a few for a few mins and other nights for hours trying all the different types of planes and Heli's. It's been close to 5 months now. It helps a lot and dont get me wrong I love it but none of the Heli's feel or react like mine so flying on the sim is a lot easier plus it has a red restart lol but thanks for your feed back.

Napoleon
I noticed that with this Heli while hovering sometimes. Seems like that tail some times is lazy in one direction or takes a second or two to respond. Not sure how fast parts on the Heli are suppose to respond as its my first larger one but i often I feel like my fingers are postponing the Heli correctly but the Heli has a deli which leads to me over compenstating and bringing it down not crashing but hard landing and it bounces on its trainging gear causing boom and blade damage. Since I'm stuck with it should I invest in the tail belt mod? Is there any other gyros that fit this Heli that work better?
Still kinda new to the hole what works with what on what Heli. I saw in one thread a member wanted to gut his SR in put the parts in a Hk 250 I think it was. Is that a option?

[DrCopter]

I originally hated my SR but once I got the DX6i it was a major improvement. I used Cedron settings from the Bible except I brought the expo from 30 down to 15 (prob gonna go lower soon). Now I love flying it and Im really getting used to CP. Only thing I don't like is it seems really heavy in the air, I don't feel like I could pull off any 3d with it. I want to get a 450 3D but I am tempted by the mCPx v2 so that I can attempt loops and rolls and such without breaking too much. Is the mCPx a good choice? Or now that I'm used to the larger heli should I just get the 450? Hmmm decisions decisions...

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

Originally Posted by Titan2010

Thanks for the feedback guys
Napoleon
I noticed that with this Heli while hovering sometimes. Seems like that tail some times is lazy in one direction or takes a second or two to respond. Not sure how fast parts on the Heli are suppose to respond as its my first larger one but i often I feel like my fingers are postponing the Heli correctly but the Heli has a deli which leads to me over compenstating and bringing it down not crashing but hard landing and it bounces on its trainging gear causing boom and blade damage. Since I'm stuck with it should I invest in the tail belt mod? Is there any other gyros that fit this Heli that work better?
Still kinda new to the hole what works with what on what Heli. I saw in one thread a member wanted to gut his SR in put the parts in a Hk 250 I think it was. Is that a option?

With the SR, the tail motor has to "spin up" or "wind down" to provide the required correction. When it does this it is fighting against the inertia of the tail rotor. On a driven tail (belt or torque tube) the tail rotor blades are ALREADY spinning as fast as they need to be, and are able to respond substantially quicker to required inputs.

I would suggest saving your money and investing in either a 450X or 300X. Upgrading the SR will improve it, but it will still be a whole generation or more behind current technology. If you're looking for a heli the size of the SR, the 300X is identical in size, but worlds better. It is substantially more powerful, more responsive, and most importantly comes with an AR7200BX attached to it. If you get bored with the 300X and want to upgrade to something, you can carve that 7200BX off and directly drop it onto the new heli (after doing the BX setup). It is a world class receiver/gyro system, and I use it in ALL my helicopters (aside from the micros of course).

[FailureToFly]

Hey DrCopter, I don't think there is much you can do with the SR but the MCPX isn't much better in many ways.

There are guys that defy gravity with the MCPX though I personally find it a very frustrating little heli. It's extremely tricky learn to fly in small areas and it can't do proper loops in reality. It does a half loop, bog, fall out of the sky, catch kinda 'loop'.

It'll flip and roll sideways and do inverted but it takes time, skill and dedication to do it.

The MCPX is tough but needs better skids and a CF tail boom if you don't want to constantly replace them. It breaks frames and sheds links too. It will fly in very bad condition though.

A 300X or 450X is the ticket for a killer flying affordable heli IMHO but they like all larger helis are fragile. One crash = one repair job. A 'normal' crash with a 450X costs about $50 with stock blades. Maybe $35 with Align 3D blades. A bad crash...$100. Repairs include the time to rebuild and then you need to do the setup and get it flying 'right' once again which is initially daunting and requires some specific tools but it's easy after you crash a few times.

Get a sim with a 300X or 450X, spend lots of time on the sim, progress slow on the real heli and you'll have a ball and when the luster has well and truely worn off the MCPX, the X's will be shining brighter and bright. There is no comparison IMHO.

Originally Posted by DrCopter

I originally hated my SR but once I got the DX6i it was a major improvement. I used Cedron settings from the Bible except I brought the expo from 30 down to 15 (prob gonna go lower soon). Now I love flying it and Im really getting used to CP. Only thing I don't like is it seems really heavy in the air, I don't feel like I could pull off any 3d with it. I want to get a 450 3D but I am tempted by the mCPx v2 so that I can attempt loops and rolls and such without breaking too much. Is the mCPx a good choice? Or now that I'm used to the larger heli should I just get the 450? Hmmm decisions decisions...

[Blade120]

you can do all your upright and inverted circuits reverse flight with your SR. Would consider the 130x over the mcpx, the 130x flies quite a bit better in my opinion, also crashes pretty well if your flying over grass.

[WNCmotard]

Originally Posted by Blade120

you can do all your upright and inverted circuits reverse flight with your SR. Would consider the 130x over the mcpx, the 130x flies quite a bit better in my opinion, also crashes pretty well if your flying over grass.

Agreed 110% with one exception, if you buy a 130 you will need to do the proper fixes in the 130x section before flying it. It takes some tinkering to get things right, but once you do, man is it the ultimate micro heli.