Too many helis, not enough time!

[bikneli]

Originally Posted by dcope17

Big helis are like 10% maintenance and 90% flying where micros are 90% maintenance and 10% flying.
So, it depends on what size helis you own.

Man, I really like that statement, and from my experience and what I see
w. my flying buddy at the field with his fleet of Blade micros/minis, that is
so so true!

And I wasn't going to mention the word, but Shane above, did it for me,
(Minimalist), I was thinking it, and have that mentality, maybe not everything I own fitting into a vehicle, but certainly can't stand an excess of anything in/around the house.

Have 3 here and still feel like I am a slave to this hobby sometimes.
Crashed one badly several weeks ago, swore 2 are plenty, and would
use the good parts off the crash, just for back-up.................WRONG!!
Number 3 is almost back to air-worthy........

[newbheliusr]

I gave up on the micro and small helicopters. My smallest is a 500 now. Even after a crash it's so much easier to work on the big ones. It did seem like the micros were wait to much maintenance than they were worth IMO.

[shawnlh]

3 helis, see sig (180 doesn't count as it's only flown indoors in the winter), 5 sets of flight packs, all done. Can fly all day none stop (sans crashes).
I can't imagine having any more as there is hardly enough time to fly what I have. And I have zero desire to house shelf queens that collect dust.

The current fleet also keeps maintenance/repair simple as all 3 helis share many of the same parts.

[peteski]

I have 3 helis that I fly regularly and a couple of others gathering dust. I've quickly come to the conclusion that I don't have time to either maintain or fly more than 3 helis and that's pushing it a bit. I'd rather have a couple of helis in top condition than a load of "bitsas" lying around.

[warrior29]

Since this seems to be a confessional,

8 heli's, 3 flyables, 4 in repair 1 new, not including anything under the size of a 500

and yes I confess 36 planes 20 RTF

So is it an addictive hobby or do we all have addictive personalities?

Can somebody give me the number to A2HA (Addicted 2 Helicopters Anonymous)

[smwht]

Originally Posted by warrior29

Can somebody give me the number to A2HA (Addicted 2 Helicopters Anonymous)

You should have their card already. Take a look in your wallet, the number will be on the card that says "Visa".

[cudaboy_71]

I've had as many as 6 helis >450 size all flying at the same time. With only weekends and a few hours per night per week to devote, I found that was way too many.

I like tinkering. But, there was always something that needed work. It got to be a chore.

I've slimmed down to 3 and that's a nice number for me. Usually they're all ready to go. But, if there's maintenance to be done its usually less than an hour a week, and that's rare now.

I think I could handle 4 though. I'm hoping so. Because I really want to add a nitro back to the fleet. But, I don't want to give up one of the 3 in the air now.

[cycled]

1 RTF, 2 that need a bit of tweaking, 1 incomplete.

That's pretty normal for me (well, sometimes I've had 3 ready to go).

[bredler]

I think when I've had helis that are unflyable for non-voluntary reasons they've been micros. The only 'real' heli accident I've had so far is broken tail blade and grip on the 360 cfx and that was quick to fix.

Right now:

Unflyable

- 550x needs the BEC to be remounted...I decided to move it for purely aesthetic reasons after changing the FBL to a Brain. I'll also be tuning the new FBL...hopefully it's pretty quick and painless. Gonna set it up with iKon gov too. No more CC gov!

- 360 cfx needs a satellite so I can put it's Brain on and I'll probably shorten servo leads and neaten up the wires all pretty.

Flyable

- 180 cfx is flyable, flew it 1x last week in 15 F and that was enough. It's a bit quick for flying in the small auditorium in my lab building so although I bought it as basically an indoor bird it's going to be almost exclusively an outdoor bird. It's very locked in for a micro and flies great, but the consequences of hitting a fixed object indoors is too great.

- K110 is good to go! just flew the first 7 real flights in the auditorium tonight. I'll still have to get a feel for collective management and flipping on this heli before I can do anything inverted indoors...but for now it's a great way to get stick time on a stable heli when the weather is awful or I can't get out before dark.

Packs

550x: (2) 5000 mAh 6s Turnigys
360 cfx: (2) Glacier 200 4s, (2) Nanotech 1550 mAh 6s
180 cfx: (5) Glacier 450 mAh 3s, (1) eFlite 450 mAh 3s
K110: (6) 520 mAh 1s, (1) 450 mAh 1s

So 19 packs. I'd even consider getting a few more packs for the 360. I'll only fly the 550x where (for now) I'll always be flying with friends that have generators and big chargers, so getting two flights back to back on the 550x and waiting 20 min is ok by me.

Collective flight time if I charged everything, went to the field and only flew pre-charged packs to 3.8X/cell:

- 550x: 5 min x 2 = 10 min
- 360 cfx: (5 min 6s x 2) + (8 min 4s x 2) = 26 min
- 180 cfx: 3:30 x 6 = 21 min
- K110: 5 min x 6 = 18 min

Total: 1hr 15 min

(kind of) Soon to come...Gaui X7! I'll probably only have 1 or 2 12s packs for that since they're pricey and again it's something I'd want to charge at the field.

[tacomaster]

Originally Posted by Slyster

I have just the two.. 500 and 700... and 2 lipos and 2 deep cycles.. really who needs more than those two sizes (unless your new). They are always ready to go and I have plenty of time to fly in the summer. Winter is out due to weather.. a nice respite to sim and get excited.

I travel for work, hotels and an out of state house with no big place to fly. Small helis are all I can bring..


When I'm home I bring the big helis out to the field.

[JTAnimal]

I have 2 700's I fly mostly. And a 600, 550 & 500 are hanger queens. but all are ready to fly

[Raptorapture]

Originally Posted by Indokast

So I have to admit I have a problem. Yep.. too many helis and not enough time.
...
They represent my heli dreams and I'm happy just looking at them even if I can never find time to repair and fly them.
...
Maybe I am not the only one with dreams and shelf queens?

Same here - 15 plus or minus a few spares

2 currently able to grab and fly, 4 to be repaired, 3 to prepare or repair from purchase, 5 to build and one on the way.

Order of priority is flying, building, repairing. I know this goes against most people's priorities but getting spares shipped is such a pain, between shipping cost, mode, and time. Over a month later, the motivation to repair has faded while other helis are waiting for one's attention

If little time to fly, the rest back up! First time my wife commented on it was when my mother in law asked her what's with all the helis?

Give up my heli dreams?

[andrea_farins]

I have just the little Oxy3! LOL I sold the trex 500 last year cause I couldn't fly both as much as I wanted to!

I'm just having fun with it, enough spare parts to fly asap after a crash and 10 lipo, it's my grab and go heli, during lunch break or after work if I have 1 hour of free time I'll fly it!

I'm considering to buy a 550 or a 700 during this year as a flying field heli, I'm more serious but for me more than 3 kits it's waste of money and time. I fly fpv quads too so I need to split my time.

[Indokast]

Originally Posted by BrokeDad

I'll tie them all to a lawn chair and fly south !!

Lol. I bet you could too!

[Thunder Fighter]

I know I have too many when I don't repair a Heli for weeks or months after a crash. My E5s was out of action for many months after its last crash.

//Dennis.

[Diogenes]

Well I have a 4 day weekend so I started tackling that x3l. Have to replace 2 servo horns,as well as shilling the main gear

[Triple-D TJ]

I used to have 12, but since consolidated my fleet to only 3 helis. Goblin 650 Nitro, Diabolo 700 and Diabolo 550. I have some misc spares for maintenance, but keep virtually nothing on hand. I do this simply for one reason, when I crash, I immediately disassemble and place an order for only what I need. As soon as the parts arrive, I'll repair to get the heli back in the air, rather than having it sit in shambles in the corner. Flying whatever I have in the interim.

It's a great feeling to always have money and helis ready for the next event, rather than sitting on a stockpile of parts and being broke all of the time. To each is own I suppose, but having maintained a large fleet was lesson learned.

[Puttputt maru]

Living in countries with winter I fly in the summer and build in the winter. My helicopter count which need repair or not varies with the flying season I had. This means how many crashes.

It has been a good season for helis so I have 6 X 700 size helicopters. I have no smaller ones.

It has been a bad season for planes, I crashed two 40%. I have no smaller ones so I am left with one plane with a DA170 in it an Ultimate biplane.

I also still have 3 jets with turbines ranging from 120 to 220 size.

I am building two planes this winter and an other 700.

Addiction of couse not

[newbheliusr]

Originally Posted by Puttputt maru

Living in countries with winter I fly in the summer and build in the winter. My helicopter count which need repair or not varies with the flying season I had. This means how many crashes.

It has been a good season for helis so I have 6 X 700 size helicopters. I have no smaller ones.

It has been a bad season for planes, I crashed two 40%. I have no smaller ones so I am left with one plane with a DA170 in it an Ultimate biplane.

I also still have 3 jets with turbines ranging from 120 to 220 size.

I am building two planes this winter and an other 700.

Addiction of couse not

Nah man, you're fine. NO intervention needed.

[Puttputt maru]

Originally Posted by newbheliusr

Nah man, you're fine. NO intervention needed.

Thanks doc, I needed that