R/C Helicopter
 

My boss is selling a nearly complete T-Rex 600GT heli with a brand new futaba tx/rx set. I don't know the exact details of it yet including price but am interested in maybe buying it.

Anyone into R/C choppers? What should I expect to pay for a new almost assembled kit?


I've been shopping around on hobbyking.com looking at some of their kits as I've heard a lot of great reviews on their products.. I'm kind of a n00b on the choppers, and I know I'm absolutely going to crash and fsck up what I've got but it sounds like a great challenge..

Buy if you must, but invest in a sub $100 unit for practice, because you will fuck up. Practice indoors so wind isn't a factor. Make sure you get one that's fully directional, so up/down, rotate left/right, and forward backwards. You can even get one with what they call a gyro, which stops rotation after you flick the stick left or right.

I had one with all those features, $80 I think. Ended up lasting less than two weeks. Felt really bad for my parents, who bought it for me for Christmas.

Do the thing where you make a big ass X out of 1/4"dia 4-6' long dowels and strap it to the bottom of the skids, and then don't fly very high. Practice basic control this way. Also: get a new tail and main rotor, you will need them :giggle:

I'm more into planes than helos, but I've watched a friend destroy more than one. That T-Rex looks pretty badass though.

Fly it indoors only if you have a very large room. The heli will put a decent amount of wind down to the ground, if you're hovering and you accidentally get anywhere near a wall, you'll get a sudden and unpredictable positive pressure area under that side of the heli, which will add lift to that side of the rotor causing you to lose control of it.

Bough my dad a 3D heli with gyro/li-po/etc. for like $300, RTF for christmas one year - I think it was the most exciting present he had ever opened. Crashed it lots, and it spent more time waiting on replacement tailbooms/blades/etc. (because the stuff that comes on a $300 RTF heli, ready to fly, with included li-po/charger/gyro/etc is all entirely too flimsy) than actually being in flyable state. Anyways, he eventually got to the point where he had full aluminum/CF parts on it instead of the plastic bits. The li-po took like 4 hours to charge, and had like an 8 minute run time on it or something ridiculous (because it was a cheap lipo/charger) and eventually I think he stopped playing with it, and now has fun looking at it and knowing that he COULD fly it if he wanted to, but I think he figures that if he doesn't fly it, he won't break it!!

When I bought an R/C for myself, I said "to hell with shit that flies", and grabbed me an E-Revo, Brushless edition...Oh shit is that thing fast, and durable as shit too. I can run it straight at a tree at full throttle, it'll run up the roots and then up the side of the tree briefly. I think I've had it get over 15 feet of air doing just that - so yes, it flies.... and when it crashes back down to the ground, mother fucker is ready to do it again!!

yeah that thing is serious. I had a double bladed mini one I thought I was hot shit at controlling in my garage, doing spins and dives and shit. Stepped up to a brushless one with 6channel 3d trex450 clone and proceeded to ruin the main rotor in about 2 minutes

I'll have more specific information tomorrow or Thursday from him.
He did mention that it does come with a Gyro, fwiw..


Are the skills learned on something small and cheap going to transfer directly to a larger more expensive chopper?

I just graduated through an asston of mini choppers, to a honey bee king 2, to a trex 700 arf, I got for a steal from craigslist for 350 dollars, still in box, debatably stolen. Anywho, yes, I have a semi tough time with it having flown a semi complex chopper before. So grab some crappy ebay 3-4 ch one for 30 bux. Fly it til it is ruined. Then you will not shoot into the stratosphere, then immediately smash into the ground at 100 mph.

I don't know anything about R/C choppers, but on a very basic level, I think buying/selling things from/to you boss is a bad idea. Just my $0,02.

Hm... This looks like a really neat hobby. It also looks incredibly expensive..

Must.. resist.. another... hobby...

Don’t underestimate the valuable flight skills that can be gained from a RC flight simulator (I use Phoenix). It is much cheaper to hit reset then replacing the rotor head, main blades, and tail boom after your first boom strike.

Yes learning on a sim, then a cheapie, is good.

Graduating from a cheapie to that TRex is like going from a Honda Civic to an F1 car. Lots more ways to get into trouble. The bit TRex though is less sensitive to wind due to its weight and power.

I may or may not have done this with the first mini I got :laugh:

heli flying is ridiculously expensive. Not just to get into, but for the invaiably astronomical amount of spare parts you'll burn thru.

I did electric r/c planes before the baby was born last year. Still have a couple in my garage, 6ch controller, some lipo batts and a couple chargers. Kinda miss it but no time anymore to go to the field.

Buy the t-rex. If its a complete chopper its probably easily worth 300-500 depending on equipment (servos, gyro, model receiver, Etc..). Your next step after buying should be to get a shitty one to learn on like the others said, you can get a decent set up for 150 that will be a nice size chopper and fly similar to the t-rex on xheli.com. Just look around and find a deal.

holy freaking frakk

wow

Is there anyway to mount little machine guns to one of those?

yeah, good cgi skills.

It's not real?

R. Kelly thinks so.

Ah you big cynic!

a fool and his money?

It is. There are tons of others like it as well. The lift these things are capable of is amazing

Those things have huge power to weight ratio.

Still waiting on a parts list from my manager. He's had it for 3 years now and never did build more than about a third of the kit. Wife wants it gone, so hes thinking maybe just a couple hundred dollars for the whole thing even though he speculates investing around $1000 on it.

If I do buy this thing I'm defiantly taking the advice of everyone on the sub-hundred dollar trainer chopper..

http://images.cheezburger.com/comple...1a27bfa662.jpg

fuck 1k in helicopters... I have a $40 full control metal mini choppah with 4 channels... I can fly that bitch indoors and not give a fuck. Thing is badass for chasign the cat.



WHOLESALE FTW!!!

I'd go small scale to start. Used to watch my dads buddies 20 years ago fly them upside down and they'd been doing it for years. Lots of cash down toilets and no girlfiends I believe was the quote.

Oddly, I admin this site. Fixed wing and heli sections are really busy with tons of very smart (old school) guys over there.

Free healthcare if you join up too!


I had a small heli. I cant fly worth a crap in real life or in battlefield bad company. RC cars and trucks for me, heck, even boats.

I am also a LiPo guy, i hate nitro.

First, get a sim. Realflight or Phoenix, either is great (I think realflight runs a bit more though). Dropping $2-$300 on a sim will save you _thousands_ if you get into the hobby, and lets you try out new stuff you wouldn't dream of doing with $1200 worth of electronics in the air. I know realflight has some heli trainer vids / exercises as well to help with spatial orientation / basic maneuvers / etc.

Second, do as everyone said and get an el cheapo learner heli. Dunno what's out there now, but maybe a Blade CP / Honey Bee King / Blade 400 / Trex 450, from cheap to pricey. You're going to crash, so factor in the cost of spares: blades, main shaft, main gear, tail boom, and servo gear sets will likely be broken. The smaller helis are much more squirrely, especially in anything more than the faintest breeze. Once you can handle that, move up to the 600. It'll feel rock solid and stable, with more power to boot. Just don't crash, it becomes exponentially more expensive the bigger the bird is. Not only do parts cost more, the larger helis have more mass / momentum with which to break things.

I fly a trex 450se v2 and 600n, learned on a blade cp. When I'm working on new maneuvers, I dial it in on the simulator first, then move up to the 450 (it's cheap-ish when I inevitably crash). Once I can do that comfortably, I move up again to the 600.

It's a fun hobby, but if you push yourself slightly past your limits it gets expensive fast. Start small, work your way up, have fun.

A friend has a new $130 Blade ready to fly micro heli that seemed impervious to damage despite multiple crashes. I'll say it's the perfect starter heli.