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Got my first ever RC helicopter


kingnorris

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for Christmas. Gotta say, it's a lot of fun, but I wish the battery lasted longer than a few minutes. It's an indoor/outdoor small sized one, like this one:

http://s15.postimg.org/un7xkj2kb/rc_helo.png

how to do a screenshot on a pc

 

Mine is blue in color. Anyone else fly these? Besides FSX, I found my new hobby!

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They are fun but can be addictive and expensive. I had a little heli like that a few years ago and it quickly escalated into fixed pitch, then the more expensive collective pitch, then bigger and even more expensive collective pitch helis.

 

There are quite a lot of different simulators you can get. Discussion forums like rcgroups and helifreak are good places for resource and info. Take it slow and have fun.

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Those are neat, but I was soon frustrated by the lack of control, so I went to a fixed pitch single blade -- took some getting used to, to say the least, but fun, even though I spent a lot on replacement parts while learning. Now, as Stepolano has, I've gone to a collective pitch unit, so another learning curve, and more replacement parts.

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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I've been looking at these quad copters for two months, I don't have the i-phone that it down-links to though and I don't really want one but I think you can buy VR goggles instead. Oh yeah, also the price tag is a bit of a stumbling block, lol.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1044729-REG/dji_phantom_2_vision_plus.html

 

I've all but talked myself out of it because the public consensus seems to be that they should be blown out of the sky with shotguns because they obviously have no practical use beyond spying on your neighbors. I can sorta get that because I'd be a little concerned too if my neighbor bought one and started flying over my place at 200 AGL. People don't get that the camera is your "windshield" and you use it to fly. Still, if you have to load it up and go somewhere so you're not near someone's back yard to fly it, well that pretty much ruins it for me because I'd want one to fly right here on my own place.

 

Here's a top notch video made over Norway with one, stunning if you have the bandwidth to see it in 1080p (I don't unfortunately). This is the sort of thing I'd like to do with one:

 

Couple more vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlXGU20F-ME#t=32

 

 

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I can see how this can become an addiction, lol.

 

I'm slowly mastering the controls and already feel I'm ready to "step up" to something bigger!

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I have a nice variable collective, variable tailrotor bird, about 4 1/2 feet long overall I use on warm summer afternoons...they ARE addictive! Beware the addiction...MUAHAHAHA!!

ahem

pat☺

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Had a thought...then there was the smell of something burning, and sparks, and then a big fire, and then the lights went out! I guess I better not do that again!

Sgt, USMC, 10 years proud service, Inactive reserve now :D

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Probably goes back to when I was a kid. We used to attend the local RC plane shows. I was always amazed at just how big and detailed those planes were. (Helos as well!)

 

Talk about taking a hobby to the extreme!

 

And I'm sure like me, they started small. Lol

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I've been looking at these quad copters for two months, I don't have the i-phone that it down-links to though and I don't really want one but I think you can buy VR goggles instead. Oh yeah, also the price tag is a bit of a stumbling block, lol.

 

You can go to much less expensive quads, without the FPV part, and smaller, that can be used indoors. This one comes with or without a camera (RTF = Ready To Fly, meaning with transmitter): http://www.horizonhobby.com/180-qx-bnf-without-camera-blh7485

 

I have the version with a camera, and the video is decent, but not super.

 

This little Proto X quad is about the size of a saltine cracker, is very controllable (even outdoors, somewhat) and is a blast. And this little Hubsan X4 H107 is a little bigger, is fun to fly (even outdoors at night), and is still inexpensive.

 

There are, of course, lots of others.

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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And so it begins, lol. Went to my local Radio Shack to get a part for my helo after a crash landing (Shortly after I bragged about getting good at flying it, haha). Well, they're closing this store so everything is heavily discounted. Sooo, I bought myself this Hubsan (as Inuss mentioned). Normally $30+ USD; discounted to less than $20. Couldn't resist!

http://s24.postimg.org/ib7ii2d5x/mini_rc_helo.jpg

image hosting 10mb limit

 

Just did a practice flight in the house. It does fly better; more stable.

CLX - SET Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i9 10850K - 32GB DDR4 3000GHz Memory - GeForce RTX 3060 Ti - 960GB SSD + 4TB HDD - Windows 11 Home
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And so it begins, lol. Went to my local Radio Shack to get a part for my helo after a crash landing (Shortly after I bragged about getting good at flying it, haha). Well, they're closing this store so everything is heavily discounted. Sooo, I bought myself this Hubsan (as Inuss mentioned). Normally $30+ USD; discounted to less than $20. Couldn't resist!

http://s24.postimg.org/ib7ii2d5x/mini_rc_helo.jpg

image hosting 10mb limit

 

Just did a practice flight in the house. It does fly better; more stable.

 

 

And so your hooked! I have 10 rc choppers and counting. If you are getting into this my recommendation is to get something you can purchase all the separate parts for. The better you get the more daring you get. If you want a rc flight sim realflight can't be beat imop, you will save a fortune in crash parts practicing on the computer. Unlike fsx as you turn towards you the right and left become backwards. Also when you go upside down the controls for the up and down are backwards. You can fly in tower view in fsx for practice but realflight will give you a better understanding of the flight dynamics. Just remember the bigger the chopper the more it costs to crash. Mt trex 500 averages $125 / crash and my Blade nano averages $0 per crash.

Learning to hover facing away from you without moving is step 1 followed by hovering facing both left and right and finally nose in hovering before you even try flying around if you can hold each position for 1 min try figure 8's. Then your ready for forward flight.

Enjoy the addiction

J.

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If one motor fails you could cut power to a motor on the opposite side to balance it out and it would still fly.

 

If you have time to react, of course. I can't speak for the one in your post, but on the RC ones, there is a small computer that provides all the equalizing control to keep all rotors providing equal thrust for hover, adjusting for control inputs. Without that computer, they'd not be controllable. On the big "volocopter," it's not clear whether there is one motor or engine, or two, or more -- perhaps they said, but I don't speak German. But loss of one rotor can upset you in a heartbeat (at least on the RC models), quicker than a human can react.

 

Hopefully they have provision for failures.

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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It's a given that multirotors don't fly without a computer (stabilization unit). To manually control all those blades individually you would need a radio with many channels and many more fingers than you've got to control each of those channels.

 

When I mentioned cutting power to one motor, it would have to be done through the computer interface and the computer would know about it. It may even be possible for the computer to detect a motor failure and auto adjust.

 

Mutirotors are built with one motor for each set of blades. They could build it with a central motor, but they don't usually build them that way because of the extra parts count involved and more chance of something breaking.

 

On a quad, there are 4 set of blades and four motors. If one motor dies, the quad will flip (there's no chance of saving it). If you've got more rotors, the impact of one of them breaking is lessened and there is more chance to recover from it. That's just my opinion.

 

It would be nice if they could build a multicopter that is safe and everyone could use.

 

Note: Multicopter, Multirotor and Quads are all the same concept.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Interesting to see this discussion of another means of virtual flying :-)

 

I picked up a little R/C helicopter almost a year ago (eFlight Blade MCX2) and quickly learned to fly it. The twin rotor coaxial copters really are quite easy to fly and still a lot of fun, especially buzzing around indoors.

 

I've since added two more, a Blade MSR and another no-name ($35 at a flea market) single rotor fixed pitch. The MSR is a bit too high performance for indoors so I've mostly been flying the no-name fixed pitch copter indoors this winter. Even though it's the same general category as the MSR its somewhat lower performance makes it better for indoors.

 

I was never into helicopters before, but with what's available now, and for very low prices, they're pretty attractive to try and a lot of fun. Eventually I can see moving up to something bigger/higher performance...

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Eventually I can see moving up to something bigger/higher performance...

 

Moving up to something like this? I used this for aerial photos and video.

I've been flying R/C helis for quite a few years....what you will find is the bigger the machine...the easier and more stable to fly. (At least for me it was)201589_205931586097512_6767105_o.jpg

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Moving up to something like this? I used this for aerial photos and video.

I've been flying R/C helis for quite a few years....what you will find is the bigger the machine...the easier and more stable to fly. (At least for me it was)

But don't try that one indoors :pilot: Actually, the little quads (180QX, Proto X, etc.) can be fun, as well as the single blade units. The Blade 120 and 130 are both interesting, and not very big. The 130 being a collective pitch bird makes it another steep learning curve, but I'm getting there -- fun, though it breaks more easily than my others.

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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Well that didn't last long......my new Hubsan crashed hard, now it won't take off anymore. The other helo I had, has a busted prop and I can't seem to find a replacement. (it's old)

 

So now I'm grounded.... :(

 

Part of my new hobby I guess....lol

CLX - SET Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i9 10850K - 32GB DDR4 3000GHz Memory - GeForce RTX 3060 Ti - 960GB SSD + 4TB HDD - Windows 11 Home
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I have had a couple of the small copters, and now have a UFO: it has no fuselage and the blades are in a cage. It is fun and easy to fly, and the cage helps the blades from getting destroyed. The charge lasts only about 5 minutes, but that is really several flights. What I really like is that it recharges via USB.
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