Cheapest heli that's capable of 3 D

martyc5674

Hi there,
Flew helis years ago and gave up 8 or 9 years ago.
Was one of the few doing 3D stuff at the time got bored and gave it up.

I see 3 year olds doing tic tocs on YouTube now so I see 3D has gotten popular finally!!!

Anyways looking for a small heli to entertain the young fella with and obviously have a bit of craic with myself
Anyone flogging something cheap?? Is there a cheap enough Leci that I can thrash around??
A mate has a crashed raptor sitting in his shed would this be the best option on a budget??(not even sure what helis are still around!!!)
Cheers
Marty.

syl77

Its all depends at what stage you left or hope to pick up 3d flying.
A raptor 30 or 50 is well capable of sport flying (and 3d flying in the rights hands). If you would like an electric heli, you could start with something like the trex 500 or logo 400, however batteries for these are not cheap and get more expensive for bigger size electric helis.
I would recommend fixing up and starting with your friend’s raptor, get familiar flying again in various orientations and inverted. Then email the MACI heli sectary (see MACI website) and come along to the next 3d heli event or funfly where the guys will be glad to help. You local model flying club may have some heli flyers also.

martyc5674

Cheers for reply
No interest in clubs or meets just want to entertain the young fella but would like a machine that i can at least fly inverted.
The raptor was just on the shelf when I stopped flying and it seems to have stood the test of time. What electrics have the pitch range to do this on a budget without too much compromise on power?
Cheers Marty.

syl77

What electrics have the pitch range to do this on a budget without too much compromise on power?

By electrics do you mean servos, if yes then the pitch range on a heli is not governed by the servos, you must first mechanically setup the heli (all servos arms at correct angles and all links in the head must be correctly setup to give 0 degrees pitch when radio collective stick is at mid-stick. Once this is done you can dial in the + and - pitch range from your radio.
You need to have a radio that is compatable to heli (CCPM) flying to be able to setup a variable pitch heli.
What radio do you have?

Bruthal

I would of thought he meant electric powered heli`s maybe.

syl77

ok, if thats the case, most electric helis with varaible pitch will fly sport or 3d. If you go with recommended motor,esc and battery, then lack of power wont be your problem, ease of control will, and the small the heli, the more twitchy it will be, esp if flying in wind.
what size electric do you want(budget'd for), 250, 450, 500, 600, 700. Its hard for me to recommend one not knowing your budget or flying skill.

martyc5674

Cheers for replies.
Yes I meant available mechanical pitch range. I'm well able to setup a heli mechanically and my flying ability would be quite strong. I just have no knowledge of the electric helis abilities as I'm outta the game a long while
I have no intention of trying to improve my skills or even getting back to the level I once was at, I just want something to entertain the young fella with but doesn't limit me either (if I can loop roll and sustain inverted flight that will do me fine)
All the helis I used fly were 30 's I have no radio...are they all ccpm now?(swashplate moves up and down if I recollect right)
Cheers
Marty.

syl77

Most helis now are CCPM, but the old raptors (the new raptor X50 is CCPM) are mCCPM (michanical), however for the type of flying you would like to do with your raptor, there would be no real difference, in fact, mCCPM is easier to setup. Most radios the support heli flying should do both, if your getting an older second hand one, just make sures it supports CCPM so that if you change your mind and would like move to a CCPM heli at a later date.

What has changed with electric helis, is that the technology behind the batteries, ESC and motors has advanced, giving the heli more power. Also the age of flybarless rotor systems is upon us. This means that there are flybarless units available (CY Total G,Align 3G,Mikado and BeastX to name but a few) that consist of 3 gyros -1 replacing the tail gyro and 2 for the head, thus replacing the need for the flybar in the head. This all means wit the flybar gone there is less drag on the head giving more power.
But again for what you want to do now, a Raptor 30 (flybar'd) with OS32 is perfect. I started out on such a heli and loved it.
Spare parts can be found here:
http://www.fast-lad.co.uk/store/index.php?cPath=22_144_416_443&sort=1a&page=1

martyc5674

Ah very good...thats the kind of info im after i suppose...Flybarless sounds very good indeed.
When i started i had a mechanical gyro on the tail, then piezo and then HH which really opened up 3D to the masses.(Fying backwards @ speed without a HH gyro is a skill in itself, and even a regular loop involved a fair bit of trickery with the tail...they were the days of "revo mixing"...basically a curve between throttle input and tail to try and overcome torque.)

I ran an Os32 for a while...was a lovely engine on a Hatori pie at the time.
My favourite was a webra 35 though as it was quite torqueY!
The radios i used all had the option for CPPM but i never had a heli that required it (i do remember looking @ them and IIRC they had 3 points on the swashplate 120 degrees apart and the radio did the mixing required to combine pitch with fore and aft)
I think the problem with CPPM when i was flying was that it was very critical of your servos....a bit of slop/play on any linkage would be felt on all of them.


Anyway after all that a regular Raptor with an os32 seems to be order of the day!
Cheers,
Marty.

thirty

hi i have a 4 ch walkera cb 100 and a more advanced walkera 120D03 3d 6 ch with a 2603 transmitter for sale 320 euro the lot , the tx will work for both helicopters so your son could learn on the 4 channel then move up to the 6 ch 120 i have some spares for both helicopters also 4 batterys and charger , the cb100 needs a canopy as i broke it a few weeks ago these cost about 10 euro posted , the 120 is practically brand new not a mark on it , ihave a carry case thet holds both helis and transmitter batterys chargers etc , i am selling these as i cannot fly the 120 difficult to set up maybe your son will have more luck email me at skejah@gmail.com if your interested