Whup Whup Whup

So yeah, I've been flying model helicopters of late. My dad got me a little foam one for my birthday and that's started into something a bit larger.

First was the Millennium PTU from hobby zone. It's small, fun and flew rather well. It's only 2 channel so all it can really do is go up and down and turn. You get forward flight out of it by setting a weight off balance and letting it just constantly fly forward a little. Still for 20$ it was not a bad deal. I say was because the little guy is now dead, tail boom snapped, and gears seised up. Opening it up to fix it is more like gutting a fish then fixing anything mechanical, there just isn't much to it.

This prompted some others at work to order some other heli's online. Dan, got a tinny little 3 channel Syma with some awesome engrish on the box. Having the third channel to control forward and backwards movement made it a lot more fun. Unfortunately the IR based controll system just sucked. It didn't last long as the upper rotor snapped off and parts for it would cost almost the 20$ cost of the copter.



Jer got a Syma Tandem heli. Also IR. It's a bit larger and puts out a lot more wind. Thankfully it's a bit tougher and it's still flying. It's a bit more squirlly then the smaller one, mostly I think to the fact that it just has more things spinning. It's odd that nether of them have any actual servos, all motion is controlled by changing the speed of various rotors.

Next for me was the E-Flight Blade MCX S 300. It too is a quality machine, that flies rather well . It's a 4 channel co-axial model that has the same movement controls as a "real" RC helicopter. It's given me a good feel for how they are supposed to respond. Thankfully this little guy has some kick-ass Gyro's that make it disturbingly stable for something it's size. Everyone who has tried it can fly it on the first try, even a 6 year old kid. That's gotta say something. The 2.4 ghz control system is far better then the IR ones but with a significant price increase (I got it for $100). I just wish I could fly it outside, as I'm a little sick of puttering around my living room.


So today I took the plunge and ordered up a full 6 channel colective pitch RC heli. A lot of people had suggested the Blade MSR as the next step, and it would have been if I wasn't sick of flying inside. Also I've tried to fly a fixed pitch heli before and it did not end well. I'm sure it's just because it was a cheap model, but still. We'll have to see how this one goes when it gets here. I've been reading a helicopter training guide online and it seems to have a good program for learning how to fly them. No matter what I'm sure I'll be buying lots of extra blades :)