We are very
excited to bring you this R/C Helicopter newsletter focusing
on new and upcoming products, special “newsletter only”
pricing, product reviews, heli surverys, fun fly’s and
other very useful industry information. We will be improving on HeliNews on a regular basis, if you have any thing you would like to see in it, please let us know with an email. Happy Flying!
The HeliProz Staff
Introducing Our New Website...
Heliprozs' Inc. new website was released January 9th, 2007. The website has been re-designed from the ground up to provide you with a simple more effective way to access the RC helicopter products, support and information you need. "We wanted to give our customers the very best tools available to allow them to enjoy this great hobby even more, we know you would rather be out flying than looking for parts!" says Chris Nelson, owner of HeliProz Inc. He goes on further to talk about the new Parts Finder (due the first quart of 2007) which is a dynamic visual aide in locating the RC helicopter parts you need. "If you know the make and model of your heli you can now find and order any part for that helicopter off an exploded view diagram." This saves all of us with problems remembering the name or part number of every part in our Heli. Another great addition to the website is the Combo Creator. This new tool allows you to mix and match your Helicopter with all the other additions or upgrades you desire to create the perfect RC helicopter kit taylored just for you. Both of these tools will be available in the first quarter of 2007.
Being the biggest and best RC Helicopter shop on the planet, HeliProz has accepted the responsibility of giving their customers the latest and greatest products, support, and information in the market. This is prevalent when you speak to one of their sales staff as they all build and fly RC helicopters, most are at an intermediate flying level. "We provide a much greater level of support than your typical hobby shop, this has been one of the primary reasons for our success." Chris goes on to say that the website will act as an extension of their wealth of knowledge. "We want to share our experiences and everything we know with our customers, we hope that they want to do the same with us."
Ultimately the website is easy to navigate, has two levels of security and is filled with an abundance of rc helicopters, parts, upgrades, accessories and things you may not even think of. You can find industry events, flying information, building tips and much much more. If you have any questions feel free to call toll free at 1-877-435-4776 or email us.
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Getting Started with RC Helicopters...
Here's Something Different...The magazines love to say that they can't make specific recommendations, and that you simply must find the "local experts" and then buy/fly exactly whatever they do. That's worse than useless advice! It's possible the local experts AREN'T avaialable, or aren't experts. They may be flying the worst engines with the most limited - even illegal - radios using dangerous servos all packed into a heli that is not what YOU want, and using a schoolyard as a flying site by theirselves, thus risking innocent kids. (All of the above are real stories, by the way...) We'll tell you what WE think is the best way to go. With options and choices.
Should I start with an RC Airplane first?
Absolutely not. You'd have to spend many years with the fixed wing aircraft to get any useful level of piloting skills to transfer to helis. Most RC airplane pilots have never developed any "touch" with their left hand (rudder and throttle). They only use rudder for ground steering and seldom adjust power in flight until time to land, when they chop the throttle to idle The really GOOD airplane pilots DO develop touch with the left hand, but they are a decided minority.
With Helis, the left stick controls are EVERY BIT as important as the right stick! There are no "primary/secondary" controls when hovering your heli. From the very first attempt at hovering, you must constantly make many small corrections with all 4 controls. In fact, that's 99% of the reason that helis are somewhat harder to learn to fly - you're learning to use more controls all at once.
Now, don't get me wrong - the airplane pilots DO have some valuable experience to bring along, in that they will already have a good understanding of 2-stroke engines and usually some knowledge of programming a radio, and what the radio does. But you can certainly learn those with a heli as your first model too.
If you want to fly helis, buy a heli. If you want to fly planes, buy a plane. If you want to fly both, make sure you buy a HELI radio - they can fly planes too.
Best Helis to start with?
The most popular trainer is the Ace Raptor 30v2. They fly fine and are straightforward to build. The pre-builts in particular are a huge value, (LEAST EXPENSIVE ENTRY LEVEL HELI setup) including the workable TT39 Pro engine already installed WITH a muffler. It's not a "deluxe" heli and the muffler is laughable - but the price is the lowest. The BETTER package is our combo with the OS engine, bearing upgrade and upgrade muffler. (Kit form). The V2 series are VERY good helis with broad performance range and low maintenace. Also, the parts availability and pricing (especially with our Mavrikk brand!) is extremely good.
The Raptor 50 is another popular choice. Parts and upgrades are 99% the same as the 30 , but of course the engine (OS .50 is by FAR the best choice) costs more and the kit is higher priced - MOSTLY because it includes carbon blades, metal swash, full 49 bearings and carbon lower frame brace, along with a constant drive tail. The Performance is VERY hot - if you want it to be. The newest low priced trainer is the JR Venture CP. This 30 sized trainer/sport/3D heli comes almost completely assembled for not much more than the Raptor kit and looks to be a higher quality product. It flies nice and includes two flybar arrangements. See our review! It is also available as a 50, with improved mount and rotor head. The BEST new 30 heli is the Kyosho Caliber 30. Again, see our full review. VERY nice helis with reasonable parts pricing.
Other 30 trainers we like are the Shuttle Challenge and Sceadu. After training you'd want to get the auto-clutch for the Challenge tho. And the soft head/mixer setup on the Challenge is not going to make you happy when you move into more aggressive aerobatics. (The Sceadu is brand new and is ready for whatever flying you want, plus is easily upgraded to a 50 engine for very high performance) You certainly CAN start with a 60 machine. The best would be the RAPTOR 60. (It builds easy, is big and easy to see, and parts are affordable). Overall it's slightly easier to see - and thus fly - the 60's, but even the simple/low cost 60s will cost a LOT more to equip and maintain than the 30 sized machines. The new Hirobo Freya 60 would also be worth looking into for a first-time 60 heli at reasonable cost.
With the exception of the slightly heavy Venture 30CP, ALL of the above helis can be used as great basic trainers, then very easily adapted (change setup/paddles/mixers) to be great hot-dog aerobatic machines.
What else do I need to get started?
We have a couple packages that are must haves. The packages include all the field equipment and basic tools you need to get flying. We don't sell junk so our package may be a couple bucks more than packages from the folks who do sell junk.
Basic Flight Support
Sportsman Flight Support
Radios - How much to spend?
As much as you can afford! Well, not really that much - but it's VERY easy to outgrow the abilities of most of the current 6-channel radios. Given any decent care your radio system will last a long time. So it makes sense to buy one that will do what you need NOW and also in the FUTURE. For most people the "mid-range" makes the most sense, and that means a JR9303 or the Futaba 9CH. An Exception would be if you are primarily interested in scale flying (not aerobatics) - then any modern 6-7 channel will be sufficient. We stock all three major brands, (Airtronics, Futaba and JR) in both FM and PCM versions.
Getting the most radio features for the least money would lead you to the Futaba 7CHP series or the JR6102. Both include (4) digital sport servos and are available for well under $300 with PCM receivers. (the 5th servo will need to be bought separately and spec'd to match your choice of gyro). They include 5-point curves for pitch and throttle, and have full function idle-up capabilities.
What about Simulators?
Absolutely a good investment! And not just for raw beginners either. The good modern simulators have more then enough realism to be a significant aid in learning ANY new maneuver with your heli - whether that means hovering, nose-in or rolling circles. It's almost impossible to have a "perfect" match with your real-world heli, but you can easily get close enough to do the job. We strongly recommend a simulator to anyone flying or considering R/C helis. Virtually everyone who uses one will tell you that the simulator pays for itself MANY TIMES OVER in crash parts that aren't needed due to the virtual training.
RC Helis are particularly well suited to simulator usage. The style of flying helis - relatively slow speed and close to the pilot - is a perfect match between sims and real life. The hardest part of flying helis is developing the conditioned response that allows you to make the required control inputs quickly, without having to spend valuable time "thinking it over" while your heli heads for trouble. This training/learning is just as important for learning your first hover as learning the latest 3-D pirouetting flippy-flopping inverted tail first autos.
Our favorite simulator happens to be the Real Flight simulator. The Real Flight has several helis as well as fixed wing models, and you can modify them as you wish.
I don't know what the lower limits are for good performance, but you can find guidelines on Great Planes web site. In general terms, you need about 50 megs of Hard Drive, a good 3D graphics accelerator, plenty of RAM (32 megs probably minimum) and a fast processor.
Personally I like to just use the "dummy" radio box that is available with the simulator. I already know how to program my radio, I don't need a sim to learn where switches are and I do NOT want to risk accidentally screwing up my REAL settings to play on the simulator! I know, some of you prefer to use your own radio as the controller and that's also possible with the optional interface sets.
Gyros - Mechanical, Piezo or Heading Hold?
In general you will want to use a piezo (non mechanical) gyro AND also a heading hold style gyro, unless you absolutely must minimize the cost. But the majority of heading hold gyros are now at or near the $100 range and you will give uo a TON of usability if you don't get heading hold (Futaba calls it AVCS, JR likes the term "Tail Lock")
Heading hold gyros operate somewhat differently than the standard gyros. Briefly, the "standard" gyros damp ALL tail movement, whether caused by torque changes, wind, or YOU moving the sticks. They simply fight against tail movement. Most piezos that have rate adjustments allow you to use an available mixer to mix out the gyro gain as you apply tail rotor commands, so you can still have full rate yaw available if you use such a mix. As with mechanical gyros, the non HH piezos need a tail rotor mix to be set up.
Heading Hold gyros work differently. They are rate demand systems. If you move the stick, it yaws the heli. Move it a lot, it yaws it a lot. It NEVER fights stick inputs. What it does fight - and much more successfully in most cases - is ANY attempt at the tail to move without your telling it to. Not only do you not need a tail rotor mix with Heading Hold gyros, you CAN'T use one - because it responds to such TR trim commands as a commmand to yaw the heli.
Setting up the heading hold gyros is a bit different than non-HH gyros, especially if you use both HH and non-HH modes (which most HH gyros offer). In flight, the big differences are a much firmer grip on the yaw, and the fact that the heli will NOT "weathervane" when you make a turn in forward flight. This means that - as in hover and very slow forward flight - you need to use BOTH cyclic AND TR sticks to turn the heli.
You should also be aware that the heading hold gyros DEMAND that you use good servos. The better the TR servo, the better the gyro works. With very cheap servos the gyro will work poorly and will eat the servos on a regular basis. Use a very high speed (.11 or better) and accurate servo if you use a HH gyro!
Our favorite non-HH piezo gyros are the Futaba GY401 or the JR500T - They both offer remote gain and mode (heading hold or normal) adjustments. The 401 with a high speed servos sells (summer 2004) for well under $200.
Futaba's 611 (with its matching 9256 servo) is the king of the hill. At a $350ish price point it costs the most and holds the best.
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What is a Ball Link Sizing Tool?
(Featured in RC Heli Magazine)
It looks similar to a screwdriver, with a handle for the user to grip and a slotted ball approzimately the size of a link ball on the end. You pop a ball link onto the sizing tool, and slowly turn the tool with your fingers. The slot on the tool acts as a cutting edge which scrapes off a very thin amount of material from the inside on the ball link. Then, you put the ball link in your helicopter and test it smoothness. If the link and the rod it’s attached to still have a tight fit, then use your sizing tool again to take off just a little more material. Just hold the tool 90 degrees to the ball link, and turn slowly. A word of caution though: This process needs to be done slowly, and in small steps. Removing too much material will make the ball link fot too loosely on the ball, and this can lead to the link actually coming off during flight, which can cause a loss of control and a heavy repair bill! What you’re looking to do is make the link loose enough so that the link and the rod it’s attached to will fall under their own weight when mounted on the ball on your helicopter, but not so loose that you call feel free play in the link. If you feel free play, then you’ll have to start again with a new link. Thankfully, ball links are realatively inexpensive, so it might be a good idea to buy an extra bag the next time you buys parts. Sizing tools are available from a number of places, two of the most common being JR sizing tool from Horizon Hobbies, or the Mavrikk sizing tool from HeliProz. Both can be had for under $20, which is an inexpensive investment. The Mavrikk tool has the benefit that you can chuck it up in your drill if you desire, instead of turning it manually. The Mavrikk tool can also be spread open slightly more that the JR tool, so this may be a consideration if you have a larger machine with larger ball links.
