Colorado Rotorheads Newsletter
Posted: 03 Feb 2003
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by Steve Bygren
Welcome
to the second installment in our series of articles on R/C helicopters.
Last month’s article was all about greetings and introductions.
This month, we get down to the business of selecting your first
helicopter. Here we go...
If
you read any of the magazines dedicated to R/C modeling, you’ve probably
noticed lots of ads for helicopters from various manufacturers.
These ads do a good job of showing you some splashy photos with some of
the best pilots in the world at the controls.
What isn’t always obvious is that there are trainer and hot dogging
helicopters just as there are trainer and hot dogging airplanes.
Selecting the right helicopter when you are starting out is just as
important as selecting the right airplane.
There are many parallels between choosing a helicopter and choosing an
airplane. In both cases, you will
be best served by a stable platform with gentle flying characteristics.
A modest power-to-weight ratio is also important.
Just as a YS 1.40 squeezed into a Goldberg Extra 300 would be a real
handful for a beginner (not to mention an expert), a screaming .60 shoehorned
into a .46 sized helicopter would be a disaster waiting to happen for a novice. Fortunately, most of the entry level helicopters are pretty
well setup with a standard set of equipment that make a successful entry into
the hobby a straightforward process.
Most
people choose to start with a .30 size helicopter, such as the Thunder Tiger
Raptor, Hirobo Shuttle, Century Hawk, or JR Ergo 30.
These are all fine entry-level helicopters. When built according to the instructions, any of these
machines will be a great starting system that will allow you to learn the basics
of hovering, forward flight, and even some basic aerobatics.
With a few tweaks, this class of helicopter can even be setup to perform
the most dazzling “3D” aerobatic routine (in the hands of the right pilot,
anyway).
This
is a good time to mention a couple of rules of thumb that have served me well.
First, you get what you pay for. This
one is a well proven rule that certainly applies to helicopters.
If you (or your instructor) is flying an airplane and the engine quits,
you are faced with a dead stick landing. This
can be a nerve wracking experience, but it is rarely a catastrophic event.
You may have to patch some Monocote if you land in the weeds, but that is
often the extent of the damage. A
dead stick landing in a helicopter (an autorotation), especially for a novice
pilot, can be an expensive proposition. It
is usually a survivable event, but if not performed correctly, you will often
have to replace broken blades, boom, fly bar, and occasionally, other parts. The moral of this story is to get a good engine and use
quality fuel and glow plugs. The OS
.32 heli engine has an excellent reputation for reliability, longevity, and
power. As a result, I would
strongly recommend this engine for any of the kits mentioned earlier.
They cost a bit more than the competition, but trust me, you’ll be
happier with this engine than any other on the market today.
My
second rule of thumb is to buy and fly whatever is popular in your area. If you are the only person for 200 miles that has a
Hawk while everyone else is flying Shuttles, you may have trouble finding
someone with experience with that particular model.
This isn’t always a problem, but a beginner will usually learn faster
if he can share building, setup, and flying experiences with other pilots flying
the same model. Fortunately, the
best kits are usually the most popular. That
is one reason you will find so many of the Thunder Tiger Raptors in the hands of
newcomers to the hobby.
So
there you have it – the Raptor coupled with an OS .32 – that is my personal
recommendation for the newcomer to R/C helicopters.
Time and time again, this has proven to be a reliable and affordable
combination that has gotten many a pilot off to a great start in helicopters.
Next month, we’ll discuss construction techniques that apply to all
helicopters, including some tricks that the construction manuals don’t
include. See you then...
The Colorado Rotor-Heads is a group of R/C helicopter pilots based in Denver, with members all along Colorado's Front Range. Our members belong to many of the Front Range clubs from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins. As a result, you may see our members at many of the local club fields and even the occasional cul-de-sac. If you would like to learn more about the Colorado Rotor-Heads, or R/C helicopters in general, please visit our web site at www.coloradorotorheads.com.
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