4 Channel RC Helicopter Spec me
- Thread starter Lakeland
- Start date
popular in that it comes with a model a lot of people buy - it is very basic but works for a simple model like this
You will need a new radio the minute you want a more complex heli.
FMS simulator is freeware rubbish
Soldato
The mSR is fixed pitch, not collective pitch.
I own an mCX as well as an mSR and a Honey Bee. The mCX is very very slow. I once tried to fly it in a massive school sports hall I was working in and it couldn't fly forward due to the air current from the heaters. In a small room however, it's great fun, but it's incredibly easy to fly and does get boring quickly. It's good for teaching you the controls, orientations, and has great crash resilience.
The mSR is self stabilising like the mCX. This means you can let for of the sticks, and it will come to a halt and hover in one spot. It's to do with the 45 degree fly bar and swash setup, though I'm not sure on the physics of why it works like that.
The mSR being single rotor, is MUCH faster than the mCX. If you're gentle on the sticks though, it will fly as slow as you want.
The huge majority of helicopters are not self stabilising and will crash in a few seconds without constant correction from the pilot (you). This isn't a bad thing. The self stabilising 45 degree setup gets annoying very quickly when you want to start fast forward flight (FFF). The mSR has a particular quirk here as it tends to roll to the right when you plant the right stick fully forward. This can be mixed out using a computer radio like the DX6i / DX7 or similar.
4 channel means it has throttle, yaw (rudder), front/back (elevator), left/right cyclic (aileron). 6 channel helis have the same controls, but pitch is linked to the throttle stick in some way (depending how your radio is setup) and there's a channel to set gyro gain.
The Honeybee will not bind with a non Esky radio. However, if you buy a suitable receiver (like a Spektrum AR6110) you can replace the radio part of the 4in1 with that. It's a very simple mod and only requires 2x servo extension leads, hand tools and 30 minutes to an hour. There's no soldering or anything to do. Check out Nutcaze' tutorial on Youtube.
Once done, you get all the advantages of a proper radio, like a throttle hold switch!
I have got a Spektrum AR7000 in my WOT4 Nitro plane, dont fancy buying another reciever and a heli, might just use whats in there.
To be honest this honeybee seems abit limited, should you want 3d flying there is a decent t-rex electric 3d flyer which is around the £95 IIRC, all you need to do is add servos and a reciever I think (this would be for people who own their own radios already)
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Deleted member 66701
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Deleted member 66701
Doh - I made that mistake earlier - you are of course correct.
My head hurts watching 3D flights - took me three solid weeks just to learn figure of eights!
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Great, thanks for all the info
I was planning on the MCX2 which apparently is faster than the MCX? Still not sure what to do now, whether to stick with the MCX2 or to go straight to the MSR?
I assume with the MCX2 I could be flying within minutes and hopefully capable within a few hours. What about the MSR? Is it ok for a novice? (well I have a £20 2-channel thing but that doesn't really count!)
Are they the same size?
Deleted member 66701
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Deleted member 66701
The MSR is suitable for a novice but it needs a huge dose of patience - it'll take you 30-40 flights just to be able to hover it in an average size living room without hitting anything for as long as a battery will last.
100+ flights to start doing slow circles.
Associate
Sounds like a good choice. I think that MCX2 is the right choice for my son, given that he's seven. Report back when you get it!
Soldato
If you have a garage or cellar or somewhere indoors you can practice without wrecking your furniture, get the Honey Bee.
If not, get the mSR.
Deleted member 66701
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Deleted member 66701
Pro tip.
Buy a set of blade grips and landing gear and always hold one of each in stock for when you break them (you will deffinately break the blade grips when learning and more than likely the landing gear when you start getting it high).
Nothing worse than having not being able to fly your heli and waiting 3 days for spares to arrive.
At £4 for the grips and £5 for the landing, it's worth it.
Don't be tempted to buy the upgraded alloy cnc grips until you can fly it properly - if you crash hard you WANT the plastic grips to break - not the main gear at £20 a pop because you taken the weak link out with the alloy grips, if you understand what I mean.
Buy a set of blade grips and landing gear and always hold one of each in stock for when you break them (you will deffinately break the blade grips when learning and more than likely the landing gear when you start getting it high).
Nothing worse than having not being able to fly your heli and waiting 3 days for spares to arrive.
At £4 for the grips and £5 for the landing, it's worth it.
Don't be tempted to buy the upgraded alloy cnc grips until you can fly it properly - if you crash hard you WANT the plastic grips to break - not the main gear at £20 a pop because you taken the weak link out with the alloy grips, if you understand what I mean.
Deleted member 66701
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Deleted member 66701
didn't realise you were a pro
@ heli flying? Far from it.
In other respects? Yup
It's expensive funding all these hobbies.I had read that these two parts were weak so I added them to the order, should be here tomorrow
Deleted member 66701
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Deleted member 66701
Yeah - they are weak for a reason - better those to break and the more expensive parts of the heli.
Just remember - if you're about to hit something - just let got of the sticks and let it fall. Hitting a light or shelf whilst as full throttle is what rips blades off.
Just remember - if you're about to hit something - just let got of the sticks and let it fall. Hitting a light or shelf whilst as full throttle is what rips blades off.
Well I've just set everything up and all I can say is "lol"
I nearly got the thing to hover for a few seconds but it's just not happening yet. It keeps flying off instead of going straight up and hovering, I presume it just needs the trims setup but there is no point in me fiddling yet as I don't know what I'm doing!
One thing I noticed is that the plane tilts backwards way more than it will go forward, in-fact it really struggles to do anything but go backwards, even with the right stick all the way forwards, is this what it is supposed to be like?
I must have crashed the thing about 15 times already and nothing has broke though I was flying it in my bedroom so there wasn't much for it to crash into
I nearly got the thing to hover for a few seconds but it's just not happening yet. It keeps flying off instead of going straight up and hovering, I presume it just needs the trims setup but there is no point in me fiddling yet as I don't know what I'm doing!
One thing I noticed is that the plane tilts backwards way more than it will go forward, in-fact it really struggles to do anything but go backwards, even with the right stick all the way forwards, is this what it is supposed to be like?
I must have crashed the thing about 15 times already and nothing has broke though I was flying it in my bedroom so there wasn't much for it to crash into
Soldato
The good thing about that, a lot of the higher end helicopters can be fitted with the body, and with a lot of work some of the lower end ones can aswell - But theres a big downside if your using Electric the increased weight will lower the runtime a little more as it will disrupte the airflow a lot more, so making the gyro and your cyclic inputs a lot more than normal, But with a lot of batterys which is generally the norm to have around 5-6 packs all charged when flying it isnt much of an issue. Also sometimes adding more mass will make it stable in hovers and slow turns.