Helis for Beginners

Since this is my first post I thought I'd talk about my first helicopters. The way you begin this hobby is very important and there are many opinions on how it should be done.

There are basically two types of helis that one can choose from when beginning the hobby. There are coaxials and single rotor helis. There are also different channels to choose from. There are 3ch's and 4ch's and 6 ch's -but I'll get into that later. (to begin with you want a 4ch- 3ch's are junk that you crash and throw in the trash) Basically single rotors have one set of blades while a coaxial has two sets rotating in opposite directions which makes them much easier to fly. Above is a cheap coaxial helicopter.

My first heli was a single rotor. While reading posts on a popular heli forum, I learned how difficult a single rotor is to fly and that coaxials were much easier. It was suggested to me to keep the single rotor in the box and buy a coaxial to start with. I think that it turned out to be good advice.

I had flown RC planes before and was very good at it. But I have learned that there are two differences between planes and helicopters. Planes want to fly... and helis want to crash! So I charged up my new coaxial. It was a Walkera 5G6, a tiny little heli about 8 in. long. I was excited and a bit nervous, but I had done my research. Lift the heli off the ground a few feet and then bring it down slowly. These are called "hops" Well I was getting the lift part well but the down part was a bit rough. I came down allright. Sometimes like a rock and sometimes just plain sideways. The 5G6 was a great little heli. I've learned from experience, the bigger they are the harder they crash! The 5G6 was so tiny I could drop it from 8 feet in the air without any damage.

There are basic controls that you need to learn with helicopters and coaxials are great for learning them. The throttle controls up and down. Sounds simple until you hit the ceiling of your basement from a twitchy thumb. The same stick controls the tail, or the rudder. This is a very important control. When first learning it's very important to keep the tail facing you. This is called "tail-in" hovering. Basically with the tail facing you everything makes sense. Left is left and right is right. My biggest problem was controlling the tail. It was strange to me. When the stick went left the tail went right. I just couldn't concentrate on the nose. I was stuck on the tail. This is why I think that a coaxial is a great way to start. You can learn the basic controls while actually flying, instead of learning them from crashing, which is how a single rotor can be.

My advice is this. While some people are faster learners and can start with a single rotor and some practice on a flight simulator, most people are not -I'm not. There are coaxils out there that you can get for like $65. Don't go spending the bank on a coaxial unless you are happy just flying anything and don't plan on progressing to bigger and more complex helis. I made the mistake of buying an expensive coaxil and never flying it. After a while I just got bored with the first one. (although it was neat zipping around my bedroom with it at 1 in the morning)

So if you are "Mr. natural" at everything you might not want to start with a coaxial helicopter. I'm glad I started with one. I learned the controls and had a blast actually flying it and doing more than just hover in place while waiting to smash it to pieces. So if you decide to, go buy a cheap coaxial and when you get to where your zipping around in every direction and not crashing than you can advance to a single rotor.

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