best sub £100 RC Copter to learn with

[oldpink]

as the title says
I've wanted one for a while but I know it takes time and practice and a lot of rebuilding
I've looked at the ones in Maplins etc at some of the dual rotor ones that claim to be very stable
but I want to learn to fly the normal single rotor ones so I can progress to a decent one later once
I master the flying them before I spend serious money and and not bin a couple of hundred quid
because of lack of experience

Not sure if they still use it but a couple of years back there were a few guys flew copters in a local field
near when we took the crossers, not been there for a while but plan to go by and see if its still used and pick some brains
I'm also going to look and see if I can find a local club I can go to as well

so any advice appreciated
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I have become comfortably numb

Theory & hazard 24-may 2016, CBT 8th June 2016, MOD 1 2nd Aug 2016 Mod 2 2nd-Nov 2016 - Current bike CBR 600 RR

[Hetzer]

3ch are the dual-rotor jobbies with fixed pitch, which means they don't fly like real ones. 4ch are the single-rotor ones with working pitch and they are an absolute cunt to master. 3ch are basically toys, 4ch are miniature real ones.

I still have my mini 4ch that I gave up trying to master. It was £150, then I bought spare batteries and parts for it and it sits in it's box in a cupboard. £30 bought me a 3ch and I have a blast with that.
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[Ariel Badger]

What Hester said.
Scale effect on choppers scales reaction times from seconds to milliseconds.
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[Hetzer]

Milliseconds...tell me about it.

A typical session trying to fly the 4ch...

"Well, it sez it has gyros what will stabilise it and shit...this little baby is going to come up into a nice hover and then I'll tool it around the room a bit...power on, transmitter on, feed in the power nice and gently to achieve ground-effect (get me, I know my shizzle)...oh, it's tipped over. What happened to the gyro...? Ok, give it a bit more power this time and get it up before it can tip..."

FUCK OFF!!! Right into the wall.

"Holy crap, how fast did that fucker go? Sideways?! I never touched the fucking pitch-control, you CUNT!"

Rinse and repeat a couple of hundred times, then stick it in a box in a cupboard and forget the POS exists. But not before watching people online with the exact same one winging it around rooms until my teeth grind.
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[rac3r]

I've tried the cheap ones and they are good fun!

There are some RC copters on youtube that fire rockets
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Bikes : 2006 CBR125R - 2004 Monster 620ie - 2004 ZX-6R B1H - 2005 Monster S2R 800 - 2011 Street Triple - 2009 Streetfighter 1098 - 2014 ZX-6R 636

[TheDonUK]

I have about six 3 channel helis.

Of the 3 channels the Syma 107G is the best IMO.

I am interested in trying a 4channel, i hear the esky lama or msr blade are the ones to go for...
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[10 pence Short]

Blade MSR and a Spektrum DX6i, learn to fly the little ones and then progress onto the bigger beauties using the same transmitter.

As said they are pretty hard to master, I bought a PC flight sim that I could plug into my transmitter to learn on whilst it's too windy/cold. Free to crash too.
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[Pete.]

I got a cheapy fully-aerobatic one that just needs a battery but it's no good for a novice.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Ariel Badger]

Mr Pink, Your prefix of "Old" and your years on the herb tell me that you go 3 rather than 4 ch.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[bikertomm]

I've had a couple.

First one was a 2 channel, ended up putting all sorts of shit on it to make it more challenging Blu tack.. seeing if it could lift anything ect..

Then I got a syma 3 channel, awsome machine goes nicely around the room as I stare at it in awe.

Big respect to the big channel people!

Come back when you have learnt this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEIrWmdDF1s


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[MarJay]

Esky LLama. Full 4ch control, but really stable because of contra rotating rotors. Proper model, but easy to fly, and can be flown indoors.

https://www.buzzflyer.co.uk/product.asp?P_ID=626

Excellent to develop skills on, but as Hetzer did, I bought a 4ch tail rotor fixed pitch Hummingbird copy not long after practising with some mates Llamas. Big mistake. I flew it for about a minute before I trashed the undercarriage. Its all but impossible to fly in any wind, and you need a huge area free from people to actually practise. I figured if I used it properly I was probably going to hurt someone, so again like Hetzer its in a cupboard unused now for a couple of years.

This one here is 2.4G which means that the radio is digital and will never suffer interference. Looks great for the money. Last one I flew was an analogue radio model which was still pretty good though.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Rogerborg]

Heh, my 8 year old son's getting "a big expensive radio controlled helicopter" from his gran this year, bought without asking me first. I expect the battery charge time to exceed the flight time.

Might see if I can find some cheap fireworks so that we can at least blow it to bits properly.
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[oldpink]

may have it sorted

A member here has a trainer 4ch and another for sale, he's pretty close to me
so going to have a look, I can justify buying it as it will be for my "Son's" Xmas

I promise if I get one I'll film its outings so you can see me trash my "Sons"Xmas pressy
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I have become comfortably numb

Theory & hazard 24-may 2016, CBT 8th June 2016, MOD 1 2nd Aug 2016 Mod 2 2nd-Nov 2016 - Current bike CBR 600 RR

[defblade]

This one is a little cracker. 4 channel and gyro'd, not the best battery life and some issues with the controller (trim knobs usually mis-labelled, need to open it and tighten up the gimballs on the control sticks), but flys Ok and only £30! (And the link is to the UK warehouse - you'll get it in a few days).

Lots of discussion here.
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[Humptybackedf...]

Mr Pink sir, if I may be so bold,,,the bigger they are, the easier they are to fly, I started out with a E-Flight CX2 (twin main rotor, no tail to worry about) then joined a club and bought a 450 size Mini Titan SE, and a DX6i ,,lot easier to fly,,,and fix and set up, I also have a Hirobo Lepton, https://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p38/greasemonkey_bucket/001-7.jpg ,,with 2.4 gig tx like the DX6i you can program it to be either mild or wild easily,,,ain't cheap though,,,would recommend something like a T-rex 450 to learn proper heli on,,,and join a club, the info you get on how to set up your bird to fly right is invaluable,,
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as ye sow,,,,

[colin1]

I'm puzzled as to why the owners of 4ch items they will never use again dont want to sell them to the people in this thread interested in such things.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Hetzer]

[colin1]

[MarJay]

[colin1]

[MarJay]

[colin1]

[Teaman]

got a 3 channel with gyro, a right giggle.

You can fly it outside but very light winds.
Flying indoors is fun but if you get too close to the ceiling it disrupts air flow and even if your smooth right up to being close the last few inches will happen so quick it'll go tits up faster than you can say "fucksocks There goes the vase"
Tip I was told how to fly em with is that instead of holding the tx as thought its a burger and controlling the two sticks with your thumbs hold the sticks with your thumb and fingers, Pinching it. Allows more gentleness.
Having said that I still prefer my nitro Rc. flat out or break like mad.
Think there's a metaphor there somewhere.
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Someone stupid does not realise they r stupid.stupidity is indistinguishable from malice U just have to accept that some people are thick as p1gsh1t and work around them.

[MarJay]

Actually Colin if you read what I wrote, I didn't contradict you on the subject of indoor/outdoor flying. I contradicted you saying that the trim on the model was impossible to set up, and that you need a wide open space because the thing was unpredictable.

The model does what the pilot tells it. Set up is a good baseline but at the end of the day if you're constantly tweaking the set up you need to examine your flying rather than why the set up keeps changing...

A good pilot *could* fly a model such as yours indoors if they wanted to, but they wouldn't because they generally aren't crazy.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[blade023]

I've had a £300 IC glow engine model for a while now, I use a DX6i with it. It's much easier to fly than most of the smaller models simply because of it's size and weight. If you're really interested in this sort of thing then get a decent radio (the new 2.4ghz ones are very nice) like a Spektrum DX6i, and get a flight sim. You won't be able to download a decent pirate copy, they have hardware protection. I'd recommend PhoenixRC; it comes with an adapter that accepts most types of controls. Takes a while to set it up right and you might want to research heli radio set up to get it right. Then practice with the sim. When you can consistently take off, hover, fly about and land again without any 'close calls' then you're ready to try a real model.

The heli I have is actually the second I've bought. I made the mistake of letting someone else 'have a go' briefly. If you really must jump straight in, get something cheap with 4 channels, and fit some training gear on it. Start off slow, make sure the trim is adjusted and practice keeping it steady.

If you want any more specific advice just let me know.
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