Buying, Building and Flying RC Helicopters

It is more challenging to Fly RC Helicopters than Planes, it will require lots of your pratice, but the rewards are well worth it. Most pilots start with at least a good simulator or an instructor to help themself out to learn to fly..Nobody wants to crash their helicopter on their first flight due to the initial costs involved with the purchase of a helicopter.Check out the helicopter ground school to learn more. 

RC Helicopter Kits or ARTF?

RC helicopter kits are available as "full kit" (very few parts assembled) and 90% assembled, excluding the radio or the engine,basically assembled with engine, or nearly complete and complete RTF with engine, gyro and radio. Package deals that should include the engine, gyro and radio are the best beginner's setups usually.

Electric or Nitro Gas Powered?

In fact, most of the people prefer the nitro gas powered remote control helicopters because they sound more like real one than the electric models. Personally I like the fact that for the nitro powered helicopter, you can fly as long as you like, just fill more gas. However, with the electric model, you fly it for about 8 to 10 minutes and you either have to have extra battery packs (not cheap!) or a battery charge to charge the batteries.

Super quiet is one of the best things about the electric model,  so if you are planning on flying often where there are noise restrictions, then the electric model would be the best choice, otherwise, stick with the gas model.

Also, check out the mini electric RC helicopters for indoor and year round flying.

Let's Get Started

The most cost effective way for the beginner to learn how to fly an rc helicopter is to get the Reflex XTR 'Next To Reality' Flight Simulator or Radio Control Dave Brown RCFS 2001 Flight Simulator. It will pay for itself in the 30 seconds of use --- it gets expensive crashing model helicopters, Simulators are close enough to the real one to teach you a lot, learning how to react to the controls should benefit all new pilots.

Some people will only be interested in the real thing, however, if you prefer to start with the actual model, we recommend .30 size rc helicopter due to the initial costs and the costs of repair kits.

Some good beginner rc helicopters are the Dark Knight RC Electric RTR Helicopter, Radio Control * Thunder Tiger Raptor V.2 RTF Helicopter 49 BB Pro Mod Engine-TTR4839-A11shown below , the Kyosho Nexus , These helicopters have belt driven and are much more precise.

The Radio Control*Thunder Tiger Raptor 50 High Performance Helicopter Kit w/ Engine- TTR 4851 K 11 is slightly bigger and a little more expensive than the Raptor 30, but it has a slightly larger rotor disc,parts compatability with the Raptor 30 series, also has extra power, and a couple of really good upgrade parts and a very sweet muffler! The R50 is well worth the extra expense!
 

There are several key selling points about the raptor:It flies very well with no extra upgrade parts required.It is duarable, and strong enough for the rigors of 3D aerobatics.It's not difficult to assemble,service,and repair. You can tame it down to be a stable machine to learn with, you can also change settings and rip around anytime,and show off your 3D maneuvers to everyone.

The R50 package includes the TT50-H Pro engine and muffler.along with the Airtronics RD-6000 radio.It is easy to use and to program,has nearly all of the neat progarmming features of the $1000 sets. Because of the resonable price, the R50 package was known as an all-around super value package by RC Helicopter lovers. And the Raptor .60 V2 Helicopter is even more powerful. 

The latest new hot "real RC helicopter" model is the AirScoot rc helicopter. It offers incredible balance and easy control, made in the U.S., the AirScoot features a coaxial rotor design that makes it easy to master and fun to fly. It comes almost completely assembled, ideal for those who want to enjoy hobby flying, but lack the time to build a model from hundreds of small parts.The AirScoot is a wonderful alternative to traditional hobby helicopters. It's revolutionary design, precise control and quick assembly make it unique ,simple to fly ,and loads of fun ...