A Guide For Beginners in Remote Control Helicopters
To begin this article I would like to say that RC Helicopters are considered the most difficult of all radio contorted vehicles to learn how to control. Unlike all other RC items, which more or less only move forward, RC helis can move in any direction almost instantly. One of the best piece of advice we would give you at the start of this article is to find someone who knows what they are doing and learn from them. Having someone there to tell you and learning from them will be easier then reading all the beginners guides in the world.
But if you have decided or are thinking of going into the world of remote control helicopters your decision is quite a good one. To make this whole thing more enjoyable there are some things you need to know. As a beginner you are very fortunate since there are many things, such as instructional videos, RC helicopter magazines, flight simulator and websites to help you prepare. Having said all that, you have to remember one thing – Learning to fly remote control helicopters requires a significant amount of time. But if you are prepared to input your time and energy into this great hobby, rewards you get are significant.
Before actually flying one thing we would recommend is to have a look at some RC Flight Simulator software and learn from there. This can save you money in having to repair you helicopter, will give you flying time without risking crashing and make you more preperated once you start to fly for real. Bottom line is – you will crash and you will have to get it fixed. More than anything you will have to get blades replaced so better you crash it on simulator.
Another useful addition to your learning would be a set of E-Flite Training Gear Blades.
To give bit of basic background, the direction a helicopter is flying or its motion is defined as one or more of the following:
• Pitch – Movement forward and back along horizontal axis (X-Axis)
• Yaw – Movement along the vertical axis (Y-Axis)
• Roll – Leaning to the left or right (Bank Turn)
So let’s get into it…
When you first start in this hobby you want something that is easy to fly and control, which in turn will make it more enjoyable. Best beginner heli out there are coaxial helicopters. They have two counter rotating blades and no tail motor. This makes it very easy and stable to fly, so much so that they are predictable enough to be flown within the compounds of one’s home.
To give you better understanding where such stability comes from, lets talk a bit more about how helicopters work. A single-rotor helicopter as name suggest has one rotor. As the main rotor turns and lifts the helicopter up another force will be also generated known as torque, which will in turn cause entire fuselage to turn in the opposite direction. That being the case, ever since helicopters were present in the early days, people have managed that problem by including another small vertical rotor at the tail. This tail rotor would control the direction in which the helicopter’s nose is pointing at or as mentioned earlier – control the Yaw. For a pilot then to change in which directions he want helicopter to go all he needs to do is change the angle of the tail rotor.
So that now brings us back to Coaxial or Dual Rotor Helicopters. As we can see from their design, coaxial helis don’t have a need for tail rotor. Their dual rotors spin in opposite direction so torque created cancels each other out. With that set up, they have better stability and hovering abilities then single rotor. Controlling the yaw in this situation becomes only matter of slowing or speeding up one of the two rotors.
As they are the best set up for beginner they do have some disadvantages. First of all since they as so stable they do lose out on manoeuvrability. If you ever had one or maybe saw one spinning rotors out of control without actually lifting off would be because in order to fly the speed of two rotor blades must be equal. These helicopters are so dependent on synchronicity of its blades that even the slightest variation is detrimental.
If you are planning to purchase one, check out the review we did of E-Flite Blade CX2 Coaxial Heli.
Overall they are good learning helicopter and even once you are more experienced they are capable of flying indoor easier than other type of helis.
