Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler RC Hobby

I pulled my old Tamiya F103 chassis out of the garage to play w/ my 6 yr old. I had to buy a newer replace the ESC so we could add reverse but haven't installed it yet.

We did also get 2 Losi Micro T's to play with. I figured we'd break 'em and I'd upgrade them to LiPo/brushless. I already blew an ESC running the Lipo straight w/o changing anything out...

Awesome action shots!

I hear ya Fred, things can add up awful quick. In my experience the RC trucks and planes can be quite expensive - quickly running into several hundred dollars even for entry level setups. But I was surprised how cheap entry level heli's are to get into. Here's an example of an indoor heli that is ready to go for well under $200. And when you break stuff, parts are generally $5 to $15. Just thought I'd mention it in case you're really interested in heli's. The entry level ready to fly (RTF) packages are not too bad - less than speakers anyway!

My 13 year old has a Blade Heli just a model older than the one that Dan linked above. It is so super stable inside. It is small and easy to fly. If you want something just to monkey around with that is pretty durable, look for a Syma S107. Make sure that it has the little "warning" markings on the blades as one indicator of an authentic one vs. a knock-off. These sell for about $20 on Amazon. Not as much control and features as the Blade, but a LOT cheaper for someone who just wants to mess around.

My "bigger" heli is a model that is a couple of years old. An Esky Honey Bee CP2...
This isn't my picture, but it is the same...


I've got all sorts of mods and upgrades on mine, and I don't use the stock transmitter either.

This one is just a hair over 20 inches long (not counting the diameter of the rotor blades), where the Syma S107 is about 7.5 inches, and the Blade is about 7.5 inches as well.

For size comparison, the following picture gives a reasonable representation...

The bottom yellow one is the Blade that my daughter has. The blue/white one near the top is the size (different model) of what my "biggest" one is and it is considered to be smaller...



Here is a stock photo of my plane. A Multiplex Easy Star.

Another easy thing to fly. Again, I've got mods on it like a rudder mod to make it turn sharper, and a super powerful brush-less motor and more aggressive prop. These are commonly used to mount small cameras to for taking aerial video because they are solid and almost fly themselves.

Oddly enough, my first experience was horrible. I even put a YouTube video up years ago with all of my crashes on a single day, and the thing took a licking. Found out just how much drag can be created by a simple decal on a wing. Removed the decals, and it flew very well until newbie pilot error happened and I fly it straight overhead, losing sight that as it was flying towards me, it was also flying towards the ground a bit too much. Hard to explain, but I broke the nose right off. Had it fixed, at the field, in about 10 minutes, but called it a day anyway.

I just bought this http://www.amazon.com/Syma-S107-S107G-He...8769&sr=8-5 for a whopping $20 to try out with my two and a half year old son. I've I mean he has been wanting to try a rc hellicopter for a while so I thought I ... I mean he could learn on something cheap first.

Yup. That is the Syma S107 I was talking about. Nice pick! Although a two and a half year old should be nowhere near something with fast spinning blades that takes good hand/eye coordination.

I guess the little one could dress up as a pirate the rest of their life since they will have the eye patch...

Wow, now that really is cheap! Let us know how the flying goes. It is addicting to master the remote flying. I see the cars/trucks as just plain fun, and the heli's and planes are for the personal challenge of controlling them.

So many different flavours of RC. My bro-in-law who has a Slash 4x4 (same as mine) also runs the Kyoshos Mini Z's in a dedicated on line league. They set up a new track configuration every month with transponders and electronic timing systems and the laps get uploaded to the league boards. Over the top if you have the time, but it sure is fun!

Here's a youtube of the mini z's.

And some amateur Slash driving . I am driving the blue bug that shows up at 1:15. I am a complete hack next to my bro-in-law as you can tell by the driving styles!

Actually, I was eying the One of these with build in GPS so you can do flight programming.

Trouble is, I already spend enough on other hobbies and just fell down the espresso rabbit hole. I don't need any more hobbies.

Wow, that is too cool Fred. The GPS and cola tests we're really neat. Thanks for posting that link.

Gotta go watch the Sens battle the Rangers now!

Man I love me some RC. I haven't played with my cars for years because they need a lot of work but threads like this really fan the flames. I just need time and money then I'm set! Oh wait I have neither. :P