Choosing A Good Helicopter
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by: vgevge
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Well, that's debatable. For one thing, the inexpensive electric helicopters are very difficult to fly in the wind. Yes you can buy a pretty good one for around $200. The CX is the easiest to learn to fly as compared to the CP and the equivalent, but all helicopters, fuel powered or electric, are difficult to teach yourself to fly. Chances are good you will break many parts in the learning process and most likely give up after spending too many hours fixing, practicing and/or tons of money in the learning process. Hate to discourage you, but this is the reality of RC helicopters.
People seem to think because the helicopters are electric and cheap; it will make it easier to learn how to fly. I've trained something on the order of 300 people to hover and fly helicopters over the years and I know for a fact that is the safest, easiest and cheapest way to learn.
Fuel powered helicopters are difficult to learn to hover and fly, small electric helicopters are even harder and the tiny ones are worse. You will need a large open area to practice hovering and even then, chances are you will break things. This is something you will unfortunately find out after you spent quite a bit of money on your helicopters and replacement parts.
If you haven't already, tried installing a new and/or different type of glow plug. It is possibly there is a hole in your fuel line inside of your tank where the fuel line is attached to the metal pick up. That would cause it to stall when the tank is half empty. The engine might be overheating due to the lean mixture caused by the possible split fuel line. There are so many electric helicopters out there and it depends on what you consider is too expensive.
Save your $100 because buying those helicopters would be a total waste of money. As the saying goes, you only get what you pay for. The same goes for the cheapest electric ARF airplanes. You will need a proper trainer airplane, and any RC warplane is well beyond any beginner's abilities.
Learning to fly RC airplanes is something that is possible to learn on your own, but definitely not recommended. If you ever get a chance to find a club or an experienced flier who will let you fly a proper trainer, then you will see what I'm talking about. I believe collective helicopters are easier to fly than fixed pitched helicopters. You are correct about the CP. The small electric helicopters are for the most part are harder to fly than fuel powered helicopters.
There are several different people who are considered to be the inventor of the helicopter. I could write a book explaining it in detail, but I'll cover a couple of the primary contributors to the development of rotary wing aircraft. The ancient Chinese invented a toy for children that you can still see today. It consists of a propeller and a shaft through the middle of it. If you spin it quickly in your hands or with some other force such as a rubber band you could make it lift up and hover briefly before coming back to the ground.
The first recorded depiction of a possible manned helicopter is a diagram drawn by Leonardo da Vinci in the 1400s. The knowledge of physics necessary to successfully build a working model did not yet exist, but he understood the concept of an "air screw" that if turned fast enough would be able to drive the machine and a pilot into the air.
Over the course of the next few centuries many other people toyed with the idea of a helicopter, but again the amount of power necessary to drive such a machine into the air was not possible to generate. The invention of the internal combustion engine made the power requirement a reality. The next hurdle that needed to be overcome was the concept of torque - the phenomenon that causes the body of the helicopter to spin in the opposite direction of the main rotor.
Paul Cornu invented a working piloted helicopter in 1907, but it was not a successful design. It only generated enough lift for about 7 seconds. Another Frenchman, Etienne Oehmichen built and flew a working helicopter for about 1 kilometer in 1924.
As early as 1910, Russian born Igor Sikorsky began working on development of a manned helicopter. By 1940, his working design had become the model for all modern helicopters. It consisted of a main rotor and a tail rotor that is used to counteract the torque generated by the main rotor. This design is still used in a vast majority of helicopters today, which is why Sikorsky is considered the father of the modern helicopter.
There are many other men who contributed to the development of rotary wing aviation - too many to list here, but a thorough search of the library and/or the internet can give you tons of insight into the development and design of all different types of helicopters.
About the Author
Victor Epand is an expert consultant at http://www.SellModelHelicopters.com/. Sell Model Helicopters is a community of various independent model helicopter sellers from around the world. Each model helicopter seller represents a unique style of products all their own.
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