[bensidus197217]

What is your experience. I have only ever owned Hobby King and a Century nitro heli. The nitro heli was good but I preferred electric so on to Hobby King. I have had some issues with them out of the box but as far as I can tell they worked out well once I got the bugs out. The experts here tell me clones are junk and not worth the money, my HK600 however has been proving to be that so I'm gradually turning it into a Trex. The metal blade grips are poorly cast or machined, the Main rotor head came broken from the factory it was too well wrapped to be broken during shipping it actually looked like something heavy was dropped on it and then quickly stuffed into the bubble wrap. I have since repaired it but had to rob parts off it because Hobby King is hit and miss on thier supplies. I also have two shippments I have been waiting 35 days for and now don't know if I will recieve them they were things they had on backorder. I'm sure others will have something to say.

[MarkToo]

This question is rhetorical.

Yet another thread won't reveal anything revolutionary.

Excuse me for sounding abrupt but, this is beating a dead horse - again...

[bensidus197217]

Okay I see I am not good at starting an interesting thread either. like I was going to do before I'll sit back and let you guys do the driving

[MarkToo]

You want to start an interesting thread?

Get yourself a decent machine.

Set it up well.

Put some time on it. Fly the heck out of it. Log on here and tell us why you like it and how you are progressing with your flying skills - not your repair skills.

[bensidus197217]

Thanks for the advice.

[MarkToo]

I'm sorry Ben.

Reading what I wrote last night - I'm coming across rude. That's not my intention.

Your obvious passion is great and I should be encouraging that in a better way.

Flying with someone who has just had the light bulb go on with a decent and well set up machine is like watching a kid at Christmas opening gifts. It's my hope you continue to enjoy flying helicopters and find a machine that suits you and allows you to truly develop your flying skills.

There are lots of fellas on here that would like to see the same for you. I don't know everything but, if you have questions you are welcome to message me any time.

[gi1mo2]

I actually would have given my thoughts having gone with HobbyKing and Align. I use HK to learn and get comfortable and Trex to really fly. Found out that up to 450, the HK are very good.

I have too many problems with my HK500 to continue with that one. I am looking at a Trex 500 ESP 3G kit. It's over $750 compared to the $67 kit. Electronics brought it up to close to 400. So I would say expect double, but look at the difference also. I would get flybarless Torque Tube with that one. I haven't been able to find reviews on the Trex 500 ESP 3G kit. Wondering if it's worth it.

[Max]

I would like to add a few words myself.

There will always be 2 ends of the RC heli spectrum, the low end economical helicopters and the high end performance machines.

Similarly, there will also be the entry level flier who wants value at low price and the high end flier that wants high performance regardless of price (for the most part..) They know that high performance is directly related to high quality, so high quality is a given

Until the cost of high performance comes in at a ridiculously low price, there will always be 2 schools of thought in the RC heli world. Differences of opinion will ensue. It like matter and anti-matter, with Scotty and captain Kirk stuck in the middle.
Ultimately, it is up to the individual to decide what they want. There will always be differences of opinion and no shortage of advice.

Personally, the deciding factor for me is value for dollar. Value pricing is something used in my industry to justify the use of higher cost products versus lower cost products. But an important part of determining value pricing is the user. Ultimately for us heli fliers, it is a question of $ spent versus time in the air.

Low price and high airtime = Good Value.
High cost and low airtime = Bad Value.
Low price and low airtime = Bad Value.
High cost and high airtime= Good Value.

If you crash often, then cost of repair is also a factor
High cost of repair = Bad Value.
Low cost to repair = Good Value.

A similar argument can be made about parts availability. NOBODY wants to sit out a summer waiting for a single part that is needed to get the heli back into the air.

Being able to get parts readily = Good Value.
Parts being hard to find or take a long time to receive =Bad Value.

Controllability is also a factor. This issue is subjective, and even for the same brand (HK being a good case in point) you can get a good tight setup with no slop, or you can get a a bad part that will cause you grief. This is a veritable crapshoot of quality that you take when you buy cheap. You never know what you will get when you buy a low priced copter. On the other hand, a high end manufacturer will almost always be nice and tight giving the flier a silky smooth flier every time
So regardless of the brand,
Good smooth control response= Good Value.
Poor control response= Bad Value.


There are so many more factors involved, but you get the point. We here on the forums can give advice, but ultimately it is the individual member that decides what is and is not good value for themselves.

[bensidus197217]

Thanks Mark you said what I needed to hear on my post. Wasted space is never a good thing. Max your advice is gold and extremely well worded I will heed what you say it is all true as I'm finding out.

[flycrazy = Darcy Creighton]

Max .. well typed. There are a lot of different things to consider when purchasing a new heli it. It's a matter of doing the reasearch and making decisions based on what's important for the pilot flying it.