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Gruntfuggly

Bought myself a Hubsan X4 quadcopter for chrimbo...

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Oh boy, what a laugh these things are! Got it in an eBuyer deal for less than £20, and it's the upgraded one with LEDs too.

I've tried helicopters before and it all ended in tears - just too hard for me, however this thing is much easier to get started. It's still a bit tricky juggling the power with the cyclic controls, but you can soon get it flying round the room. Outside with more space is even better.

Haven't put it into expert mode yet - I might wait till I've totally trashed the set of propellors currently fitted (it came with a spare set) as I've flown into walls a few times...

I'd highly recommend one of these...

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I must admit i have been tempted before, sounds like fun. Be good to know how it handles in a bit of wind.

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One of my prezzies was one of these this Christmas. So far it's still in the scary flying stage, as you need to give it the beans to get it to stay stright and true. If you try and fly it cautiously it just flops over :lol::lol::lol: Need more space to practice luckily I have a field right next to me and my neighbour who owns it has said I can use it any time :D

christmas05.jpg

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Oh boy, what a laugh these things are! Got it in an eBuyer deal for less than £20, and it's the upgraded one with LEDs too.

I've tried helicopters before and it all ended in tears - just too hard for me, however this thing is much easier to get started. It's still a bit tricky juggling the power with the cyclic controls, but you can soon get it flying round the room. Outside with more space is even better.

Haven't put it into expert mode yet - I might wait till I've totally trashed the set of propellors currently fitted (it came with a spare set) as I've flown into walls a few times...

I'd highly recommend one of these...

with heli, you got to start with the semulater on your computer and a palm size indoor copter before getting the 450, 650 etc..even with all the prep work, be prepared for at least one major crash whether is human error or machanical failure. Is call paying your dues..:-D

I am thinking of getting a big quad with a camera mounted for my work of cable inspections. Is a lot cheaper and faster than using scaffoldings for acess, and safer too. But government regulations, safety plans could put an end to my idea for now. But what better way to get the company to pay for the toy.

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@lentner3 - it seems fairly resilient to light winds and gusts - you can hear the onboard gyro fighting to keep it stable.

I'm impressed by how tough it is - I've crashed it quite a few times and it's still in one piece.

@wood5tock and Tamiya1/10 - you guys must have a lot more patience than me. I've done some simulator flying and I thought I was getting there, but I never managed to get the heli to hover stably anyway...

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@lentner3 - it seems fairly resilient to light winds and gusts - you can hear the onboard gyro fighting to keep it stable.

I'm impressed by how tough it is - I've crashed it quite a few times and it's still in one piece.

@wood5tock and Tamiya1/10 - you guys must have a lot more patience than me. I've done some simulator flying and I thought I was getting there, but I never managed to get the heli to hover stably anyway...

I just have this mad idea to strap a GoPro to one and do some filming with it. So first I need to persevere with learning to fly it :lol::lol::lol:

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For 2014, I have plans to scratch-build my own quadcopter, learn how to fly it properly, and then go FPV.

Like this dude:

But don't be like this dude (RIP), who was killed with one of his RC helicopters:

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The first video looks like fun; the second video scares me. I like the idea of FPV, flying high, and seeing the world from a new perspective. The second video scares me because so much is happening so quickly, I'm not sure how much of the action is just muscle memory working the sticks vs. actually thinking about how to control the heli. I was also thinking about what happens if any one part of the heli fails, and I also didn't care for how close some of the passes by the camera were. I don't think I'd want to be that close to a heli or take it lightly.

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I'm not a great fan if the super fat aerobatics from model helicopters. I was impressed by the first video I saw but then found it a little bit pointless after a while. Do get my wrong I thing the guys have great skill especially wheel the go upside down literally cms from the ground in a split second the vertical and 100 yards away in another split second. Just leaves me a bit cold I'm afraid

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One of my prezzies was one of these this Christmas. So far it's still in the scary flying stage, as you need to give it the beans to get it to stay stright and true. If you try and fly it cautiously it just flops over :lol::lol::lol: Need more space to practice luckily I have a field right next to me and my neighbour who owns it has said I can use it any time :D

does your radio gear have dual rates and and expo settings? as that's a counter rotating helicopter and should be real stable to fly.I also love rc helcopters and my current ones are eflite mcpx and a blade 450 with upgraded electrics

142hc2s.jpg

christmas05.jpg

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The first video was interesting - impressive range!

The second video is nuts - I can't get my head around the physics of how that is really possible. I've seen it before but it's still mental.

I'm improving my skills with the X4, but it'll be a while before I can do anything ambitious!

Something like this has to be the ultimate for FPV:

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does your radio gear have dual rates and and expo settings? as that's a counter rotating helicopter and should be real stable to fly.I also love rc helcopters and my current ones are eflite mcpx and a blade 450 with upgraded electrics

142hc2s.jpg

You will have to forgive my with my ignorance of terms as this is my first time ever in using one if these despite watching quite a few vids on YouTube.

I know my transmitter has a high and low speed, forward, backwards, left and right but no rudder control. Then obviously the speed control.

One of the videos said to get it to almost hover and practice skipping across the ground l&r f&b but when I tried, it would skip off in a NW direction (this was in the living room) I tried to use the trim but I didn't have enough space to adjust the trim before it was heading for a chair and I had to shut it down.

I then took it outside and tried again in a bigger space but this time it would just begin to go light then topple over. I though it might have been the novice legs I got with it (with the foam bobbles on the ends) so took them off but it still toppled over!

My dad then had a go and actually got it about 10 ft in the air bu giving it some welly, but then lost his bottle and landed it again and we called it a day.

Am I just being too gentle? As far as I though you should be able to bring the RPM up until it just starts to lift and then be able to gradually increase until airborne. Then it will give you enough time to get to grips with flying it. But it seems to get it to hover properly you have to go full chat and hang on?

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Something like this has to be the ultimate for FPV:

That is certainly awesome, although some people say it's not the best way to fly. Maybe it's too disorienting? Not sure. But I've had recurring dreams involving me flying. So I kind of need to go FPV.

I might start with my RC buggies first.

And come to thnk of it, a high powered land RC- say, a 9lb 1/8 buggy- can be deadly too. - Or if anything quite deadly to my ankles if I ever get hit by one going full speed.

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Go pro in a quadcopter with wide angle lense sounds like the perfect way to film some tamiya bashing

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I looked at the bigger version with FPV for my son, decided it probably wouldn;t get much use or be wrecked in no time so saved the £120 or so. I do like the idea of the mini version for such a low price, we already have a couple of Syma micro copters and they are great fun indoors

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I love these little Quads...

Here's an absolutely astonishing video which demonstates the programming abilities of some quads.

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Yeah, I am looking into these quad blad model at about $430.00 +/- that a go pro camera can be strapped to it underbelly. But add on batteries, radio control (not sure comes with the model) and the camera, I could be looking at over $1K. :( I guess I will be looking instead of flying and spying. :D

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I love these little Quads...

Here's an absolutely astonishing video which demonstates the programming abilities of some quads.

That was both amazing and really interesting as well. Thanks for sharing

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For me helis are more addictive than cars because you can fly them so many different ways and do so many different maneuvers. They (6ch collective pitch flybarless types) also require A LOT more skill to control and A LOT more setup/programming of the radio and electronics. Quads and FPV are cool too but I haven't even touched one yet because I've been so busy practicing flying helis. With that said I do plan on getting a quad in the future for FPV fun but it's going to cost money just like helis because I want to use the SHARK goggles.

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Trying new things can be hard for the VISA sometimes..

Me and my two son`s got 3 Hubsan quads for christmas. Very fun !

Now there are Walkera Master CP`S helis and Dji Phantom 1.1.1 with Gopro camera with gimbal on the way :)

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But don't be like this dude (RIP), who was killed with one of his RC helicopters:

Roman Pirozek Jr· RIP, dude, very unfortunate and a testament to how dangerous an RC helicopter is. You HAVE to respect it and NEVER EVER EVER fly close to ANYONE! Carbon fiber, 62 inch blades whipping around at 2,200 RPM under the load of a brushless motor and high powered battery, are like ninja swords being whipped past you at high speed.

I'm currently into 450 size brushless helis and those are equally as dangerous.

I can imagine how many people are injured by these things, kids getting cheap 450's for Christmas only to have their eye poked out by a spinning rotor they were not expecting to be so "sword like"

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I rarely ever hear of kids getting 450 size helis if they've never flown a heli before....reason being 450 class helis are not cheap and when you crash it's going to cost money to fix. In other words kids are more likely to start out with a cheaper and much easier to fly coaxial or micro heli.

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