If you’re into RC flight, you have ot be into crashing. Even if it means you’ll have to spend hours repairing, a crash is always awesome to see. Here’s a collection of my favorite helicopter crashes.

To the guy on the forum who said you should just follow Radd’s school of flight so you won’t crash, I guess that guy needs to spend more time keeping the heli in the box. More videos after the jump.

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You bought this heli because it’s RTF–Ready To Fly. That means you probably don’t know a swashplate from a flybar. Well, no matter how careful you are, you’re going to crash it at some point. Then, you’re going to need to repair it.

I went through this recently, and here are some things I learned: (more…)

My first crash in my new Falcon 3D remote-controlled helicopter was caused by pilot error. I was comfortable hovering indoors, so I took it outside for the first time. The wind was calm and things were going well. Then, a gentle breeze blew. Now, when a wind hits a helicopter, it makes the helicopter more efficient, and adds lift (transient lift?). The wind caused the heli to gain altitutde from about 3 feet (where I was comfortable hovering) to about 30 feet. That freaked me out and nerves got the best of me, and i lost landed too hard, causing a boom strike (where the main rotor hits the tail boom).

That crash didn’t do much damage. It bent the boom, but I bent it back with my hand.  It also broke one of the main rotor grips, which I glued. Glueing that rotor grip was my biggest mistake, because it re-broke later during normal flight, causing a more serious crash. Now, I know better than to try and glue one of those high-stress parts.

Anyways, after a couple of minor crashes the main gear seemed to be a little rough at certain points in the rotation, and the main shaft seemed a little wobbly, so I decided to replace the boom, boom linkage, tail gears (which had a messed up tooth), main gear, main shaft, and of course the broken blade clip. That was a nightmare–it took me several hours. Most of the parts are cemented together, which makes them very difficult to disassemble. In fact, to remove the tail gear from the shaft, I had to cut it away with a dremel. I tried to replace the spindle shaft, but I couldn’t manage to remove the screws, and finally gave up (it seems ok, though, i just wanted to replace it to be sure).

Anyway, I took a lot of pictures before the repair to help me re-assemble it correctly. The instruction manual does have exploded views, but it’s not always clear how things connect. The pictures are huge to show the most detail, and I’ve adjusted most of them to show detail in the dark plastic.

• Falcon 3D rotors
• Falcon 3D rotors and main gear
• Falcon 3D main gear and swashplate
• Falcon 3D frame, motor, servos, swashplate, main gear, and gyro (right side)
• Falcon 3D frame, motor, servos, swashplate, main gear, and gyro (left side)
• Falcon 3D top view with flybar paddles
• Falcon 3D rotor head set and flybar control arms
• Falcon 3D main gear (notice the bearing in the center and the direection of the arrow)

Sorry, i’d put thumbnails, but I guess WordPress can’t deal with images of that size.

I like RC planes, but it’s a frustrating hobby because you need A LOT of space. So, I decided to look at RC helis, because I can fly them in a much smaller space (even indoors). Here are some of the popular helis with information to help you pick one:

$30:Air Hogs Havoc Heli

These tiny, wildly popular helicopters can only be flown indoors. They Air Hogs are other sub-$50 helis are fun, and you can learn to fly them in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, you have almost no control over them compared to larger helis. All you can do is move up and down or rotate left or right. If you add some weight to the nose, they’ll move forward and fly around. Because of their tiny blades, these aren’t likely to injure you or your pets if they run into you, and they’re pretty durable when you crash them.

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Here’s a crazy variation on Asteroids: SlingStar. You play a floating space eye with two comet satellites. Move your eye with the mouse to sling your comets into the bad guys (everything else). I got to level 14 before I got bored. Crazy.

Here’s a rediculously fun game: Desktop Tower Defense. It’s along the same lines as Flash Circle TD, but the monsters don’t have a pre-defined maze to follow. Instead, they move from the left-to-right and the top-to-bottom (in normal mode). My high score is 4643 in Normal mode, 7022 on the 100-level challenge, and 3454 on Easy, and I feel like I’m nowhere near mastering it.

Use this tip to play it full screen. A full review is available at Jay Is Games.