Buying a Remote Control Helicopter

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.

$120: Co-Co Lama

There are actually lots of choices between $40 and $120, but I wouldn’t recommend them. Either go super cheap and get the Air Hogs or something similar, which many people on the ‘net have modified and upgraded, or take a step up to a real coaxial like this Co-Co Lama. Like the Air Hogs, this has two counter-rotating blades (note that the tail on co-axial helis is for looks only). This is a more like a real helicopter, though, because you can hover it in a single place or fly it forwards, backwards, and side-to-side (as well as rotating it).

Notice that this model and the next have two sets of blades, one on top of another–that means it’s a coaxial design. The dual sets of blades rotate in opposite directions, making the helicopters much more stable and easier to fly than the traditional design that you see on real helicopters, which is a single pair of blades on top and a rotor on the tail.

$160: Blade CX

A popular first helicopter with hobbyists, this heli’s capabilities are similar to the Co-Co Lama’s, but the parts are higher-quality and it’s a bit bigger, so you can fly it outdoors on very still days without it blowing away.

$220: Blade CP

What does the extra $60 get you over the Blade CX? Well, this is the first plane in the list that’s not coaxial. It just has a single rotor on top. To keep the plane from spinning wildly with the blade, it has a tail rotor that blows wind in the opposite direction to keep the nose pointing forward, just like a full-scale heli. Because it doesn’t have the coaxial blades keeping the body so stable, it’s capable of fast forward flight, and it’s much more agile than a coaxial helicopter. For the same reason, it’s VERY hard to fly. You have to make constant, tiny corrections to keep it pointing forward and level. It will probably be at least a couple of hours of practice before you can hover stably. For help learning how to fly it, check RADD’s School of Flight. Here’s a hint at how hard these non-coaxial helis are to fly: You’ll run through 10 batteries before you even get the skids off the ground. Here’s another hint: the video above ends in a crash. It’s not a problem with the Blade CP; all the helis listed hereafter are just as hard. Here are dozens of more crash videos.

$250: Blade CP Pro

To understand the difference between this and the standard Blade CP, watch the video above. Because the CP Pro has symmetrical blades, it can fly “3D”. 3D is anything that seems to defy the laws of physics as they pertain to full-scale aircraft, such as doing loops, rolls, or flying upside-down. It takes many months, maybe years, of practice before you can fly 3D. However, it’s nice to have it to grow into.

There’s nothing especially unique about the Falcon 3D, except that it’s pretty cheap for what you get (a good value, as they say). It’s capable of the same 3D flight as the Blade CP Pro. However, for just a few bucks more, you get a brushless motor which has a much longer lifespan than the brushed motors like those included in the Blade’s. Also, it’s larger than the Blade CP Pro, which makes it easier to fly and more stable. In general, as helis get larger, they’re easier to fly. This is the heli I bought. I was hovering it OK after about twenty minutes, but I’m still mastering hovering indoors. I flew it outdoors once and managed to crash when a gust of wind came along. Turns out, wind makes helicopters gain altitude, which I wasn’t prepared for. I’ll get more practice when the weather improves.

$500: Align T-Rex 450

I wouldn’t recommend this or the next heli for beginners, because it’s just too expensive to be crashing regularly. This heli is basically exactly the same size as the Falcon 3D (many of the parts are interchangeable). The components are better quality, however.

$2000: Align T-Rex 600

This heli is actually easier to fly than any of the non-coaxial helis here, because it’s so large. The rotors are twice the length of the T-Rex 450/Falcon 3D, so it’s very stable. This is the heli of choice for professionals and hard-core enthusiasts. Because it’s so large, it looks fantastic doing 3D. It’s also a great platform for aerial photography, because it can carry a reasonably-sized video or still camera. Try not to crash it into anyone, though–the large spinning blades could easily kill you or whatever they hit.

As I mentioned, from those I chose the Falcon 3D because it would be challenging enough to be fun (people get quickly bored of the co-axial helis) and it was reasonably priced. Your best bet might be to stop by a local hobby shop and see which electric helis they sell and carry replacement parts for–you’re going to need to do some repairs if you get anything other than a co-axial heli, and it’s nice not to have to wait for shipping.

If you’re looking for a gift, I’d suggest one of the coaxial helis (the Air Hogs cheapo-heli, the Co-Co Lama, or the Blade CX). The single-rotor helis with collective pitch are so hard to fly that the recipient would probably become frustrated and give up, or just immediately crash it.