Ty's Guide To Electric RC Helicopters

Contrary to popular belief RC Helicopters are not toys, they can cause serious injury and possibly even a very painful death.

I have been struck quite a few times due to my own careless acts and each incident has left a new scar of it's own. Don't make the same mistakes I and many others have made. Ensure you understand how your helicopter operates and the dangers surrounding it before you even plug it in!

Age Restrictions
Because of the dangers associated with RC Helicopters, they ship with "14+" age warnings, however many people I have spoken with believe they should ship with "16+" age warnings instead.
On the flip side, if proper adult supervision is carried out RC Helicopters are great fun and quite safe for people aged 14 and under, there are many videos on YouTube that prove this.

Local Regulations
Although It's rare, some councils/governing bodies do impose regulations on the operation of RC vehicles. Before you fly you should ensure you know you local regions regulations.

National Regulations
Some country's ban the use of certain radio frequency's. It is your responsibility to ensure you are not operating on a banned/regulated radio frequency.

Drugs And Alcohol
Just like a car or full scale Helicopter, you should never operate your RC Helicopter while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Drugs and Alcohol can severely effect your ability to make rational decisions, this is definitely not a good thing when your around anything that has enough power to remove a limb.

Power lines
Power lines are often overlooked by people when choosing a place to fly. Power lines can be extremely dangerous to both you and your Helicopter and because of this you should ALWAYS check for them wherever you fly.

Lipo Battery Safety
Lipo battery's are known as being an extremely dangerous battery. You should never exceed the manufactures maximum charge time or your battery may explode.
Never let your Lipo battery's short out, doing so may destroy them or cause them to explode.
Find more on Lipo battery's in the Maintenance section.

Main And Tail blades
RC Helicopter blades spin extremely fast, they have enough power to remove a finger or two with no hesitation. Always keep your hands and your friends hands well clear of the Helicopters blades.
Care should be taken when handling the blades as small cracks can cause them to break and fly off at high speeds. Cheap blades are also known to break at high speeds.

Turning Your Helicopter On Safely
To turn your helicopter on safely you must ensure the following conditions are met:
1. If your transmitter has a throttle lock switch it should be in the "on" position.
2. You should be in standard flight mode, not idle up. The switch should be in the "off" position.
3. Your throttle control stick should be all the way down as well its it's trim tab. You should also check your cyclic and rudder trim tabs are set correctly.
4. Ensure your Helicopters blades and main gear are obstruction free.
5. Power on your transmitter, re-check your switches and then plug in the Helicopters battery.

The world of RC Helicopters can be quite daunting to a new enthusiast, this section of the guide will provide you with some information to make buying RC Helicopters just a little easier. If you already own an RC Helicopter you can skip over this chapter.

If you are looking for RC helicopter reviews and not buyers information you should click here.

RC Helicopters are sold in 4 ways, RTF, BNF, PNF and ARF. The package that is right for you will come down to your level of experience and your budget. Experienced RC Helicopter pilots tend to purchase ARF kits, while new pilots should and do tend to purchase RTF packages.

RTF stands for "Ready To Fly". These packages come ready to fly straight of the box! all you need to do is charge the battery and your ready to go.
RTF packages are the most popular way of buying an RC Helicopter however, it is also the most expensive.

BNF stands for "Bind And Fly". BNF kits come with everything (99% of the time) except the transmitter. With these kits you are required to bind your own transmitter to the supplied receiver, so when your purchasing a BNF kit you need to ensure the transmitter you have will work with the supplied receiver.

PNF stands for "Plug And Fly". PNF kits come with everything except the transmitter, receiver and the battery. These kits tend to be cheaper then BNF kits and they will require a little more knowledge to assemble.

ARF stands for "Almost Ready To Fly". ARF kits require almost 100% assembly and often don't ship with everything required to fly.
ARF kits normally work out much cheaper then BNF or RTF packages, however they can be quite difficult to put together.

Spare Parts And Upgrades
You should always purchase parts that fit your budget, however its important to note that with any sort of electronic equipment you really do get what you pay for.

People often purchase upgrades to early in the learning process, you shouldn't purchase upgrades until you break something. If you purchase upgrades early on you are only spending extra money that honestly does not need to be spent. Unless you're a highly capable pilot you wont notice the difference between most stock and upgraded parts.

Buying Used Helicopters
If you are looking at purchasing a used electric RC helicopter there are a few things you should be on the look out for in order to avoid buying a lemon. The first thing you need to establish is "why is this helicopter for sale?" you can ask this question straight out, the purpose of this is to discover if you are just buying someone else's nightmare or their dream machine they cannot keep.

Once you know why the helicopter is for sale you should, if possible ask to preform an inspection. During the inspection you should check for the following faults and defects:
1. Broken or glued plastic pieces.
2. Bent or dented metal pieces.
3. Give everything a wiggle, it should all feel nice and tight.
4. Loud winding noises from either the motor or gears.
5. Check all radio gear is functioning as described.
6. Damaged battery's.

If you discover any broken or damaged pieces you weren't told about before hand DO NOT BUY THE MACHINE! you are only asking for trouble.

Buying On eBay
eBay is a great place to pick up parts, upgrades and even full RTF packages, however you must have your wits about you when purchasing. Cheap "eBay" parts are pretty well known to cause problems and are often knock off's of quality brands.
I myself do purchase parts from eBay and I have never had a single problem, I do my research before I purchase anything thou.

Mini RC Helicopters have become extremely popular, they make great gifts and can be flown safely by people of pretty much all ages. Since they have become so popular there are plenty of companies offering them, I've tried many of them and can say most of them to put it simply. are disappointing.
The only mini rc helicopter that has stood out above the rest for me is the is the Syma S107. The Syma S107 is durable, lightweight and is very stable. I always recommend the Syma S107 to anyone looking for a mini rc helicopter.

The most common question I get asked both in emails and at the flying field is "What's the best 6ch RC helicopter?". The answer to this question isn't an easy one as the best 6ch RC helicopter is the one that best fits your budget and your needs and these two things are almost always different for everyone.

From my own experiences I can say that in general the best starting point for a 6ch RC helicopter is an RTF Trex 450 clone. Parts for Trex clones are cheap and can be purchased online with ease.

I have had a Trex 450 for a few years now and it's still one of my favorite RC helicopters.

An RC Helicopter has quite a few electronic parts, each part preforms a specific task and in the big picture is just as vital as any other part. This section will help you get to know each part and its function a little better.

The Power System
An RC Helicopters power system consists of the following components:

Motor - The motor provides your helicopters blades with rotation. The most common motors found on RC Helicopters are high torque brushless outrunner motors.

Speed Controller (ESC) - The speed controller makes changing the motors speed possible.

battery - The battery connects to your speed controller and powers your Helicopter. RC Helicopters typically make use of a high power lipo battery to give you maximum performance and flight time.

The amount of time your battery will last comes down to the battery's mAh (milliamp hours) value. The larger the number the longer the battery will last.

The Control System
Your Helicopter makes use of the following electronic components in order to give you control:

Transmitter - The transmitter (radio) is the device you hold in your hand to control the Helicopter. When you move control sticks, switches or dials on the transmitter it transmits encoded messages to the receiver on board the Helicopter.
Transmitters have traditionally operated on AM and FM bands, however recently the 2.4GHz spectrum has become more popular as it offers a more user friendly experience with no radio interference.

Receiver - The receiver receives and decodes signals/information from the transmitter and sends the commands on to the necessary component(s) like you servo's or speed controller.

Servo's - Servo's are what give your control system motion. A 6ch Helicopter contains 4 servo's, 1 for the left aileron one for the right aileron one for the elevator and one for the rudder.

Good quality servos are a must. Good quality servos are much more responsive then the cheapish ones and will provide you with a much smoother flight..

Gyro - A Gyro is used to counteract unwanted movements caused by environment variables. Typically Gryo's are used to hold the rudder in position.

When paired with a decent servo, a good quality gyro will ensure your RC helicopter flies nice and straight.

In this section we will be covering the controls for a Mode 2 6ch 120 CCPM Helicopter.

The Left Stick
In standard flight mode your left stick controls your throttle and rudder. By moving the stick up and down it controls the throttle and moving the stick left or right controls the rudder.
In idle up flight mode the left stick controls the collective pitch and the rudder. Moving the stick up and down it controls the collective pitch and the rudder is controlled by moving the stick left or right.

The Right Stick
The right stick controls the Helicopters cyclic. Moving the control stick left will make the Helicopter slide to the left, moving it right will make it go right and the same is true for forwards and backwards. The cyclic controls remain the same in both standard flight mode and idle up flight mode.

The Trim Tabs
Next to each control stick there is a sliding tab, this is called a "trim tab". Trim tabs allow you to adjust the way your helicopter flys, if you find you need to hold a little cyclic left all the time then you just set a little bit of cyclic left trim and you will then be able to keep your stick centred.

The Switches And Dials
The switches found at the top of a 6ch transmitter commonly operate the throttle lock and flight modes. These switches don't always do the same thing so it's well worth checking your transmitters documentation to ensure you know what your switches operate.
The dials found on the top of a transmitter give you the ability to program user mixes. Most commonly these dials are used for setting the gyro's gain remotely and altering the overall amount of pitch your collective can provide.

In order to maintain your RC helicopter you will need the following tools:

1 pair of ball link pliers - These help you "pop" ball link joints on and off. Without these pliers you risk doing damage to either the ball link join or the part you are trying to attach.

1 set of small screw drivers - In most cases you will only need a short handled Phillips head, however it is handy to have a range of screw drivers.

1 set of small hex keys - These are needed for most of the screws on the helicopters air frame and for all the various grub screws on your helicopter.

Complete RC Helicopter tool kits can be purchased on ebay.

Just like full scale Helicopters, in order to continue flying model Helicopters need to be maintained.

Pre-Flight Checks
Before every flight its important you check your helicopter and radio are functioning correctly, don't assume that everything will be fine because it was the last time you flew, often this is not the case at all.
To check your Helicopter and radio are in fact functioning correctly power on your helicopter and radio as described in the "safety first" section, then move your control sticks to verify the swash plate and rudder are moving in the correct directions. While you're checking your swash plate take a moment to glance over your Helicopter and check for any snagged cables.

Post Flight Checks
After every flight it's good practise to give your Helicopter a visual inspection and ensure no obvious damage has occurred on your last flight.
It's also a good idea to give your Helicopter a wipe over with a lint free cloth to remove any oils that may have accumulated on it.

Every Few Flights
Check everything is nice and tight, don't forget to check your tail boom, main gear screws and rotor screw. Ensure all of your linkages are in good shape and haven't come loose.

Once Every Now And Again
Apply some lubricant to your Helicopters moving parts, don't over do it! doing so will have the reverse effect, causing components to bind.
Check the the meshing between your motor pinion and your main gear, ensure you can slide a piece of of paper between the two gears.

Lipo Battery's
Lipo battery's are extremely dangerous and should be treated with care. Before every charge and after every discharge you should visually inspect your battery's and ensure no puffing has occurred. If puffing has occurred do not attempt to repair the damaged lipo battery, dispose of it immediately.
It's a good idea to store your battery's in a lipo safe storage bag and away from direct sun light.

In recent years RC Helicopter flight simulators have become popular amongst RC hobbyists. Flight simulators feel almost the same as real flight and can help you learn to fly real RC Helicopters a lot quicker.
There are many different RC Helicopter simulators available (see google), the one for you ultimately comes down to what you can afford. Keep in mind when your selecting a simulator that graphics don't matter! FMS is the flight simulator I chose it has horrible graphics, however it is free, works with my existing transmitter and the physics are realistic.

This series of lessons will teach you the basics of flying an electric 6ch RC Helicopter. The lessons will be conducted in standard flight mode and no prior flight time is required.

Lesson 1 - Getting To Know The Controls
At the end of this lesson you should be comfortable with controlling your Helicopter on the ground using both the rudder and cyclic.

For this lesson and the rest of the lessons in this series you will need to have your training gear attached and be on a surface that allows your Helicopter to slide around, basketball, tennis courts and concrete driveways are ideal places.

Place your Helicopter on the ground and power it on then preform your pre-flight checks. Start this lesson by bringing your throttle up slowly until your Helicopter is light on its skids. While your doing this you should be trying to keep your blades level by making small corrections with both the cyclic and rudder. If you find you have to hold your sticks quite far from center while you are doing this then you will need to adjust your trim tabs.
Once you have the Helicopter light on its skids, use the cyclic to "scoot" around left, right, forwards and backwards. While you are doing this keep the tail of the Helicopter towards you and don't let the Helicopter rise off the ground.
You should continue this exercise until you are comfortable with the sensitivity of the throttle, rudder and cyclic.

Lesson 2 - Short Hops
At the end of this lesson you will be able to preform short "hops" and you will be on your way to your first hover.

On the same surface as lesson 1, begin this lesson by raising your throttle so your Helicopter is light on its skids. From here you should tickle your throttle up a little until your Helicopter rises off the ground just a little, as you do this you will need to keep the Helicopter level with the cyclic and keep the tail towards you with the rudder. Be very careful not to raise the throttle to quickly or your Helicopter will leap into the air causing you to loose control and crash.
You should continue this lesson until you are able to sustain hops for a fair while, around 30-40 seconds is ok, the longer the better thou.

Lesson 3 - Hovering
At the end of this lesson you will be able to hover your Helicopter.

If you practised lesson 2 long enough to satisfy the lesson outcome then this lesson should be a breeze because, in essence a hover is just a really long hop.
In order to hover your throttle needs to be raised to just above mid stick, you should do this slowly while keeping the tail towards you. You should practise hovering at about chest height, at a safe distance away from you of course. If you practise hovering to low to the ground your Helicopter will become a victim of ground and will not handle the way you expect it to.
Once you do have you helicopter in the air, it won't stay there by itself. You will need to work every control constantly, it's important to be very gentle with the control sticks while learning to hover or the Helicopter will slide out of control or even tip over.
You should continue practising your hovers for ever! There's always room for improvement, stability will only come with hours of practise.

Lesson 4 - Sideward, Forward And Reverse Hovering Flight
Now that you can hover, lets learn to move around a little. By the end of this lesson you will be competent in sideward, forward and reverse hovering flight.

To begin this maneuver you need to be in a stable hover, from here we will be going left first. Apply a small amount of left cyclic to start the Helicopter moving to the left as the Helicopter begins moving return the cyclic stick to its neutral position. During this maneuver the Helicopter should be moving slowly. about walking speed is ideal.
While the Helicopter is moving sidewards you will need to apply cyclic in the necessary directions to keep the Helicopter level and some rudder to keep the tail towards you.
When you are ready to stop, apply a small amount of cyclic in the opposite direction until the Helicopter stops, hover the Helicopter in this position for a short while then reverse the procedure to move to the right.
The process is the same for forward and reverse hovering flight, however you may find you need to add a little throttle as you begin to move forward.
Learning this maneuver can take a while, it's easy to apply to much cyclic and loose control of the Helicopter. Take your time learning this maneuver and ensure you execute it slowly!

Lesson 5 - Hovering Turns And "Side In" Hovering
By then end of this lesson you will be able to turn your Helicopter using the rudder and sustain a side in hover.

To begin this lesson enter a stable hover a little lower then normal, this will save your Helicopter from hard landings while you practice this maneuver. To execute a hover turn you need slowly move your rudder control stick in the direction you want the Helicopter to turn, while you are doing this you must also make corrections with the cyclic and depending on the direction you are turning you made need to increase the throttle a little.
It's very important to note that as your Helicopters tail turns away from you, the controls begin to reverse. This is caused purely by perspective, left on the cyclic will always make the Helicopter slide towards its left side, however if the left side of the Helicopter is facing you then left on the cyclic will make the Helicopter slide towards you.
To get use to how the controls differ side in, you should practice hover turns in both directions, you should also turn out of side in hovers in both directions.

Lesson 6 - Hovering "Nose In"
By the end of this lesson you will be able to hover your Helicopter "nose in", this is also the last lesson in the series!

Since you spent long enough on lesson 5 before moving on, you should almost be hovering nose in already. Start this maneuver by hovering at the same height you did in lesson 5, from here preform a hover turn to face the nose of the helicopter towards you, hover in this position for as long as you can.
You should practice this maneuver until you are able to hover nose in as well as you can tail in! this is no easy task!

Flying helicopters at night is great fun! All you need is a good dependable lighting system.

Main Blades
Night blades are a must, simply painting your blades in glow paint won't work. Glow paint will only work up close it is far to dull to actually fly with, I learnt this by trial and error.
Some of the more well known brands do produce night blade kits, however I'm not sure on where you could get them from or how much they will cost you.

Canopy, Skids and Tail Boom
LED's are the best choice for illuminating your canopy, skids and tail boom however, you can get away with using small high quality glow sticks. The ones fishermen use for night fishing are ideal.

RC Helicopters are an excellent platform for professional or hobby aerial photography and videography. Almost all RC Helicopter models can be retro fitted with a mini high definition camera both cheaply and easily.

The Camera
The most common camera's people choose to capture their flights with are the MD80 and the DV-001. These camera's are tiny! they weigh under 150 grams and because of this wont effect the way your Helicopter fly's. Both of these cameras are cheap and can easily be obtained on eBay by searching for "spy cams".

If price is not an issue for you then the "GoPro Hero" is an excellent choice. The GoPro Hero shoots in HD, videos shot with this camera look amazing!

Mounting The Camera
Ultimately where and how you mount your camera will come down to what view you want. For a sleek first person view you can either mount the camera on the front of the canopy or up high on the frame, close to the rotor head.
For standard aerial footage you can mount the camera to the Helicopters landing gear, however you need to allow enough clearance for small sticks and stones.
Wherever you choose to mount your camera you will most likely need to add some foam between the camera mount and the Helicopter to cancel out any vibrations.

1. NEVER let your friends fly your Helicopter, it will end in disaster. If you find it hard to say no to friends, just remind them and yourself that your helicopter isn't a toy and requires months of training to fly.

2. Don't give in to peer pressure, lots of crashes occur because the pilot has given in to his/her friends requests and attempted something either down right stupid or beyond their current skill level.

3. Attach your training gear, if you don't you should go ahead and order some spare blades.

4. When you get into trouble don't cut your throttle, doing so will cause you to hit the ground hard. Always leave enough room between you and the ground for error correction.

5. Always fly in a obstruction free field! Power lines, trees, fences and people should be considered magnets, they will draw your helicopter right to them.

6. For your first few battery charges it's best to leave the helicopter on the ground and get use to its controls. you can do this by slowly bringing the throttle up until the helicopter is light on its skids, from here you can scoot around quite safely in all directions.

7. When the nose of the helicopter is pointed towards you all of your controls become reversed, this is due to your perspective. be very wary of this and only fly nose out for your first few hovers.

8. Never fly over anything you are afraid to land on. A good example of this is, don't fly over water if you don't have floats.

9. Crashes will occur, they are part of the hobby. It's important you don't let a damaged helicopter get you down, repairs are easy and spares are readily available online.

Sometimes strange things happen. This section will help you discover and fix the problems you are having with your Helicopter.

Tail Wagging - This is a common problem and is simple to fix. The issue is caused by your gyro, it's gain is set to high, dial it down a little and you are good to go.

No Response From Controls - This can be caused by a few different things. First check all of your connections are ok and your transmitter is fully charged. If both are ok you should re-bind your transmitter to the receiver, consult your transmitters manual for directions on how to do this.
If re-binding the transmitter to the receiver doesn't help, then you more then likely have a problem with your hardware. You should take your transmitter and receiver into your favourite hobby store and have them checked over.

Thanks for reading my guide to the world of RC Helicopters. This guide is a constant work in progress so remember to check back often for updates.

Contact
If you have any questions you can contact me via Squidoo or Twitter, I'm always willing to lend a hand wherever possible.

If you would like to see some videos of my RC Helicopter flights you can view them here on my YouTube channel.

A Final Note
As an RC Helicopter Pilot you are an ambassador for the entire RC community, Don't make us look bad :)

Cheers,
Ty (jam3rr)

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