Admiral Helicopters?

[CFIT rob]

Valkpilot...were you in safe mode? Get tail in hover down first. Throttle control to keep the "yo-yo" effect down. Panic button "safe" is not the same as flight mode 1 safe. Its extremely rewarding to get to the point of scale flying. I will never be a good 3d heli pilot but love flying the heli like a park flyer.

[RCjetdude]

Anyone have a pictures of the OH-6???

This is as close as we can get at the moment to my knowledge.

[JFandL]

Anyone have a pictures of the OH-6???

[Valkpilot]

What I think we have here is wait and see. Once the helicopters go up for sale and the price is set. There may be some interest but helicopters are just not for everyone. Its that (" Get in the air now, I don't need to learn anything, After all I fly airplanes all the time. I can do this ") and we know how this will end.

Well, flew the 230S for the first time. Have to order replacement tail rotor blade and have LOTS of practice to do.

[JFandL]

What surprises me is the lack of hoopla over this. These are probably the first economical scale models that have come out in years that aren't cheap Chinese toys, or cost an arm and a leg and require the efforts of the Robans..

What I think we have here is wait and see. Once the helicopters go up for sale and the price is set. There may be some interest but helicopters are just not for everyone. Its that (" Get in the air now, I don't need to learn anything, After all I fly airplanes all the time. I can do this ") and we know how this will end.

[RCjetdude]

You know I dust both of your trophies every week:Silly:

Ha! No you don't...

[TiredIronGRB]

I always loved the pattern competition. So much so that in 1990 I won the AMA National Novice Championship. Nothing to toot a horn about really, the trophy is collecting dust at George's place now.

You know I dust both of your trophies every week:Silly:

[RCjetdude]

I always loved the pattern competition. So much so that in 1990 I won the AMA National Novice Championship. Nothing to toot a horn about really, the trophy is collecting dust at George's place now. Before I ever went to the Nationals though I had forced myself to learn nose in hovering and yes, it cost me a few $ in repairs. I learned to hover with training gear attached to the skips so I went back to the training gear for nose in as well. Then, I forced myself to learn the pilots promenade. Heli hovers at a constant heading and you walk around it. I learned it in both directions and again I spent some $ for repairs. It is not as easy as you might think. Point being that before I ever went to the NATS I could hover from any attitude except inverted without a switch but I didn't need to in order to compete. I watched Curtis Youngblood pioneer that stuff and just marveled. Needless to say I have never really had a desire to do all the 3D stuff but a beautiful scale Apache or Little Bird would be right up my alley. Someday I hope.

[OV10]

I agree. I think we’ll see more interest pop up after release though. This is a pretty fixed wing centric forum, so the thread seems a bit slow. These are definitely some awesome aircraft, and I think we’ll see a lot of guys entering the world of scale Helis through these machines. The quality and detail are simply unmatched to any other PNP scale heli I’ve seen on the market, and there is a lot of a availability for customization at this size.

From personal experience with collective pitch heli's.......am not as optimistic as you DD in hoping that interest increases.
I wanted to eventually get into the scale model heli platform but walked away from heli's after 2 years of frustration.
Of the brief skills checklist that Alpha mentioned in post #19, I could not consistently accomplish the nose in hover nor the figure 8's which became a major repair expense and satisfaction impasse.
I personally believe that heli pilots that have acquired the skills are most likely of the younger gen pilots and are more challenged and "jazzed" with 3D heli flying rather than puttering about the skies with a scale looking bird. ;)

[F106DeltaDart]

What surprises me is the lack of hoopla over this. These are probably the first economical scale models that have come out in years that aren't cheap Chinese toys, or cost an arm and a leg and require the efforts of the Robans..

I agree. I think we’ll see more interest pop up after release though. This is a pretty fixed wing centric forum, so the thread seems a bit slow. These are definitely some awesome aircraft, and I think we’ll see a lot of guys entering the world of scale Helis through these machines. The quality and detail are simply unmatched to any other PNP scale heli I’ve seen on the market, and there is a lot of a availability for customization at this size.

[Valkpilot]

What surprises me is the lack of hoopla over this. These are probably the first economical scale models that have come out in years that aren't cheap Chinese toys, or cost an arm and a leg and require the efforts of the Robans..

[JFandL]

I'd find a 450 size helicopter and training balls and start very slow hovering tail in, then side to side and then

nose in.

working up to the scale.

[Valkpilot]

I think the 450x will be much more agressive than the admirals. If you can manuver it around the admiral will be easy. Fly it on low rates. The admirals are self leveling/bank limiting so i suspect they will fly similar to the blade 230s in safe mode. Try that one if available on your sim.

Try a 230S on the sim? I can try it in my yard, I got one. THANKYOU!!!!:Goodbye:

[CFIT rob]

I think the 450x will be much more agressive than the admirals. If you can manuver it around the admiral will be easy. Fly it on low rates. The admirals are self leveling/bank limiting so i suspect they will fly similar to the blade 230s in safe mode. Try that one if available on your sim.

[F106DeltaDart]

Do you think the 450x would be a good model to prep for this in a flight sim?

It would be a good place to start. The Admirals are going to be a bit different to fly simply due to the extra weight and different characteristics of the scale fuselage though. I'd recommend trying a mix of flying the 450X, and whatever scale helis are available on your sim.

[Valkpilot]

I have had the blade mcpx,nano cp,blade 450x(RIP),nano cpS and now the 230s v2. The nano cps is an excellent trainer/first heli. The safe mode really helps get turning,hover and basic flight down. Switch it to stunt and get a fairly capable 3d heli (tail hold can be an issue with agressive manuvers).The thing is so light that a crash over lawn is damage free. Cheap to get into,cheap to repair and batteries are cheap.

Do you think the 450x would be a good model to prep for this in a flight sim?

[CFIT rob]

I have had the blade mcpx,nano cp,blade 450x(RIP),nano cpS and now the 230s v2. The nano cps is an excellent trainer/first heli. The safe mode really helps get turning,hover and basic flight down. Switch it to stunt and get a fairly capable 3d heli (tail hold can be an issue with agressive manuvers).The thing is so light that a crash over lawn is damage free. Cheap to get into,cheap to repair and batteries are cheap.

[Grady.c]

It's a good question, Grady, and one we anticipate many people will ask. To help answer that question as best we reasonably can, or at least provide as much information to allow people to make an informed decision they're comfortable with, we've prepared several videos showing setup, settings, flight, and other aspects of safely operating these fiberglass bodied 450 sized collective pitch helicopters. Stay tuned for those videos in the next couple of weeks when the info-mill spools up in advance of the product arrivals. We'll post the links in this thread.

In the meantime, JFandL's guesstimate is a fair estimate. Prior experience with a collective pitch helicopter is optimal, although not absolutely required. At the very least, we'd expect pilots to have prior experience confidently and competently operating an RC fixed pitch or collective pitch helicopter, period. Even the WL Toys helicopters we sell, while much smaller and lighter than the fiberglass 450s, will teach pilots how to orient and control a helicopter in preparation to fly the Admiral 450s. The Admiral 450's onboard flight controller helps to limit bank angles and helps to return the rotor disk to level, but it is not an auto-pilot or GPS position lock-enabled model, so pilots are still fully responsible for orienting and correctly controlling the model. We've tuned the flight controller to a good balance between stability and agility.

Off the top of my head, having flown these Admiral 450s no fewer than 1,000 times (yes, LOTS of testing!), I would say a brief checklist of skills you should be comfortable executing include:

Tail-in hover, nose-in hover, side-in hover
Basic forward flight,
Basic scale patterns like figure-8s using coordinated turns
Proper energy management (i.e., how to slowly descend a model from higher altitudes using forward flight and banked turns instead of yanking back on the elevator and cutting power)
Understanding of helicopter care and maintenance (i.e. blade grip tension, which is covered in our Setup video)
Vigilant battery care and monitoring (because helicopters don't glide)

Ok thanks for the help Alpha, I am a prop Jockey so I have little experience with choppers.

[Alpha]

Also, I have only flown a 130 scale heli anyone know if i would have trouble with one of these?

It's a good question, Grady, and one we anticipate many people will ask. To help answer that question as best we reasonably can, or at least provide as much information to allow people to make an informed decision they're comfortable with, we've prepared several videos showing setup, settings, flight, and other aspects of safely operating these fiberglass bodied 450 sized collective pitch helicopters. Stay tuned for those videos in the next couple of weeks when the info-mill spools up in advance of the product arrivals. We'll post the links in this thread.

In the meantime, JFandL's guesstimate is a fair estimate. Prior experience with a collective pitch helicopter is optimal, although not absolutely required. At the very least, we'd expect pilots to have prior experience confidently and competently operating an RC fixed pitch or collective pitch helicopter, period. Even the WL Toys helicopters we sell, while much smaller and lighter than the fiberglass 450s, will teach pilots how to orient and control a helicopter in preparation to fly the Admiral 450s. The Admiral 450's onboard flight controller helps to limit bank angles and helps to return the rotor disk to level, but it is not an auto-pilot or GPS position lock-enabled model, so pilots are still fully responsible for orienting and correctly controlling the model. We've tuned the flight controller to a good balance between stability and agility.

Off the top of my head, having flown these Admiral 450s no fewer than 1,000 times (yes, LOTS of testing!), I would say a brief checklist of skills you should be comfortable executing include:

Tail-in hover, nose-in hover, side-in hover
Basic forward flight,
Basic scale patterns like figure-8s using coordinated turns
Proper energy management (i.e., how to slowly descend a model from higher altitudes using forward flight and banked turns instead of yanking back on the elevator and cutting power)
Understanding of helicopter care and maintenance (i.e. blade grip tension, which is covered in our Setup video)
Vigilant battery care and monitoring (because helicopters don't glide)

[JFandL]

Also, I have only flown a 130 scale heli anyone know if i would have trouble with one of these?

As we have never seen you fly your question is a tuff one. I would say if you can fly something the size of the Blade 330x( 450 size with collective) You would be fine.