RC Spinny Flippy Things

So does he even know how to use that thing? Looked out of control the whole time.

Supposedly he's the factory display dude so I'd assume he knows
My experience so far is these things are one slow control input from piling into the ground at any given moment, so no different to the real thing really

I fly helis. Built many a T-Rex 450 clone. Have you flown a collective pitch heli before? Definitely start on a sim and get most of the crashes out of the way there - practice your hovering orientations and then get into some slow forward flight before progressing to any fast forward flight or basic aerobatics. The 3D flippy spinny shit is a huge learning curve in both pilot skill and heli setup- don't aim for that right away, build a solid foundation. I had taken a long break from flying but am thinking about getting back into it myself as I have some space to fly in at my new place. helifreak dot com, and to a lesser extent rcuniverse and rcgroups for some forums. Let me know if you have any questions.

I agree actually - the stick banging 3D is cool and all but a bit over the top imho- same with the current bleeding edge fixed wing stuff. I prefer the precision aerobatic stuff like this -

Friend of mine was into gas helis for a while.

Apart from the support equipment, they were about $100 a crash after that...

I've not had a CP heli before, I did have a toy grade indoor one that had a swash plate but was still variable RPM and not 3D capable. I've got Aerofly 7 running on my laptop and managed to get it working with the TX today. I had a crack with the trex 450 in the sim and it's certainly not easy. Tbh flying wise I'm more interested in scale and maybe speed running. I'd love to do a scale UH1 conversion on the 450 especially as it's an older flybar version. I used to be a mechanic on Hueys and have quite the soft spot for them.
I started the tear down earlier, I'm reasonably sure it's a 450 SE V2 but all the electronics are rather dated, with a 35mhz TX/RX and all analogue servos. It's come with a hell of a spares pack, there's enough stuff to build a complete second heli, half a dozen sets of blades, a few tail booms, servos, gyros and tons of other bits and bobs.

At some point in the first video I realized everytime hed stop and change direction it sounded like a fart, being the 37 year old small child I am, I couldn't stop laughing.

Got me wondering if Waterhead can pilot like that in real life-

I have one of the little tiny $30 ones that I fly around inside my house. It's fun.

$100 is a good bet for something 450 sized. A small 'tip over' you may get away with main rotor blades and a feathering spindle. Now depending on if you are flying china junk blades or $$$ carbon, ymmv.

An actual crash expect stuff like rotor blades (main and tail), feathering shafts, fly-bar components, main drive gears, main shaft, skids, tail boom, canopy, canopy mounts, swashplate, linkages for starters... Servo gears too depending on if you are using metal gears and how hard you are whacking it.

This gets expensive quick. I actually learned to fly before sims were widely available so I've paid my dues 10X fold....

Definetly put in some serious sim time. 450's are not very scale like at all as they are very quick and agile. You want to start with small-er control throws and lots of exponential. Learn where your hold switch is and practice that as a go to if you feel like you are going to auger it- much less damage will ensue if the drivetrain is not under power when things meet terra firma. Start and practice in normal flight mode (little or no negative pitch available)/tune your head speed so it isn't screaming - this will lessen some of the intimidation factor. Should be plenty of parts still available for the 450 v2 and clones. At one point I had enough parts to make 4-5 of them, lol. 450 clone bare airframes use to go for $40- great for spares (hobbyking). You mentioned 35mhz, what transmitter is it and is it a computer radio? heli-specific?

The bigger 500+ sized birds are actually easier to fly and much more stable- much better presence in the air too as far as orientation. Something to work up to once you gain some experience, and much better for scale imho. The danger factor goes up a bit too in this size range as there is a lot of power and rotating mass.

But yeah- it's an awesome hobby and once you get the hang of it pretty rewarding. Just don't be discouraged initially. Lot's of guys fly planes (easy), even more the drone thing (mindlessly easy). But it is a bit a badge of honor to be able to skillfully handle a CP heli.

Full scale heli's cannot achieve the fully symmetric pitch curve (full negative pitch) like an RC can. So no inverted hovering or negative punch outs.

Cheers for the tips.
Does the Hold switch cut the power? I'm not sure if my TX has one. The TX itself is an E-Sky 0406A Which as far as I can tell is a 6 chan designed for helis. I had to take it out of CCPM mode to get it to work with the sim.
I'm still trying to get my head round the throttle curves I understand the pitch/throttle relationship in a real heli but everything is done electrically instead of mechanically and of course throw in negative pitch for good measure and well I'm feeling a bit I need to check to see if my ESC has a governor option which will help if it does.

If I really get into it I'll look at getting a better TX/RX and a bigger bird but the moment I'm about 150 bucks in for what I've got so no biggie if I don't like it but I'm sure I will.

Planes are boring and drones are gayer than a camping trip with overbear