Chinese micro helis...any good?

Hello all,

I've not flown for a while, and although I do still have a hirobo shuttle work commitments etc mean that I can't afford the half day it takes me to get everything ready and get to the flying field very often. Looking on ebay I noticed that you can get fixed pitch but otherwise full function electric helis for about ?100. (esky, smartech, feda) I'd been tempted to get a small electric heli before but the price always put me off.

Are these things worth bothering with, are some better than others, I'm not wanting to do anything other than hovering and a few circuits. Just after hearing about any experiences folk have had with them really.

Thanks in advance

[turco]

Hello sunday_flier

i have Ikarus piccolo's mostly and they are great
i also have a few hummingbirds which are the exact parts as the GWS heli at a lot less a price
i think you can get a GWS heli and radio for about $250
http://www.allerc.com/store/product_...oducts_id=1091
the reason i like the piccolo is that in a crash the head pops off and the damage is little with my hummingbird the head does not pop off easily and in a crash it costs more to fix But still the parts are cheap especially gws parts

the piccolo just came out with a Version 2 but it sells at $100 for just the heli although you can get many aftermarket parts alu. swash , ect.
http://www.ikarus.net/onlineshop/usa...hop/index.html

if you are going to go micro you really should get Li-Poly for the batteries they are much lighter and give better flight times on my 3 cell pack in my cobra scale i stop at 15-18 minutes and the batterie still has some time left. they are a little dangerous though but if you follow the warnings like don't overcharge them or short them out you shouldnt have any problems. Ive been running them for over a year and ive been lucky i got premade packs and have overcharged 3 packs so far they started to swell but the tabs ripped and they stopped charging I think its important to get factory packs

here is the Cobra piccolo in action
http://mainehomeproducts.com/images/cobrapirouette.AVI
of course it has a brushless motor


keep it in the air
Turco

Thanks turco that cobra looks great and li-poly definately seems the way to go, I've read somewhere that fixed pitch helis tend to pitch up in forward flight can you fly circuits and stall turns with them?

The eSky is the good one and price is very reasonable - http://www.hobbyjapan2000.com/store/...p?prod=108eSky

Thanks HJ, I already bought an Esky a couple of weeks ago and you're not wrong it's a good machine, very little to do before it was hovering pretty solid. Already burned out the tail motor though (at least I hope its the motor and not the ESC).

iv'e bought a micro heli from e-bay. the verdict- they are quite good as they have surpriseingly good cyclic controls. you have to work hard though as they are the type of helis that won't just hover in one spot by trimming them like the larger 30 size helis.
they are worth the money but prepare to buy spares as they are a bit crazy a the hands of a novice. as far as i know they all have the same flight charecteristics but some are made to higher quality than others.