Flying RC helicopters is a great hobby – but to take it to its ultimate, there’s nothing quite like building a helicopter from scratch. Whilst it is true to say electric helicopters dominate the RTF (ready to fly) market, more and more flyers are building from kits.
You might say, “Oh no, that’s not for me – I’m way not good enough to think about building my own.” But the chances are, if you’ve been flying RTF electric helicopters for any length of time, you’ve already started!
There are two grades of RC helicopter; toy and hobby grade. A toy helicopter is generally very basic with just 2 channels. If it gets broken, you chuck it in the bin. With hobby grade helicopters, you can replace the broken part with a new one.
Many beginners crash their first helis quite early on, wailing in despair as they watch sixty or seventy quid’s worth of birthday present pin-wheeling across the tarmac. Then they breathe a sigh of relief as they realise all they have to do is Google up the place they bought it from and order a few new parts.
But the parts don’t have to be broken. Many buyers of RTF electric helicopters start basic, and then install upgrades to make their choppers look or fly better. This can be anything from changing the fuselage (as with the carbon fibre upgrade kit for the E-Sky Belt) to upgrading from a brushed to a brushless motor (as with the E-Flite upgrade kit).
So here’s an exercise for you. Go to the “upgrades” and “accessories” departments of this store, choose your favourite helicopter from the list, and take a good look at what’s in front of you.
What you’re looking at, is basically an RTF in kit form.