Matt Smith
Heliman
Location: Newton, NJ
| Hey guys,
I've been flying planks for a relatively long time (on and off, but the last 5 years I've been pretty active) and I'm really just starting out in helis. I fly a few nitro and mostly glow planes, as far as helis go, previously I had a century hummingbird v2 and now I'm flying a Blade 400.
Basically, my goal is sport aerobatics, perhaps FAI someday, and scale. Hard 3-D holds no interest for me right now. I'm taking it nice and slow, getting my orientation solid in hovering, and just now venturing into a little forward flight.
The Blade is good for this, much easier to manage than the hummingbird was, and should be cheaper to crash than a large ship, but it still has some drawbacks that I see: it's small, so orientation becomes difficult at any distance, and it's still much more affected by wind than larger machines.
So, I'm thinking that by the end of the summer, I might be ready for an upgrade to a larger machine, while keeping the Blade for a beater. I'll go to a .50/600 size machine if it looks like the best option, but I'm more attracted to the .30/520 machines and they seem a bit more economical to buy and operate.
I don't really have it too narrowed down, but two helis I've been looking at are the Century Swift 16 and the Hawk Pro(I might consider the Hirobo Sceadu 30 Evo, too). By the time I get either ship in the air, the costs are about even if I include one set of batteries for the electric or a few gallons of nitro for the .30.
The way I see it, nitro would allow more flight time with less waiting, but more noise and tuning distractions, while electric would be quieter, more familiar to me, and less hassle. There is the issue of battery costs, but I have a .40 size plank conversion that needs batteries, I could share those since I have to buy them to get the plane in the air anyway.
Didn't mean to write a novel here, but I've read the nitro vs. electric arguments a million times and they're all based on generalizations, what I'm having a hard time with is deciding what's best for MY personal situation. I'm really leaning toward electric at present, but just wondering if anybody here has gone through the same situation and what they decided... |
. Mostly the extra maintenance and mess are what has driven me toward electrics, plus I like tinkering with electronics.....somewhat shorter flight times aren't really an issue for me, as two sets of batteries for my e-planks have given me all the time I typically fly in a day, charge one while flying the other and breaks in between. Batteries getting lost in a crash is my main concern w/ electric
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