R/C helicopter for line placement

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Excellent points Smokey. Thanks for offering your expertise on the topic. I didn't really think about it right away, but like you said, if I get a helicopter from an established hobby store versus one of those mall kiosks, I'll have a place I can go back all year 'round for advice, parts and upgrades.

Yeah, don't buy junk, you won't be happy. E-Flite and Align are going to be the two biggest ones to look at but there are others that make nice stuff and have parts that are easy to get.
 
SO TRUE! Remember watching the videos from these manufactures, it is like watching Joe Harris climb, you will think it is easy until you go to do it.

Training Kit for 300-450 class Helicopter

That training gear can be more of a problem than it's worth. Most new guys are afraid to get far enough off the ground that the balls don't catch and cause it to tip on it's side and do the chicken dance. Unless you have a big paved area for them to just slide on.
 
That training gear can be more of a problem than it's worth. Most new guys are afraid to get far enough off the ground that the balls don't catch and cause it to tip on it's side and do the chicken dance. Unless you have a big paved area for them to just slide on.

True, they must be used on a paved area, no way they would work on grass or dirt, the ping pong balls must be able to slide. I found it very useful starting out on the driveway or in the garage (no wind there) flying patterns on the ground or just off the ground. Those buggers are fast and as you know, one moment of lost attention and they are gone. It was probably harder for me to learn than most as I had to un-learn my flying skills and learn the backwards, toward you and everything else. I think if I was going to start over I would use the RealFlight R/C Flight Simulator before ever buying the real deal.
 
True, they must be used on a paved area, no way they would work on grass or dirt, the ping pong balls must be able to slide. I found it very useful starting out on the driveway or in the garage (no wind there) flying patterns on the ground or just off the ground. Those buggers are fast and as you know, one moment of lost attention and they are gone. It was probably harder for me to learn than most as I had to un-learn my flying skills and learn the backwards, toward you and everything else. I think if I was going to start over I would use the RealFlight R/C Flight Simulator before ever buying the real deal.

I have used Real Flight 6 and Phoenix. The new Real Flight 6.5 is pretty cool as well. I have a friend that is into the heli's pretty heavy and he has all the cool stuff. He has a bunch of T-rex helis. 550 electric, 600 nitro, 600 electric 700 nitro (soon to be a gasser), 700 electric and a 770 goblin. Touch screen Futaba radios and those CGY-750's. Wish I had the money, lol.
 
If you practice a couple thousand hours you'll be able to do it, if there is plenty of space in the tree and everything is just right. A multicopter with FPV would probably be better for the application, but still generally a pretty optimistic idea.

Im into RC (mostly planes, only have one quadcopter) and i can tell you that you'll be crashing plenty with nothing around you and nothing attached to your flying thing. You can get stabilising systems for decent prices now but still, its not as easy as it looks. You fly the thing away from you and its ok, you turn around and suddenly your left becomes the planes right. You see theres something and the brain quickly pushes the controls more to the wrong side. With some luck your plane/heli is upside down now and loosing height. Your scumbag brain now detects you need more height and pulls up, but your plane rolled around so you should be pushing it the opposite way. Before you realize whats happening you're picking up the pieces in a bag :D

We climb to get the planes down, not fly to get the trees down. The good thing is that once you get that half month salary stuck in a tree you have really good motivation to climb that sucker. I've climbed a ~120ft birch tree to get a plane, without any climbing experience :bang:
 
Okay, I think I will abandon this idea.

However, seeing that flying platform with the camera makes me think that would be a good tool for searching trees for the Asian Longhorn beetle. A couple years ago my town was right on the border of a big quarantine zone focused on Worcester, MA. They cut down 25,000 trees in the Q zone. Last year they only found 13 beetles, so it looks like the plan is working. I think a heli-mounted camera (in the hands of a skilled operator) would be way quicker than climbing trees to look for beetle signs.
 
Okay, I think I will abandon this idea.
However, seeing that flying platform with the camera makes ......

So sad, I think you would have had a great time trying it.
I agree, the camera functions of these things invites all kinds of possibility. I look forward to someones first video of a climber.
 
Okay, I think I will abandon this idea.

However, seeing that flying platform with the camera makes me think that would be a good tool for searching trees for the Asian Longhorn beetle. A couple years ago my town was right on the border of a big quarantine zone focused on Worcester, MA. They cut down 25,000 trees in the Q zone. Last year they only found 13 beetles, so it looks like the plan is working. I think a heli-mounted camera (in the hands of a skilled operator) would be way quicker than climbing trees to look for beetle signs.

I wouldn't abandon the idea at all. It's an investment for sure and the learning curve can be expensive but the hours of enjoyment I get from my Heli's is beyond worth the financial investment. In fact, I just got done putting together my 5th copter. It's a nice little T-rex 550 with some of the good stuff on it. Can't wait to try it out on Sunday. Next up is a Nitro 700.
 
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