Syma Alloy Shark and Metal Falcon-X GYRO

I recently purchased both a Syma S006 Alloy Shark and a Metal Falcon-X GYRO. Both of these remote control helicopters are powered by electric engines and built to be flown primarily indoors.

    

The Metal Falcon-X GYRO is a great starter heli for beginners. I have always preferred to fly RC airplanes and have only dabbled occasionally with RC helicopters. I found this mini helicopter very easy fly and maneuver, mainly due to its GYRO, coaxial rotor, and single rear rotor. It is charged by connecting it to the transmitter and it takes roughly 15 to 20 minutes to fully charge. It is possible to get well over 10 minutes worth of good flying time. I ventured to take it outside and it is easy to fly when there is very little to no wind, but definitely not in windy situations. I liked the fact that LED flashing lights can be turned on and off.

  

The Syma Alloy Shark has a basic three channel transmitter for easy control weather traveling backward or forwards.  A major benefit for this heli is the fact that its size allows it to be flown both indoors and outdoors (in good weather).  The LED lights on this heli are great for night flying and help to keep distances in prospective. The coaxial rotor makes it very smooth and stable in flight. It has a simple rechargeable Li-poly battery that is plugged into the wall for charging. The charging time for it is roughly one hour and I got about 10 minutes flying time. Overall I enjoyed flying this one over the Metal Falcon-X GYRO because it was more powerful and performer better.

-Tim
AllThingsRc.net

Field Box

A field box is one of the most important pieces of equipment that any RC helicopter or RC airplane enthusiast can have. Having a properly stocked field box can save you the hassle of making trips back home to repair a damaged RC vehicle and lengthen the amount of time you can spend flying. The box pictured is designed to hold all the necessary equipment for nitro powered engines.  This box is designed to hold a nitro fuel container which is mounted on the left side. There are drawers on the front which can hold essential equipment such as: glow plugs, chargers, a backup start stick, rubber bands, etc. On the right side there is a smaller compartment that holds a battery which is used to run the power panel that is mounted on right end of the box. This power panel is used to power the glow igniter, engine starter and the fuel pump. The fuel pump is actually mounted on the back of the box and has two hoses which can be used to pump fuel into and out of the RC vehicle’s gas tank. There are two sets of folding arms located on the top of the box that can be used to hold an RC airplane if you need to work on it. There is also a large tray in the top of the box for any other equipment you wish to carry that might be too big for the drawers, such as the transmitter.  You can see my starter and glow plug igniter sitting on the table to the right of the box, these will sit in the tray over the battery box, and you can see there is a cut out for them to sit in.

Additionally, carrying a multiple battery field charger pictured here can help to recharge the battery packs for transmitters and receivers.

-Tim
Shoot me an e-mail if you have an comments, suggestions, or questions.

Remote Control Park Flyers

Park flyers are a type of remote control airplane that does not require a large open space to operate. They are designed to be slow flying and therefore can be flown in smaller areas such as a front yard, parking lot, and local park.  Generally a park flyer is powered by a small electric engine and controlled by a simple 2 channel transmitter. They are either have a Styrofoam body and wings or a straight stick fuselage with balsa wood wings. They are easy to fly with simple controls and do not require the same effort as large nitro and gas powered RC planes.

I recently purchased a Fundango® park flyer kit from Great Planes. I recently completed the frame work for the wings and tail section and I have gotten a majority of them covered. I am using the engine, servos, receiver, and ESC from another small remote control that I recently crashed. I am hoping to have this park flyer completed within the next week.

-Tim

Remote Control Watercraft

RC watercrafts have many perks, but a few major draw backs. On the positive side, RC speed boats, sail boats, and hover crafts do not have the same dangers associated with taking off, flying, and landing as remote control helicopters and boats do. They have simple 2 channel controllers that only require the driver to direct the speed and direction of the boats. They are made of several different materials including plastic, fiberglass, and wood.

On the negative side, running an RC boat, especially a fast one, requires a large open water space. It is best to operate one in a pond or lake of some kind that does not have heavy traffic. Additionally if the boat runs out of fuel or wrecks you will have to go into the water to retrieve it.

All concerns aside, remote control watercraft offer a great experience that can be enjoyed by RC enthusiast of all ages. They come nearly every color, styles, and design imaginable. Below I have listed just a few of the many types that are available…

• military style
• sail boat
• speed boat
• hover craft
• tug boat

-Tim

RC Drifting Cars

Drifting has developed over the past few years into a major automotive sport that originated in Japan, but has since spread all over the globe. Drifting is basically a controlled loss of control while driving your car thru a turn. The main goal of drifting is to place your car into an over-steer situation when going into a turn and then accelerating to keep the back of the car chasing the front around the turn. Recently drifting has transitioned over into the world of RC cars and has now gone mainstream. RC drifting is a great hobby that tests your skills as a controller and can be done on a small scale in a garage or on a large scale on the street. Now before you start trying to make your RC car or truck drift around the corner let’s talk about a few car specs that can greatly improve your cars drifting capabilities:

• Electric cars that have shift transmissions are preferred over nitro powered or belt driven RC cars because of the increased control and reduction in the risk of overheating the engine
• A 4 wheel drive car is easier to control while drifting
• Having a high torque engine that is built for acceleration increases the drifting power of the car
• Make sure to outfit your RC car with tires that a designed specifically for drifting

A good example of a starter RC drift cars is the Extreme Drift Lamborghini Gallard. It is a 1:24 scale electric RC car that comes ready to run. This car also comes with a transmitter and 4 cones so that you can make your own mini drift track anywhere you want. You can also get this model as a Carrera GT, Nissan GT, Ferrari F430, and a Bugatti Veyron.

For the more experienced I recommend something along the line of the Drift GT Porsche 911. This car is a larger 1:10 scale electric that comes ready to run from fractory. You can also get this model as a Lamborghini Gallard, Chevrolet Silverado, Ferrari FXX, Audi A4, Nissan Skyline GTR, and a BMW M3.

I hope my advice helps to open your eyes to the exiciting world of RC Drift Cars.

-Tim

Made my first sale!!!!!

The day has finally come!!! AllThingsRC.net made its first ever sale of an RC vehicle. It was a simple order of one small indoor electric heli, but it was a big boost to my self-esteem. I started the website as a way to gather information in one central location that could aid everyone interested in the hobby of RC vehicles. I decided to add a few products as a way to subsidize the cost of creating and sustaining the wed page. This shows that people are visiting the site and hopefully finding the information provided helpful.

-Tim

Labor Day weekend

First, I hope everyone had a great extended weekend. My wife and I took our son to the lake this year for Labor Day and went camping with a few of our friends. The weather was absolutely perfect for getting out on the jet ski and boat. We did a little knee-boarding and even got Blaine to get out on the Big Mable float. A few of the guys that we were camping with brought their RC trucks to run around the campsite in the afternoon. I decided that if we had good weather then this would be the perfect weekend to try my hand at controlling a RC boat. I had gotten a Shark Magnate a few months ago, but I had never found a place that I could put it into the water. Now, I only got to put it in the water for a few minutes. The weather was great, but the lake was pretty busy. We had our campsite set up in a small cove that wasn't busy, but the waves from boats passing by on the main part of the lake caused problems with keeping the boat under control. I am hopeing to get back to the lake sometime soon so that I can really get a chance to try my hand at controlling a RC boat.

-Tim

Finger Tip Danger

I recently learned just how deadly your finger tips can be to the lower router head and propeller blades of an RC helicopter. A friend of a friend found an Apache AH-64 Feral Beast and decided that he would try his hand at flying a remote control helicopter. He managed to get it cranked and then almost immediately stuck his fingers in the way of the blades. He gave it to me real cheap saying that he just decided that remote control helicopters just weren’t for him. I immediately noticed the cracked and broken propeller blades and the missing balancer, but it wasn’t until I actually got it going that I realized the real extent of the damage. The lower router head was completely sheared off and replacement parts come with large shipping bills. The friend or a friend confessed to what really happened and offered to take it back or chip in on the cost of fixing it, but I still have not decided what to do. It is a larger indoor heli like I have been looking for, but on the other hand it will take more effort to fix it than I really want to put into it. This lesson right here should teach you two things.

1) If it is sold cheap, it probably isn’t worth it!

2) Keep your finger tips out of the way!!

Be safe flying,

Tim

Expanding my knowledge

I have used and tinkered with RC vehicles for the better parts of the last decade, but nothing prepared me for the vast amount of information I DID NOT know about the hobby. When I started building this website I wanted it to be a good central location for RC enthusiast to go and find out what they need to know. I wanted to be able to help everyone from the beginner to expert in some way, because I really thought that I had a good grasp on what it took to get the most out of the hobby. I am now admitting that I was wrong, wrong, and wrong with a capital W. For example, I know what a good trainer RC airplane is and can give advice on how to get started, what I could not do was really explain what made it a good trainer. Needless to say I have had to research nearly everything I put on the website because I want it to be true and accurate information that goes into enough detail that it is beneficial. I hope my hard work shows through. So please, please, please if you see anything what so ever that looks wrong please don't hesitate to e-mail me at support@allthingsrc.net and tell me to fix it.




-Tim

New experience at the air field.

I took my son to the local flying field today for the first time. He is 5 years old and has only played with my mini RC heli around the house. It was a short trip and there were not very many people there today. I took my very first trainer out hopeing to get it up and let him play with the controls a little bit, but alas the bad luck god was smileing at me. First we find out that the rubber band bag was not in my field box so we couldn't secure the wings. There went any chance of flying today. Still hopeing to save the day from being a complete diaster I decided to crank of the engine to make sure it was still operating ok after being in storage for a few year. While trying to get the engine to fire my son asked me why water was dripping from my plane. That "water" was actually nitro fuel ....... now the trip was an offical diaster. We packed everything up and headed home. My son said that he enjoyed the little bit of time we were at the flying field, but I am hopeing to get back soon and show him the real toys.

-Tim

My first RC heli (helicopter) (written July 2010)

I have been into RC Airplanes for several years now but I have always wanted to learn how to fly RC Helicopters. At the field that I flew at there was only one guy that was really good at Helis and he was not willing to teach and all I ever heard was how hard it is to learn. Well all that changed when I came across several Helicopter pilots that started to frequent the field I flew at. These guys really opened my eyes and my will to learn how to fly Helis. Several of them learned to fly Helis before Airplanes. The best piece of advice that they gave me was to first find a low end Heli that was small enough for indoor flight and that had some directional controls. That way you could fly it inside and not have to worry with the effects of the wind and you could learn the controls of the Heli no matter if it was flying towards you or away from you. This is one of the most important concepts to learn because the more controls you add the more compounded the problem would be if you got turned around while flying you Heli. Now I learned very quickly that there is several cheap Helis available that will not teach you anything. These are the ones that you will find at your local shopping center. The reason for this is those Helis are built as toy and the Helis that we fly are not toys. Due to the low quality of the equipment used to build these Helis they don’t hold the trim adjustment and as the battery starts to weaken all the controls are affected greatly. This makes learning extremely hard because the Heli never flies the same. So I would recommend that if you are serious about this hobby you need make your first Heli purchase wisely.

As a final note:Make sure that the Heli is put out by someone that specializes in RC hobbies not toys.


-Tim