SIMON CRAGG Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Our club have access to a fairly small village hall, and we are thinking of starting up indoor flying over the winter. We think fixed wing is out due to the size. That leaves either multi rotors or helicopters. Ideally, we need something fairly bash proof, comes with everything (batteries / tx etc), and does not cost an arm and a leg. The idea is to get as many members involved, and try some basic competitions accompanied by tea and buns. Probably only need to last one season. Can anybody recommend a suitable model please?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 Probably not much help at the moment but from time to time Lidl sell Jamara helicopters. They are under £20 robust and fly well. So easy to fly that I swap from flying my normal indoor heles on mode 1 to the mode 2 jamara and back in the same session. So much more robust than others too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bisset Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 A couple of winters back my wife and I bought some very small radio control helicopters from (I think) Argos. Originally for the kids, we bought a couple, for ourselves since they flew impressively well around the house. Great for seeing where the the drafts were ! They were around £20 each. I see Argos have some similar micro helicopters on sale for £13 each just now. The snag we had was in finding several machines with different frequencies. Cheap fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 The club I fly with uses a small church hall in the winter. We fly mainly small quads and helicopters. The only fixed wing models that can cope with the limited space are Horizon's Vapor and similar ultra light models. I think bangood can supply a selection of kits that may be suitable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 If you can cope with waiting for overseas delivery, you’d be hard put to do better than the WLToys V911 from Banggood: **LINK** Trevor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Carpenter Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 I've run indoor flying in a small village hall in Wiltshire for quite a few years . Too small for fixed wing apart from Vapours . We have all been through the cheap drones and helix and now use Blade products almost exclusively ! They last ! I guess we have Nanos and Inductrix's that have done 200 flights each ! Hope this is useful ! Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brokenenglish Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 Trevor, or anyone(!), are these small helicopters excessively difficult for an average fixed wing pilot who's never touched a heli, or not? Is there a reasonable chance of success without destroying it? Looking at the link, I rather fancy flying one of those in my garden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxG Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 I fly indoor in a small sports hall, just a bit bigger than one basketball court. We fly vapours etc. But there are a couple of us that have visited Bangood and have the small foam fixed wing models. I have a Rare Bear and a couple of us fly the Zero. Also the small eflite spacewalker a nd the Ares WW! model fly OK. We also have small helis. The WLToys V911 is popular and flys very well, also from Bangood. I am struggling with a TRex 150X which I am finding a bit of a handful. The Blade 120 heli also works well in the space. All the above cope well with the walls which I swear move towards my models but most time the models cope with and survive the encounter. A couple of guys cope with the larger EPP 2s models although what you can do is a bit limited. Give it a go, we all enjoy it. An unexpected bonus is that flying the little helis has improved my fixed wing flying because I now use the rudder!!! Maxg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 Posted by brokenenglish on 13/09/2019 14:27:24: Trevor, or anyone(!), are these small helicopters excessively difficult for an average fixed wing pilot who's never touched a heli, or not? Is there a reasonable chance of success without destroying it? Looking at the link, I rather fancy flying one of those in my garden. They require a slightly different skill set but not too difficult. When I was learning I bent a few minor parts by flying into things but they are fairly robust. You can pick up used blade helicopters on ebay or buy a new blade 70 for £75. I find that collective pitch helicopters require a bit more skill to fly well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Carpenter Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 MaxG is correct ! Heli flying makes use of rudder especially in a small space ! This skill transfers directly into fixed wing ! The Blade 70 is a fine fixed pitch Heli but is not Spektrum compatible . The Nano is not much more money and if you own a Spekkie tx is a better long term buy. ! The WL Toys are excellent value and although none fly in my group , I have flown one and they are great ! Go for it !!!😁 Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 The V911 is much easier to fly than any helicopter was ten years or so ago! It is also much cheaper and more robust, but not unbreakable. The easiest helis of all are the ones with two contra-rotating rotors but many of these have a control layout that doesn’t relate well to ‘proper’ helicopters so they are not such a good intro as they might seem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMON CRAGG Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 We have settled for the Holy Stone HS210. Bit smaller than I would have liked, but good duration, good reviews, three batteries and only £20.00. Ten on their way. Thanks for all the comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 Helicopters need not be hard to fly at all these days and have stretched into the toy domain. Even the old idea that contra rotating blades are easier than main and tail rotator jobs. The mini twister scale and sport are as easy to fly as each other. Both of those are very fragile. The Lidl Jamara is robust though but only mode 2. If you really want to check out an absolutely simple and robust heli that indicates how far technology has gone look at the little Tykes job. Unbelievable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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