Retired Maintainance Mechanic

T

tarnall

New Member
Greetings,

I retired a few years ago from the water company's sewer treatment plant, SD-1, in Oakland, CA. I am a very active Ham Radio operator and continuing to expand my hobbies. I have always had a dream of flying helicopters, sense I few in a few during the Viet Nam war. I have been thinking about building my own heli now for a few years and even probably longer, sense I visited Helicopter World that used to be located in Milpitas, CA early 2000. I think they moved to San Jose. I did call them and asked about kits and they told me they did not carry many anymore. I love tinkering with little mechanical/electrochemical things. Been trying to put together a pan/tilt for a remote camera in my Van, but still experimenting with wireless CCTV & video transmitters/receivers.

Prier to the 22 years with the water company - EBMUD, I spent about 20 years working in the Alarm businesses. I worked as an installer and maintenance for several companies like ADT, Alarmex, Crime Control and Burns Security. Did lots of residential and commercial burglar & fire alarms, CCTV, Card Access installations.

Prier to that I joined the US Army and became a Military Policeman. Spent one year in Viet Nam in late 70s. Had some interesting experience with some newly developed personnel radar. that's when I got a ride in a Huwi (?) helicopter to a remote site to setup the radar - kinda neat!

I have been looking at Kits and got a suggestion from one tech on a RC site that the Align trex 450 plus or pro is a good bet. Been watching some of the videos on YouTube when I ran into this site.

My e-mail is active if you think I missed something in my introduction. I guess we can always come back and add or edit it!

Terry
 
corsair_pilot

corsair_pilot

Member
Welcome aboard Terry!!
Great bunch of guys here!!
I've asked similar questions as you in regards to helicopters. I went down the path of getting a cheap clone. Works well on the fact it's cheap, and cheap to fix, but it doesn't fly well at all. I would suggest getting the align one for sure. All the electronics are far better quality. My clone is slowly becoming less clone and more align.
As far as sizes go, get what you can afford to crash. That was the advice to me, cos it will usually be a cast of when not if.
any other questions ask away and welcome aboard mate
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
Welcome Terry,
Any questions you have, just post them up in the relevant section. If you want advice on pan and tilt systems, cameras and video systems, ask away, but you must have a tonne of experience from you past jobs.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Hey Terry, welcome to the forum. It's great to have you here. I think the Sport would be easier for a beginner as it has a flybar and a belt tail. TT tails like to strip out if they even think they are going to hit the ground. And the setup of the 3GX or Beastx is a little harder when just getting started. No matter the issues, or what you go with, we will be here to help you out.

:welcome1:
 
Westy

Westy

LEGEND
Hey Terry. Welcome from Under Down under :)

Glad you found us! any questions, challenges .... or just want to whew the fat! ..... get on up here and post away on the forum. There is a wealth of knowledge in almost any field!
 
R

RMB677

Member
Welcome to the forum tarnall. Tony mentioned going with a flybarred heli to start with. I have a Blade 450 with the flybay and wanted to get an Align as a 2nd one. With the manufacturers all jumping onto the flybarless scheme finding a flybarred heli can be difficult. The Align 450 Sport V2 is flybarred and has a belt drive for the tail. The one I ordered was delivered yesterday. Finding a US dealer with them in stock took a while, I scored my on e-bay. If I'm correct the ones with the GP790 gyro ar the newer production.
 
BOKI

BOKI

Member
Hi tarnall; I have& Align Trex 450 SE V2 & a Spectrum DX8 transmitter also! I am just learning still but when the weather breaks I hope to start learning to fly it! Welcome to the site & the best in your flying!
 
BOKI

BOKI

Member
tarnall, I bought mine from my best friend who got Leukemia! All his treatments made him real tired slow & sick! He went into Planes & Gliders ! He has been doing real good now! Anyway RTF is how I started ! It had a case & 3 batteries & lots of spare parts ! I wish I would of built mine but you know it's flying season now ! Thats a good winter time job ! Unless you are really good at doing things like building a kit ! A kit you learn from building how everything works ! The best on what ever you decide! My next Helicopter will be a kit ! You learn so much putting them together!
 
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rchelipilot

rchelipilot

Member
Welcome terry. Like a couple of the other guys, I have a Blade 450 and love it. Wish that would have started with it.
 
corsair_pilot

corsair_pilot

Member
Tarnall can I strongly suggest doing a lot of reading and watching through the how to section on this site.
Then I will suggest going the kit option. The amount you learn about your helicopter by doing the build is amazing. Then when you have that inevitable accident, you already have an understanding of how to repair, and get it back to flying standard.
I've done a build and I learnt more about flying the heli by building than I would if I had've bought a RTF one.
That's my opinion anyway, and several heli guys suggested it to me. Build one, you'll learn more, and then the joy of seeing it fly is immense!!
I just wish I was a member here when I first started building
 
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