Do you believe in Ghosts ?

[Reaper]

Been a bit busy over the weekend.

Five Hobby King Ghost 250mm frames completed and test flown all ready for there owners, except the middle one that`s mine and already put through it`s paces. These are a complete blast for night flying.



All lit up.

[spike240]

What sort of money for one of these Paul? And do you need to have your own transmitter?

I saw someone flying a Quadcopter while in London last year. He was flying using a monitor (is it FPV)?
Two Beefeaters were on to him and made him bring it down. We were at Tower of London.
Since then I have researched a bit. It was a Phantom he was flying. I ended up buying a Hubsan X40 off Ebay, but find them really difficult to fly.
I did buy a flight simulator with a transmitter/controller, and although I can get planes in the air and land them again I struggle with helis. I was amazed the models on the simulator all fly different. I suppose the simulator is supposed to replicate each model.

atb

[Reaper]

I build the Ghosts 250`s for £120 to £130 then you need batteries at £10 each 7 to 8 minutes flight time from each.
Yes you need a transmitter and a receiver for the make of transmitter.

When I set up the flight controller I do it for beginners so the quad has a semi auto level mode which is active as standard, then as you progress you can turn of the auto level and have more freedom and speed in flight.
Once you get that down pat then the controller can be altered to give full acro mode to enable flips and rolls and the fun/crashes really begin.

I have other quads a 230 size which is lighter and much faster and has a unbreakable frame which I have tested a few times(hit a wall at 40+mph)
Also a 650 sport with GPS
A phantom 2 with full FPV
A 250 racing quad again full FPV.
A custom Tricopter copter designed and built by myself.

And my pride and joy a custom 230 size T-copter designed and built by myself.
It is quick and very very agile.

The Phantom you mention is a machine that if you can afford it will let anyone with no experience fly and fly safely, but you still need common sense and we know what short supply that comes in.

Helicopters are amongst the hardest to learn to fly and very expensive when they go wrong or hit the ground.
It`s like balancing a ball bearing on top of a football, the bearing can and will roll away in any of 1 of 360 ways.
I put a £700 one in the ground and salvaged about £100 worth of parts from the crash.
Most of it went in the bin, you have to be able to handle the fact that you may loose your investment in a split second.

[spike240]

Ta for the information. Have you a recommendation for a reasonably priced transmitter & receiver?
Thanks for confirming the difficulties on flying helicopters.
Atb.

[Reaper]

It depends on what you call a reasonable price.
98% of the members of our club have Spektrum radios as they are the company that spearheaded the 2.4 digital revolution.
Also the company that imports them Horizon is second to none for service. you have a problem with your radio even if you have say dropped it, you pay the carriage to them they fix it and send it back via courier free of charge. I sent a radio in for a service that was 6 months out of guarantee they not only serviced it for free they changed some parts they found to be wearing, I had no idea they were.

A DX6i is their starter radio and comes in at £64.90 without speech and a needs a cable to connect 2 radios so you can have a master and a slave so some one can take over in an emergency.
www.kingslynnmodelshop.co.uk/p10942/Spektrum_DX6i_DSMX_6Ch_Radio_Transmitter_Only/product_info.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=xigen_shopping_feed&gclid=CMvHkMqE08QCFfDKtAodQhkAxg

Or £129 for one with speech and wireless link to another radio.
www.kingslynnmodelshop.co.uk/Radio-Spektrum-Flight_Radios/c29_187_730/p10975/Spektrum_DX6_6_Channel_Transmitter_Only/product_info.html

Then they go up depending on how many channels you want.

Another reason for Spektrum is model match, you can have all your models powered but only the one you have selected on the radio will react.

What ever radio you go for you really need one with Expo, this allows you to introduce a curve in any channel that softens the center movement of the control.
Which is why most cheap quads and helis that come with there own controller are hard to learn on, they react to quick to your inputs which when you start out are over exaggerated by inexperience.

Other radios are available but tend to cost more for a well known name or don`t offer as much control of the outputs when cheaper.
The reason Spektrum can offer the quality and be cheaper than others is they have just over 50% of the market.