Gathering rosebuds, Part 3.

Coaxial helicopters, the type with two rotors and a fly bar, are called 2D because they operate in one plane; that is, the rotors stay parallel with the ground. That makes them easy to fly, but they are less realistic and can't do aerobatics. Collective pitch helis, though, are 3D. I wanted one not to do aerobatics, but because they look better.

I received the mCPX only a couple of weeks ago. It's beautiful. I read the manual, charged the batteries, and soon I was doing rolls and loops and upside-down flying. The problem was, I wasn't trying to do any of those things. As soon as the heli lifted off the ground, it zoomed off in one direction or another, usually "landing" by hitting a wall. I began to learn about repairs, but I also realized that I needed to learn how to fly a collective pitch helicopter.

After a misfire or two, I found a really good website devoted to RC helicopters, with a large section devoted to flying CP helis. One of the first things he said was that it could take weeks to learn how to fly. That's probably broken down this way: 5 minutes flying, 3 days of repairs. But I'd been through that with the Draganflyer, and I was anxious to learn. Then he started talking about radios, the transmitters that control the helis. Here is my current radio collection:

The way that happens is that a radio is commonly packaged with a new helicopter, adding about $50 to the price. The most advanced radio in my collection is the DX4e, which came with the mCPX. I was delighted. Then my flight instructor told me that none of those radios is any good. He said that to maximize the experience of flying a CP heli, I needed a programmable radio, which itself takes two weeks to learn. I wasn't happy about that, but there are some good points. The radio he recommended has ten areas that can be programmed for ten different planes. Even if I couldn't bind the radio to the helis I have now, I could use it for future helis and planes. The only future - no less than a year from now - helicopter I might consider buying is a large one for outdoor flight. That's way down the road, but I finally decided that buying a programmable radio made a lot of sense.

Oh, well. You can't take it with you.