About me.

I'm an advanced beginner. Comfy hover and FF tail and nose in on Blade CP. Inverted progressing nicely in the sim, nose in is good, tail in is getting there. I can confidently bail out from maneuvers I attempt. I don't attempt maneuvers from which I can't bail out confidently.

After mastering inverted I'm moving on to backwards flight and then on to upright moving piros.

Haven't decided how far into 3D I'm going to go yet. I want the option to go far but to tame out a wicked ride for a scale body if the mood suits me.

I hear good things about:

Copterx 450 SE V2 / CopterX PRO V3
EXI 450
Black Angel

I'm sure there's other stuff I'm not considering here.

My priorities are:

Reasonable initial costs.
Good parts availability.
Capable of hard 3D, eventually.
CF frames.

I'm partial to TT since I spied a tailskid mod which seems to reduce the chances of a tail strike. And I like shiny spiny things instead of rubber roundy turny things.

I'll save the requests for electronics recommendations for another thread. Just looking for an airframe recommendation.

Thanks.

I went with a Tarot 450 Pro from Hobby-Wing. Everyone seems to think that the quality is very good. I have everything I need to finished it using mid to high end components from other builds.

My skill level is pretty much like yours and I want to get really good with an inexpensive 450 so that I'll be comfy moving on to larger more $$$ nitro helis. I just like to fly, not really big into 3D.

http://www.hobby-wing.com/skyfire-pr...-barebone.html

That's a neat lookin' heli. How's parts availability?

Just make life easy on yourself:

http://www.tennesseedrifterheli.com/...mbo_KX015076A_

parts availability on any TREX clone is a non-issue.

Tarot is a good brand clone, good quality, I;ve bought Tarot parts and they look gost as Align parts.

I think the 450 SE V2 is one of the best advanced trainers. Consider this:

http://www.cermark.com/products/Haus...arbon-Kit.html

good luck

I went with the CopterX CX450 SE V2 kit. CopterX seemed to have a bit better feedback than the other clones. I looked at the Black Angel, but decided against it since parts availability would be more of an issue. You likely can get compatible parts for the CX450 SE V2 at your LHS.

It has a belt, but I hear it is a bit better for a beginner like me. More forgiving in a crash.

After I made my purchase from eHirobo, I found that there is a US supplier, Water and Air Hobbies. I might have saved a bit of money with the kit and parts that I ordered with the US shipping vs international.

I just got the kit and some of my parts yesterday. It was like Christmas all over again. I should have the rest of my parts and tools by the beginning of next week. Wooo Hooo!