I've been learning to fly a HB FP 3 and while I can hover tail in well, side in OK, front in not at all (lol), and fly circles (as long as I keep the tail pointed roughly in my direction). But I have noticed its kind of difficult to maintain altitude while hovering and much more so while moving the heli around. I'm assuming this is due to slight winds generating lift on the blades, and a loss of lift when tilting the blades to move the heli around.

My question though is does this happen on all the heli's or will the more advanced and slightly larger CP heli's hold altitude better and drift (tail drift especially) less? I've been tempted to buy a Trex 450 and Spectrum DX7 so I guess I'm looking for excuses

bp

did you get rid of the ratchet on the TX? sometimes that causes some bad throttle control.

Later
Eric

Some one correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it happens with all electic helis. When you turn it's taking power away from the main motor.

It happens on all electric helis. The CP models respond much faster to altitude control and that makes the difference. Usually a moderate forward speed keeps my FP flying smoother, and you need to remember to slowly advance the throttle as you slow down to keep from dropping.

CH

Slight wind gusts will definitely cause the FP to climb, and sometimes they will "push" it down as well. Maintaining a constant altitude is more challenging with a FP heli, compared to a CP, because you have to rely on the main rotor to speed up or slow down in response to your throttle changes. This lag makes you basically have to "think ahead" of the heli, where a CP reacts to changes much quicker since you are actually changing the pitch of the main blades, rather than the rotor speed. Banking the heli also requires more pitch/power to maintain altitude, since you've changed the angle of the lift vector from vertical. This is common to all helis, not just electrics.

-Chris

Thanks for all the info guys.