TJinGuy Elite Veteran Location: Socorro, NM - USA
| I guess I will chime in here on the King2. I have owned one for about 8 months now and have about 230 batteries run through it, so I do know a little about the little guy 
First off ...
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| You'll find the tiny electric almost impossible to fly if you are used to flying a large gasser. Small helis are upset by any small control input or gust of wind and they are endlessly fussy to setup and also brittle. On top of that the ground clearance for a micro heli is so minimal it leaves almost no margin for error.
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Won't that just make you a better pilot? I know that anyone that can fly a King2 well can fly pretty much anything bigger with style 
The definite goods - Small so you can fly it anywhere. - Light so crahses are extremely cheap, there just isn't that much energy involved. - Easy to setup. Minus some tracking issues with the plastic head, these things are a breeze to setup. The only things that are adjustable are the swash-mixer links and the servo-swash links. - With a 2100 battery (try to keep is as light as possible) the CG is perfect, the power is good and the runtime is great at 10-12min. - There is a huge aftermarket following. - You can buy a bare bones kit for $65. - Futaba s3114 servos work awesome. They are cheap, fast and accurate.
The bads ... - It is all plastic and although it does fly decent as a stock airframe, it can be a bit "loose", especially as things wear in. The cnc stuff tightens everything up nicely but look to spend $50 for a full cnc head eventually. - The stock (RTF) motor, esc and rate gyro function but never well. The HBK3 is coming out in a few weeks and will sport a full brushless setup and HH gyro. - The heli is light and small, and that makes it fast, touchy and hard to see. Wind is also an issue although it gets better with skill. This is much worse on a BladeCP. - The stock (RTF) servos work fine but are fragile and loose their centering ability as they wear.
I personally like the King2 for what it is but I prefer to fly my Rex. It definitely was a cheap way to learn to fly though. Yes I spent a lot upgrading it when I first got it but the most expensive crash I had was $29 (most are $12-$20) and that was a nose dive into the ground during a fff failure to pull up. It broke the frame in several places and snapped the servo tab off. But the way it came apart save everythign else. Took me less than 2 hours to totally rebuild it and I had it in the air that night.
So my final thoughts are these. If you are really looking for a small, fly anywhere heli that is cheap and works decently well ... buy a King2 but be ready to toss another $150 at it. If you want a rip roaring little 300 for hard 3D in your front yard, build a King2 from scratch (start with the Xtreme frame and toss on a 430L). If you want a Rex450SE, buy a Rex450SE cause this ain't even in the same ball park.
Edit: Here is a video of a newbie plank friend trying to fly my King2 for the first time. Previous experience was 30min on G4 with my assistance. He flew the first 2100 pack for 15min and just started to be able to get it off the floor (used 86% of the pack). I had him run the second for 12min and by the end he was holding it 6" up with decent control. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncAVHxI0Vdw
- Chris
Variety+spice+life+supporting_paper_towel_industry= King2+Rex450+Protos+Concept30 |