FLISHRC helicopters: the FL500 V2 scale range explained

FLISHRC is one of the three scale-helicopter brands we stock, and the one that has done the most to make scale flying accessible. The pitch is simple: a detailed, ready-to-fly scale helicopter with a modern GPS flight-control system already fitted and tuned. You buy it, you charge it, you fly it. No sourcing a flybarless unit, no wiring your own gyro, no guessing at setup.

This is the guide to the whole range — what the platform is, which airframes you can have it in, and which FLISHRC is right for you.

The FL500 V2 platform

Almost everything FLISHRC makes is built on the FL500 V2 platform: a 500-size mechanical helicopter wrapped in a fibreglass scale fuselage and driven by a modern GPS-capable flight controller. That controller is the story. It gives you self-levelling, GPS position hold, a throttle governor and a one-button "rescue" recovery that pulls the aircraft back to level if you get disoriented. FLISHRC sells the brain on its own too — the FLISHRC L7 flight controller is rated for 450 to 800-class machines.

The airframes themselves share the scale-body heritage that runs under all our scale brands — the same fibreglass-fuselage DNA you'll find explained in our Roban vs FLISHRC comparison. What FLISHRC adds is the electronics, and that's where it leads. Our full FL500 V2 review covers how it actually flies.

The range: gunships

The military side is the heart of the range, priced from around £1,600 to £1,925:

• FLISHRC AH-1 Cobra — the flagship, around £1,925, the machine most people picture when they think FLISHRC
• FLISHRC UH-60 BlackHawk — the classic utility silhouette, roughly £1,750
• FLISHRC AH-64 Apache — the definitive attack helicopter, around £1,610
• FLISHRC AH-6 Little Bird — the special-forces light ship

The range: civilian and utility

The civilian ships are the ones that win people over who thought they only wanted a gunship:

• FLISHRC EC135 — the air-ambulance and police shape, around £1,541, in HEMS, police and custom liveries
• FLISHRC MD500E G-jive — the egg-bodied civilian classic, roughly £1,716
• FLISHRC BO105 in MBB Bölkow Orange — the air-rescue icon with a four-blade head, around £1,601 (reviewed in full in our FLISHRC BO105 review)
• FLISHRC AS350 Squirrel — the ubiquitous utility helicopter, around £1,445

Electronics, batteries and spares

Because these are 500-size machines, they run 6S power. We stock FLISHRC LiPo packs sized for the FL500, the L7 flight controller as a standalone upgrade or replacement, plus swashplate-levelling tools and scale exterior LED light kits. Each airframe also has a matching mechanical-assembly parts kit, so a hard landing doesn't ground you permanently.

Who FLISHRC is for

FLISHRC suits the pilot who can already hover and fly circuits on a smaller machine, wants a genuinely convincing scale helicopter, and would rather fly than build. The GPS L7 does the heavy lifting on stability, which is what makes a £1,600 scale ship sensible for a competent-but-not-expert pilot.

It is not a first helicopter — £1,600 is the wrong place to learn to hover; start with something from our best under £150 shortlist. And if you love the scale look but not the price, the Flywing range does a creditable scale impression for under half the money. To weigh FLISHRC against the bigger, build-it-yourself alternative, read Roban vs FLISHRC.