Your first RC helicopter: how to pick one and not quit

Most people who quit RC helicopters in their first month did not quit because it was too hard. They quit because they bought the wrong helicopter. A good first helicopter hovers gently, forgives pilot error, and costs less to crash than it does to fix. A bad first helicopter is a £350 lesson in why you should have read this article.

The three classes, briefly

Coaxial helicopters use two counter-rotating rotors stacked on the same mast. They are astonishingly stable — most will hover unattended for a few seconds if trimmed well. They are the only class we recommend for absolute beginners. Indoor, small, forgiving, cheap to crash.

Fixed-pitch single-rotor helicopters fly more like a real helicopter but the rotor head cannot change blade angle. Climb comes from spinning the rotor faster. They are a natural step up from coaxial and still affordable to fly.

Collective-pitch (CP) helicopters are the serious machines. The blades change angle dynamically; they can fly inverted, loop, roll and 3D. They are also twitchy, fast, and expensive. Do not start here.

What to buy first

A small coaxial or a fixed-pitch heli with a built-in 6-axis gyro. Aim for £80–£150. Spend the saved money on batteries and a few spare main blades. You will break main blades. Everyone breaks main blades.

When to step up

When you can hover nose-in, tail-in and side-on for two minutes each without correction, you are ready to move to a collective-pitch machine. Most pilots reach that point around six months of regular flying.