What About Costs? I Heard Flying Electric Is Much More Costly Than Nitro?

That perhaps was true a number of years ago when LiPo batteries were grossly expensive but this is certainly no longer the case. This is a good question however so let's look a little deeper.

Electric flight can get expensive if you want to be flying back to back flights between battery charges because you will need several packs and on bigger birds, it's not hard to have as much or more invested in LiPo packs as you have in the heli. Computerized LiPo chargers are also required so that adds to the costs (marginally); however you never have to purchase fuel again and nitro fuel is pricey as well. Pay now or pay later... In the long run, you will generally be money ahead in operating costs with electric over nitro fuel - even with the bigger birds.

Case and point... My Trex 700E (currently my largest electric RC helicopter) requires two 5000mAh 6S LiPo packs wired in series per flight. I have one dozen (12) LiPo packs for that bird so I can get 6 back to back flights between charges. As a result I have almost as much invested in LiPo batteries as the whole heli is worth. Sounds expensive when you look at it that way, but when you break it down to cost per flight the numbers get really attractive.

If I treat my LiPo's with the care they deserve, I should be be able to get at least 1800 flights out of those 6 pairs of packs over their life span (assuming 300 charge/discharge cycles on each pack - a normal life span with proper care). So that works out to about 66 cents a flight or so. Let's be cynical here and say I treat my LiPo's harshly and half their life span, we are now looking at $1.32 a flight. A Trex 700 Nitro on the other hand burning up a 4L jug of $30.00 dollar nitro fuel in as little as 8 flights works out to about $3.75 a flight - the proof's in the pudding as the saying goes.

Don't let those ugly $ numbers scare you off; those examples are using one of the largest electric RC helicopters on the market and comparing it to a large nitro of the same size (basically the most costly form of both).

Smaller electric birds don't use expensive packs like that and you can purchase a half dozen or so LiPo's for a very reasonable price. Most folks spread it out over several purchases as well.

I certainly didn't purchase 12 5000mAh 6S packs all at once, a few here and there over the course of a year or so, but now I'm covered for many flights.

Electric RC Helicopter Recommendations

Blade make some very nice little electric RC helis at very reasonable costs such as the Blade mCP X or another one of my favorites, the Blade 130X .

The reason I am so impressed with all of E-flite's/Blade's stuff (other than the Blade CP, CP-Pro/2, and the Blade SR ) is all the new models use DSM2 spread spectrum modulation. Meaning that they can all be controlled with any good Spektrum/JR DSM2 radio (this system is called Bind-N-Fly - BNF). This saves time and money - two things most of us are short on these days.

You can also find Blade parts at almost every hobby shop in the world. As you know, parts availability is one of the most important criteria I place on choosing a good heli.

Check out the entire line of Blade RC Electric Helicopters at Red Rocket Hobbies to learn more about them and why they are so good for your first steps into RC helicopters.

Once you progress in this hobby or want to start out with a higher quality bird off the bat - Align's Trex electric helicopters offer the best quality for the price in my opinion. Here is my full write-up on Align Helicopters if you are interested in learning more about them.

From the small Trex 250 to the large 800E Trekker, Align's parts and components in all their kits are top notch and offer great value (obviously why I now fly three Trex 600's, a 700E, and a 250. Once again just like Blade, Align's parts availability and pricing are outstanding.