Why Name Brand Over A Clone?

[Slobberdog]

yep ... the problem is .... with a lot of this junk heli stuff on the market ... it might seem cheap, but there is so much that goes wrong with them that unless you are an experienced pilot and know what to inspect thoroughly or it will fly to bits ... and the pilot will have to stand there and scratch their head and try to fathom whether they were at fault ... or was it the piece of junk heli that caused the issue.....

In my experience ... I got sick of spending all my time fixing and trying to get a junker going .... and none flying! .... now with the Align helis I have had .... I have had the opposite happen!!!!

On a good note though, I would not have gained the experience I have if I had not gone down the clone path

Have to Agree with you there Westy, i have only been back in this hobby for a short period, had my fingers burned a couple of times with cheap clone parts, but working on the heli has given me alot of good experiance, although it would have been easier on the pocket if I had done things properly the first time.

only one good clone product I have had, and thats the assan gyro, doh, hope I have not spoke to soon, lol

 

[PaulRC]

I started with a name brand heli TT, I hovered it for about 10 seconds, and then it crashed. Then I realised it's going to be an expensive hobby, crashing all the time, mastering new maneuvers. So I went the clone/align path. I've got some clone helis. I've learnt how to build them and what to look out for on their weaknesses. So the clones/align works well for me. But I'm getting bored now, in seeing the same heli. I want to explore new horizons and try out different helis. I'm now caught in a rut, I don't know which name brand heli I should get. It's between a mini protos(fbl) or the Forza 450

 

[Slobberdog]

if you have a clone/Align heli now i'm guessing thats 450 size, would have thought you would jump up the size not go the same, the forza is nice but its expensive for what it is, better bet would be the warp 360 its slightly bigger but not gonna break the bank, and a few people here have it and love it

 

[PaulRC]

a 550 is the biggest I'd go. But I got no room at home for a big heli

 

[john2012]

Well when i first thought i did not know about RC-Help.com but know i do and im one that demands safety in all that i do , and i have bought junk helis and bought from BH and got more junk know i have two align t-rex 450's flybarred and flybarless and blade coaixal baby,Just want to say you get what you pay for,buy good it's safer in the long run

 

[RC MAN]

Hi yall and of course Tony,
Clones? Hmm, I started with one, If ya know how to tinker, buy one, they fly also, but ya have to know what your doing before ya go out and injure someone else, I blew a rotorhead apart on one, the plastic type, could have ended in a catastrophe,
figured I would put a good motor in it, and go raise some hell with it, Wrong answer. snapped off at the top, and the blades went singing off, if that would have hit anyone, Major injuries would have been caused.
I was alone in my garage when it happened, I came away with no cuts or bruises. Lucky me, if one of my kids were in there, and it hit them, I would have never flown again. My wife probably would have beheaded me anyway if I survived .
Dont get me wrong, Im not saying there junk, but dont try to build a killer machine from 1, and dont fly around others if you do, ALL CP helis are very dangerous, parts and electronics do fail, good ones and cheap ones.
Name brands Are expensive, but how much is your or someone else s life worth.
I just went and built my own, using parts from good company's, and my know how.

 

[RC MAN]

I got tired of changing frames, main and tailshafts, booms and the such, so I went out and built my own from just about scratch, rotor head, tail sys, from a good manufacturer, Hardened shafts, now when I crash, I do the blade change,f/s. and most times in a 1/2hr, back up in the air again.
Not many parts break anymore now, just the small stuff, without the usual rekit i had to do.

Hears my clone to look at.

Frank

 

[holtneil]

Hi all to be truthful, i have had clones and had a night mare of a time , now i wanted a nice 500 size heli , i was looking at 2 the blade or the align ,these are the only ones i can get parts for easy , as you know i went for the align not because every one told me to get it
What i looked at was the build of the heli , the blade was nice but there is a lot of plastic and to up grade to metal would cost a lot
So when i took a really good cost look at the align omg its all carbon and ally so it works out cheaper than the blade by a fair bit the align 500 pro total cost was £566 plus battery £25
The blade was £584 but up grade parts would come in at £60 and i dont think it would any way mach the align ( sorry if this up sets blade owners)
The kit went together very easy ( no screws stripped or not fitting ) and it just feels nice and look gorgeous up close , thanks to Tonys 3gx set up videos that was so easy to set up
OMG in the air its so stable and flys so smooth it makes you want to fly that little bit harder as its so stable
i think transmitters help too, a really good one is a must( does not have to be top of the range just a good make ) ,its no good having a really nice heli and a cheap china 6 channel radio
After having ,building and flying the align i want some 450 class to put my scale bodies around i cant trust a clone with the task ,so its going to be all aligns for me now , so any of you sitting on the fence and not sure just remember this ..... buy cheap buy twice

 

[Tony]

You are 100% correct on what you stated. I do suggest teh align over blade any day. But, if you get some of the larger ones, they should be all alloy and carbon. But not sure, I'm not really a blade fan.

Thanks for posting this. I hope it helps others in their decision. If you are going to go clone, double the price and that is what you will pay to get one in the air.

 

[pvolcko]

Blade 550x is pretty solid. I've seen a 500x too. Pretty nice. 300x is a great small heli for training and backyard flights.

 

[holtneil]

Hi pvolcko the blade 550 is solid but why all the plastic on the 500x , when your paying £584 in the uk for a 500 class then need to spend on ally main blade grips ally full tail assembly to make it what it should come as the blade 550 is what the 500 should come as no plastic . The align wins hands down every time , and its cheaper at £566 even why you add the price of a battery mine came in total to £596 the blade works out at about £630 once upgraded , the smaller blades are great helis and sell very well the 500x does not sell well so they may even stop making it , you will see price drops on the 500x as it does not sell
I was not knocking blade helis i have some too , i just feel that once over 450 size there price is over what your getting its hard to see nearly £600 of heli when it has lots of plastic that will wear out faster than ally

 

[Slobberdog]

I does not necessary mean the heli needs to be cheap cos it has plastic on it, as long as the plastic parts are of good quality and work well it should not be a problem, the logo 400 which is a 500 size machine has a fair bit of plastic on it, but is considered higher quality than the Align 500, it would have been my choice if I could have afforded the extra,

The AR7200bx makes the heli combos very close in comparison, it was touch and go between the two when I bought, if I did not get such a good deal on my 500 DFC to tip the balance I might have gone for the blade at that point.

 

[treff]

Hi all.In my opinion it is not worth buying a named heli when you start. Your going to crash thats a given and named heli parts break just
has easily as the clone parts but the named heli parts can cost 4, 5 sometimes 10 times the price of the cheap clone. When you have gained
experience, can hover good and know your orientations then and only then is the time to buy that super helicopter. A lot will not agree
with this but I think it's pointless buying an expensive heli when your learning. Expensive breaks just as easily. Get the flying experience first.

 

[Admiral]

Well here I go sitting right in the middle of the fence, in a perfect world I would recommend everybody flew a name brand, but especially when you start out you do are not expecting to break your helicopter as often as you do and money is often short for the newbie, wifey has said $200 for a helicopter we can afford that, but she puts her foot down when it comes to $50 and week to keep a name brand flying maybe she can accept the $20 a week to keep a clone in the air. I know a simplistic view but I am sure that there are a lot of people still flying because they started out on clones that would have given up due to cost had they started on name brands.

By the way I have friends that spend more on Golf than I do on helicopters and others that spend heaps more on fishing than I do on Helicopters, so its all relative I suppose.

 

[pvolcko]

Plastic is cheap for parts, offers more give saving the more expensive metal bits in servos, swash, etc. Just because it is plastic doesn't mean it is junk. That said, I agree trex 500 is a better heli than the blade 500. I'd put the blade over the clones though, metal parts or not. And the 7200bx is a fantastic fbl unit.

 

[murankar]

So whats the fear of plastic? My blade grips are plastic on the Guai and on the Protos Mini. In some cases plastic will be better over metal. Plastic is cheaper to replace, gives a point of failure and plastic dies not have "memory".

When looking at plastic vs metal you will need to asses whats best. There is a time and place for each material.

As of right now i am enjoying the plastic main blade grips and after i put the Gaui in none of the plastic components broke except the skids. So just use your judgement.

Sent from my LG-E980 using Forum Runner

 

[pvolcko]

The fear is it isn't strong enough to handle big loads and will fail in flight. Part of this stems from the mini helis that use it extensively and are prone to cracking and stress failures. But they are also hugely resilient. Part of it is also Blade's own fault for putting out some substandard stuff on their 400-500 series helis where there were actual blade holder failures. That said, they're gotten much better with their plastic molding process and materials and design. As mentioned, Mikado and others use plastic on high stress parts too with no ill effects.

The fear is largely historical at this point. Carry over from early attempts. Same goes for BEC fears many have, driving them to continue using separate Rx flight packs instead of BEC technology.

 

[murankar]

Well all i can say is that my two kits went hard, one on the road the other my side yard. Protos (crashed in side yard )has a broken grip, broke at the linkage ball. Gaui (crashed in the road ) has zero broken grips, along with zero stress marks on the grips.

For main parts like the blade grips i would not do plastic over a 450 sized kit.

Sent from my LG-E980 using Forum Runner

 

[DavidDutch]

It is Always the same old story "clones versus branded stuff".

 

[superdon]

I bought a used 450 Align it been fun how do you know if it is a real align and not a knock off