Hobby King FP100

[shaggybirdman]

i guess this is the right room for Hobby kings FP100 micro heli. my local hobby shop is finally hooked up with hobby king. i've been debating on getting this heli for awhile now. looks like a total clone of a trex 100.

i'm wondering if anyone has one, and could give me there input on it. i pulled the trigger via my lhs, and hope it doesn't go out of stock before this wednesday. i'll be getting it for about the same price as i can order it, but with EMS shipping instead of air parcel witch usually means a 4 week wait.

i hope its a nice heli for crummy weather flying. gotta get on the ball, and get outside, and get my 450's in the air.

[F16_Matz]

I got two of these at my office. They are stupidly stable and have a good tail (they do funnels!) Also they are stupidly sturdy, I have had lots of crashes into obstacles during the last couple of weeks and no damage so far.

My collegues were also very impressed, so I got 10 more on the way from China right now

Downsides:
Rotor disk collides with tail boom in FF flight and violent maneouvres.
They are not very quick because of the stabilization.
Sloppy linkages.

For $36 each though, I find it to be a bargain,

[shaggybirdman]

out freaking standing! thanks.

"Rotor disk collides with tail boom in FF flight...." they collide in ff flight? do ya mean reverse flight? forward the plate is tilted forward. how can they hit the boom? do you have the links all the way out on the arms to get more through on the servo arms?

[shaggybirdman]

does the swash plate have a set of long and short ball studs on it?

[shaggybirdman]

all the vids i saw of it it looked rather quick.

[F16_Matz]

Yeah, what I meant was breaking hastily in FF for example, I've got boom strike several times from doing this. Also doing high banked turns, not sure what happened then.

Yes, links are all the way out on the servo arms and there is only one position on the swash to fasten the links.

Still a pretty good little heli and probably fast enough for most people indoor, but I always want to go faster

[shaggybirdman]

have you flown a trex 100 to compare it's flight capabilities with this heli? i have one on its way now. not sure how often they will order from HK though. my lhs is hooked up with hobby king now. it's gonna cost me almost the same threw them with ems shipping as it would with with air mail shipping to my house, so it was a no brainier to order threw them plus they make something too.

I've seen a few binding/power up issues with this heli. have you had any issues? to power up is it like a any other? radio then plug in heli battery, or like a walkera turn on radio it starts its bind sequence and plug in battery before the radio finishes its bind sequence? with my walkeras i plug in the heli battery then turn on the radio. it binds perfectly that way.

OK back to the fp 100. where do you get your parts from? as i understand it's actually a v911, and i found a source for parts, but more options/better prices is always a good thing. no broken parts so far!? besides the normal blades, fly bar, tail motor what other crash parts would you recommend?

[shaggybirdman]

i wonder if a cuskar mcx swashplate would work with this heli? it has longer arms, and longer ball ends if i remember correctly. that alone made my mcx considerably faster. although it got squirreler though, and i had to bind it to my dx7. it needed expo.

[F16_Matz]

Actually, I learned something today. This heli has two modes (button on transmitter switches between). It has normal and crazy mode, crazy is intended for outdoor flying and I have been flying on normal mode this far. Pressed the button and got plenty of throw on the swash, so I guess that point is obsolete. Who reads manuals anyway?

[F16_Matz]

Originally Posted by shaggybirdman

have you flown a trex 100 to compare it's flight capabilities with this heli? i have one on its way now. not sure how often they will order from HK though. my lhs is hooked up with hobby king now. it's gonna cost me almost the same threw them with ems shipping as it would with with air mail shipping to my house, so it was a no brainier to order threw them plus they make something too.

I've seen a few binding/power up issues with this heli. have you had any issues? to power up is it like a any other? radio then plug in heli battery, or like a walkera turn on radio it starts its bind sequence and plug in battery before the radio finishes its bind sequence? with my walkeras i plug in the heli battery then turn on the radio. it binds perfectly that way.

OK back to the fp 100. where do you get your parts from? as i understand it's actually a v911, and i found a source for parts, but more options/better prices is always a good thing. no broken parts so far!? besides the normal blades, fly bar, tail motor what other crash parts would you recommend?

No, haven't flown a T-rex 100, had a Wakera 4#3 and 4#3b as office helis before, but those are dead now, this one is much better than the walkeras.

I've hade no binding/power up issues thus far. Because I ordered two helis I got two transmitters but I've only used one of them, both helis bind just fine to one transmitter and yes, It's exactly like a walkera, battery in first and then radio on to bind before each flight.

On parts, I haven't needed any yet, seriously this thing is rugged! Lots of crashees into obstacles but nothing broken yet. I guess the brushed motors will give out eventually, spare blades are included so I got a couple of those and that's the most common part that brakes I guess. My newbie collegues will probably crash a lot and will need spares a lot sooner than me, so I'll probably arrange another mass order of spare parts from HK for them and piggyback on that for spares if needed.

[shaggybirdman]

way cool. i guess experience flying is the key. got plenty of that. bout how many packs threw yours so far? wondering how long the tail motor will last is all. my msr ate them rather quickly. bout 20 flights,and crashes did them in.

oh ya. the trex 100 needs a tail rotor swap with a msr. so seeing as you said no broken parts the stock tail rotor takes care of business. looks like i win for ounce.

[shaggybirdman]

Originally Posted by F16_Matz

Actually, I learned something today. This heli has two modes (button on transmitter switches between). It has normal and crazy mode, crazy is intended for outdoor flying and I have been flying on normal mode this far. Pressed the button and got plenty of throw on the swash, so I guess that point is obsolete. Who reads manuals anyway?

hey we are guys. ask your wife. she will tell ya. we don't read directions! so what's crazy mode like? how much wind will it penetrate? outstanding info. thanks for reading. now i don't gotta!

[F16_Matz]

I guess I got around 20 flights, no sign of engine trouble yet. But remember I got two of them so ten on each kind of... I really hope they last longer than those walkera engines.

Crazy mode is plenty of throw for indoor, I haven't tried outdoor yet (still cold here in sweden). Collegues has been preasuring me to fly out the window so I guess I'll find out sooner or later. Did a fast as possible straight FF down a corridor and ended up almost too fast to stop before those paddle blades drove me into the cealing, ended up loosing control and crashing into someones desk. Many laughs were had

Also tried binding both helicopters at once, didn't work. Oh well...when the others get their helicopters, we'll play The Flight of the Valkyries and fly in formation through the office