WAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
prices won't be that cheap for kerosene based ones rite?
I'm tempted for helis..... but for oso i si bei gian on the planes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
okie...seem you are abit green to all this.....let me give you my perspective. you can take it any way you like with it heheh....,
Expensive is RIGHT. I use to fly both helis and airplane. If you are on a budget stick to airplane. Get a trainer plane first. A trainer plane you can built or comes prefab which you put together. Though I say cheaper to fly airplane but it can still set you back alot. When I first got started I already plop down about 1,000+. Once the plane falls out of the sky...HARD...get ready to built or buy a new plane. You can have fuel engine or electrical. With electrical you need to buy lots of batteries and charge them all up and bring with you. But electrical batteries usually only last about 6 mins of flight time. ( unless you fly super gliders which you can swtich it off when you get it high up and then you glide the plane around and only use it sparingly to get more height when it glides too low) I learn to built my planes so it is abit 'cheaper'. I like wookwork too so that helps.You want to buy..well...sometimes it mean paying someone to built it for you. You can stick to something very simple...like those prefab plastic hybrid ( which still required some glueing, installing components like engine, fuel tank, gyro and servo placement and painting) and using those quick kits that runs on electric motors. Fuel engine type are loub and you can fly longer periods since it uses fuel (depending on how large is your tank,,but you hardly want to fly too long in the air). It is abit more maintenance intensive to use fuel motors....you also need more tools..like propeller starter, battery power starter to ignite the fuel, work bench, carrying fuel...etc. You will spend many hours learning it from someone. Never try to think you can fly a plane right off the box with no training. Also you need to register your remote control signal frequency with Singtel. There are only a handful of frequency signal for use in Singapore so there is only so many planes you can have in the air at one time. If some one uses the same one....you better pray your plan is still on the ground if not...it can interfer with your remote control and crash your plane. So you need to always go around to check on what others are using before you go fly and you also need to let others know. And there are only so many places you can fly remote controlled planes/helicopter. ( this is a dangerous hobby if you don't know that by now. Having fingers snipper off by rotating blades has happen more then a few times before or planes crashing on people) If you fly in a place you are not allowed to fly, you will have the police come looking for you very quickly. Especially if you using an illegal frequency and well....when you switch it on and you are located near the east side which is near the Airport....your signal will be capture by the airport tower. Or even capture by military radars...So don't play play..they will come after you to see what that signal us used for.
An airplane is already complicated to learn... usually for a plane you need to control at least 3-4 servo controls. This will control the engine throttle, the rudder, front wing ailerons and maybe the back ailerons on the tail wing. If you are new to this...flying the plane for just 2-3 minutes is nerve wreaking and you will be totally drain from the concentration. You need to react in a certain way when the plane is going from your left to your right and then the opposite is true when going from right to left. You will most likely crash a few planes before you get pretty okay. And is usually trainer planes we call them as they are easier to fly and if fuel runs out it can still glide abit.You need a car if not you will end up like me..carry large tool box, your refreshment, 1-2 planes( with dismantled wingsets) and then walk into the open fields to fly each weekend...and yes..walk back out too. great if you have alot of kakis but if you don't... like in the begining...you better have car or some means to get your stuff around heh.
You want to fly a heli?...get ready to spent at least 3 times more. You need a more complex remote that controls up to 5-6 servo controls at one time. You need to programme them to function properly together..etc. Flying heli is a hell of alot moore complicated then plane. This is something you should only do once you are familair with planes and cars to get over the basics. Alot of eye hand coordination and quick thinking is required. the fuel motor is more powerful but abit more complex compared to electric but still not that easy to fly those electrical ones.( the more bigger and full function ones not those small mini fly around your room type) Oh and ah....break parts in a heli and you will cry..they are not cheap to replace. (funny thing is I found out it cost even more to race fuel powered remote control cars)A reasonable pair of rotor blades you break ( trust me you will break alot of that) will already set you back about $100per set maybe more now or about $200 for those graphite ones.. Not sure now since I have not played this for ages now. The shops at Fook Hai is about the best place to get start and find out all the details you want to get started, where to fly...etc. For one oreason or another all these years most of these plane and heli shop are consolidated in this building. Beware...there are some arrogants folks (customer) there too that hang around like a typical scene in Cathay Photo heheh... Some will help you alot and some well...will help you as they want to fly YOUR plane....better to crash yours then theirs heheh... I could go on but I think this should give yo ua bit more details to decide if you really want to take up this hobby....If you think photography is hard on your g/f or wife..wait till you experince building airplane in your house or room and saw dust are all over the place and full of plane schmatice here and there ....etc....then you really will see how far you can push your significant other to carry on loving you still heheh.
There is a huge huge difference between flying a small plane that goes round and round on a string on your ceiling then one that is out in the air a few hundred feet. I have seen plane that was flown by people who got so excited about it and flew it so high they lost signal and the plane flew away...literally once it get no other signal from the remote to turn back or whatever. heheh.
It is an exciting hobby but one that is pretty expensive to start. This was my hobby that kept fighting with my photography hobby for my money! heheheh....you can say ..for a time...photography and equipment took a lonnnnng back seat to my flying (and crashing). This is one hobby where literally you are throwing money into a deep well. hehe...it is all about making you happy if you are mad about flying. Selling away parts or when you give up the hobby you will hardly get you anything back. It has very long resell value in other words.
So you decide...if you want to get into it. It is very rewarding if you love flying planes or helicopters.