Heli-Basics

There is a trade-off, however, and that is the cost and complexity of the rotor head. There are a great deal more moving parts in a collective pitch rotor head and thus, they are more expensive. Most current choppers are of the collective pitch variety.
On a standard, collective pitch helicopter there are four controls and these are operated by five channels of your radio system. These controls are the collective pitch, the fore and aft cyclic pitch, the side to side cyclic pitch, and the tail rotor pitch. The collective pitch must also be coupled with the throttle of the engine so that when more load is put on the main rotor blades by increasing the pitch, more throttle is applied to help overcome the additional drag.
The right stick of your radio transmitter controls the collective and throttle in the vertical direction and the left/right cyclic in the side to side direction. Your left stick controls fore and aft cyclic operation in the up and down movement and side to side for the tail rotor control. There are also mixing functions which mix the throttle and collective functions, and the throttle/collective and tail rotor functions.

The Helicopter
The Galtech team have been flying and selling R/C helicopters for over 15 years and have tried most brands. We have for some years now concentrated on a couple of brands that have proven to be strong, reliable and competitive makes being JR and Xcell and have built a solid parts back-up and knowledge base to support these 2 major brands.
Whilst they may be a little more expensive than some of the current "Taiwanese/Chinese" brands they do perform with the pedigree that time has built for them and we are convinced that they are amongst the best performing model helicopters currently available anywhere in the world.

The Radio Control System
There are several options on radio control system types and complexity of functions and we can advise what best suits your goals and importantly budget as the radio systems can range in price from around $499 to over $3000.

The Gyro
Once again this very important electronic device can make or break your flying pleasure if wrongly selected and we can advise on the best gyro to suit your needs. Prices again can vary from $200 upwards of a $1000 depending on complexity.

The Engine
The "heart" of the model helicopter must run smoothly and strongly to ensure a steady hover and plenty of power to overcome the rotor load of the model during transitional flight. The Japanese OS brand is hard to beat in these areas but we are constantly assessing other brands to find suitable reliable alternatives at more modest prices. You can liken the difference in engines prices and performance to motor racing! You won't win a Formula 1 race with V8 supercar engine but each engine suits the event it was designed for.

We hope this has helped explain a little about a great hobby and sport that you are obviously contemplating on getting involved with, we are more than happy to answer any further questions you may have or offer advise on what selection to make………Just give us a call!

How does a Chopper Work?
There are basically two different types of helicopters, those that have collective pitch and those that do not. Collective pitch is where the pitch of the main rotor blades may be simultaneously increased or decreased to change the amount of lift. This gives a quicker response to changes in vertical thrust as controlled by the pilot. On helicopters without collective pitch, the amount of lift is controlled entirely by the speed of the rotor blades or in other words the speed of the engine (throttle control). The reaction time is longer and thus the control is less responsive.