Just some remarks:

Electro is fun and relatively quiet, but you are forced to wait between flights to recharge you batteries. It’s not as easy as just filling up the tank. Having multiple batteries and chargers limit this problem, but increase the cost.

I have a mini Titan for indoor/outdoor which is about the same size as the 450. I find that it’s a bit large to fly indoors, it’s more like hoovering around instead of “flying”. I can fly it outdoors, but the wind should be fairly calm.

Depending where you live, you can also try my sim 🙂

Before you put on that fuselage, make sure you can land it very carefully!

If you need more info, feel free to ask; either here or via email (I already sent you an email with my previous comment).

I have a friend who’s sim-controller I can borrow I think to see how it is.

the ultimate rcheli dream is an airwolf fuselage 😀

thx for the info and tips, I see there’s several clubs near me 🙂

anyway I can ask you more questions about this besides your blog?

I’m glad to hear you’d like to get into RC helis. Here are some tips:

Figure out what exactly you want. Are you into heli’s or airplanes? Heli’s are more difficult to fly, but you can learn it in small steps. Airplanes are easier, but you need to fly a full circuit on the first flight. What size of aircraft are you looking for: indoor or outdoor? Do you have a preference for nitro or electric?

Next I really recommend a simulator, certainly for flying a helicopter. Most simulators can be controlled from a real transmitter, which is much more realistic than a joystick. Simulators are also great if you just want to try flying a heli and see how much you like it.

I also recommend finding a club in your neighborhood. This site (http://www.airtoi.nl/clubs.php3) has a fairly complete list. It’s very convenient to have people around which have the necessary experience in tuning engines and calibrating throttle curves. In Belgium it is only allowed to fly RC aircrafts on official model-airfields, but as far as I know, there is no real enforcement of that policy.

As a final tip: The internet offers a lot of information, but I recommend you get a basic understanding before trusting that information. Even at the club some people say “it’s better to do it that way”, but are unable to give an explanation to the “why?”. Sometimes they’re right, but sometimes the reason is long gone (things like NiMH vs NiCd batteries comes to mind).

Welcome to the RCHeli world!