Latest in Scale Helicopters

As the founder and principal software author behind RCUniverse (back in the day), I am excited to have you here to see what RCPilot is all about. I can share a few things:

- If you want to see what your RC World can be, change worlds using the menu by the logo up top and visit Scale Helicopters. We have lots of content there from the predecessor site, HeliStorm. It illustrates how phenomenal the platform can be when the folks commit to adding valuable content.

- This is NOT like Facebook in the sense that every contribution here gets analyzed by AI (subject to your final say) and cataloged by topic and, if applicable, product. This makes it possible for other members to easily find and benefit from the knowledge you shared. That said, we have a SHOTGUN SHARE feature that lets you share your posts with all of your favorite Facebook groups and forums.

- Unlike Facebook, we are not divided into little groups that spring up monthly. Trying to keep up with dozens of groups just ruins the community experience. Here, we are divided into "RC Worlds" but those divisions have proven to be useful over time. You can hope from one world to the next, but most of us are aligned with one primary discipline so that's likely where we will be.

- Our "build stories" are very cool. The link each chapter in your build journey into one story so that people can easily drill into a chapter to learn what they need while others maybe just follow along with every chapter.

- Our integrated "RCMarket" is the most advanced classified market software on the planet. Lots of security.

- There is a ton more here. Look around and please contribute. In this community, rank is achieved by the QUALITY of your contributions. There are no "Like" buttons. Instead, we have sentiment sliders that let you grade a post on 4 different criteria. That's meaningful feedback. Those whose posts earn high marks from the community, get status.

Horizon Hobby is sponsoring a brand new NX8+ transmitter for the winner of our 30-day Battle of RC Worlds contest, which pits Jet Pilots vs Scale Heli Pilots vs Airplane Pilots vs 3D Heli Pilots vs Glider Pilots vs Drone Pilots. Everybody gets 15 plays per day. Bet 1-5 chips.

To earn more plays, simply post in the feed and make it a good one. Posts that receive high reaction scores ear more plays for the poster!

Who will take the crown? Which RC world will carry the torch!

Play Now!

After much internal debate and input from the RC community, at large, I decided to rewrite the entire HeliStorm platform and integrate it with RCMarket.com and the functional elements of RCChecklist. The result is a community for all those who fly and all those who place a high value on being able to efficiently share and find things relative to our hobby.

On RCPilot, scale helis has a head start, so if you know someone who flies other RC stuff (or if you do), please feel free to contribute!

I was bored so I decided to do some cutting and drilling into my Bell 429 GlobalRanger. A few months ago, I noticed the full-size 429s have lights built into the front section of the fuselage on both sides and one on the bottom. I wanted to replicate that on my model but wasn't exactly sure if it would be possible to do since the fuselage is sealed pretty good in the front section.

I first started off by searching for some small rectangular lights that would replicate the ones on the full-size 429. After I found some off-road lights that were designed for a 1/7 scale RC SUV 4 wheeler, I had to figure out how or if I could mount the lights in the body and run the wires to power them. That was a challenge because the front section of the fuselage is completely sealed off from the middle part of the body with a wall for the battery compartment under the floor.

I knew there was a small oval hole in the cockpit area under the center console and instrument cluster. Luckily I didn't use a lot of glue to install those pieces and was able to remove the center console and instrument cluster with a little persuasion and time without damaging anything. After I got those pieces out of the cockpit, I was able to get a better idea on if this project was doable.

I still had to come up with a way to run the power wires to the rear of the fuselage which was a problem, because again, the front section of the fuse under the floor is totally sealed off. I came up with an idea of possibly being able to drill a small hole through the wall that separates the battery compartment under the floor to the front section of the fuse. No way a power drill was gonna be able to do the drilling though because there isn't a lot of room to work with inside the fuse.

I then thought that perhaps my Dremel with a drill bit MIGHT fit inside the battery compartment. I tried it and it worked! Next, I had to build up the nerve to start cutting 3 rectangular holes into the fuselage. After I got the 3 holes in the fuse cut, I cut off the single servo connector for the lights so I could thread the power wires through the hole that I drilled in the battery compartment wall. After I was able to thread the power wires through the small hole, I then soldered the servo connector back onto the power wires from the cabin side of the battery compartment wall.

From that point, I taped a strong magnet onto the servo connector, used another magnet that's attached to a telescoping rod to connect to the servo connector and the other magnet and snaked the power wires under the floor of the fuselage and up to where I have the receiver mounted on the mechanics. Pretty much all of the hard stuff is done at that point which resulted in an extremely clean layout with the power wires being TOTALLY hidden under the floor of the fuse's body.

I think everything turned out pretty well and the lights are plenty bright. These photos were taken in a totally dark room. As you can see, the lights light up the room pretty well! The lights are running on 6 volts of power. For reference, the last photo is of one of the real Mercy Flight helis from which the livery on my heli is modeled after.

Hey Guys, most of you who know me understand that I despise the countless selling areas on Facebook and forums simply because they fragment an already small market. A week or so ago, I launched RCMarket.com, a central market for ALL RC stuff. The market is amazingly simple to use and it has powerful filters and mobile capabilities. Since I wrote the software, I can adapt it as needed to user feedback.

The Buy & Sell link here on HeliStorm now link to RCMarket. It's free so please use it! The only way a market works is if people use it!

Hello fellow RC flying enthusiasts. What do you think of the new Noro-Ion flight batteries? Or in other words, what`s your experience with them? I managed to get over 15 minutes of flight time with my Blade 230S microheli UH-1 scale heli. With LiPos, the maximum was 6–8 minutes. So I`m happy for now. Has anyone else had experience with scale heli flying using these new Li-Ion cells?

You can watch the full 15min flight video here if you wan`t:

🚁 Big News, Heli Pilots! 🚁
Mark your calendars for the ultimate weekend of flying, food, and massive prizes!

The Scale Heli Extravaganza

📅 When: September 18th – 20th, 2026
📍 Where: AirMasters RC Club (North Bend, OH)
💰 Pilot Fee: $45.00

🏆 What’s Waiting For You:

Epic Pilots Raffle: Win a Vario 1/6 Scale Jet Ranger helicopter!

Pro Setup: 91-acre field, powered pit tables, covered shelter, and a dedicated hover zone.

Great Food: On-site concessions plus a catered Friday night dinner by Spinning Platter’s.

Camping & Lodging: Dry RV camping on-site, or call Comfort Inn Lawrenceburg at (812) 539-3600 (ask for Jackie) for a discount rate.

Shoutout to our amazing sponsors Heli Workshop, Aeropanda, and Performance Hobbies South!

📧 Questions? Contact Event Manager Evan Sayres ("CoachE") at Esayres1@gmail.com.

See you on the flight line!

UIH,

After all the rain over the weekend it cleared up enough yesterday afternoon for its maiden.

The stick frictions on the TX are a little different that I am use to and I have never flown or set up the FC 6250 controller but things went great. Looked to have one blade out of track which I will check later today. Heli was weighted to roughly the finished weight and set up a touch forward CG. Power felt great with the data from the ESC looking very good. Some adjustments and she will be ready to go.

A vid of the event.

UIH,

B