Latest in Scale Helicopters

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:

Happy new year...

It's not only nose-in or turning inside, it's scale flight at its best with the scale helicopter in all of it's full scale brother attitudes. It's quite easy with practice on standard tail helis (raised or straight) which have much better tail authority. Last summer I flew my new 1/6 Vario H145 which is a modified EC-145 with a Vario 10 blade fenestron. The new fenestron is lighter and a lot more efficient than the old 8 blade or 9 blade Roban. And easily adaptable since it has the same form factor as Align. But I dont use either and against all detractors mine flies perfectly with a belt drive. The new fenestron does not bring tail authority to levels attainable with standard tail blades but provides enough for most circumstances. Although it's still a light wind flier. So far I have built 4 fenestron scale, two H130, one H145 and the latest one a 600 size Gazelle (with the old 8 blade and CW blades), I will complete setup this year. I intend to build a 3rd H130 with the 10 blade Vario for this summer also.

https://youtu.be/mJ8nn5DdGQs?si=t0U6CKuQK_DpS-sf
https://youtu.be/zPySNsuKMVg?si=1RCE34gi1EM3aEpd
https://youtu.be/qx-QkmtXhxI?si=nG3i9noape3gaevX
https://youtu.be/Uiz6wcz_BCA?si=C6CWJOwLu5P8Kg9A

This very much outlines last season...

For 2026, I have the Vario 520n on the work bench. I ordered a 1/4.5 R22 from my friend at RVE, I should get in a few days and, will build a 5th H130. All to explore and improve orientation flight for scale.

Have great new flying season and remember if they stay on the shelf, your skills are not improving.

With experience, well built and fine tuned helicopter, once can gain confidence and team up, like with a horse. Find my video, where I let it go almost every time once given the direction. Just smooth inputs to tell the intention. Per example, the high speed low passage over the field was done with almost no correction once altitude settled by ground effect. Just let it go, until deciding to quit the manoeuver.

After purchasing the kit from a friend here in Australia in Sept 2024, I spent many hours isolating a very bad vibration, it was 80 on the Ikon vib scale, I eventually found the problem and fixed it, on the way improved the tail gear mesh, balanced the blades. The net result was the highest vib is now the motor at 1-1.5 on the Ikon scale. I was never ever happy with the kit lights, so upgraded them with a AR light kit, with a SX5 style search light, a big improvement. The video is my 10th flight with the model, since certification as required here in Australia as the model is 9.1 kg, models over 7 kg need to be inspected.
The slight wobble on take off was me trying to find the switch assigned to the lights. I’m getting 8 min on 12S5000.45C @ 1070 rpm with around 45% remaining, so could increase the flight time. A bit more practice to smooth out my flying🤞

The weather finally got nice! This video shows me practicing slow, controlled flight. Nothing fancy. Just fundamentals. Still knocking the rust off. I have found over the years that the less I think about HOW I am executing a maneuver the better it is and the MORE I think about it, the more I screw it up!

Our field is not great for large machines so I tend not to wring it out. Doing that leads to more violent inputs at field flight boundaries. For some, this style is boring. For me, it’s an exercise in focus. Yes, tail needs right trim. 😆 Video is unedited. HeliClassics Mi-171.