10 years ago when I came back to the hobby I set myself two goals, stand-off...

10 years ago when I came back to the hobby I set myself two goals, stand-off scale, and slow flight or should I say scale flight? I just don't see a 1/7 scale doing 70 mph. That's almost 500 mph, a helicopter lol? I tried 450 to 700 sizes (I'm just new to 800 and it's even easier). I find the 450-500 size marginal for everyday wx but they are great indoors or on a calm day. The 600 size is a good compromise between visibility and cost but I prefer 700, it's even easier to see. I try to keep the weight around 15lbs (7kg) for my back lol. 800 is a stretch but it will fit in my small car once the blades are removed. Cost also is a factor so I capped my builds to 3-4K$. Reliability can impair concentration and progress so I opted for the most reliable I could find. I looked at 3D helis because they are very rugged. If they can stand 2500 rpm, my guess is they would be ok at half the head speed. Parts availability and costs are important factors also. So I went with SAB. It was not easy at first but after 15 builds I got the hang of it. They are extremely reliable, smooth, and run silently because they use belts and 2-stage gearing. It's important because beauty is not only skin deep for me. It has to run to my liking. I love the good old days but prefer the newer technology: latest motor/esc, controller system with telemetry, and FCU (for easy programming). I had to learn all that too. Motor for efficiency, telemetry for diagnostics, and FBL for precision. I spent hours on those and it paid off. A properly set heli almost flies by itself and makes progress easier. I also managed to stretch my flying times to almost 10 minutes with my 700 size on 4100 12s packs. But I find 7 to 8 ideal and it's in the first minutes I feel most progress is made, the rest of the flight I enjoy. I practice one maneuver at a time until it's dialed into my brain (no pun lol). I figure one day I will be able to do a complete scale flight of 8 minutes. It takes time it's there that lies the fun.