Apparently pilot Alan Szabo is something of a name in the R/C helicopter world. All I know is that he makes this overpowered chopper do things that no full-sized chopper could ever think about doing, with manic flips and near-ground reversals.
I couldn’t help but watch this video and wonder when military drones will be capable of similar, self-piloted maneuvers, and how effective they’d be just by flying over enemy troops and freaking them the fuck out.
21 Responses to “Holy Moly: Ridiculous R/C Helicopter Skills”
- 1 Trackback on Jul 18th, 2007 at 4:16 am
- 2 Trackback on Jul 23rd, 2007 at 7:07 am
i can’t believe how close this guy is standing to that whirling face mutilator… one wrong move…
At about 3:00, I just wanted it to land. I yelled “LAND!” over and over until it did so.
Is it just me or does it seem that the video has been speeded up a lot? Good Video Editing i must admit!!!!
Considering how many time that thing hung without changing the rotor direction, I’d put down $10 that its fake.
Joel, hope you don’t view this as being too spammy, but I saw this post in my reader and it immediately made me think of the desktop RC copters sold by ThinkGeek. Also just noticed that they have a video of one flying around on the site (nowhere near as head-slicing-potential as Szabo’s, but cool nonetheless). Here’s the link:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/rc/934c/
I can tell you this much guys, there is no video editing going on, and it is 100% real. This guy is hands down one of the best RC Heli pilots around. He started when he was 12 or 13 and has been flying ever since, I think he is like 20-22 now. The guy has been sponsored by various heli manufacturers, and fuel providers. There have been people who have flown for decades and aren’t as good as this guy is.
If you guys want to see some killer flights, just hit up google video and search for F3C
I co sign Heli flyer post,
There is no trick or video editing
This guy is the joe Satriani of the 3D RC heli flight.
I fly one by my own for about 2 years and not even able to do a 1/100th of what this guy is cappable of. it s just like a gift he can handle a remote control heli nearly eyes closed.
Search youtube for RC heli 3D flight you ll see some crazy flying dances…
tommybrude: it doesn’t reverse the rotor direction to “hang”. it’s called a “collective pitch” heli, and the rotor reverses pitch with causes thrust in the opposite direction. the rotor is constantly spinning in the same direction no matter which direction the heli is moving.
sirspamalot, be quiet. I want to take tommy’s $10. But yeah, it’s using CCPM to fly like that. For those who don’t know, the blades can vary their angle. The more angle, the more thrust (rotor speed stays constant). Normal flight pitch causes the air to rush downward which pushes the copter up. Reversing the pitch causes air to go in the opposite direction thus allowing for upside down flight. Do a google image search for ccpm to get an idea of the mechanism.
I’ll take that $10 bet : )
This is no fake, Alan Jr. rules.
The video seems to be showing someone super-human control. “Seems” is the operative word here… Someone explain to me how the CAMERAMAN was able to *instantly* follow the sudden direction changes, time after time after time.
Could they have shot video of an empty parking lot and sky, with the camera swinging around and making sudden direction changes - and then afterwards added CG helicopter and sound to make it appear real. Watch the video again, especially the 2nd half towards the end - and pay close attention to how the camera is changing directions instantaneously with the motion of the RC helicopter. Something’s fishy.
May I remind everyone Helicopters work on a Helix Wing, so it’s impossible to fly upside down for any length of time with the blade spinning, unless it’s spinning the wrong way, which would mean the motor would change directions instantly, but if it could, it would torque itself to death, so something fishy is going on.
morning guys…
the is a revolution on rotor and pitch. this video is real please pls. i am a remote control (rc) helicopter pilot, i know its real. rc heli blades pitch can be changed and programmed into the tranmitter. i can do inverted flight but its not easy, it needs practice. when we fly upright the pitch is positive, push air down and the heli goes up.
when we change the pitch down, the air goes up and and the heli go down, but if inverted then heli goes up…hope you guys understand..
this guy is good because he is gifted and practice a lot.. at least 2 hours daily… just like tiger wood can do magic shots, cause he practice, beckam can kick balls magically cuse he practice…
thanks
You “nay-sayers” are truely retarded. In fact, your observations of “suspicious” camera work or “reverse motor” theories make you even more painfully stupid than you may have been suspected of, before you learned to use your computers!
Before you go and type out your ignorant, uninformed rants of how this can’t be real, I beg you, go do some real investigating. In other words go do a you-tube search of 3D R/C helis and see that your suspicions of reverse motoring, camera trickery weilding pilots really don’t exist. They’re actually people who all share skills and knoweledge of a hobby that you obviously have never been exposed to.
If you still doubt the validity of what you see repeatedly on video, then go to a local R/C Heli meet and see this type of performance from a select few pilots for yourselves. But please don’t claim to make any valid points worth considering, as anything you claim to have knoweldge of is instantly invalidated, the second you bend over and talk out of your asses.
>May I remind everyone Helicopters work on a Helix Wing, so it’s impossible to fly
>upside down for any length of time with the blade spinning, unless it’s spinning
>the wrong way, which would mean the motor would change directions instantly, but
>if it could, it would torque itself to death, so something fishy is going on.
I you don’t know anything about rc heli, don’t talk about it to public. You’re embarassing yourself. As a start, may I suggest you buy 1 rc heli of 450 size, and don’t forget to learn inverted hovering with it when you got one.
obviously who ever says its bull shit have never seen model RC helis fly. Changing the pitch of the blade alones lets you fly inverted. We have 20,000 threads on this at rcgroups.com:
http://www.rcgroups.com/electric-heli-talk-17/
Does the camera necessarily need to be hand held and hand pointed? What if the camera is tripod mounted and has a motorized tracker to follow the copter? Could it be following some “bug” on the copter? Maybe the cameraman has to only work the zoom?
I’ve seen suvey equipment follow a “bug”, but not nearly as fast as this.
Either way, it’s a heck of a video. Holy Mackeral!
3D RC chopper blades are symmetrical, not helixed. This allows them to perform inverted flight.
That is the real think, you better believe, if you would like to know more check out my personal blog to se and read about flying an RC Helicopter. http://blog.rcheli.dk