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 Interceptor
400 Collective pitch training helicopter
Click the images below to find out just how little it costs for me
to build you a correctly built
and flight tested Interceptor 400, setup especially to suit
your level of expertise.
When these are delivered to you they are
ready to fly immediately - straight out of the box...
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DEAL 3
Interceptor 400
(without Alien Command)
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DEAL 4
Interceptor 400 (with
Alien Command fitted)
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Click HERE,
or the image on the left to find out about ALL the
different offers I have
available for Interceptor 400's
from basic kits to full RTF
and everything in between.
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The Interceptor 400 is another but lesser well known radio
controlled helicopter that is available today for new potential
pilots who want to learn to fly an RC helicopter.
You can buy the Interceptor 400 in "Assembled" form
(Work still required to complete the helicopter) for around £150, and this
includes everything you need to be able to fly it except the radio
equipment, or for £275 you can have the very good Spektrum
DX6i radio included.
Therefore, as you can see that at the price, it is a fairly
low cost helicopter, comparing well with the Belt CP which
admittedly comes
with a (not very good at all) radio at a cost of £140, but the Interceptor 400 is a
better choice for potential helicopter pilots due to its simplicity
of design, ease of repair and cheapness of spare parts.
One of the major points in it's favour is the ability to
add what is called Alien Command, which is basically an auto pilot
that will recover your helicopter to a steady hover if you simply
let the cyclic stick go altogether. This can of course prevent
a large number of crashes, assuming you have enough height or the
helicopter to recover. The additional cost of the Alien
Command Auto Pilot for the Interceptor 400 is only £60.
What this means is that if you total it all up you can have
an Interceptor 400 with Alien command and a Spektrum DX6i radio
system for an all in price of under £350.
It does have both its good and it's down sides however :
THE GOOD POINTS
Spare parts are relatively cheap and easily obtained via
the Internet, and it it is not beyond the ability of most people to
be able repair them when they crash. However, if you have the
alien Command system, you should not crash anything like as much.
There is a huge amount of information and help available via
helicopter forums on the Internet where you can ask questions and
get good answers almost immediately.
This helicopter is definitely not built **down** to a
price. As a result, the quality in most areas is pretty good,
and without any fear of contradiction, if you choose to go with the
optional Spektrum DX6i radio then you will have a high quality radio
system that is well known to be probably one of the most popular
radios in use to day for RC helicopters. Another plus point is that
this radio can be used to fly more than one helicopter, and in fact,
it can store the setups for up to 10 different helicopters.
When you also add in the benefits of using the Alien
Command auto pilot, the cost/value ratio becomes very attractive.
The Interceptor is based very closely on the famous Align
Trex 450 helicopter, apart from using a 90 degree swash plate, which
provide more accurate control, so a large number of the parts are
interchangeable with the same Align parts.
You will need other stuff as well. The main things will be
a Pitch gauge (~£10), a set of hex keys of hex drivers (~£6), a
pair of 5.5mm box spanners to allow you to replace the feathering
shaft when necessary (~£7), and of course, some spare parts such as
rotor blades, main shafts and feathering shafts, and potentially
many other small parts.
THE BAD POINTS
Although the kits are supplied labelled as ARTF, this is a
total misnomer. All the parts
necessary to make the helicopter fly are provided in the box.
BUT YOU STILL HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO ON IT
THAT WILL END IN DISASTER ALMOST
CERTAINLY
The optional Spektrum radio system has fully configurable
settings for almost anything you might ever want to change,
including Exponential control that allows you to easily and quickly
"dumb" the controls down to make learning to hover easier.
The DOWN side of this is that it is a complex piece of equipment,
and it is not the easiest thing in the world to understand and to
configure correctly. That however would not put me off going
for the DX6i as a helicopter radio system
FLYING THE INTERCEPTOR 400
The Interceptor 400 is a very nice and stable platform for
new pilots to learn to fly with when setup correctly for that type
of flying. It's 90 degrees swash plate
arrangement gives very precise control (most small helicopters use a
120 degree system) Equally, it can be setup to be a totally
competent full 3D machine that can compete with most other
helicopters out there.
All RC helicopters, and indeed full size helicopters, do
some strange things just after lift off, and the Interceptor 400 is no
exception, as it will always A) try to spin to the left due to
the force of the rotors spinning clockwise. B) Once off the
ground it will try to go left quite rapidly, and C) it will come
back towards you, which can be very disconcerting.
Experienced pilots know about these effect (caused by a
thing called ground effect) and automatically apply cyclic and
rudder inputs on the transmitter to counter these movements, but a
new pilot will not do so.
Once the helicopter is flying out of ground effect (>=
4feet) the leftward and backward movements tend to lessen quite a
bit, so flying it when above ground effect is a little easier.
If you opt for the Alien Command autopilot
system, then learning to
hover and land will be a much much easier task, as the auto pilot will
help to keep the helicopter level for you, leaving you to simply keep it in
position and maintain the altitude you want. It also allows
landing to be made in gusty conditions very much more easily.
Because the Interceptor 400 uses a 90 degree swash plate
with mechanical swash plate mixing, it only need the cheaper
standard Alien Command system, not the advanced version that is
needed for 120 degree swash systems.
CONCLUSIONS
The Interceptor 400 is a very competitively priced
helicopter when compared to the Belt CP, as it's aluminium frame and
additional aluminium (CNC) parts make it a far better helicopter
overall. You also do not have to pay for a radio system (such
as the Esky system) that will certainly need replacing sooner rather
than later, as the Interceptor 400 does not come with a radio system
as a part of the price, so you can select the one of your choice.
Like most standard helicopters, you can upgrade the
Interceptor 400 by fitting Align and CopterX head and tail
assemblies, but the stock head and tail on the Interceptor 400 are
perfectly good.
Another big plus with the Interceptor 400
is that you can easily fit the Alien Command auto pilot system that
can help you tremendously while you are learning to fly.
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