If you’re already a novice RC enthusiast who just started getting their hands on the world of RC helicopters or planning to start their journey soon, a question might pop up in your head, are RC helicopters quiet?
RC helicopters can be silent, but not all of them. There are different types of RC helicopters with a different set of mechanisms, specifications, and much more. Electric helicopters are your go-to option for silent RC helicopters if you’re looking for a stock noiseless RC chopper experience!
This however needs a lot more in-depth discussion based on how newcomers who have recently immersed into the RC world may feel about all this. Hence, further down below I’ll be discussing the science and reasoning behind how RC helicopters can be quiet.
Can RC Helicopters Be Silent?
As stated above, yes they can, but there are exceptions. Hence, allow me to elaborate further by discussing which exact types of RC choppers are the ones for people if they don’t want their remote pilot buddies to be noisy.
To not overwhelm newcomers into the RC chopper world, I’ll keep things simple.
The earliest and most conventional implementation of full-fledged RC Helicopters was without a doubt the fuel-powered remote helicopters. As their name suggests, they have an engine and are made functional by the internal combustion of fuels such as gas, nitro, methanol, and petrol.
Turbine engines, glow-fuel, and gas-powered are some of the types that exist within the fuel-powered category of the RC classifications and have features of their own.
However, in the context of this article, so far, I’ll simplify them as RC helicopter categories that will annoy your neighbour and bring in complaints later on in the day if you ever decide to give them a fly around in your neighbourhood.
These sorts of RC helicopters not only are expensive and are more sophisticated using a much more realistic engine or mechanism but they are not within the following agenda of RC helicopters that can be quiet.
The type of RC that we all should be looking for is Electric as they are the best options among all the other types of RC helicopters available if noise is your main concern and silence is your priority.
If you live in a place with strict sound restriction laws or suffer from cranky neighbours, the electrically powered RC helicopters are where it’s at.
Whether it be indoors or outdoors no one will suspect a thing if you fly these bad boys around up above the open sky.
Well, that pretty much answers my main concern about this topic, yes, RC helicopters can be silent primarily when it comes to electric powered ones. This is the case that I’m going to discuss in the section down below.
However, there’s a bit more to that than Electric RC choppers being the ONLY silent hoodlums in the gang. Some RC helicopters can be made silent or there are other variations as well.
Sometimes there can be few tweaks or modifications with tail blades, rotors, and engine alignment to further amplify the reduction of noise within Electric or Fuel-powered RC helicopters.
Changing of gears, varying the sizes of rotor blades, or adjusting speed controllers all are involved just in accordance to reduce the noise of any sort of RC helicopters, fuel-powered ones included.
However, they are still not even close to how silent electric RC choppers can be.
Modifications of parts and tweaking of flight settings are still not close to how silent a stock Electric RC helicopter can be compared to a fuel-powered one.
The main reasoning lies within its core mechanism and functionalism of its engine and power system.
Some battery-operated toy RC helicopters or mini indoor choppers are also available that are silent.
I’ve excluded them from here as they don’t lie within the spectrum of RC helicopter enthusiasts who take their hobby a little bit larger scale.
For this, Electric powered RC helicopters are considered the only viable options as they are built-in stealth machines that can also be as good in performance as the mainstream ones.
Though I’ve taken the liberty to mention how nonelectric RC choppers sound pollution can be dampened, I still need to assure you that no number of tweaks nor modifications can be outdone compared to what electric RC helicopters can do in terms of maintaining low sound pollution naturally.
Science Behind the Silence of Electric RC Helicopters
Let’s talk science, how are electric RC helicopters able to stay so silent and sneak past through your neighbour’s spider senses?
Well, in easy words, the science is similar to how Electric powered cars from the famous automobile company Tesla are made to sound so silent.
The core reason behind is because they are powered by an engine that is entirely dependent on electricity and battery instead of fuels, combustion mechanisms. The job that’s done by gas hungry tanks is replaced by batteries powered by electricity.
Let’s dig deeper into the more explicit science of electric-powered RC helicopters now.
Unlike their fuel-powered counterparts, Electric RC helicopters consist of a super-high-speed motor that has no brushes and has lithium-ion battery packs with the support of electronic speed controllers.
The main takeaway of electric RC helicopters is their ability to retain complete silence, they make even less noise than a mosquito lurking around your ears.
Related post: Are RC Helicopters Considered As Drones?
The Brushless motor system allows for a noiseless flight experience as they are free from vibration or emission of sound.
On the other hand, the rotor blades of electric-powered RC choppers usually have a lower RPM which includes lesser noise overall during high-speed thrusting in air.
Even when there’s high air resistance or rotor changes, the noise remains fairly low.
This greatly reduces the blade vortex interaction of rotor blades which accounts for most of the noise that is accumulated from conventional gas-powered RC helicopters.
These are all built-in changes that come with any stock electric powered RC helicopters.
Why Silent RC Helicopters are Preferred?
The most obvious reason is to avoid noise complaints, second is how distracting the noise can be at times even to a flyer’s ear unless they are used to it.
Even if RC helicopters are smaller and less powerful than actual helicopters, the noise they make can still be ear-ringing and straight-up unsavoury.
This is why in general quieter natural counterparts like Electric RC helicopters are favored by people who might themselves be a fan of silence or don’t want to contribute to noise pollution when flying to stay out of trouble.
Many countries of strict obstructions towards sound pollution, and in many countries, RC or hobby equipment or any sound causing electronics are not allowed to be used if they bring disorder and discomfort to people around you, this may end up in charges or fines etc.
On top of silent helicopters such as Electric Remote, controlled ones are technically a very good alternative to the whole immersive RC helicopter field.
Even if you may be a huge RC fan and think maybe you are missing out on the advantages of fuel-powered RC helicopters, then you should know that you aren’t.
Electric remote-controlled helicopters are popular not just because of their sound reduction but various other advantages that come with them as well.
They can be used indoors as they do not release any emissions of fumes nor are they any much harder to control.
They will still give you the same enjoyment as the noisier counterparts in terms of the RC helicopter experience.
Although their stock prices are higher, they have low maintenance costs and are easier to assemble, and last just long enough for you to appreciate their existence in terms of performance and silence.
Conclusion
So, are RC helicopters quiet? Some are and some are not.
It all depends on the design of the copter itself. So, if you’re looking forward to getting yourself any noise-friendly RC chopper, then there shouldn’t be the presence of any doubt on which type of RC helicopter you should get after reading this article.
