J-Cube

Bad news. My mom said I can't get it because I can't fly inside. I don't think I can get it because it doesn't seem to fly well outside and I don't want to have to search for gyms and other places to fly it. What I want is a helicopter that can be flown outside with minimal learning/experience. Are other fixed pitch helicopters like that? I should probably start another forum and find out.

Richster

Tail can be fixed easily with a bit of epoxy, sometimes more than once! Rotor blades (as with all helis) easy to damage, but cheap and easy to change. Tell-tale signs of cracks are excessive vibration in the model. I'm getting better with mine - it's dead easy to fly but things DO happen particularly indoors, and likewise mine should be dead. She's a tough little blighter.

BTW mine is affectionately known as 'Little Nellie' (the heli, before anyone comments...)

Richster

phillipmorris

J-Cube

I fly the Lama 3 alot outside, requires dead calm, but will have this condition often in early AM and Early Evenings, currently it is brisk outside, managed flight(s) yesterday with breezes but kept close to the ground and area near house blocking breezes etc...Don't suggest ever flying the Lama 3 HIGH outside as a sudden gust can really do a number on it...Also a garage is a strong possibility but abit confined yet for me in height, and slightly small, when your more efficient flyer a garage could work rather well....

phillipmorris

Finally managed to pop a blade on the Lama 3, took awhile to figure the removal, tnx again Choppersrule, is a hex screw, 88 cent hex set using smallest and came right off, fortunantely the Lama came with 4 extra Blades, two upper and two lower.

Was steering the Lama around rather well, couldn't resist trying to land it on top of the car, slight breeze prevented the landing, blades rat-a-tatted the side window but kept flying, decided to try it another day...

Watch the power on these, even the CX, when more throttle is needed, safer to land and re-charge, Lama took a drop but was under 4 foot so no damage...always something....WARREN .<>..

phillipmorris

Goes inot Large Circle Pattern, Yaw is Ok..

Suddenly the Lama 3 is acting up, the Yaw is solid it stays pointed away from me, but it goes into an unstable large circle pattern, not sure if a pot adjustment would help or something else is going on...

moonsnake

Hi There,

assuming you have not had a crash and damaged the electronics, you can try to adjust the pot, do it bit by bit but disconnect the battery before each adjustment.

There is a smaller pot, at the bottom but you'll need to make a little hole in the plastic casing to get at that one.

Hope this helps a bit

phillipmorris

Moonsnake,

Thanks for the info, still working on this, blades replaced and may need adjustments also... Warren..<>..

Bruser

Hi, Has anyone tried changing the TX from Mode 1 (throttle on the right) to mode 2 (throttle on the left)? Many thanks from NZ. Cheers

Aussie_Toyman

Been flying my Lama v3 for about 3 weeks now, its great fun. I came from electric planes, picked up the ESky Tx and flew straight off the bat.

I just unscrewed the two 'sticks' and swapped them over, was very easy. The hard part was unsoldering the plugs to swap the 'go sideways' with 'turn left/right', sorry I don't know the correct terms.

redge76

Hi,
I received my lama yesterday and:
- Everybody already said that but it is really EASY to fly. I have some experience with RC planes but I never touched an heli. I could fly it after 10 minutes.

- It is slowww. I flew it outside with a very "mild" and stable wind. My worst problem was to fly against the wind. It is too slow. Has my model an issue or is it normal. With the stick fully forward, I can't hardly go faster than 3 or 4 mph. so with a wind of 3 mph, it's hard to do something.

- It is almost too stable. I was flying quite high 30 or 40 feet and a gust put it into a dive that I could not recover. It was very stable in the dive :-( ... I managed to recover a bit but I hit the ground (concrete) quite fast. Nose first. It thought is would be completely broken but, it looks like the canopy absorbed the shock. It deformed ... and that’s all ... :-) The blades are not even damaged because I could cut the power some feet before crashing.... It's amazing.

So my questions are:
- Is it possible to increase the speed by changing the hole of the servo where the bell links are connected?
- Is it possible to make it more responsive by shortening or reducing the weight of the stabilizer bars? I already saw that some people did this. But I don't know what is the best and if it really changed something.

bye
redge

Richster

I don't see any reason why that shouldn't work. I fly mine on my Futaba RC plane trasnmitter - at first I thought the Lama was REALLY unresponsive, then realised that I was flying on about 50% rates, and as you rightly say at 100% it is fairly docile still. Give it a go...

Couldn't tell you much about the stabiliser bar, except the left/right cyclic is fairly eventless on mine and generally I just steer it around using the tail.

Richster

johnmcg

Help. I crashed my Lama 3 (I'm a newbie) and I forgot to turned the throttle controller down, while the blades were not able to move. After that the top rotor refuses to work. I thought I had burnt out the motor because it was trying to rotate but coudln't - however, by swapping the two motor connections on the 4in1 controller I find that the top rotor still operates, so it seems to be the 4in1 controller that seems to have a problem. Is this likely? Anyone have any ideas for further trouble shooting. At US$40+ for a new receiver it will be an expensive crash (after only two attempts from new!!). Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers...

John

Richster

Yep I would say a new controller is in order from what you've written. I suspect the current has caused something to decease on the board, which is why when you swap the connectors it works, i.e. the other motor channel is OK.

If a crash looks unavoidable, first step is to cut the throttle always, but you know that now. Can be hard when there's lots going on...

Given the cost you might even want to consider a 2nd model since that would give you a nearly full set of spares?

Cheers - Richster

moonsnake

Hi there,

I have not done it with an Esky but I have with a Walkera 4 it was very easy, but if you try it, take a few pics of it if you can before you start, that way you will have a reference point to work from should things go wrong.
Have fun

Joe

J-Cube

I'm back...and I just wanted to ask some more people; how has your experiences with the Lama been so far? I want to know what electronics people fry, what they brake most, etc. I think I can convince my parents to move the cars around so I can use the garage to fly in.

I need good news to get this heli!

Does anyone think I should get the Lama from [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=202757]this guy[/link] or [link=http://www.hobby-lobby.com/cocolama.htm]Hobby Lobby[/link]. Thanks.

Lamarama

Hi, I am brand spanking new to this, having looked up everything about r/c Helicopters and as a complete beginner, I have decided on the Esky Lama v3, as most of the write ups give this machine a thumbs up as a good beginners choice for quality, reliability, and above all easy to fly, (HASN'T ARRIVED YET) so can anyone give me some advise please on a number of questions, such as, TRIM, is this adjusted on the controller or the actual helicopter as someone mentioned adjusting a pot ? is this on the helicopter, and is adjustment always needed, also charging the battery, does it switch off when fully charged, (is there any danger of overcharging) finally after looking at a great selection of models, I came upon a WALKERA RLS 4 this looks identical is it the same machine under a different name. one more thing, where does the antenna go does it need to be fully unwound or can you tuck it into the cockpit. Thanks

J-Cube

From what I hear, Walkeras are really crappy helis. To trim a heli; you fly it in the air, hover then land. Anything you had to hold just to keep the heli in a hover is what you trim. You push the little nob on the Tx (transmitter) to counteract any rogue movements that the default heli exhibits. if you can hover in one spot, facing one way with very little input from yourself (other than throttle), then you know you've trimmed it. Sometimes, like after a crash, you may need to re-trim things slightly. The Lama V3 doesn't have a pot on it (at least, not in any visible spot). It does however have a gain. This controls the sensitivity of the piezo electric gyro in the 4 in 1. Don't touch it unless your yaw/rudder is really screwy. With the antenna, you really don't need to unravel it but it should be secured outside of the canopy. You don't need to worry about the included charger and Lipo battery. The charger will automatically stop charging (but remain on) after it detects a fully charged battery. It only takes an hour and a half to charge it. Just use common sense (ex.: don't charge it on a windowsill, on the ground, on a sofa, etc.).

It sounds like you're really new to this, so I'll also tell you how to hover.
To hover:
Bring the throttle up until the heli seems like it wants to leave the ground. (This occurs just before you start skidding all over the floor. Don't get the two confused!)
Now, very quickly increase the throttle so you get off the ground. Don't leap off the ground! Just get up fast and far enough so you avoid suffering from ground effect.
Now, use your rudder, aileon and elevator to control the heli.
Once you have control, you can decrease the throttle at anytime to land. You can decrease it as slowly as you want for landings. just don't go skidding across the ground.

Hope I helped!

Lamarama

Thank's j cube, yes you are right I am brand new to this, heli arreived this morning, quick run through with the manual, goes on about blade judder, and adjust this and adjust that, blimey, I only want to have some fun, do I need to take this manual word for word or what, and how about the battery, been trying to fit this for about an hour which way does it go, just seems to be to big, and as for the battery holder seems a bit flimsy when you have to remove it to charge everytime, can you leave it on, or will it get to hot, anyway back to this darn battery again, by the time I get it in, it'll need charging again.[&o]

xls

Got Mine 2 weeks now.

Got the pot trimmed nice, works great with full battery.

Previously broke the 2 tail fins, there was enough of them to fit back in the holes and glue back to each other. ( Had to drill out 1 hole)

Hovers are getting longer flying around inside.

Got most of my antena around the left skid then snaked through the tail truss.

Lamarama

Hi xls first day of flying today, well If you can call getting off the ground and going everywhere you dom
nt want to go flying, thats it I can get off the ground and do hops but cannot control where I hop to yet, and what are those four switches at the bottom right on the transmitter, out of the box the ferst two were up next two were down, so put the first two down so they are all at the bottom in a row now, hope this is right, what pot did you have to adjust, was it the gain on the heli

xls

I only had 1 POT on the 4in1.

I have no switches on my Transmitter, As I thought it was odd, as I have seen other pictures with them.

I would leave them as original settings.

J-Cube

First of all that "POT" you referred to is the gain. The tx doesn't have any switches on it. Switches are used only on 6 Ch. or higher txs. Don't touch those four switches that you have though! Upload a picture of your tx. For some strange reason, I think you may have a tx that belongs with a different model heli.

Pictures please! I'll upload what mine looks like this weekend.

Lamarama

Hi out there, I think I need some help, having just tried out my very first flight with my new heli, just capable of a few hops and being totally new to this hobby, and as you all now the actual manual is totally rubbish, can anyone tell me (what are the two horizontal black dials on the controller, and the two vertical black dials for) I know the left joystick is for throttle (lift) and to always have it right down when turning on heli, and the right joystick is to alter pitch etc, could you also tell me what are the four switches at the bottom right of the controller are for, mine came with the two first switches up and the other two down, but it did'nt feel right, so I put all four switches to the bottom (is this right) also some people seem to be adjusting the 4 in 1 for some reason eg pitch gain or whatever, surely this is factory set, do all heli's need to be adjusted or is it just a few, please forgive me for these qustions which are no doubt obvious to most of you, but as I said I am a complete beginner to this and would welcome any help, thank's [&o]

mykl88

Beginner here. I'm on my third set of parts for just about everything.

I've broken things mainly after trying to shut it down. I click the controller to off and then the helicopter decides to go full throttle on its own.

Anyone know why this is happening? thanks!

kregan

You need to unplug the battery BEFORE you turn off the radio.

Once the controller looses radio signal it my go to full
or part throttle.