Older Walkera heli questions
10-25-2013, 09:58 PM
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Older Walkera heli questions
Heya pilots, been awhile since I last posted...mostly just lurking and reading. I got a bit bored and thought about posting some pics of a Walkera 400 no.039 that I bought back in 2004. Here is the story about that...be kind...lol
I was off work due to injury and was so depressed that I had nothing to do so I started surfing the net. I came across an ad featuring an RTF rc heli and thought, hey, I can do this. Now, I had no knowledge of rc helis whatsoever, but was
taken in by the term RTF...hmmmm
Anyways, got the heli from China (can't remember the store name) in about 3 weeks and was super excited. There it was, the heli, battery, charger and tx. All set to go according to the box....RTF. So I set about charging the battery and reading the limited
users manual. Didn't understand most of it but was still confident the RTF meant exactly what it said.
Ok, battery charged and I want to see what it does so I grab a huge pipe-wrench and carefully lay it across the skids to keep it anchored. Now remember, I still know nothing about helis, rc flight or TRANSMITTERS....Luckily, I did not touch any switches on the tx and it just spooled up when I pushed on the throttle. The power was quite intimidating and I swore it was going to lift off even with the weight of the wrench so I powered back down and packed it up to take over to my buds place.
So far I have been lucky considering I know not what I am doing....lmao
At my buds place, I do the same thing....weighing it down with something heavy and letting her rip to show him the power of the thing.....Somehow, in the middle of about 3/4 power, I accidentally hit the stunt mode switch and all hell broke loose. Papers on his coffee table went flying, the noise was incredible, and I was freaking out...good thing it was tied down.....I clicked the switch back and shut her down right away. We had a good laugh, without really realizing the danger and safety issues and took it out to the backyard to try some more. Now I want to try and fly it or at least get a hover going. My friend thinks I know what I am doing, sorta, and I think there will be no problems because of the...yep....RTF!!
Alrighty then, I spool it up (again, I know nothing of the tx....., stunt mode, idle up, neg pitch....none of it) I get it up to about 4 feet and only 6 -7 seconds in, the bird starts to roll to the right....I try to compensate by left stick but nothing....it is still rolling right and now I panic and all I can think of is power down. Too late, the rotors hit the ground first and the impact was violent!!! No body got hit by anything and the blades stayed intact but wow, too close for comfort. I did not know what happened or why I could not control it but I had enough of this dangerous piece of equipment and it stayed on the shelf until last year (8 years lol). That is when I got the bug again about rc helis and decided to research first this time.
It didn't take long for me to see that I was extremely lucky to not have injured myself or my friend when I was messing around stupidly with that helicopter. Anyhow, I read for months before joining here and got some help from my brother in law. Started over but this time, with a sim then the mcpx. I have been practicing on and off again for the past year and have learned a lot about this hobby. I have a few other bigger helis (KDS 450, HK 500GT) waiting in the bushes for when I am confident enough to fly them and I also have an MQX and a couple of planes but back to the main reason of this post....the Walkera 400.
I would like to know if it is worth it to try and find/fabricate parts to get it going again? Or, is it even worth keeping it at all....should I keep the electronics? Would it be something that someone out there might want to have because it is an older heli? (I know it's not vintage but I don't think Walkera even makes them this big anymore)(updated 10/26/2013: My bad...I did not know they made 400s and 450s. Guess I should have checked first)? Thoughts and ideas appreciated..thanks....here are some pics... KRASH
I was off work due to injury and was so depressed that I had nothing to do so I started surfing the net. I came across an ad featuring an RTF rc heli and thought, hey, I can do this. Now, I had no knowledge of rc helis whatsoever, but was
taken in by the term RTF...hmmmm
Anyways, got the heli from China (can't remember the store name) in about 3 weeks and was super excited. There it was, the heli, battery, charger and tx. All set to go according to the box....RTF. So I set about charging the battery and reading the limited
users manual. Didn't understand most of it but was still confident the RTF meant exactly what it said.
Ok, battery charged and I want to see what it does so I grab a huge pipe-wrench and carefully lay it across the skids to keep it anchored. Now remember, I still know nothing about helis, rc flight or TRANSMITTERS....Luckily, I did not touch any switches on the tx and it just spooled up when I pushed on the throttle. The power was quite intimidating and I swore it was going to lift off even with the weight of the wrench so I powered back down and packed it up to take over to my buds place.
So far I have been lucky considering I know not what I am doing....lmao
At my buds place, I do the same thing....weighing it down with something heavy and letting her rip to show him the power of the thing.....Somehow, in the middle of about 3/4 power, I accidentally hit the stunt mode switch and all hell broke loose. Papers on his coffee table went flying, the noise was incredible, and I was freaking out...good thing it was tied down.....I clicked the switch back and shut her down right away. We had a good laugh, without really realizing the danger and safety issues and took it out to the backyard to try some more. Now I want to try and fly it or at least get a hover going. My friend thinks I know what I am doing, sorta, and I think there will be no problems because of the...yep....RTF!!
Alrighty then, I spool it up (again, I know nothing of the tx....., stunt mode, idle up, neg pitch....none of it) I get it up to about 4 feet and only 6 -7 seconds in, the bird starts to roll to the right....I try to compensate by left stick but nothing....it is still rolling right and now I panic and all I can think of is power down. Too late, the rotors hit the ground first and the impact was violent!!! No body got hit by anything and the blades stayed intact but wow, too close for comfort. I did not know what happened or why I could not control it but I had enough of this dangerous piece of equipment and it stayed on the shelf until last year (8 years lol). That is when I got the bug again about rc helis and decided to research first this time.
It didn't take long for me to see that I was extremely lucky to not have injured myself or my friend when I was messing around stupidly with that helicopter. Anyhow, I read for months before joining here and got some help from my brother in law. Started over but this time, with a sim then the mcpx. I have been practicing on and off again for the past year and have learned a lot about this hobby. I have a few other bigger helis (KDS 450, HK 500GT) waiting in the bushes for when I am confident enough to fly them and I also have an MQX and a couple of planes but back to the main reason of this post....the Walkera 400.
I would like to know if it is worth it to try and find/fabricate parts to get it going again? Or, is it even worth keeping it at all....should I keep the electronics? Would it be something that someone out there might want to have because it is an older heli? (I know it's not vintage but I don't think Walkera even makes them this big anymore)(updated 10/26/2013: My bad...I did not know they made 400s and 450s. Guess I should have checked first)? Thoughts and ideas appreciated..thanks....here are some pics... KRASH
Last edited by KRASHKOPTER; 10-26-2013 at 12:22 PM.
05-22-2014, 06:49 AM
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Did you get sorted - I just picked up a Walkera 039 and a lot of spares but not going to use it - open to offers? Can send photos if necessary and a list of parts?
06-06-2014, 03:03 AM
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I have hours and hours of working on W36s and i still have three of them and a bunch of parts. I couldn't remember the difference between it and the 39 until I looked at your pictures and I still don't know how many of the parts interchange.
