ORIGINAL: stevennh
In regards to the trainer/no-trainer debate...
The Blade has proven to be a great trainer for me. I had only flown three channel electric planes before the Blade and am now flying circles and can hover with no problems. It has taken my about a month and I have gone through some parts, but they have been reasonably priced. My broken part count has gone way down in the last two weeks (only one set of blades)! I mean for $220.00 you can run the thing into a brick wall and you can't be out more than that. Try that with a high end electric or gas. I think the manufacturer has done a great job with this package.
I do wish the blades could handle a bit more contact. I picked up the CF blades hoping to get more life out of them, but it seems that with the NiMh setup, they just don't work well. I think they are just too heavy with the stock setup. I used them for quite a while and was unable to destroy them, but I guess you need the upgrade kit to get them spinning fast enough for stabilty. My flight times were way lower once I got stable in a hover with the CF blades vs. the balsa ones. I am on my fourth set of balsa blades now.
Steve
Steve -
The Carbon Fiber blades have a symmetrical airfoil just like the wooden blades included with the Aerobatic Enhancement Kit (EFLH1168). Symmetrical blades (CF or wood) can only be flown using the main motor with 9T pinion and 3S LiPo packs (with heat sinks on both the main and tail motors).
The stock setup can only be flown with flat bottom blades...this set up has been optimaly performance matched just as it comes out of the box. Currently, only wooden flat bottom blades are available. As a note, CF blades are not neccessarily more durable - in fact, for those pilots who may still be crashing more often than they like, it is not recommended that you use CF blades.
More info on the recommended set ups and other performance enhancement tips for the BCP can be found here:
http://www.horizonhobby.com/Shop/ByC...rodID=EFLH1100
bdavison -
By the way, thats me flying the BCP in the videos on our site
To be honest, I never crashed the model trying to get it inverted the first few times. I learned to "roll" into inverted on my larger machines many years ago and that is still my prefferred entry for helicopter models of all types and sizes.
That said, a Bell Mixer Upgrade Kit (EFLH1170) will be available soon that allows you to upgrade from hiller-only control to bell-hiller control for MUCH more aggressive cyclic response. I can do stationary flips, forward/backward or rolling, a few feet off the ground with complete confidence flying a BCP that is equipped with an Aerobatic Enahancement Kit, Bell Mixer Upgrade Kit and 3S 860-1320mAh LiPo packs. The difference in cyclic response is incredible when compared to stock - I can honestly say that with the Bell Mixer Upgrade Kit installed the BCP is about as "3D" as it could ever be
The Bell Mixer Upgrade Kit will sell for less than $25 most places and includes a new set of blade grips with 3 ball bearings installed in each (along with 4 total step washers, same as the newly updated EFLH1162B BCP grip design, to eliminate any "sticky collective" caused by the washer/spare arrangement), bell mixer arms, spindle and complete hardware. Because all the components are pre-assembled (all bearings/spacers in grips, mixing arms installed on grips, all installed on the spindle) you can simply remove one of your "old" grips, slide out the other grip and spindle and have the new grips/spindle installed in minutes. No modifications or adjustments are neccessary and you simply snap the included pushrod links onto the 2 open balls on the swash and fly! Head Dampening Shims are also included for "fine tuning" the amount of dampening in the head to just the way you like.
Along with the Bell Mixer Upgrade Kit we will also soon be offering spare "Bell" grips (EFLH1171) and mixing arms (EFLH1172), Head Dampening Shims (EFLH1144), a Carbon Fiber Tail Rotor Blade (EFLH1122C), and Aluminum Swashplate (EFLH1175). These are all new items and will be on display at the iHobby Expo next week. I and Ron Osinski will also be flying these new option parts on our demo/World Micro Helicopter Cup contest models, and the parts will be available in shops in November. Photos of these parts can also be found on HorizonHobby.com next week.
As an additional note - we will also be flying the new Blade CX heli in our booth and during various demos at iHobby next week...even if youre an experienced pilot already, the BCX is truly the ultimate indoor micro heli and is a blast to fly allowing you to sharpen your skills like nose in hovering, backward flight and more when its too cold or windy to fly outside. Not to mention it just looks too darn cool not to have one to sit next to your BCP when theyre not flying