Wow...ok


Heli bobbing up and down.
First, dont think that you can set the heli at a certain altitude and leave it there. It will require constant throttle changes to maintain altitude.
If the heli is rapidly jumping up or down, the first place to check is the well-documented "sticky collective". There is an easy fix to this at the beginning of this thread. Other things that can cause this are a bent spindle, radio interference, wind currents(like from a fan or floor vent), thermals, etc.

Lipo's on the Blade.
A fully charged 3cell 1250mah lipo should fly the blade for close to 20min on a single charge...even with the CF blades.
If you are flying with symmetrical blades (either wooden or CF), once the battery reaches about 10V you will barely have enough power to get airborne. Recharge the battery. 9.4V is too low to fly the blade on the symmetrical blades, and running your lipo that low can damage it. Never run it lower than 3.4V per cell....and I wouldnt recommend getting anywhere close to that.

I disagree with LOstSOul. I think the carbon fiber blades are an excellent addition...even if your just flying around. But you should be at the point where you aren't running into everything before you try them. The carbon fiber blades are $34 bucks. If you run into something, most likely the CF blades will survive all but the worst hits, but you will most likely break head parts. Head parts are still cheaper than blades. For instance a new main hub is about $6 bucks. Even for the low cost woodies...replaceing a set of blades is $12-17 bucks. Me personally, Id rather bust the cheap head parts than a set of expensive blades. Usually what I break is a ball link off of the Main Head Frame "A" or "B".....a part that I can replace for about 4 bucks....much cheaper than a new set of the woodie blades. If you prefer the woodies, than by all means...use what ya like. The other thing I like about the CF blades, is they come in the package straight and fairly balanced. I went through three packages at the hobby store, of woodies before I found a set that had both blades straight. Which makes me wonder if some of the vibration problems that have been reported are a result of flying on warped blades, not to mention it also makes tracking almost impossible.