1) Looks like andy will try and get that fixed for you.. If you are impatient and handy with a soldering iron. A LOW wattage iron .. don't try this with grandpa's weller. But you ar the best judge of your fear. Yea .. a wire of the same gauge and length will work. Ill also remind you that this radio is a 2.4ghz and is designed to deal with some interference. Honestly it will be just fine. waiting for andy to get you a replacement. Even more so if your just hovering around close.

2) .. I have no idea about the radio programing .. As I stated above I put in a spektrum .. I am not saying anything bad about it .. in fact I have heard some very good things about it .. Just that I pulled it in so I could use my dx7.

I am not sure I understand the second part of your question. If you are asking how to program the radio at the field. You do need some sort of external computer. Like a laptop .. perhaps a newer smart phone with a true serial port.. PDA such as a palm pilot..
Starting at around page 6 on this thread
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...=967207&page=6
They reverse analyzed the serial port data and wrote new programing software. Thats the same family of radio as the one from the genesis so everything works the same.

After re-reading that second part of your question .. Were you trying to say that you think the sub-trims were too high and that the mechanical setup was done sloppy ??

If that is what you meant .. Yes I agree .. they should have been able to set the heli up with much lower subtrims.
The 80 on chan 6 in the arf is expected due to the 120deg swash .. elevator servo has to move more.
Endpoints at 120 .. I dunno .. I guess someone wanted to see the heli spin very fast... Maybe xheli wants to be know as the shop with the fastest tails ..

3) Well of course andy is going to say xheli .. They put food on his table. I have to tell you the genesis is ALMOST 100% trex compatible. Parts that I know are not are as follows ...

Tail main pully ( silvery thing on top of the main gear ) Some have also called it the one way holder because thats where the one way bearing is ..
Tail belt. With the drive directly on the main gear the belt size isnt the same.
Main shaft. Slightly longer then the trex and no simple mod ( That I know of ) has been found to use a trex shaft.

Everything else can be repaired with align parts from your lhs if need be. But thats expensive. I tend to bunch my orders up if I order online. So as to pay the least shipping per item. xheli does usually have good prices and a very nice flat rate shipping of like 5 bucks or something for whatever parts you order. .. And they are the sole source ( that I know of ) for the parts mentioned above. And yes .. there are times when xheli has gone out of stock on them. I have been lucky and never needed a part while they have been out of stock .. but that may be due to my bulkish type ordering.

4) Well Andy does have a point. I wouldn't really start to worry about updating anything yet. Crash what you got first :-)

But .. I would also recommend taking note of any good sales for the following items. Watch the prices and if you see really good sales .. get em .. then after your next crash try em out ..

Hitech HS-55 or 65's .. the 55's are a direct fit .. the 65s need just a touch of work with a file or a steady hand with a dremel... Great little servos for the cyclic. The 65s are a bit stronger and faster .. but you most likely wouldn't notice. I would advise against the metal gear versions while still crashing ( learning ) and just buying a bunch of gears. Metal gears will just destroy the servo or bend the head .. Plastic gears snap and break and let the head suffer less damage. Gear sets can be found for $1.

For the tail .. I have a futuba s9257 with the stock gyro ..

That sucks that you have no one local ..

check out helifreak

http://www.helifreak.com/index.php

They are another forum I read sometimes .. They have a GREAT beginner section with great videos.

once you get the heli all set up .. A great site for learning is RADDS

http://www.dream-models.com/eco/flying-index.html


if it is going to be possible for you to learn by yourself with this heli .. you will need both of these sites.


Good luck and have fun.