I just bought my first Heli which is the Blade. I made the usual mistake of buying a complete peice of crap off of ebay first. This is my first heli and I almost made it to hover twice. Any suggestions on flying this thing. I cannot seem to maintain a level flight. It always wants to roll and I cannot dial in the rotor and main blade. I can tell already that this thing is super durable and I love the cost of replacement parts, fairly cheap. Am I just going through beginner blues? All the positive referrals have been really encouraging. I look forward to reading more. And hopefully I will have some good stories about maiden flights in the near future. GREAT PRODUCT!!!!!

Hmmm, given its a good deal for the price but, I'd be curious if your previous statement will hold up over time. I do wish you the best of luck though. Perhaps I am wrong but I feel like replacement parts are a right of passage (btw, I am still in the middle of the passage)

Hi guys,

Im back.

Hurricane Dennis was a dud, and didnt really do much. But after the hurricane I got sick. Still getting over the crud.

Well, here's some answers.

If you change the main motor out from the stock 10T pinion to either the 9T or 8T pinion motor, head speed and stability will increase dramatically....but you MUST upgrade to a Lipo battery to make it work. The 8 or 9T pinion'd motor requires alot more juice to perform correctly. Since the higher head speed also makes the tail motor work harder to counteract torque, it gets hotter. Which means you MUST put a heat sink on to keep the temps down. When and if you decide to upgrade, you cant go half *** into it. You have to do it right.

Here's what you need for optimum performance.

Symmetrical blades
Main Motor heatsink
Tail Motor heatsink
9T or 8T pinion'd motor
TP 1320mah 11.1V 3cell lipo

You need ALL of the above to make it work right. If you leave out one single part, you'll have problems.

Now about aftermarket parts. All the Esky Carbooon parts will fit the E-flite Blade. Many times you can find these parts cheaply.

Here is a question that I am sure I would find if I look through the forum, but I am pressed for time right now and will post and come back tomorrow to read. I have the aero kit on my blade and want to go lipo, what is the best lipo to go with and am I correct in assuming I can use a lipo without upgrading all my electronics? Any info would be great. Peace.

HEy guys. I just want to know what you guys use to replace the sheer pin if it breaks. Like something you can get from a hardware store, or right in your home. Cause I don't want to pay 5 bucks for every time my pin breaks.

Is there a auto-rotation Hub that is the same length and same # of teeth for the Blade???

I've used a safety pin to replace the shear pin. I thought about just latching the pin but it was too big. I left the coil part to hold one side and bent over the other. I cut off the rest.
First I tried a needle but was too brittle. It broke every time I tried to bend it over.

is there someone out there that got a local shop close to you !?!?

So you can go to the local shop, purchase one pair of Sym.blades !

And then send them in a letter to me ??
That would have been GREAT !!

If not i have to order from some online-shop !
And when they ship the parts in a normal delivery, it takes 7-14 days + i have to pay ALOT of extras in shipping\handling...


So if any of you heli people out there want to do that for me, please let me know and I will PayPal you the cost



thanx

I used a paper clip for the shear pin. Works, but not very well, it breaks every couple of crases - but very cheap fix. Right now I have a small piece of copper electrical wire about .041 and it hasn't broke yet- also cheap. it was free from a guy who has a harp shop next to my gym gave it to me after I talked to him about using piano wire...

Thrilsekr

The best option Ive found so far for a shear pin is to cut off a section of a T pin. It seems to be about the same alloy as the stock pin.

Just wanted to share this little bit of info.........

I am new to heli's. I have only flown one a couple of times on a sim. I purchased a BLADE CP right here on RCU. It came with the aero upgrade kit.

When it arrived, It sat for a few days. I finally got around to taking it out of the box the other night. First thing I did was fixed the sticky head issue. Second thing I did was installed the AERO kit.......double checked that I had proper control of everything and then checked the blade tracking.

Took it outside to the driveway yesterday morning to play with it. At just above half (still running the stock battery) throttle, it lifted off. I hovered it within a 6 or 7 ft radius of me and at one point I flew a circle with it. Never really got higher than 2 ft off the ground, but for the first flight I didn't feel like I needed to.

I must say I feel pretty good about it. Me being a HELI ROOKY and having a brand new bird, I would say things went really well!

ANY SUGGESTIONS ON OTHER ISSSUES THAT I SHOULD TAKE CARE OF WITH THIS HELI BEFORE SOMETHING HAPPENS? As I mentioned, I already fixed the sticky head issue

Hey guys

I am totally reassured that I made a good purchase here. The blade is my first heli and the hover eludes me. I do not have a sim and am going to be on my third set of blades. Anyone looking to get rid of a G2? I cannot seem to get the tail rotor dialed into the main rotor? What am I doing wrong? Help I just want to fly not skid

Thanks

morgan311: not sure what you mean "Anyone looking to get rid of a G2?" And what you mean by getting the "tail rotor dialed into the main rotor". I'm assuming that your heli is just spinning around in circles. But please elaborate on your problem and I or someone else will probably have a solution for you.

Well I'm finally getting the hang of it now. The training gear has made a HUGE difference in my learning. I've been saved countless times already by it, and now I'm starting to really hover. This morning I went for a "walk" with my heli, having it slowly flying forward ten feet away from me, at about 15 feet off the ground. I'm getting better at controlling it too, at times now I feel like I'm at one with the helicopter, I think of a movement and then it goes, and I have complete control, but sometimes I lose it and start to lose control, although the training gear keep it from tipping and I can usually regain control and land before something really screws up. Goes to show that with enough patience, and attention (not to mention safety!), anybody can learn to fly one of these. I'm looking towards getting a LiPo pack, talking to Robert over at Pure Hobby, who's got some really great service and deals. The last pack I bought from him was a PolyQuest 3S 2100mah pack and a charge guard, and I don't want to go with ThunderPower just yet if I don't have to because I've already got a charge guard for the 3S packs (by the way, if you want to get a LiPo battery and you've got or are getting a LiPo-compatible charger, do NOT skimp on a charge guard [aka PCM guard]! These units will monitor the voltage of each cell during the charging process and will cut power to the battery if any cell fails to fully charge, which keeps your charger from charging all your other cells if they're full and overcharging them, saving you a battery, a charger, and lots of money in potential damage).

So anyways, Robert recommended a 10C 1500mah 3s PolyQuest pack, which will weigh slighty more than the stock pack (+ .3 oz) and will be slightly larger, but should still be fine given the extra voltage output. What I want to know is does anybody know what the current draw is approximately? Should a battery rated at 13 - 15 amps continuous work fine with this heli?

Wombat

I am very jealous. But very nice work in your improving flying skills. What I meant by G2 is the Real flight G2 simulator or should I suck it up and buy the latest version G3? And the other issue of the tail rotor is that I find myself having to give the tail rotor full throttle to even sort of keep it in a straight line in front of me. I have tired to adjust the mix and just can't seem to equal the main and tail rotors to keeep it from spinning. And would it be beneficial to upgrade the battery to a lipo and a new main motor? Woulld I find it easier to fly with a more powerful setup. Sorry about my lack of technical jargon I am still a newbie.

Hmm...what way is the tail rotor going? Is the tail rotor fastened securely on the shaft? Sometimes if you crash or something it might get loose because that little silicon rubber holder shifts, and that will usually cause the tail rotor to barely spin. If you're going to the left too much, keep moving that proportional mixing to the right, and if it's going right then vice versa. Try to get to the point where it keeps going the opposite direction it went before, and then back off a bit and you should have it. If your tail's twiching (jerking left and right and back again, this should be pretty obvious) then tune down the gyro gain switch. There's not much else I can suggest, maybe check the motor plugs to see if they're secure?

Also, can you get off the ground ok? Or does it just stay on the ground and slide around?

darkwombat,

You hit the nail on the head. You have to be "one with the helicopter", you cant think, you just do. The second you start "thinking" ....wham.

You have to be three steps ahead of the heli all the time. If you have to "think" about what to do...its too late. That's why learning to fly heli's is so hard. No forgiveness. Second place is a garbage bag.

Here's some good stuff.

1. If the heli isnt flying right...DONT FLY IT. Land it, and fix it. If you dont...it will crash.
2. If you ignore rule 1, dont cry when it crashes.
3. Set-up is more important than piloting skill. A heli that is set-up right, can make a bad pilot look good and a good pilot look great. Just like a poor set-up can make a good pilot look bad.
4. Piloting skill only gets you so far. You have to learn how it works, and how to maintain it to be truly successful. Even the best pilots in the world cant fly a screwed up helicopter.
5. Just like the old swimming adage "Feet first, first time."..........Tail in, first time.
6. Babies learn to crawl before they walk. We have to learn to hover before we fly.
7.When upside down, down is up and up is down, and lest thee forget the ground come up and smite thee.
8. It took Sikorsky 39 years to get the first helicopter to fly, thank god it doesnt take that long to learn how to fly them.

Hehe nice advice bdavision. I just ordered a ThunderPower 1320mah pack from Pure Hobby and hopefully it will be in by the end of the week. My heli is starting to deteriorate though, the main assembly will probably have to be replaced because the slot where the left skid plugs into in the back is broken off, I fixed it with some aluminum tubing and C/A but it won't hold anymore. My canopy is starting to get torn up as well, and one of the teeth on my main gear actually got chewed off. So it looks like I've got some fixing to do. The main assembly issue isn't serious, because the struts stay in place anyways, but the gear is going to be replaced soon.

I've noticed that although I can hover in winds pretty well, the heli seems to be glitching in windy conditions, like the motor keeps stuttering. I then start to lose control and sometimes crash, which is why I'm not flying in moderate wind anymore. I've checked everything on the heli, and there isn't any issue with interference between the radio and the receiver unless it's one of those times where it gets jumpy, crashes, and then starts spinning up on the ground even though there's no input....

I've also noticed something else that's a little weird. I've gone through two sets of rotor blades where one blade was damaged but the other was perfectly fine. I would open a package of new blades and just replace the bad one, and then try starting up and there was a ton of vibration. I would adjust the blade tracking as best I could but still there was too much vibration. I weighed each blade on a not-so-good scale and got the exact same measurement for both blades: 10 grams. I measured both blades and they're exactly the same in every respect. I then changed the other old blade with the other one from the newly opened pack of extra blades and they work fine. Gonna look more into this, but is anybody else noticing this as well? It's like the rotor blades only work with the other blade in the same pack.

Anyways, I'm getting better now every time I fly, despite those issues I'm having with my heli. I'm going to replace my main drive shaft and left strut and purchase an aerobatic enhancement kit for when the LiPo pack arrives. The only thing that bugs me about this ThunderPower pack is that it does not feature any PCM Charge Guard protection circuitry, like the PolyQuest packs do. But the ThunderPower pack was the right size and weight for the mah rating I needed, the PolyQuest batteries came in either 1100mah or 1500mah, the 1100mah one being the same weight as the TP battery but a little larger, and the 1500mah battery weighing about 20 grams more than the TP battery, so I had to go with the ThunderPower.

Dark Wombat,

It probably isnt the motor stuttering. What happens is when wind hits the rotor disk, can change the lift produced. The effects are varied depending on the angle that the wind hits the rotor disc and the direction it comes in from.

Wind blowing level into advancing blades causes a gain in lift, into retreating blades you get a drop in lift. Its most noticable in a hover. The good news is that since you've managed to notice it, it means your getting pretty good at hovering. It means you've managed to get your hover stable enough to start noticing changes in the heli's aerodynamics. Beginners learning to hover usually dont notice it that much because the heli is moving all over the place anyway.

Im sure youve heard about retreating blade stall. With these micro heli's its actually possible to get retreating blade stall in a hover! Retreating blade stall normally occurs at high forward speed. The air is moving in over the retreating blade at such a high speed that the blade loses lift and "stalls". The heli will roll violently to the right. I was outside hovering in a really strong wind after a local hurricane. Im not positive, but I honestly believe I experienced retreating blade stall in a hover. I had the nose into the wind, and the heli pitched right REALLY quick. I tried it again with the tail into the wind, and sure enough it tipped left.

As far as the vibration problem. Ive actually been checking the blades that come from the factory. Ive found a couple of sets that had a warped blade. Occasionally I've also found that both blades have the same warp or twist. I think they match them up at the factory as best they can. When you just swap out one blade, its most likely a result of one of the blades having a slightly different "warp" than the other blade. Ive even found one set of flat blades in a crash kit that had one severly warped blade. I would recommend checking out the blades before you purchase them. Look for the best set you can find. Anytime you change out blades it normally requires readjustment.

Also dont just weigh them, BALANCE them. Make sure that they balance good. You can have two blades that weigh the same, but have them out of balance. You could have a blade that weighs 10 grams, but has the weight concentrated in the tip and another one of the same weight, but the weight is concentrated near the root.

If you want to get an idea of how this works. Get your heli all trimmed out. Now obviously the flybar weights are the same weight. Move one of the weights in a little. Now rev it up.. It will shake like CRAZY. Each end of the flybar weighs the same, but the weight is off center.

Also the TP 1320mah batteries are giving most of us here about 20min of flight time. Which is incredible in my opinion. I actually get tired of flying before the battery runs out. Or my brain is so fried from concentrating for so long, that Im ready for a break.

Pre-made heli blades are sold in MATCHED PAIRS!!! This is why when you install a new blade in conjunction with an old blade the heli vibrates as the weights between the blades aren't the same. Like wood is not of the same weight/density as you know that balsa varies in both. You can match up blades from different sets---You not only have to make sure that they weigh the same, they must balance at exactly the same CG...You can do it yourself, however I suggest that the noobies stick to pre-balanced sets.

Kevin

Where do I get carbon fiber blades for my blade heli?

http://secure.hobbyzone.com/catalog/...EFLH1147C.html

hey guys thanks alot about the pin stuff. I wonder, where can you buy a T pin. Never heard of that kind of pin.

You must have never built a plank then. T pins can be had at most any hobby store or Wal-Mart. I'm sure a good stainless steel cotter pin would work also.

bdavison --------- are you still going to do the part 2 to your blade build as well as the other parts?
what's up ?[sm=confused.gif]