Might be a dumb question but "is a crystal a crystal" or do you have to use the same brand as your radio? I want to use my 9C with my Blade cut can only find a great planes crystal locally that is a short crystal.

I just got my Blade CP on saterday, and broke it at 9:00 PM that night. A 40 foot drop will do that though. A question for those who are more experienced. I have the CF blades but because I'm a newbie, I was waiting until I was a little better before I put them on. Right now I can barely hover, but I can fly around a little too thanks to FMS. The question is, when should I put on the CF blades, I've heard they're way more durable, which may be a good thing for me, everything else on the Blade is stock so far, what do you guys think? Do I need any other upgrades before I put them on? Thanks, and even though I've only flown my Blade for like 5-10 min, I love it already.

Loswav,
The flatbottom blades seem to give the most lift for just starting out. If you go to li-po and ereobatic ehancement kit you will get longer flight times. You might want to practice hovering first and then using a car mat or like object to practice taking off and landing on a specific simulated heli-pad. I can hover tail-in fairley well but now I have to work on nose in hovering. and then flying in a circle. I have a set of CF blades but dont fly with them in tight confined areas yet. I have used them outside on a calm day or in my large shop with 12 foot ceilings and find them to be much more sensitive and responsive. I have installed the helihobby alum frame and tailrotor cnc frame parts for 2 tailrotor motors on one of my blades. the more flight time that I put in practicing the better I can hover and do precise helipad landings. It would really be nice to have a very large Gym or factory building to fly-in. Keep plenty of parts on hand if you plan on high flights in windy weather. One time I was flying and the wind got under the blade and before I knew it i was at the top of a tree with shading that made me lose orientation and resulted in a crash. I cut the throttle fast and it saved the blades but not the skid and main frame socket where the skid rods join the frame. Lots of luck,
randy

Futura,

I was checking out the e-flite version of the Bell-Hiller head (picture). It looks like the mixer arms are on the blade holder, looks like a lower profile approach than the HoneyBee head you and I are using. I blew my last set of good blades last night doing hovers nose in... Time to wait for another e-bay order. I think I will stick with the HoneyBee head until I break it, it seems to handle very well. I would imagine that rolls and loops would be much easier with the Bell-Hiller, too bad I am no where near ready to try any!

Steve

check this upgrade out....

http://www.helidirect.com/product_in...roducts_id=598



I've got one ordered and will update as to how things go. looks sweet though too.

As far as Eflites BH head. If the performance is there, as in the Esky unit, than I'll have to go with Eflite so I can get replacements at the LHS. Of course that is only if/when my Esky unit breaks.

bad link

Sorry, not sure what happened there but...

I added a picture and I hope I fixed the link....

If not, www.helidirect.com and the new LG is somewhere near the bottom of the home page.

Ok, I know this is a newbie question but I'm a heli newbi sooooo

If you just apply throttle shoud the swash plate move at all?

I crashed and broke the landing gear socket on the airframe and bent the main shaft. I replaced all the broken parts and reset-up the Blade using bdavidsons instructions in the build thread. I believe that I got everything back togeather and adjusted properly......but....now it won't fly.
Everything is smooth and vibration free up until about 1/2 throttle then the swash plate starts tilts forward and an odd deeper humming sounds starts. There does not appear to be any vibration at this point but it sounds like there should be. This noise continues up to full throttle and the heli will not lift off. If I work the rudder control around it will sometimes jump up and go into forward flight but does not do this with any regularity. I have checked the main motor gear mesh, the swash plate to be sure it is square to the main shaft, checked for binding of the swash plate and rotor head (other than new blades I did not work on the rotor head - it has the 3bb update) and checked the controls on the tx, the trims are centered, verified proper rotation of the main and tail rotors and checked the tracking of the blades, the gyro and gain could still use some tweaking but mostly holds the tail steady and I've checked the batteries in both the tx and the heli for full charge.

At this point, I'm still too new to know what else too look for/at. So, if anyone has thoughts on what I should look for or what I may have missed, I would appriciate the input.

Thanks
Dave

The swashplate should only move up/down in response to collective stick input, not change its tilt in any direction.
Did you go through the servo check per the manual (disconnect both motors, noting the orientation of the plugs)?
With the motors disco. you should see the swashplate moving smoothly down/up in response to moving the collective up/down. It sounds like somehow one or more of the servos are binding or have stripped gears, or possibly the control arms are a little bent and not rotating freely enough in the servo yokes so that causes binding.
Before I fly I always work the cyclic around a couple of times just to catch any gross problems with swashplate response to servo input.

Could the motors be plugged into the wrong ports on the 4-n-1?

....could be plugged in wrong.

Channel 1 = Right-hand rear "aileron" servo
Channel 2 = Forward "elevator" servo
Channel 6 = Left-hand rear "pitch" servo


nah - that doesn't sound like the issue...

that deeper humming sound has me stumped. Are you sure your hub/main shaft pin is in one piece?

What about too much pitch....that would cause a deeper sound and prevent lift.

Pinion to main gear too tight....not sure about the sound but increased friction might prevent enough head speed.

If you followed bdavidsons instructions well, that model should fly.

Other than that, the main motor could be bad. I had one that completely froze up...got hot cause my gear mesh was too tight. It was making some strange noises before it froze up.

or like mentioned above, the main motor is pluged into the tail motor 4 in 1 plug...."jumps up when moving the rudder stick"

Could be a silly question, but does anyone make flat-bottom CF blades so you don't have to run up a bill while in the learning phase (or dumb thumb phase)?

Hello all,
I've been trying to do some 3d stuff with my blade and of course hit a brick wall, or the grass in this case. So i decided to try a different motor for speed. It's a trinity 17T motor with a 8tooth pin and im using a 900 lipo. Well i hooked it up, it flew awesome, I did a flip, and the ESC burnt out. So i was wondering if there is anyway to replace just the ESC in the 4-in one box. The reciever works fine, and the tail rotor still goes. I think the gyro is still ok too. I know which side the ESC is on, but i just dont know what to get, or where to start with installing it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Bought the Blade last friday, never flew a heil before, took my time and right now i'm up to the point where i can hover for as long as the battery lasts... I will say you have to be on the ball ALL the time, as its not like flying a jet, always making constant adjustments especially with the rudder and pitch.

I too upgraded to the CF blades ($30) and using stock motor and so far not a problem, although i'm probably going to go back to the Stock blades and i like them more.

Not bad for $200 enjoyable fun and some what easy, i can see why Eflite do not recommend this heil for been your 1st, even though its my 1st i understand the principles of how heilcopters fly, since i'm around the real ones quite a bit and have flown a few over the years... I find this had help me alot and have still have it in one piece without not crashing it yet.

I will most likely do some upgrades over the weeks and move on from hovering to flying in a circle> to landing.

I'm having a problem with the tail motor twiching when hovering. I have replaced the tail motor twice, adjusted gain and prgressive. Is it possible to have a bad 4in1 or radio? Could an out of balance blade cause this? I am at a loss, an help would be appreciated.

Dave

Are the pitch links in the right place? Sounds like what mine was doing after a crash that knocked both pitch links loose...new blades, put the links back on, and had the same problem you are having...

My problem was one of pure stupidity (and being a newb too) ... i put the links on wrong...when i crashed i broke the balls off of the rotor head, but they were clean breaks that werent obvious, but there are some pretty balls down there on the swashplate and the links fit perfectly without adjustment, so on they went (never noticed where they were before)

Killed a set of blades on the next flight because it was acting just like you say yours is...

You're probably not as silly as me to do something like that, but just an observation from another newb

ok as a newbie should i start out with the lipos batterys i have 2 of them or the nimh which i got 3 of?
i have the upgrade motor which i have not installed yet as newbie i mean i am still learning how to hover.


Tommy

I just ordered the aluminum swashplate from Helihobby. I'm hoping it arrives Friday, Saturday at the latest. They're only an hour drive from my house and there website says they have it in stock. I also have the Bell-Hiller setup on order from Horizon. Does anyone have the aluminum head or swashplate on their Blade?

I'm waiting for the Eflite version. I think Eflite's looks better and I don't need very many reasons to decide not to order from Helihobby. That's not to say I won't because I do, but...

Yeah, I hear ya. I haven't heard much good about Helihobby, but it seems they're the ones with most of the good stuff.

may be possible to upgrade the fets.....what 17t motor was it?

Helihobby is somewhat of a gamble....though I've never had any problems at all with them in 6 months and many orders.

I bought my Esky bell hiller upgrade for my Blade CP from them and saved $$$ over balsapr.

My LHS is working to put together the initial dealer order from Helihobby and I'll be in it $$$ to make sure it happens....Then I get LHS support/backing and access to all the helihobby goodies at the same time. (and a small dealer discount to boot)

Sweetness! life is so good.

Hey guys I will be ordering a Blade CP soon, probably from horizon. Anyways as a nebie to helis what parts do you think I should order with it. For now I am limited to $300 so I was thinking Blade CP, 2 spare stock batteries, 1 crash kit, a heatsink for both motors and all that comes out to 285 with shipping. Is their anything else I should order as well or you think I should change? thanks guys.

Get the training gear...i know they look doofy, but i can guarantee you within 3 hours of flying they will already have saved yo more than they cost...

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