If you follow "Radds school of rotery flight" program religiously, you should get through the learning process in one piece. This is IMO the best program available online...or else where for that matter. It takes patience but it works if you follow it and don't go off doing your own thing (learning bad habbits).

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

Best of luck and good flying to you!

Sorry Otto, We posted that at about the same time....

( :

OttoNP Thanks...if I was a God ill give you wings....the link is awsome

Brushless is awsome!

my hovering dramatically changed by replacing the blades. I went from a 8x8 box often shutting down to avoid the walls to almost a complete battery run of 3x3 by changing the blades. The rudder trimming is also minimal now with the new blades. I also just found out that in idle up mode the rudder trimming is non-existant and makes hovering easier (for me).

I still cant make a full 5 second "look no hands" but I think that when I lightly banged up the previous blades I might of threw something slightly out of wack.

herman- you're on the right track. The stock TX is designed to use the throttle trim at the bottom of the curve. This is because you will rarely if ever go 100% negative, but you will positive. This gives you more room to add head speed on idle up if you need it because it will add positive pitch. Keep in mind though that you may have to readjust the swash if it was originally set up with the trim centered. A lot of folks recommend setting the swash levels in idle up so it's already adjusted for it. I haven't reset my swash since before I read that, but I need to change my main shaft so I'll likely do it then (daggone trees anyway).

Mark- I do a full minute hands off .............every time I crash, usually while holding my stomach laughing.

Thanks Zooland1- I guess I have lots to learn about helis, as I told you it is my first heli ever. Now... Two things...the first is that I got to do my first loop... AWSOME!!!!!! nice and steady, well traked although the tail wants to go out of track since the gyro isn't the best but I got to control it.... second... is that after a while I was flying low in the street and didn't a bush so I hit a branch and the heli went down... after I checked the heli didn't have any broken parts, the only thing is that one of the blades got a little chunk right in the middle, not a big thing but when I lifted up again I felt a little vibration on the blades, not much and actually when I speed up and climb to about 4' the vibration seems to stop and then smoothe's up. Should I do something to the blade? or should i leave it like that? the problem is that I live down here in mexico and we don't have a LHS that we could just go and buy parts. I have the enhacement kit with me, I just want to give the stock blades some longer life so what do you recommend?

Thanks and please be patient if I ask something dumb, it's just newbie stuff... hehehe one thing though... HELI'S ROOOCK!!!! coolest things... even more that airplanes... heheheh

hermn300... take ur blades off.. put em together with the screw u took out. then balance em on ur finger or something. if one side falls off, then u need to add weight to the other side. like Tape.

Basically tape em up. and make sure there ballanced. then u should be ok with no vibrations or very little.

you might be able to gently squeeze the part that got dinged back into shape. What you're probably experiencing is resistance due to the damaged leading edge. As long as it's not vibrating too bad you will probably be OK. Make sure there are no cracks in the covering. That will definitely cause resistance from the air catching in the crack. If there are put some tape over it and balance the blade by adding the same amount to the other blade (hopefully in the same place). You can get fairly close doing what Unitoo said. If I could get a stinking picture to post I could show you how I made a balancing beam from a longer 2mm screw and a piece of aluminum. I'll take some tomorrow and pm them to you if you want.

Ok guys Ive enrolled myself into RADD's school of rotary flight, how ever im finding it very hard for me to stop the drifting that occurs when I input some aileron control. Is it the gyro that is making the task more difficault or do i need to input more rudder speed to counter the aileron inputs? My main rotary blades have chips on the edges, would this make the heli more acceptable to drifting?

The controls im inputting are 40% throttle and gently increasing aileron input in the 9 o' and 3 o' clock directions, thus in the case of the 3 o' clock aileron input direction the heli drifts to the left. How can i counter that? Is it as easy as inputting more rudder speed?

Ok guys Ive enrolled myself into RADD's school of rotary flight, how ever im finding it very hard for me to stop the drifting that occurs when I input some aileron control. Is it the gyro that is making the task more difficault or do i need to input more rudder speed to counter the aileron inputs? My main rotary blades have chips on the edges, would this make the heli more acceptable to drifting?

The controls im inputting are 40% throttle and gently increasing aileron input in the 9 o' and 3 o' clock directions, thus in the case of the 3 o' clock aileron input direction the heli drifts to the left. How can i counter that? Is it as easy as inputting more rudder speed?

3 o-clock input is right input the heli should drift right not left Check your reversing switches on the Transmitter.

Zooland1- I tried to push the part that got dinged as much as I could without hurting the blade and it was ok... but now something new came up... Yesterday night we went to a park to fly, the heli was in almost perfect flying, no wind and I could hover no hands for about 4-5 seconds, really stable, but I started foward flying and all of a sudden the batt went low and the heli came down to the ground, good thing it was soft dirt, I checked the heli and there's no broken parts but the covering on the blade that is dinged came loose, did that of the tape (magic tape) in both blades but that's not what I am worried about, there's no vibration but I feel that the rotor speed is way lower than it used to... now it takes me more than half throttle to lift up, what should I check or what can I do to get my blades up to speed again? I feel so STUPID!!!, when I was there about a month ago I bought spare motors (both) just in case but I never thought about spare blades, now I have to see how can I get some. Being new to the heli that's the first thing I should've thought don't you think? hehehe... Well, i guess I have to pay the price and see how can I order some new blades....

Hermann

thanks unitoo1 I am in the process of learning and I will listen to anything that makes this lovely bird fly better... I don't mean to brag about my skills but i was told I was never going to be able to learn with this heli, that I should've bought the CX but no, I felt really confident about my flying skills (heli) in the sim because on the sim I put lot's of wind and turbulence and never loose a heli in the ground unless I tried to go crazy with the stunts... hehehe Thank god for the simulators, anyway i think I took the right choice, Little heli somewhat a fighter, that will give me reflexes and finger feeling for when I go for the big one... hhehhe

I've been in the hobby for about 6 months only, I have a Aeroworks Edge 540 .46 with a .61FX and I can already hover, torque roll, and make some patterns, I've had the best teacher, My dad has been on the hobby for about 35 years.

See you around

Hermann- check the tracking on the blades. Bring the throttle up as much as possible without going into a hover and look from the side. If one blade is higher than the other, adjust by bringing the low blade up to the other with the linkage. Don't lower the high blade because that will put the blade into negative pitch. The tape is probably causing additional drag and since you have one dinged blade you are probably getting more resistance. Check the thread of bdavison's blade build if you haven't read it yet, and also bladecprepair.com, lot's of great information.

A couple of days ago I was outside hovering my blade, when the "spare" battery came loose and fell to one side. Things went bad from there the heli proceeded to do a circle into the ground. The battery had fallen out a couple of days before this, I said to myself I must put some velcro on that spare battery so it doesn't move. I didn't do it at the time then I forgot about it until it popped loose again, well fell out . I looked for an hour before I found the link from blade to the rotor head. When I inspected the heli the only thing broken was one ball on the rotor head. A trip to the LHS and I was back in business.

Well today I had just finished balancing my blades from various dings they have received, They balanced perfectly, I had carefully taped the covering that was loose. I put the heli on the floor and was going to run them to check the tracking I started to pick up the Tx and my foot caught the neck strap and pulled it off the table, my hand hit the throttle to full and my heli came to life and spinout into the piano bench, so much for the balancing as one blade was smashed into bits and pieces. I have been so diligent about holding the throttle and being careful around the heli and it only took a split second to see it become and angry spinning monster ready to take on anything in it's path.

The aftermath on this adventure/lesson was a new set of blades, and minor tooth damage on the head gear, there was no damage to anything else. I have even more respect for those blades.

I have joined Radd's school of flying and I have notice the same thing another poster commented on, that the heli wants to slide left even when inputting right aileron, it only goes right when you increase the head speed and it actually starts to fly a little on the right skid.
I have been enjoying this heli and will probably buy a raptor in the spring. Between this electric and the AFPD sim I should be well in to the beginning stages for a nitro heli.

This is my first post to this forum even though I have been reading for sometime. This forum is the one of the main reasons I bought this heli. I would like to thank everyone for the info that I have taken from this group and especially to Bdavison for the excellent job of describing the assembly and trimming of this heli, your info has been invaluable.

Thanks
Randy......Blade CP, SPAD Debonair, TT 40

I tried this today and my servos got the jitters, I quickly moved the antenna back to the stock position.

I would like to thank you personally for the assembly and trimming posts they are invaluable to me.


Randy.

It has been posted here that when you coil the antenna around Carbon fiber that it does interfere with the signal. You can however run the antenna along the tail boom and secure it with tape. Just don't "COIL" it around it.

That would make sense, since the tailrotor is pushing to the right to counteract the torque of the main rotor. The only way this left movement can be counteracted is by the main rotor tilting to the right slightly while it is providing positive lift.

If you notice the copter in a hover, it will be tilted to the right for the same reason.

You would also be coiling the antenna around the wires to the tailrotor motor. This is probably more significant than wrapping them around carbon fiber. Just having the antenna routed close would not be a good idea, IMHO. Brushed motors, even with filter capacitors, produce broadband noise.

the 3 ball bearing upgrade/fix for the BCP, where does the 3rd bearing go, in the place of the o-ring on the central shaft?

thanks =D

Someone needs to come up with a better alternative to the Stock Mainshaft and gear for the BCP. Anyone heard of an alternative? It's not the expense that gets me...hell its really cheap compared to other models but its such a pain to replace and I'm going through 3 every two weeks. these aren't even hard crashes and nothing else breaks....just bending that main shaft. I want something with harder steel or titanium.

I just have no luck straightening them once they are bent. Does anyone have some tips on straightening them. Since the gear doesn't come off, its hard to roll on a flat surface so its tough to even find the bend.

They aren't hard to replace if they aren't bent. If they are bent, then it is a pain to remove without cutting it with a Dremel tool.

i have rolled mine on a glass table. leaving the gear hang off the end. they are easily straighted. i've straiteded a couple. after about 2 or 3 fixes im usually just due for a new one.

yea, I've saved a couple that way....when the bend was obvious at least. the bend is usually at the collar anyway. In my case, I have the upgraded LG and bell hiller head with seperate electronics strapped on under the main gear...its a pain to allways be pulling things apart to get that slight vibe outa the works. It just bends to easily...like on a hard landing when nothing else breaks.

I want a harder main shaft.

Someone on another forum mentiong 3mm drill rod cut down and drilled for the pin holes.

...could use that with the Esky gear and I wouldn't have to disassemble the frame. its a thought!