I got some of my best, in control, flights in today. It was incredibly fun. Practicing with my CP has been a blast. It was great to know that I could fly that thing around, and land it safely. Did everyone else experience that same euhporia on the first good in control flight? I can barely wait for tomorow, and when it get's light, I can fire up my cp.

I know exactly what you are describing. The first time I flew, and felt like I was in control the whole time, I really felt great...


It's funny.... When most people first try a CP heli (me included), after that first flight, they're thinking it might not be possible to learn to control that beast. However, it really doesn't take very long until you start to notice major progress. At least, that's how it has been for me.

I'm still chasing my little chihuahua...but considering I've only been at this for a week - I think I'm making decent progress...

But to your point - yes - and despite the requisite beginner's frustration - I'm having more fun than I thought was possible...

[link=http://helix.ogilvy.com/comm/hbcp2.mov]1st hover attempts[/link]

lol I think after my 1st successful 30 second hover I had to go sit down I was so excited. After repeated minor crashes, a major or 2, and lots of bumps and bruises that 1st successful 1 is all it took to make me fall in love with my heli again. I probably only got an hour sleep that night .Laying there waiting for the sun to come up so I could run outside and fly again.

<--- Guilty as charged...

I've recently made some odd comments about upgrading....let me explain please. I've spent over 1k in parts and upgrades...not all one setup but different setups on the same BCP. Its maybe a $600 heli as it flies right now. I'm really enjoying reading about all the continuing upgrade efforts around the new Helidirect goodies.

That said, I've come to realize that the best upgrade FOR ME after the lipo/9t/simblade kit was simply more batteries. The main upgrade needed was to my flying abilities.

awhile back, I felt it click for me and I was suddenly flying very smooth...(I was letting the heli fly and cutting down on the number of my inputs...better initial inputs with fewer corrections). A couple weeks later it "clicked" again and I relaxed allot more when flying, "put my head in the heli" and stopped thinking about my thumbs on the tx. a week later I just went for a remote circle and two batteries later was flying a "four leaf clover" pattern (two combined fig8's) nice and smooth.

The key was the first barrier I got through where I stopped crashing all the time. I've got over 200 hours on this bcp (slow learner maybe) and all that crashing caused me to replace parts with upgrades...all mail order...which meant I was not flying while waiting for the mail. The sim is good but didn't help my nerves when flying for real.

I went to the LHS two weeks ago and flew a stock BCP with the Nimh battery......nice and smooth. It took allot more stick throw and attention to the tail and the collective was a bit jumpy but I was stunned at how well it flew.

I could have been here allot sooner if I has simply fixed it with OEM parts from the LHS and spent my money on more batteries.

Yah you couldve spent it all on batteries but come on, Wasnt it FUN getting all those shiny new goodies in the mail and then all the fun of putting them on and bein all excited waiting for that first flight with your new upgrades??? lol I think weve all been there

I agree with futura. The more money I put into my Blade in the form of bling, the less comfortable I am trying more advanced stuff. I have 2 BCP's. One is mildly upgraded and the other is blinged-out. Even the cnc head. I don't fly the blinged one - I don't want to break it.

I guess it depends on what you want and how much money you have.

I'm with futura on this one. I fly a totally stock BCP. The only upgrade I am going to do is the lipo batteries/9T. I consider the BCP a trainer and when I get to a certain point I will get a more advanced heli- maybe something with a belt driven tail. I think that makes more sense then trying to make the Blade into something it isn't.

Yes, I agree that you can over do the bling in the beginning, and that can have a negative effect. However, some bling is worth it.

Mine is basically stock except for a dual motor tail, and the CNC head plus shaft and gear. Both of which make the heli more reliable and fly better. Also, the CNC head is much stronger and can take more abuse. Sure, if I break some parts on it, they will cost a lot more than their stock counterparts, but it is also much less likely to break in the first place...

Also, I found that the sticky collective that kept returning with the stock head to be a major road block to learning. The metal head cures that permanently...

Counting the initial heli purchase, I have about $350-$400 in my heli, and it flies much better and is stronger than stock.

Eventually, I will bling it out completely (belt drive tiail, brushless, etc.) but that will be later, and gradually. I will not do this for any other reason than the sheer enjoyment of doing it. I will not, however, run out and do it all now. I will do it slowly as my skills increase, and as I get the itch to work on it some more...

If the opportunity ever presents itself, I will buy a used BCP that perhaps needs some work, and use all of my left-over OEM parts to restore it to good working (stock) condition. That way I can have both

Absolutely, I've been having fun the whole time. I just don't want the readers of this forum (neubs) to think that the upgrades are critical to making the bcp fly good.

Everything I've done to my current blade has been to make it as indestructable as possible while retaining as much manuverability as I can.

Brushless main and tail ensures longevity of the motors....I don't even think about them anymore let alone worry. The GY250 was simply to get the brushless tail to work its best.

heavy duty frame and landing gear (super landing gear from Helidirect) with almost 200 hours of flying and several HARD crashes and a multitude of hard landings without any breakage

Esky bell hiller head w/reinforced ball links (never break now) to get proper cyclic response plus lightened CF paddles to enhance the same.

Microheli spendle....no more bent spendles....75 hours old...several hard landings including 4 boom strikes.

Eflite CF blades.....lots of crashes....9 boom stikes....still ballanced/tracking/sounding sweet.

Its my trainer and my sons trainer...and my after work tooling around the back yard heli. I love every minute and feel completely at ease about spending the money to get it where it is. It was not my first heli though. I first learned heli setup on a walkera 22A (true hell) and then a Hornet II (ended up full Duzi upgrades). I then got a shogun V1 and upgraded it with all the microheli, heliup goodies. I've been flying this bcp now since June of last year. I now have three fully blinged shoguns, one w/microheli shaft drive, one w/microheli belt drive and one w/hubdave belt drive. I just wish I was as good a heli pilot as I am a heli mechanic. Flying those $1200 - 1600 shoguns would be allot more fun and less nerve shredding if I had put more time/batteries through that OEM BCP...... after of course going seperates, adding brushless motors, changing out the head to BH, upgrading the........

Hello everyone, My name is Futura and I'm an RC heli upgrade addict!

Putting CNC goodies on an elcheapo RTF heli causes two main problems for someone who is in the early stages of the learning curve....one, the increase in complexity keeps the heli on the bench longer due to setup issues....two, the money invested adds fear/nervousness and retards the progress through the learning curve.

If you can't do every move in radds rotary school of flight (basic flat patterns), smoothly and in a relaxed state....

I'm done....off the soap box. Sorry if my points have been anoying!!

At this point - I think there are certain aspects of the rig that are contributing to an unecessarily high learning curve. I spend probably 60% of the time working the tail and that's time I'd rather spend training my thumbs to move the copter rather than just keep it steady. Even with the washer swap mod to fix the sticky collective, it still gets stuck every now and again creating a situation analogous to shaking a can of coke then opening it up in your face.

After reading comments from the likes of Psi and CT, I can prioritize my "must-haves" a little better now...I'm not too concerned with the bling just yet - but I'm at the point where I'll pay any amount of money to just stabilize the copter better just so that I CAN learn on it.

But yeah - next batch will be:

Replacement gears (main is stripping fast), 2 more batteries + 2nd charger, and maybe the CNC head...


Just out of curiousity - are the CNC heads on rc-expert and helidirect the same?

rc-expert: http://www.rc-expert.com/product-upgrade.php?pid=147 - $84.99
helidirect: http://www.helidirect.com/product_in...oducts_id=1071 - $110.00

What gives?

No, the heads are a little different. If you look closely, you will notice that the paddle push rods on the rc-expert head are plastic.

I'm sure it is far superior to stock, however...


Just be advised, if you get the helidirect head that it is not a true 'drop in' fit. It takes a lot of adjusting/fiddling to get it set up right. I am still working on mine...

Very good point Futura. Im still a newbie and I dont want anyone thinking they should be taking anything I say as gospel. I will say Im pretty good at troubleshooting now cause Ive had so many crashes and fixed it so many times lol

But youre right we dont want to make people think the only way to get this heli flying good is to bling it out.

I havent even done it to mine. The only real issue I have with the heli is the tail motor and so I went to direct drive to try cure it. But thats not bling by no means.

Im adding super landing gear and aluminum swash because I think theyll enhance the machine. And I will be going brushless ONLY because all my planes are brushless and I just think theyre the king of motors. I like the power and less noise.

But the point I think were all trying to make here is this heli does not need to be blinged to be a good machine.

Mochaboy, the tail problem could be your proportional pot not set correctly. I got alot better tail now after I adjusted mine. I turned the gain totally down (to the left) then adjusted the pro pot- once i got it good I turned the gain back up and now the tail is good. Plus as I get better at hovering I find I am compensating for the tail by making rudder correction without really thinking about it. I have been flying since sunday and I can now hover a full battery I love this thing!

Psi,

I completely agree, I am a new newbie. And I have just now (like last 15 minutes) gotten my flying under control, and my heli direct shipment just came. I just bought things to make my heli more durable, becuase I wanna cut down on costs down the road, as well as a pitch guage so I can get everthing set right, I still need to work on my tail, but I can fly it fine, even while it wags, I love that. And I've been flying totally stock, not properly set up, with some extra tape, that is my rig, and it flies fine. At first I thought if I spent a lot of parts it'd make it easier to fly. I have learned that that is not the case. If I had to explain it, I'd say it like this: New/better parts might make it easier to control, but that is really for the people who are trying more advanced moves. Flying it is still as hard as it is for a new pilot. You need to master that before you can do anything complicated enough to necisitate the use of high quality upgrades. Though upgrading some things are fine, like lipos, and durability parts.

I've got one piece of bling....Eflite's CNC swash. The rest is to make it fly better. I hear you Mochaboy....and that's exactly the reason I went through my upgrades.

This thread is about practice making perfect. Once you learn to fly, you will find the stock bcp to be a great little flier without all the upgrades.

An observation on the sticky collective, After replacing many heads and going to the Esky cp2 bell hiller head....making sure the bearings/and washers were right on the blade grips etc....the collective still sticks once in a while when first starting up. I've gotten into the habit of spinning up the heli just to it getting light or half throttle...which ever comes first. I then move the swash around with the right stick and can visually see the collective "settle in" to where it should be. I then take off and fly with no issues.

A heading hold gyro is nice, but any piezo dual rate gyro will allow the tail to slip out with torque or collective changes unless you or the tx (revo) compensates.

the real proof is when you watch kyle....

http://www.raymondstacy.com/pics/bladecp.wmv
http://www.raymondstacy.com/pics/cppool.wmv

....[big sigh].....its not the heli, its been my thumbs the whole time!!!!

Futura,

Thanks for those vids...I've seen that kid's video before and it's a gentle reminder of

a) how kids a third my age have 100x more manual dexterity (curse those console games)
b) how I need to slack off on the X-generation knee jerk reaction to just throw money at a problem to fix it...

On a most excellent note however...I just checked the mail and I got....

<drum roll>

http://www.milehighwings.com./usb_cables.htm

!!!!!!

Just got done with an hour session in G3 learning how to turn...Rain or shine...I'll be flyin - except when my girlfriend's practicing on the NextSTar <curse you woman!!! get your own damn computer!!!>

<giggles>


btw - Fiddy - Yeah, prop's set to just about 80% max...I think I figured out what's happening and just basically compensating as best I can... Trim is dropping off with voltage, and at one point (below 10v) it basically goes bonkers.

As far as the sticky collective - that's precisely what's happening to me, and precisely what I'm doing to "unstick" it...Glad to see I'm not alone

...

heading out to the park now so on that note... be careful with your toys now gents


...

PS - anyone know a mod to hook up a power source to my stock TX so I don't chew through my batteries? Preferably one that doesn't result in electric shocks or a trip to the ER...

Oh and btw - just a small clip from one take off/landing attempt...

[link=http://helix.ogilvy.com/comm/rfg3.wmv]NextSTar flight[/link]

No heli footage yet because...umm....yeah...need a little work there heh

I got a good mod for the TX... rechargeable batteries. They are great.

About 2 months ago I bought my first rc toy an X-ufo and now Im hooked right after that I got a walkera36 and started learning well I crashed it and while waiting for parts I bought A BCPP HAd to add a set of flybar weights to tame it a bit. Man it was so fast I could hardly fly it. But after a couple packs thru it...it got much easier I spent a couple weeks with it alone. Well yesterday I got my parts in th email and Fixed the walkera. (I had been neglecting it) Took it out and....wow is it slooooow why is it so slooooow how did I ever wreck this thing? Ahhhhh See now that Im used to the chihuahua on crack the lumbering beast seems exceptionally tame. response times are a bit slow but its stable. So much fun having 2 helis to choose from. And they are night and day to each other. I also flew them a little bit without the ping pong balls. Thats a new experience too. Not sure Im ready to take em off for good yet. Ive got the hang of tail in hover and the start of right side in. Left side still throws me and nose in I can do if I really concentrate but IM not at all at ease with it yet.

Yup, the mini's are substantially more stable when setup right....emagine that same improvement when going to a 30 or 60 size.

your absolutely right, practicing with micro's makes flying mini's seem....more predictable. They take more space to fly the same patterns though. Not allot more, but the back yard just doesn't seem big enough for more than real slow tight hovering with little to no bank in the turns.

the bcp can burn some nice fast curves in the same size space. I did my very first tail in remote circle tonight.....almost lost it but gave power/pitch and got some altitude while I got the tail back towards me. That one point, just past the part of the circle closest to me...heli going just past nose in (counter clockwise for now) and on around...I make it past nose in and..{BRAIN FART}...chicken out and grab a quick hover....whew

Damn this is the coolest hobby!!!

I ventured out of the garage yesterday. Now this is always a bad thing for me. The only other time I did it I hit my car with Cf blades. This time I was concetrating on my nice steady hover 30 some odd feet away when bang Falls out of the air blades all wacky. I wondered for a second "what did I hit" then realized I hit my HOUSE. How did I miss that!? Strange what concentration can do. It made my house invisible. By the way the only damage from that was a mushed set of blades...(which I spun up and flew out of spite) Flew ok but kinda wobbly ,made some awesome sounds then I put on a set of spares. Now its good as ever.

Im cramped wherever I go. My backyard is just about the same size as my garage just no door overhead to hit (1x) and I hate mowing so my grass is kinda shaggy most times. Makes for nasty landings.

When I read what you said about things going invisible I started LOL. Thats exactally what I do too. I get tunnel vision when I fly my heli. Doesnt happen with my planes I think because I fly them so far away from me and theyre easily spotted but I NEVER take my eyes off that heli.Its crazy

absolute total concentration....

then the wife leans out the door..."HONEY>>DID YOU TAKE OUT THE TRASH>>" [X(]...durrrr.......d[&:]b....crack..ak..ak..[:@]