First time post..just bought slightly used (I hope) CX on eBay...what are the best upgrades
for a beginning flier (only experience on HAvoc)?...what gives most bang for buck and to
cut down on repairs?..thanks for any help, John H.

Be prepared to break the top head, replace with aluminum,never will break again.

Also later about 3 times as long you will break the lower head, replace with aluminum,, again will never break again.

About 6 times longer, you will break the swashplate, replace with aluminum you will never break again.

Keep lots of upper and lower blades (come in upper orlower sets of 2 for about $4.

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Optional

Replace tail with boom tail.

buyextra batteries... 1 don't ever fly it once it becomes hard to fly, you will ruin battery, 2 don' use batteries back to back , let the bird cool for 5 minutes between each.

Drill small holes into lexan covering on hood, helps keep the temp down.

Don't fly outside unless you move the servo arms all the way out. or at least out about 2 clicks. it will go bye bye real fast with factory servos links.

That's all.

and keep in mind, when you upgrade to metal parts that dont break, something will, somethings got to give and if the metal parts dont, something else will....

So you might want to also stock a few inner and outter shafts.......and a flybar, maybe.

With the additional strength of the aluminum upgrade parts your broken bits should be mostly limited to blades... blades... and more blades. They snap like twigs when there's nothing else to give. Keeping an extra flybar on hand is probably a good idea as well. I have more fun throwing my CX2 around than playing it safe so I usually stock 5 bags of upper & 5 bags of lower blades just to keep trips to the LHS down. One of the more expensive aspects of this hobby, at least for me, is stocking the home workshop like my own private hobby store. Sure it costs a lot to do so (roughly a few hundred dollars of spare parts in reserve at my home for both my CX2 & CP Pro), but it's worth it when I need a part and only have to go as far as my parts drawer to fix it. Of course you don't have to do this but as I've found myself making multiple trips to the LHS in a single day in the past I do it just for my own sanity. Besides, driving on the roads today with all the crazies to get groceries is scary enough!

Yep, I agree on all counts above, I've personally have broken about 7 packages of blades, between upper and lower. I have not bent any shafts, inner or outer.

I broke the top head after about 2 weeks and the lower head after about 4-6 weeks. Swashplate never broke, but it definitely has better response than plastic.

I REALLY like the boom upgrade, it twists way less now, must have something to do with the drag from somewhere. It cost about $25 ion ebay.

I haven't put anything else into this one. Other than another bat.

7x4 for blades=$28
Aluminum head=$25
Aluminum lower=$25
Swashplate=$25
Bat=$25
Boom=$25

So basically I've doubled the cost in parts, but I don't break it much anymore, unless I fly through the hallways at about 3-4 feet across, or torture the dogs.
Even then it's only blades, and it's been a few months, my gf broke a blade and she's doing pretty decent now. I gave her my CX and I bought a CP. CX to CP is fairly easy actually just a matter of figuring out the quicker response, obviously more expensive too.

Ya know, something interesting I just discovered is that you can pop the little brass weights out of the CX/2's flybar and instantly liven up the control of this little bird. I'd actually never even looked to see if that would work but one of the little weights popped out somewhere and is lost. As I don't have any more spare flybars for the CX2 I just popped the other weight out and tried to fly it. Works great!

Best mod ever for my cx2,

The dx7 radio i bought for my t-rex.

CX2 is night and day with a good radio.

Hehe, while an excellent idea for the TREX, a DX7 for a CX2 might be a teeny bit of overkill.

Thanks to all of you for the most excellant and prompt responses...JOhn H.

Just the other day I saw a thread where a guy posted all the common upgrades for these heli's along with the links and prices for these parts. Anyone know where it's at? I can't find it now. [:@]

can someone explain the corect procedure for changing the holes in the servo arm? moved the link to the third hole and when the heli is hooked up to the battery the swash plate drops down toward the nose and the servos continuosly make noise

Upgrade post is here, very complete.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_52..._1/key_/tm.htm

Yep, that's the one. I found it shortly afterwards but this is a good place to link it as well. BTW, my trim is way off. I know I need to adjust the linkage up or down on the threads, but which one controls yaw (tail rotor spin)? Mine constantly wants to turn to the left, and I've got the trim ALL the way to the right on the transmitter and still have to give a little bit of right input to hold her straight.