Being a noobie, I don't have a lot to add.
For me it's important that my first Heli have parts available. I have two local shops within 10 minutes drive time and I can build an E-Flight Heli from scratch with the parts available at either one. Reading these forums I can't tell you how many times I have read, "can't fly I'm waiting on parts" So until I am pretty good at not breaking things or until I have a fleet of Heli's, E-Flight is the best choice for me.

Ive been on here for a while now and stuck to the idea the eflight was the best of the bunch and just thought that problems come as just part of flying.

Today gents however ive decided after making my own heli from a basic kit and hand picked parts for the fraction of the cost of the b400 that in fact im saddened to say that the blade 400 is in fact quiet rubbish.

Yes the spektrum dx6i is a great tool that comes with the rtf package, but after a few years of flying and trying various other heli`s and essentionally learning the real difference between replaement parts and the right parts to use i can say its probably the only part of the 400 wrth keeping.

Yes i do enjoy mine, it flies well, but.......................... Theres nothing eflight left on it, batteries have been replaced, motor, esc, servos, body etc all different because stock parts were rubbish.

Ive just built a copter x kit, full cnc kit. Fitted my own choice of motor esc battery etc and wow what a nice bird to fly, totally out classes the 400 and how much to build ? £37 for kit £9 for motor £18 for esc and £20 for two batteries, each servo was only £1.75 each.

The result, a none twitchy very stable machine that you can get a hands free hover with, each part is a tenth of the cost of the equivelent b400 price and all parts readily available instead of "eflight have none in stock yet again" answer from local hobbie stores.

Its quiet out of character for me to dis eflight but after lots of time and money wasted on such a machine i am forced to reluctantly say i think the b400 is now not good value for money or a good beginner package or has good reliable after sales stock or backup

i guess it just depends on where u are in the hobby and what ur lhs has in stock, and of course personal prefferences. i agree with RobB on the not waiting for parts bit. i can not stand to wait on parts. and i dont. i have several lhs's around, but none real close (in the same town). they all care eflite and align. i have a b400 and cx450sev2, or at least it used to be a copterx. it was a pretty good bird, but throught out the crashes and rebuilds, all that is left of the cx stuff is the swash plate, and tail case. o, and the mixing arms. could have replaced things cheaper by ordering and waiting, but its just easier to pay a few extra bucks and go get it. plus the align parts are much better quality than the cx. as far as the b400, i use it as a stunt dummy. i dont expect a whole lot, but it still flies nice, and is practically still all stock, although it sits crashed most of the time. im looking at upgrading a few things to make the rebuilds easier, but all and all, i still like it, really dont have much negative to say about it. im still glad i got it, and it was very nice for me to learn on and continue to learn new things on.

on a side note, there are several helis i would prolly prefer to have, but i just dont like to wait on parts. so untill im to a point i dont crash, very often, or the lhs starts stockin different parts, ill be going with eflite and align...................but that just me.

I take it you recycled the DX6i and receiver from the B400, which adds significantly to the cost of your Copter X solution. Still, I'm heartened that you could build a 450 for so little. I too am considering building a knock off (HK 450), but maybe Copter X is a better choice.

Thanks for you your honesty! It helps me a lot.

Mack

Have you checked the mesh between the motor pinion and main gear and the tail belt tension? If the pinion and main gear are too close together or if the tail belt is too tight it can create too much load on the motor resulting in power cutting out.

The pinion and main gear should have just a little bit of wiggle between them. The main gear can be a little less than perfectly round so check it all the way around. Some people set the spacing with a piece of paper between the gears.

Yeah i recycled the DX6I but stole the rx from my cx2 which i never fly anymore which did indeed save on cost but as i use the dx6i for all my choppers i would not add it to price overall.

Ive got a friend who also has a hk450 and a copter x and he too prefers the copter x. It was mearly a project, i set myself the task of making a bird to my own specs using my own knowledge and smashing the price of retail rtf versions just to see if you could, the result in my opinion speaks for itself, totally impressed. The only thing i will be changing are the boom support arms and adding a ubec and thats it.

Compared to the price of buying a b400, then the spares cost and inevitably swapping the junk stock servos etc you cant do much better.

Oh while im moaning lol i swapped my stock eflight servos to hitec 65 mg`s which seemed to be an expensive but great solution, as time has proven though two of my 4 hitecs have stopped working altogether and at £20 per servo i now would whole heartedly NOT recommend these anymore as many other people on other forums are having the same happen to themselves

The problems have been solved, I picked up a Castle BEC yesterday and the problems have gone away. I think from now on when I set up a new heli I will just put a 20 dollar seperate BEC on it and not have to worry.

Coyote,

What kind of brushless motor and ESC did you install in your CopterX?

Mack

\Contact EFLITE, if its faulty, they might warntee the ESC.

I was simply making he point that you were bashing eflite because you had one bad experience with them. Ive been flying and repairig eflite for over 5 years, and yes, there is some :"junk" on them, and occasionaly there are bummer equipment that dails, but for the most part, they are reliable as an entry level model.

SIDENOTE: I too really hate waiting for parts..... its the worst part of Helis... we have a heli, and almost a complete second one witting in our flight boxes as "spares" because we never know when we can't get parts. I buy "beater helis" from people for less than what most the parts cost from the LHS.... cept usualy, its the parts I need that are also wrecked on the beaters LOL.

Hi Mack, its a Turnigy e500 4000 watts brushless with a programmable emax esc-40A Speed controller

Hi Mack, its a Turnigy e500 4000 kva 200 watt brushless with a programmable emax esc-40A Speed controller