Blade CP Setup
 

I searched, I didnt find what I was looking for...

I have a Blade CP, nothing fancy, mostly stock. I was wondering what setups other people are using, aftermarket parts, e-flite parts, ect. I was also wondering what people like and dont like about their current and past setups. Things such as Gyros, Brushless Motors, Dual Tail Motor vs. DD vs. Belt Drive. Stock frame, skids, booms vs aluminum frame, skids, booms. Plasti vs carbon vs wooden blades. Things like that. Just list you current/favorite setup. Problems you have had, things that fixed problems, caused problems, or were pointless.

I am posting this because there seems to be a ton of aftermarket parts out there for the Blade CP, and I dont know what I want to go with yet. I dont see any point in spending hundreds of dollars on items that offer no real advantage over stock. So if you have any suggestions, please feel free to post up. I am new to building the CP's, and I am lost!

Current Setup:

Blade CP
Flat bottom plasti blades. (I hate them, too heavy, and everything else breaks, and everything else is expencive!)
Stock chassis, skids, and boom. (Ordered the Super-Skids setup, and the super boom tonight! :D )
2 Cell 850 Li-Po (Need 3 Cell 1300+ Li-Po!)
Stock main motor, stock tail motor. (Debating between Belt Drive, DD, and Twin Motor setups.)
Stock head, swashplate, ect. (I am looking into the aluminum upgrades, but the guy at Heli-Hobby says the ones they sell are crap. Know who is best?)

I have been flying this heli for nearly 3 months now. It's my first, and I am slowly learning. I have broken more skids than I can remember. (Oh right, I bought E-Flite a new skid manufacturing facility.) And I used to go through blades like nobodys business.

So! Any info you want to share would be greatly appreciated! And if this is a repost, I am sorry. Just point me in the right direction!

LBC

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

Here's what I've found with the Blade CP/Pro...

The Blade CP is best left stock!

Chances are it's your first collective pitch heli and if it is,
you ARE going to crash.

I feel it's not worth fixing.

Fly it out of the box until you crash, then move on to a better heli like the TREX 450.

If you want to stay with the 300 size helis go with a Blade CP Pro, for the extra $30 you get Bell Hiller, Symmetrical Wood Blades, Motor Heat Sinks, 9 tooth pinion, Lipo Battery, and Balance Charger.

I've had several Blade CP and CP Pros with a variety of set ups, and from my experience the TREX 450 is actually cheaper in the long run. The Blade CP can quickly become a money pit, and I've found after thousands of dollars and various mods, I've never got the tail to feel "locked in" and it seems like I'm always "chasing the tail" while flying. Many times this ends up with the heli crashing to the ground and heading back for repairs.

With that being said, this is a hobby and hobbies are a great way to spend time and money.

The Blade CP Pro is a great introduction to collective pitch helis. For $250, you get a fun heli with endless possibilities.

A few key points to remember

1) It's all in the Set Up!

2) When you crash, something has take the impact.

the trick is to try and minimize the damage, and get the heli back in the air as quick and cheap as possible.

From my experience that means leaving the stock Symmetrical Wood Blades on. They are very easy to change, and usually take most of the impact during a blade strike. Where as when using either the CF Blades or the Plasti Blades you end up with much more damage...

as far as other upgrades, only replace what breaks during a crash... different flying styles will result in different types of crashes.

I've found this set up works best for me...

stock Blade CP Pro
G90 HH Gyro
microHeli autorotation main gear with steel shaft
microHeli steel spindle

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

wow that's harsh the poor thing. $250 for 1 crash. Geeshus dude.

Come on now, modding isn't that expensive and if you just do basic stuff like change the skids out to superskids and do something about the tail it's not all that bad.

Really even with all my heartaches I still want to try surgery before moving on :)

DY

PS I like the dual drive just take off an inch or so from tail and the weight issues work themselves out. Just make sure the main don't hit it :)
fly's way cool no issues.

if you're hovering stay with Superskids and dual tail. Nothing else needed.

Next things after stock not after what you may have if you just want to spend money:

aero kit w/3cell lip0
Metal swash
bell hiller
sym blades
decent RX and TX (you will sue these later anyways at least the TX)

wouldn't do much more than that until you are ready for more advanced, which case get another bird.

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

Well, I got tired of waiting, (and a little bored), so I got some parts.

I was reading on the belt drive, and it seems to be the general population believes the belt drive kit is too heavy for the Blade CP. So, I looked into the direct drive. I dont like it. I do, but I dont. I think in the long run, the dual motor setup will be much better. (Two is better than one, right?) And, since I crashed today, and twisted my head/swashplate/main shaft into a pretzle, I started looking into the bell hiller alum setup on HeliHobby. I like it, minus the blue color. But oh well. So here is whats on the way for the CP.

Super-Skids Complete Kit
Super-Skids Super Boom
Aluminum CNC Tail Twin Motor Mount
All-Metal Bell-Hiller Head System
370 Motor with 9T Pinion
Two Replacement Tail Motors
Main and Tail Motor Heat Sinks

After all that is said and done, I am going to be hopefully upgrading the electronics. G90 gyro w/heading lock, brushless motors with the little ESC dealie. I have a cheapo 2Cell LiPo battery now, that seems to not provide enough power for the heli. I dont know, seems like even the LED on the 4-n-1 doesnt burn as bright. So I am going to be going for a 3 cell 1300+ LiPo. Problem is, I live in remote Alaska, and you cant air ship batteries to me. They have to come up on a ferry, so they are super expencive up here, and take nearly a month to get here. Anyhow, thats the plan right now.

I have looked into the TRex, and I like it. But I dont know. I am partial to the Blade. I have had two of them now, and I am really getting to liking this one. It's small enough to fly indoors, but at the same time, can handle the outside pretty good. Even in light wind. It does what I want it to right now. And the plan is to learn to fly really good with this size, because compared to other helis, the CP is still fairly cheap to fix and mod, and because I really want to fly .50 size or larger. (I was looking at .90 size today, damn that would be sweet!)

Anyhow, I suppose thats that. I will post some pics when I get this thing all fingered out.

Thanks for the input guys!! :D

EDIT: Oh, and I dont know if this is what you meant, but when I take off, I always lift the tail first. I nose in till the tail lifts about an inch, and THEN I apply enough power to get the heli off the ground. I dont know if this is the proper way, but I seem to have good luck with it. For me, it allows me to get a feel of when the heli is going to lift. It also keeps my rear rotor from striking the ground, should the heli decide to kick backwards for some reason.

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

the super skids are you talking the ones from superskids.com?

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

I meant because of the extra weight of the tail you'll need to cut about an inch off of the boom. It should be REALLY close to the main once you're done, I meant if you do this don't let the main hit the tail, do everything you can to make sure you are at least a cm or so away from the main rotor stretched out and up and down etc... Yank on it :) see if there's anyway it will hit the tail while spinning etc... That would be really bad.

Caution: Be careful when cutting, the red and black wires are in there!

If you don't cut the boom the tail with 2 motors is a bit heavy. Not much you can do to compensate either. Just make the nose heavier, limiting your battery time even more. Cutting is what I've seen recommended.

DY

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

Yes, I ordered directly from Super-Skids.com.

And I plan on cutting the boom rather than add even more weight to the front end. I am hoping that the added weight of the superskids setup will be enough to compinsate for the dual rears. But if not, I have no problem cutting things. I have seen helis with a raised tail rotor, is this a custom built thing? Does it help with flight or is it just for looks? Would that help keep the tail blade out of the main blade any?

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

thanks. took my maiden voyage today and of course broke one of the skids. this drops alot harder then the cx2 did lol. however i am real happy with performance and have to say it pretty much did what it does on the g3.5 sim. i a happy all around

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

another thing you can do if you don't want to cut the boom is just get a 12 or 1300 mAh battery. The heavier tail balances quite nicely with those. With a csrc 8C 1250mAh pack and the dual tail before I started having problems with my main motor I was getting 18 min worth of hovering without setting down, and that's leaving about 20-26% left in the pack =)

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

the raised tail is mostly for looks. theoretically having the tail in line with the blades minimizes roll coupling, but the coupling is hardly noticeable on stock blades anyways. also, when you raise the tail you have to deal with torque twisting the boom, which will likely cause other performance problems that offset any small improvements gained by raising the tail.

lookyj is a bit harsh on the blade saying it's good for once crash only (ROLF, can i have your blade bro?), but i do agree with him about aluminum heads. consider the expense when you crash. there's also less parts availability too. then you consider the weight; an aluminum head adds a significant fraction to the blades overall weight. the idea is neat, but in practice plastic works better on our lightweight helis. a trex has a much larger rotor disc & motor, so the weight of its aluminum head is a drop in the ocean so to speak. plus, count how many others have done well on blades without aluminum heads, and how many say they couldn't live without one.

imho if you need superskids, it means you ditched the training gear too early. i never broke a skid until i started practicing loops. trust me, i didn't dive in to aerobatics too early. i was flying the crap out of my heli before i even entertained the idea of going inverted. so instead of weighting the heli down by trying to make it bulletproof, try being more cautious and don't go big until you consistently nail soft landings. use the force luke...

regarding tails: gws DD is the best blade tail, but the benefits of DD don't really kick in until you start flying forward. so DD is something you could put off for now & spend the money saved on upgrades that will help you nail down hovering (like flat bottom woodies, training gear, HH gyro, heavier lipo, servos, tx...).

i agree with mrasmm about lipo weight. a heavier lipo (1320mA) is a great way for beginners to add "training weight" to slow the heli a bit. it will also help balance a heavy tail and gives more training time as well. there's one downside to buying heavy lipos, once you start flying forward, lighter is better & you'll want 730mA or 910mA.

-kev

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

guess, people think I was a little too harsh with the one crash thing.

maybe so, but let me clarify this is how I feel about the stock Blade CP not the CP Pro...

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

I can hover, land, and fly foward and backwards, I can even turn in foward flight. I can hover sideways, in a circle, around a 50 gallon bucket with my nose pointed towards the bucket. And I broke more skids with the training gear than I do without it. My problem with the skids I cant figure out. I can set her down softly, and 1/2 the time I break a skid, right where they mount to the frame. Always the left side, alway the front skid arm. So who knows. I was looking at the trex lastnight, and if all goes to hell when I get the Blade built, I may have to give it a shot. Like I said, I live in remote Alaska, so it's not like I can drive to the store, and pick up a new bird. Everything has to be shipped to AK, driven 4 hours, and then either 2 hours by river boat, or 1 hour by small plane. My parts come in with my food and supplies, a few times a month. I will see how the Blade does I guess...

:D

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

When you land put in more right aileron ;), then maybe you'll break the right one.

I think I remember someon taking black electrical tape and wrapping from where it meets the chassis all the way around, again adding more weight, but might stiffen her up a bit.

I personally user superskids, if I were you I'd do same, being that far out of it :)

DY

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

just picked up some super skids from the hobby shop next town over from me. they are awful heavy. how much performance do you seem to loose with the added weight?

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

they add about 29g total weight to the heli, which works out to be about 10% 298 for the stock weight on the cpp 15g for the stock skids, and 44g for the super skids complete setup.

The idea with the super skids is more to lower the CG and to beef up the landing gear. It doesn't change hovering or ff too much, but I'm sure it would change aerobatics if they were even possible.

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

thanks mrasssm. i am able to do a complete loop with stock skids but it has to be high and come out on time and not much margin for error. i am concerned even with this that the extra weight may be to much with the stock motor. if i put the skids on and try i will let you all know how it works out for now they are still on my work bench. i am more interested in putting the copter to its limits then hovering which i am finnally doing a little. nothing spectacular but i can bring to a hover and land after flying which was my main goal

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

good deal =) are you using negative collective in your loops? if so you should be able to pretty much do a loop without loosing too much alt with even the stock motor. Chopperdudes if I remember right says he can do a stationary roll with the stock cpp, of course brushless is going to be alot easier.

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

not sure of the terms marssm. basically getting good altitude taking the right stick and pulling it down and about 3/4 way thru the loop i am bringing it back up. broke a few blades and skids of course but having a blast and doing things i never dreamed of doing. i must say the simulator helped alot. i bascially lived on the sim for around 4 days since i am on vacation. (well was going back to work tonight.) i think without the sim i would have destroyed this big time. sim is not 100% acurate but darn close and helps bring some of the things you need to learn as second nature togather. all i can say is i am enjoying myself big time. and ran thru another battery this morning with no mishaps.

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

hrm... yeah... you might benifit from doing the idle up mode (switch on the right hand side of the Tx). What it does is take the collective and sets 50% throttle at 0 pitch, 0 throttle at full negative pitch, and 100% throttle at full positive pitch.

So to do a loop that way you would start into the loop and as you got about 90 with the ground you would be a 50% throttle or 0 pitch and as you came over backwards you would go to the same distance below 50% as you were above the 50% starting in to the loop (so no jamming it) as you approch inverted, and then reverse it as you are comming out. You should be able to do that without loosing hardly any alt.

With that said... the way you are doing it now... how much alt are you loosing? Like how high up do you have to get to pull that off?

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

i take it up about 80 feet which is a pretty close estimate. been flying next to the control tower lol and it is 120' and using it for a measurement. still waiting for someone to complaine but being a controller i dont think they are to keen on pissing me off. the loops are big and drop a good 30 feet maybe a little more. been messing with the throttle up a little but not real comfortable with it mainly because when i crash or get close to the ground i panic and want to be able to kill the throttle quick till i get a little more comfortable and taking everything one step at a time. basically my flying is a little hover then up and a few circutes do a loop then fly around till i battery starts weiring down a little then come to a high altitude hover and see how straight i can bring it down. not fast but real slow. that seems to be helping my cordination alot and if i get in trouble i just give it throttle and start over. also been messing alot with stall turns which are kinda fun. my flying is not the smothest but so far no serous crashes just minor ones that don't take to long to fix. i know the big one is coming its just a matter of time but i stocked up on all the parts everyone suggested so not a real concern. i have the supper skids as i said but have not put them on yet. i figure next time i break one i might put them on and go play with them a little. this little bird is eratic and could use some tameing and again something keeps telling me learn to fly it this way and i should be able to handle most anything. i thought i would have fun with this but it is more then that. what a wonderful sport. it is turned into more of a passion.

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

over confidence can get expensive. had a few nasty crashes and starting all over. first thing is to rebuild the helocopter and try the skids. i think i tried to advance a little to quick. had some nice flights but time to learn finese

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

So I got to thinking, helis dont fly with one blade, two is better. Well, I assume that 4 or 5 blades would be best, right? Anyone know anything about 4 and 5 blade helis? Does it help overall flight performance? Is it worth it? I liked the heli they used on Myth Busters for the "Birds in a truck" myth.

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

sweet video on Mythbusters......but that heli was prolly a grand to set up...and he broke all the blades in about 5 seconds........5 x's the cost to fix. My guess is at some point, no matter how many blades you have....its still a "disc" pushing air downwards and shouldn't make any difference if you have 2 blades or 20........... It would still be an unstable mass of air pushing in the direction of the pitch of the blades.
More blades probably just equals more lift, Like the sky cranes we used to use for setting ski lift towers and pouring concrete on a steep slope. that was some seriously exciting work back in the day.........heh!


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Of all the things I ever lost..................................... I miss my mind the most!

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

i couldnt imagine trying to balance 5 blades 2 is enough for me lol.

RE: Blade CP Setup
 

I cant get the dang tail boom out. Am I missing something here?