rglbegl

Been a car guy for a long while, decided to give flying a try.
I just got my first Heli, a Blade 450X.

Aside from the basics, anything I should know about Helis?

Real2You

You have never flown ANY heli's before? No simulator? That is going to be a tough heli to learn on. You definately better put training gear on to help out with tipping and rough landings. Go slow....take baby steps learning to hover. Or you can get a simulater or easier heli to fly before you cra....I mean fly that nice heli.

rglbegl

I started with several little coax helis, then moved to the msr and a 120sr. (the 120 was the greatest learning experience, that thing is a bugger to keep stable in even the lightest wind)
I had a nano cpx, till I got too aggressive with it. I currently have the 120sr and a 130x.(And a coupe quads for fun) This is just my first real Heli, all the others were tiny and could crash without much damage.
I have spent hours on the flight sims. Both RF and Phoenix

That is why I am asking for any advice about slightly larger birds. Is there anything I should know? Or do I just throw it to the wind like I do my 130x? (in a larger area, of course)

Real2You

For me the biggest difference was how much more intimidating the larger heli's are. I have an mSR and a mCPX but I also have a Raptor 50. The smaller heli's you fly knowing if you have a crash you usually don't break anythinig. The larger heli you need to go slow and get the feel for it. Hover it in the different orientations....feel the difference in speed and how it reacts. Good luck and happy flying!

rglbegl

The intimidation factor is why I started this thread.
I can sport fly the heck out of my 130x, and do minor 3D.
I am not looking to be an expert, I just want to know if there will be a huge difference in the larger Heli before I throw a bunch of money out the window with a simple 'oops!' moment.

karlik

My first spool up with the 450 the sight and sound of those blades spinning scared the #$@%& out of me. My fingers started to shake and I only got it light on the skids. I decided the front yard wasn't big enough and went to a schoolyard.

Gotta say I'm still a little intimidated by the thing, which is probably good.

Don't trust those calculators that say "this motor and this pinion = this headspeed", they are only ballpark (too many variables). According to web pages I should have been at about 2900, but I was actually around 3500. I changed to a slower pinion and it ran cooler and longer per pack. Get a tach of some sort that gives you actual numbers

A lot depends on setup - I have 9° pos and 3.5° neg. I use about 30% expo. I found it to be much more stable, and the response was much smoother than any of the smaller stuff I had flown. It sounds like yours may be leaning towards a bit more "exciting" setup? Maybe start with tame settings for a few flights then turn it loose?

I don't do any 3D, just sport / scale like flight, so I got nothin for ya from that area.

My first few flights were just short hops to check and correct tracking, gyro gain, etc. Once I started to hover and then move it around a little and I realized it wasn't going to take off like Ed "Big Daddy" Roth when I pushed the stick forward, my heartrate got back down into double digits, I started breathing again, and I started to enjoy it.

rglbegl

So did the full set up today. More of a final pre-flight check to make sure everything came from the factory with the proper orientation.
Spooled it up to hear it run, didn't even take off from the ground, just made sure there were no vibrations or anything. REALLY intimidating compared to my micros.

Bad news; had my first broken part without even flying, the elevator control arm snapped. It is a little scary that a plastic part can break so easily and has the potential to cause a catastrophic crash.

rglbegl

Great, broke the tail rotor pitch slider.
Another broken part and this thing has yet to fly.

Did a run up, made sure my new part was in straight. Somehow one of the rear blades broke the sliders arm.

Now I am REALLY afraid to put this thing in the air.

karlik

I'd try to find someone to look it over real good. Blade is pretty good stuff - I wouldn't expect one part to fail so soon, much less 2.

Quincylee

I have a question hoping you can help! I just aquired a nitro heli that's been wrecked an I'm trying to fix it back up but there are no markings anywhere other than on the engine saying PRO 70 which I think it would be a 700 class thunder tiger, so what I was wondering is if you might know how to identify the larger scale helis from one another specifically the R60 from the R90 so I would know what parts to order or are the 60/90 the same other than engine size

Real2You

I'm not familiar with the R60 and R90...but if it's a Thunder Tiger Raptor....i would call heliproz.com and ask them. I buy all my Raptor 50 parts there and they are very helpful and have answered a lot of questions for me over the last few years. I'm sure there are other places that carry Raptor parts that would be willing to help also.

Quincylee

Ok thanks for the help, I was going to call a hobbietown,usa that's fairly Close to me an see what they say about it. But will contact heliproz an see what they say also because they probly have a more accurat answer anyway. Thanks again Real2You