Hello everyone!

I am new to R/c Helicopters and may have jumped ahead a bit too early. I bought a walkera mini cobra and manged to half destroy it before it even took flight. I now most of you are smirking at your screens laughing 'noob' but I would really appreciate your help.

So here's the details.............

I bought a mini cobra and got all excited about flying it around the place. I unpacked it and chrged the battery whilst I read the instructions. Luckily this problem is not in the instructions.......... or I am too noob to know. I switched on the controller before the heli like a good boy but every time I increased the throttle to take off the heli kept strafing left. I tried switching it off, making sure all the trims were in the right place and switching it back on again but it still strafed left...... into a wall and broke the tail rotor. I replaced the rotor with the spare provide and it still happened. I tried adjusting the trim when it looked like it was happening again but this did not help at all.... not even a bit. Now I have broken all my tail rotors and am sad because I can't fly my new heli.

It's more than likely me and my lack of knowledge/experience so could I please borrow some of yours? I am just about to order new rotors so I have some time to study your answers before I 'fly' it again. Please help as my house is turning into an rc helicopter graveyard!

Thanks in advance
Peace
Streetmonkey

Monkey Boy

when you say "it strafes left", do you mean the nose continues to point in the same direction and the whole heli moves leftward?

if this is the case, this is what helis do as that tail rotor, whilst in proximity to ground, acts as a lovely big fan and it will push the heli left! the way you learn to overcome this is by applying a small amount of right cyclic (the right hand stick on the controller to the right)!

you've made your learning curve pretty darn steep by going for that particular heli as a starter but stranger things have happened! the main thing to remember is to be patient! if it was easy everybody would be doing it!!

check out [link=http://www.dream-models.com/eco/flying-index.html]RADD's School of Rotary Flight[/link] as a beginning! there are other sites out there so have a look around on t'web!

be patient oh padwan and take it slowly!

Matty )<+}}}}}]@>

p.s. where in the U.K.?

M )<+}}}}}]@>

p.p.s. if you didn't get any with the heli, make some training gear from light dowel and whiffle balls (training golf balls, you know the plastic ones with all the holes in!), make 'em into a cross with the balls (x4) at the end of each rod and secure them to the skids!!

Many thanks. When the new rotors get here I'll give it a try. It's not my first heli just my first four channel one. I rekon I'll give it a bit more space on my next flight too! I have no doubt that I'll be back in six days with tears in my eyes and another two broken rotors but that just means that I'll order four!

I am in Brighton in the UK.

I'll check the training site too. Cheers

Peace

Also...... From having indor and micro heli's before now, are the rotors on this one supposed to be fixed or do they use thecentrifugal force to place them?

Thanks for the training website heads up! I already feel that it will all go much better next time I try. And he has alredy mentioned everything that went wrong on my first 'flights' (I'll take the inverted commas away when I control any airtime!)

I posted but it doesn't seem to have posted so I'll ask again just in case.

It doesn't say anythin in the manual but do I need to tighten and fix the blades on this one or does it use centrifugal force to position the blades? So far all my helis have been three channel indoor helis with'soft' blades but I'm not really sure here. It didn't seem to be a problem having them soft......

Cheers
Peace

I don't know for sure on the really tiny ones, but I would imagine it's about the same idea as with the bigger helis. You want it to be tight enough to hold them in place so they don't get jerked or wobbled out of place when it's spooling up, since can give you nasty vibrations and potentially tip the heli over.

You do want them to be loose enough that a flick will knock them back a big in the grips though. Not all the way back, but make sure it does move. This will take some stress off your drive train in case of a bladestrike.

Centrifugal force will hold the blades where they need to be once it's up in the air as long as you don't have the grips way too tight, so don't worry too much about getting them perfectly straight and lined up and all that before taking off. Just get them close so it won't shake around spooling up.

But yeah like I said I don't have personal experience with the tiny ones, for all I know you might leave them a lot looser since the blades have less mass? Still seems like it has enough relative to the rest of the helicopter that you'd want them to stay in place, seems like it could still potentially shake it up pretty good.

Ahh, Brighton, I really enjoyed Brighton. Another bit of trivia...I stumbled upon a group flying R/C Helis in Portsmouth and stopped to watch. One of the local flyers that had a 30 size ship even felt pitty on the yank and let me hover it for a while. Nice, really nice..

Keep after it, remember, it is practice, practice, and a bit more practice!

Monkey Man

my family and i are going to to be in Brighton the w/e after next for the model show (although the missus and sproglet and our mums are going on some retail therapy while i go and enjoy the show!)! my mum lives in Crowborough and we're visiting her for the w/e!!

if you were/are going or would like to hook up for a coffee, PM me on here!

Matty )<+}}}]@>

Sure that sounds good. I know the model show is there but I have not been yet. haven't done any modelling since I was a kid........... except with the nephew recently as an excuse like!

Well I got her in the air! Which is all well and good but that is where my control stops! I am taking it nice and slow but if there are any points for me they would be great!