cbdane
06-01-2006, 08:58 PM
I've had the Blade CP for several weeks now and I thought that I would share a newbie's (to R/C helicopters) impressions. As an introduction, I have been flying fixed wing airplanes for almost 20 years but as my children have grown older, I find it harder and harder to (1) keep enough space to build and maintain my planes at home and (2) to make an entire day available to prep a plane, load it up, drive to the club field, unload it, fly it, drive home, clean the plane, and finally store it away. The microhelicopters intrigued me since it seemed as if I could fly for an hour here and there during the day or in the evenings and better provide my R/C "fix" on a more consistent basis.
I first purchased a Blade CX and thought, "What a piece of cake! This isn't at all hard!" Moving on to the CP showed me how wrong I was. After a few weeks, though, I can easily hover and quickly maneuver it tail in as well as sideways, i.e. tail right and tail left. Nose in still generates a momentary panic which results in loss of control and minor repairs. :(
Here are some observations in what I've learned so far. Please keep in mind that (1) I am brand new at this and (2) I am learning on my own and haven't had any help from experienced pilots (none in our club).
1. The Blade CP is a handful for a beginning R/C chopper pilot!
2. With the Hiller mixing, as delivered, the controls are so slow that it is quite difficult to fly. The control lag is terrible and would require psychic abilities to guess where it is going to drift to next to stay ahead of it.
3. The Blade is a whole new machine with the Bell-Hiller upgrade. Should never have been sold otherwise. If it were an inherently stable design, the standard Hiller mixing would be okay, but it isn't. You need quick control response to keep it in line.
4. With the stock head, you need a little positive incidence on the blades (1-2 degrees) at full stick down. If you try to fly with too little incidence and higher rotor speeds, mechanical play in the head will cause a lot of vertical yo-yo'ing. A little more positive incidence is the easy solution.
5. Use a manual paper punch and add a nice set of ventilation holes in the canopy just above the heat sink. This will cool the motor down a lot with the LiPo battery. First I flew without the canopy but I've now found that it helps me better visually orient the helicopter with it on.
6. Buy the all CNC head from Heli-Direct (Bell-Hiller as delivered). I got mine on eBay. What a marvel! The next big improvement in performance after the Bell mixing plastic upgrade.
7. Transition immediately to the symmetric blades, even for hovering. Much more stable and they seem to provide a lot more vertical stability, even without the extra vertical blade pitch mentioned above.
I mostly fly in a big open bay with high ceilings but I now can very confidently follow the CP through narrow hallways and can hover out an entire pack (~15-20min) while maneuvering around a small room (12x12') sometimes hanging out just a few feet from the ceiling. Very little outside flying so far, but will transition soon.
I'm going to upgrade to a Trex 450 SE sometime in the future but I believe that my upgraded CP will provide a lot of very good stick time and much more training before the upgrade. Everything that I've read here says that the Trex will only be easier to fly.
Just some thoughts, experiences, and observations. As a newbie, I'm sure that I have some things wrong but I'm learning! :D
I first purchased a Blade CX and thought, "What a piece of cake! This isn't at all hard!" Moving on to the CP showed me how wrong I was. After a few weeks, though, I can easily hover and quickly maneuver it tail in as well as sideways, i.e. tail right and tail left. Nose in still generates a momentary panic which results in loss of control and minor repairs. :(
Here are some observations in what I've learned so far. Please keep in mind that (1) I am brand new at this and (2) I am learning on my own and haven't had any help from experienced pilots (none in our club).
1. The Blade CP is a handful for a beginning R/C chopper pilot!
2. With the Hiller mixing, as delivered, the controls are so slow that it is quite difficult to fly. The control lag is terrible and would require psychic abilities to guess where it is going to drift to next to stay ahead of it.
3. The Blade is a whole new machine with the Bell-Hiller upgrade. Should never have been sold otherwise. If it were an inherently stable design, the standard Hiller mixing would be okay, but it isn't. You need quick control response to keep it in line.
4. With the stock head, you need a little positive incidence on the blades (1-2 degrees) at full stick down. If you try to fly with too little incidence and higher rotor speeds, mechanical play in the head will cause a lot of vertical yo-yo'ing. A little more positive incidence is the easy solution.
5. Use a manual paper punch and add a nice set of ventilation holes in the canopy just above the heat sink. This will cool the motor down a lot with the LiPo battery. First I flew without the canopy but I've now found that it helps me better visually orient the helicopter with it on.
6. Buy the all CNC head from Heli-Direct (Bell-Hiller as delivered). I got mine on eBay. What a marvel! The next big improvement in performance after the Bell mixing plastic upgrade.
7. Transition immediately to the symmetric blades, even for hovering. Much more stable and they seem to provide a lot more vertical stability, even without the extra vertical blade pitch mentioned above.
I mostly fly in a big open bay with high ceilings but I now can very confidently follow the CP through narrow hallways and can hover out an entire pack (~15-20min) while maneuvering around a small room (12x12') sometimes hanging out just a few feet from the ceiling. Very little outside flying so far, but will transition soon.
I'm going to upgrade to a Trex 450 SE sometime in the future but I believe that my upgraded CP will provide a lot of very good stick time and much more training before the upgrade. Everything that I've read here says that the Trex will only be easier to fly.
Just some thoughts, experiences, and observations. As a newbie, I'm sure that I have some things wrong but I'm learning! :D