Newbie Here

[BlizzardBoy]

Hello,

I'm pretty much completely new to r/c flight -- a few years back I had a r/c foam plane that I used till it died (I thought it was great). I've played with r/c cars and I've also used a r/c sub. Now I'm interested in r/c helicopters, and while searching the web, found this place.

In the past I've always been fascinated by r/c helicopters (not so much planes), and now I can afford the hobby - to an extent. While looking into various helicopter models, I found the Blade CP. This helicopter seemed relatively serious, and was within my price range.

However trying to get ahold of one of these helicopters, where I live, is difficult, but the stores carry the Blade CP Pro. To get a Blade CP, it'd cost about 300$ CDN, plus about 75$ CDN for the upgrade kit, while the Blade CP Pro costs 300$ CDN. I looked into the Blade CP Pro, and it looks like the Blade CP except with a Li-Po battery, and symmetrical blades.

My plan with the Blade CP was to figure out just how to fly around first, and if I was really into it, upgrade with the acrobatics kit. I didn't want to buy it all at once, cause I'm not made of money. I've also looked into buying a cheap helicopter to experiment with first to see if I liked it, but all the "cheap" helicopters are about 135$ CDN, which is almost 1/2 the price of a nice helicopter.

Anyways, since a lot of the people here are pros, or at least have an idea of what they are talking about, I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips or advice? If by chance any of the readers here own or have used this model of helicopter (CP/CP Pro), and could give me some more specific advice, it'd be most appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

-- Zan

[Danyboy]

Hey Zan,

I know what you're thinking... ;)

I do fly the BladePro and I do recommend it.

I've seen another guy going through model and model, and whenever he bought another one, he claimed that it was the best... While i thought: Didn't he just buy the best one last time? ;)
He never bought the blade - yet - , but all those other "fancy" helicopter that pop up like something, and if you read the ads, all of them are easier to fly, more stable than anything else and are nothing behind the big ones. All in all: Perpetuum mobile...

Whatev'...

BladePro is quite a bargain over the Blade.

I can recommend it as well if you start with helicopters, though there's some stuff I recommend buying along...

Go for the pro, but also get yourself a pair of profiled blades.
Officially, the do only appear as replacement parts for the Blade, not the Pro, but they fit nevertheless. And they soften somewhat the quite direct reactions. Perfect to start from scratch until you want to go aerobatic.
Additionally, a training gear is a must to begin with. Even when changing settings, I put on the gear for the first flight. It may look silly on the first look, but it'll safe you money in the long run.

If you are a complete starter with heli, I recommend to change the position of the rods on the servo-arms.
Instead of positioning them on the outermost, put them in the center of the five. That will lessen the amount of cyclic per stick-deflection and helps a lot when you learn to hover. Keep in mind, that this also lessens the maximum available pitch, which will go down from 12° to around 8°, which is definitely not enough to do more than hovering. But for to learn to hover, it's quite ok.
If you are able to keep it hovering within the area of 3x3ft, put the links on the servo-arm back to the original position and start all over again.

With the pro, because of the colouring of the canopy, I recommend keeping the training gear on even for some of your first forward flights, it helps greatly to recognise the position of the heli, since that silver-gray of the fuse blends in greatly with a sky at sunset... ;)

Once you are able to do forward flight on a proficient level, you might want to change back to the original symmetrical blades. You will find them react more direct to the inputs, though the sound is not as spectacular...
And an advise from expirience: Do *never* attempt aerobatics involving inverted flight with the profiled blades, no matter how eager you are. You can think of the rest... ;) No, it did not lead to a crash, thanks to sufficient height... ;)

I hope I was able to give some input...

Cheers from switzerland,

Daniel

[BlizzardBoy]

Alright, Thank you!

I was going to buy a pair of regular blades to begin with cause I've heard you have to replace them often (when you crash). I didn't want to lose the symmetrical blades in a crash, 'cause they cost more than the regulars.

Thanks for your advice... I wasn't going to buy the training kit, but with your input I'll have to give it some consideration.

Thanks again,

-- Zan

[tjrtmaster]

You can get an Esky Honeybee CP2 with a lipo and lipo charger for about $150 shipped on ebay. I have one and I would highly recommend it.

Tim

[zooland1]

The CP2 and blade pro are basicly identical. There's a slight difference in the Bell/hiller head (regular blade only has hiller) and the CP2 also has a much stronger main shaft.

Just so you aren't confused. I have a blade cp, but have basicly over time upgraded it to the CP2 (my cost to date is well over $350 US, so $300 CN sounds pretty good to me). Plus if you can find the HB CP2 you can save even more.

[BladeCXMan]

I believe if I were you, I'd get me a Blade CX to learn with first. I think you might be jumping off the deep end with the CP or CP Pro for sure! I've went through my share of blades, front ends & other spare parts with my CX, and I'm fairly coordinated. Flying a helicopter period is kinda' like placing a steel bearing in the center of a piece of glass, holding it on the sides, and by tipping it one way or the other, making the bearing go where you want it to!

[steve28]

the blade cx will teach you absolutly nothing (IMHO) about flying a real heli model .
the cx is passive stablility ( requiring no input to remain stable ) a conventional heli is actively stable ( requires constant input ( corrections ) to remain stable ) . this is what you want active stability or its useless and nothing more than a novelty toy .
the blade CP is the cheap heli ( its just the only one that actually flys ) . more expensive helis are quite a bit more money for sure .
The Blade CP is actually quite difficult to fly , and setup for smooth controlled flight , it doesnt have a hh gyro and so you have to be on the tail more . never buy a fixed pitch heli i did it and regretted it , the blade CP is the only cheap heli i know that flys good .
i wouldnt use the non symetrical blades ither just use the symmetrical ones they track better and if 26 bucks to replace them is too much for you then mabey RC helis arent for you , you say that youve always been interested but only now you can afford it , well reality check time my balde CP after all my mods ( to make it fly to my satisfaction ) including brushless conversion and spektrum radio upgrade ( no glitches ) my BLade has cost me upwards of 800 bucks and counting including crash repairs and Im a decent flyer with over 60 hours between my CP and My T-REX ( 1600 bucks and counting ) . RC helis arent cheap and if you decide to go cheap you will be dissapointed and discouraged and you'll never learn to fly . If you want to learn how to really fly get ready to start shelling out . and get a simulator , you'll still crash but not as much . sorry to be negative but theres no real way (IMHO ) to do this hobby on the cheap .

[BlizzardBoy]

Others have told me that it is easier (and better for a beginner) to fly with regular, profiled blades 'cause:

A) They are slightly cheaper
B) They are easier to control

You still think I should stay with symmetrical blades though?

Since you seem to know your stuff, how hard of a crash does it take to actually cause some damage? For example (to have to repalace the blades), are we talking about hitting a wall, or are we talking about something like hitting the grass from a foot-high fall?

Thanks for all of your inputs,

-- Zan

[steve28]

hitting the grass from a foot high will not break the symmetric wood blade ( the white ones ) in most cases . hitting a wall in full forward flight will break them .
Hitting grass or like I did one time ( I flew the heli and I was hovering about 4 feet off the ground as I was coming in to land when my cyclic links snapped it dopped like a stone and did a short chicken dance ) the blade tips were a bit rough after that and the plastic film had torn but I fixed them with sand paper and clear tape .
after they had been re-balanced and re- tracked they flew fine .
If you can grind down T-REX blades do it , they are 10 bucks cheaper than BCP blades.

[kenandmoose2]

I am new to the heli hobby. Flew on the sim. maybe 4hrs. I bought a blade cp pro for my first heli. Cheap to start with and cheap to fix after a crash. If you are starting out on a budget it is a good investment 300$ thats with crash parts and you are flying. It's not a t-rex no, but it also isn't $1000 to $1500 to get off the ground. :? I had to take the time to set the gyro, but other than that it flew out of the box. I have had no major crashes and replaced 1 set of blades (boom strike). Very touchy but i thought the sim was harder to fly. The symmetrical at your lhs should be less than $20. e-flite has them on there web page for $15.99

[BlizzardBoy]

Hello again,

I went out and bought the Blade CP Pro. It's been a bit windy though, so I havn't taken it off the ground... for now I'm just getting used to the controls.

Before I want to go for my first flight, I want to install the training gear... Haha, well the problem is that the gear does not come with instructions, and the manual doesn't say anything about training gear. I looked on the web for instructions, or even just a picture, and I havn't found anything.

Some guy on another forum dated about a year ago, explained how to do it in about 3 sentences....

"remove the landing skids. slip on the 4 supplied brackets. and slide add 4 of the gear on"

Ok, I understand that I need to remove the skids, but from there (don't know 'bout you, but this guy didn't seem to explain it very well)?

Please could someone help?

Thanks again,

-- Zan

[BlizzardBoy]

never mind, I found a site that shows you how to do it...

http://www.willshobbies.com/blade_training_gear.html

Thanks anyways,

-- Zan

[Skiddz]

4 zipties will fix you up in about a minute. Rubber bands work ok too.

[zooland1]

I used zip ties on the outside ends of the skids. That way all you have to do is slide them off the ends to remove them and slide them back on if you want to try something new.

I had two other birds before I got my blade and never could fly them. Two things that helped me tremendously were "Radd's school of rotary flight" (an on-line training camp) and lots of sim time.

Keep it slow and simple, these things are not airplanes, they are hard to fly until you develop with it. Sooner or later it just clicks and you have to set it down because you realize you're getting tired and just need to rest. That's when you smile, change the battery, and put it back up.

[Rick Rotorhead]

I'd recommend holding the training u/c on with rubber bands rather than anything firmer - cos if you hit the ground the impact is transfered to the skids and will break things. Bands will help soak up impact energy harmlessly.
I second Radds school, I didn't follow it to the letter (all ten packs), but the principles of being disciplined and keeping it in a marked box and learning tail control first, all helped enormously. Skidding around on a hard surface with the training gear on is great fun - like a hovercraft. My bird is a Twister CP - a Blade type clone, almost identical. Its very resilient. I've flown it into my car, into a fence, into me (twice), a tree, a sofa and a rose bush. CF blades take a lot of punishment, woodies less so but are half the price. I normally break the pivoting linkages attached to the blade grips and bend main shafts (which can often be bent back good enough to fly, by hand, without removal. These little birds are hard to fly and need little excuse, or wind, to misbehave, but a lot of fun.......

[SteveTTL]

I just got into this hobby a couple of months ago myself (and love it!). I purchased a pegasus (a coaxial like the blade cx) to start out with. Being completely ignorant to the hobby, I thought you just charged it up and took off flying. Made a big crash three seconds and twenty feet feet into the air. While waiting for parts arrive, I purchased a toy to ?get the feel? of flying them. Big mistake, so into the garbage I threw it. Then went to the lhs and bought the blade cp. As Rick stated, it's a hard copter to learn on, but fun. I think it's the best one for learning to fly with because of that. I believe it's difficulty will make a better student out of you. It's also cheap to buy parts for, and they are easy to find. I use the flat bottom woodies all the time as I'm still only practicing tail in hovers. I started out getting to know the controls by scooting it around on the skids, then went to training gear to start hovering about a foot off the ground. I couldn't, however, seem to stay in the air more than a couple of seconds. Next purchase was a sim (the G3). Big help! After learning tail in hovering on the sim, it was easy with the blade. The sim was the best buy I've made while learning. I've also bought the blade cp pro, but I'm leaving it in the box until I've learned forward flight on the cp. The people on this board have also been a huge help, a great bunch of people. Have fun!

[steve28]

BCP PRo is a good heli for training , it actually teaches you things about rc heli flight that the CX does not ,

respect to the guy who threw it in the trash

I ve converted my BCP to a CP pro essentially , but with Brushless motor and such stuff and it flys awsome .

[Rick Rotorhead]

Agree totally Steve28, a good power setup is desperately needed on the Blade. Mine sometimes loses height after a turn and there just isn't the oomph left in the collective to haul it up (with an underpowered heli all you get by pulling back cyclic is a slowing of forward speed, with out the climb. So, yeah, a good brushless must work wonders for it. Mine still has the brushed 370 sized motor, its pretty poor!

[carlo_the_wonder_frog]

The CX is a great beginners Heli, It is very good for learning orientation. As it is a BEginners heli it won't do the things a CP will do, but it flies easily and is very stable. Good for learning on, and it can get up and move out once you have the hang of it. Don't try to fly the CX in any kind of breeze, wind, dust devil..etc, the wind makes the cx either balloon up and out of range or instant rock like trajectory. Honestly the CX sees more time in the air than the T-Rex, the edge 540, the U-Can -Do or my Slinger. Just something about heading to the garage on a whim and flying this great little heli.

[kenandmoose2]

I think the blade cx has it's place :twisted: in the garbage can :bomb: