Comment & Question for Anyone

[mwarren]

This is a multi comment/question so if you have the time read all. I have a Blade CX and I have had a good time playing with it but from lack of experience I dont know if the problems I am having is the Heli or me so I am asking for your opinions.

I dont have an issue getting it off the ground my issues come at several junctions when flying, forst and foremost it seems to sway in one direction or another. From online videos other people seem to be able to fly and make them hover within a 3 foot square, I have looked at my swashplate and it seems to be level, I have got my props to generally start at the same and my blades seem to be tracking in the right manner, as far as I can tell. I may not be looking at the blades in the right manner to tell if they are tracking in the right way.

The other issue is how do folks fly hands off I am steady having to increase or decrease throttle to keep it in the air. I am steady fighting to keep it in th air, is this the way it is or is it out of adjustment so bad that I cannot fly with out the struggle?

The other thing I see with this heli is if I am tring to hover and then try to use foward motion it wants to go to the ground and I have to increase the throttle.

Would I have been money ahead to buy a beginners heli such as a Fixed Pitch? I really want to learn how to become a good pilot but I seem after 3 weeks of practice I can fly up ad down but not forward or backwards or side to side becaude I am fighting this thing just to stay airbourne and watch the drifting in a direction that causes a crash. I am considering getting out of the hobby and thought I would ask to make sure of the causes of my issues, me or the heli. If you think the issues are adjustment could you point me in the right direction of some tutorials that might help.

[DebianDog]

3 weeks!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA

It took me 2 years to be able and fly "O.K." Some people learn faster than others.

Practice... practice... practice... although a perfectly trimmed helicopter is easier to fly it is still like balancing a cue ball on a glass plate. i.e. Flying a helicopter is one of the hardest things I have ever tried to learn in my life and I am still not "good" at it. I mean I am an expert at my field but a rank AMATEUR here on the Freak.

You should be doing nothing out hovering until you master all 4 directions.

With the smaller weaker helicopters you will have to "work the throttle" to keep them airborne.

[txflyer]

as stated above. learn to hover in all 4 directions. my tail in hovering is getting good. ive only been flying for about a month on a cppro.

id say give it some more time. stick with one thing till you can do it perfectly with out thinking. you will learn to "think ahead of the heli" atlest thats how it was stated to me the day i bought my pro. turns out its true..now if i get into a bad situation i can snap the tail back towards me and 75% of the time pull my self out into a stable hover.

for tracking i put my throttle to about the point where i would be hovering and then i look at the tips of the blades as they spin and try to make sure i see one smooth blade. and not 2 blades one above the other.

if you do get out of the hobby email me i might be interested in taking the cx off your hands..american1zero@hotmail.com

[mwarren]

I flew tonight and did well except I cannot get it to stop going in a slow circle. If I sit it down in front of me with the nose facing me and take off it will start turning to my left nose first. I have adjusted the 4 in 1 both directions and doesnt seem to change anything. Got any ideas?

[txflyer]

you cant trim it out on the radio ?

[bigdumbdane]

The blade cx2 got me hooked into helis -

There is some ground effect with them when taking off, so they tend to lean to the side... I just gun it to get up faster, and compensate a little.

I had to make adjustments to the swashplate to get it to the point of being trimmable via the controller, but once that was done the only adjustment I had to make was to the rotation.. the gyro gets hot or something and looses its tracking...

Flying hands off for 10-15 secs is definately do-able, but the second you look away it seems to wander off for some reason...


I had the training gear off on the cx2, but sneezing seems to make parts on that thing break, so I put them back on.


I moved up to a collective pitch e-sky cp2, and that really made me realize how hard flying helicopters is. Now if I hover for 30 seconds I am thrilled (on my 5th battery). I kept the cx2 since I can actually fly it though...

[rufusis]

I am about 9 and a half weeks into my cx2 experience and chomping at the bit for a T-rex. I have experienced similar frustrations as you and with some methodical research and troubleshooting I think I have found the 'sweet-spot.' Read through all the cx topics here, and carefully read through the manual again. In addition to the previous replys, I used the following technique with great results. I am quoting another Freak here, sorry I cannot remember their name:

quote "Need to mechanically trim as follows....one direction at at time. First center all trim sliders on TX.

Trim for rotation of tail, ignore sideways or fore/back drift. Read manual, adjust rear trim pot gradually disconnecting battery each time, until heli doesn't rotate either way...as close as you can get anyway. It will rotate gradually as battery gets lower during flight.

Next trim out sideways drift..if it drifts left, unsnap right servo link from swash, turn clockwise one full turn (ie. shorten it), reconnect and check. If it drifts right, lenghten the right servo link...turn counterclockwise.

Last, trim out fore/aft drift...if it drifts back, unsnap both servo links and turn counterclockwise same amount...half or full turn, ie. lenghten them. If it drifts forward, shorten both servo links." end quote

This is especialy helpful after crashes, blade replacement, upgrade installation, etc.
Remember, when making these adjustments, as well as tweaking the 4-in-1, use very small increments at a time. This also applies to throttle inputs. My first few flights I was bobbing up and down, overcorrecting, crashing into the ceiling. Subtlety is key. When easing into forward flight you will have to apply slightly more throttle to maintain altitude. Just keep plugging away, you will develope the feel.

Another thing that helped me with throttle control was to get rid of the 'ratchet' on the left stick. Carefully pop the back of the radio off and flip the little metal band on the ratchet mechanism over. You can bend it a little to adjust tension if neccesary.
I prefer the smoother feel, what if you only need 1/2 or 1/4 of a ratchet?

One last note. I try to have 3 batts ready. Unless I am entertaining friends, I always use the first for hover practice and to make sure everything is trimmed, upper rotors are tracking etc. Going through all orientations and trying to focus on weak points (side in is my trouble.) Second batt I work on tail in circles, constant heading circles and simple cicuits. Oh, and maintain steady altitude LOL! Third batt I just fly around, work on spot landings, chase the cat, what have you. Set goals, work methodicaly, and have a blast! Then start all over with a CCPM Bird!
I can't wait!

[carlo_the_wonder_frog]

On the blade CX original heli with the yellow canopy, the 4 in 1 was very sensitive on the proportional, you only have to turn it a very little bit to get an effect. Better batteries will also help immensly, thunder power 2 cell 740 mah will be a drastic improvement.

Once setup correctly and trimmed out, the cx should hover hands off indefinitely.