borocouncilman
08-04-2007, 10:19 PM
Following a visit to a newly discovered LHS, my Blade CP got a fresh pair of flybar paddles, Carbon Fiber Main Blades, and Carbon Fiber Tail Rotor. A Blade CP pro canopy to replace my battle damaged canopy finished off the upgrades. With these pieces, I was finally able to get my new DX7, 3-in-1 equipped, Bell Hiller upgrade machine into the air this afternoon. Given the multitude of upgrades, let me break it down.
Bell Hiller Mixing Upgrade
Cyclic response is super quick now. Prior to the upgrades, I had about 30+ flights on my CP and had grown accustom to the relatively lazy cylic. Lazy no more. Seeing the difference with the Bell-Hiller mixing upgrade, I can immediately see how beginners could be frustrated with a CP Pro. It's a whole bunch more demanding than the standard Hiller mixing on the CP. I have to say that it took a little adjustment.
DX7 w/6100 Receiver and Stock Servos
I ended up positioning the 6100 with the antenna perpendicular to the ground. It works really well -- Spektrum Range test passes with flying colors at 100 ft away. Hands down, computer radio absolutely spanks the stock unit. With a more aggressive throttle curve, the helicopter feels like it's got 20-30% more power. Control-wise, everything is more precise -- good thing given the head upgrade. No external antenna wire. No glitching. 2.4Ghz rocks.
Carbon Fiber Blades and Tail Rotor
The E-Flite Carbon rotor blades are better balanced than most of the woodies I've purchased. The tail rotor just sounds "meaner" with the sharper carbon blade. I got a durability test in while tweaking the gain and proportional pots on the 3-in-1. The Helicopter snapped right and skimmed a blade on the pavement. The result? a minor scuff on the blade. With the woodies, the cover would have been torn and the blade would have been garbage. For the Carbon blades, it's like nothing happened. I'm even tickled that they tracked when set to the proper pitch with a gauge. Did I mention that they look cool as heck? Expensive, but they paid for themselves today.
E-Flite 3-in-1
While this may be old news for guys with CP Pros, I found that the 3-in-1 was pretty straightforward. With the higher head speed afforded by the radio upgrade, the tail motor has a tough time holding things. I had a huge amount of wag to deal with after the install that could have easily converted my Blade CP into little pieces. Violent wag is no fun. Fortunately, I was able to tune it out.
Flying it...
I've gotten 3 flights in with the upgrades. The first was purely a shakedown flight. The second and third have been focused on acclimation to the new cyclic behavior. I did manage to get a little forward flight in on the third flight. So far so good, but it's going to take a little trimming before I can let go of the sticks.
This whole upgrade process started following an inverted flight that ended badly. I'm prettty happy with the results. I'm going to beat on the Blade a bit more until I get my T-Rex back into the air (no crashes, but a faulty ESC, and battery have grounded it for the past two weeks).
Blade CP (now a Pro, ala Carte, the expensive way to do it)
Spektrum DX7 AR6100 Receiver
Aerobatic Upgrade Kit with Heat Sinks
1300maH E-Flite LiPo
E-Flite 3-in-1
Bell-Hiller Mixing upgrade
Carbon Fiber Rotor Blades
Carbon Fiber Tail Rotor
Bell Hiller Mixing Upgrade
Cyclic response is super quick now. Prior to the upgrades, I had about 30+ flights on my CP and had grown accustom to the relatively lazy cylic. Lazy no more. Seeing the difference with the Bell-Hiller mixing upgrade, I can immediately see how beginners could be frustrated with a CP Pro. It's a whole bunch more demanding than the standard Hiller mixing on the CP. I have to say that it took a little adjustment.
DX7 w/6100 Receiver and Stock Servos
I ended up positioning the 6100 with the antenna perpendicular to the ground. It works really well -- Spektrum Range test passes with flying colors at 100 ft away. Hands down, computer radio absolutely spanks the stock unit. With a more aggressive throttle curve, the helicopter feels like it's got 20-30% more power. Control-wise, everything is more precise -- good thing given the head upgrade. No external antenna wire. No glitching. 2.4Ghz rocks.
Carbon Fiber Blades and Tail Rotor
The E-Flite Carbon rotor blades are better balanced than most of the woodies I've purchased. The tail rotor just sounds "meaner" with the sharper carbon blade. I got a durability test in while tweaking the gain and proportional pots on the 3-in-1. The Helicopter snapped right and skimmed a blade on the pavement. The result? a minor scuff on the blade. With the woodies, the cover would have been torn and the blade would have been garbage. For the Carbon blades, it's like nothing happened. I'm even tickled that they tracked when set to the proper pitch with a gauge. Did I mention that they look cool as heck? Expensive, but they paid for themselves today.
E-Flite 3-in-1
While this may be old news for guys with CP Pros, I found that the 3-in-1 was pretty straightforward. With the higher head speed afforded by the radio upgrade, the tail motor has a tough time holding things. I had a huge amount of wag to deal with after the install that could have easily converted my Blade CP into little pieces. Violent wag is no fun. Fortunately, I was able to tune it out.
Flying it...
I've gotten 3 flights in with the upgrades. The first was purely a shakedown flight. The second and third have been focused on acclimation to the new cyclic behavior. I did manage to get a little forward flight in on the third flight. So far so good, but it's going to take a little trimming before I can let go of the sticks.
This whole upgrade process started following an inverted flight that ended badly. I'm prettty happy with the results. I'm going to beat on the Blade a bit more until I get my T-Rex back into the air (no crashes, but a faulty ESC, and battery have grounded it for the past two weeks).
Blade CP (now a Pro, ala Carte, the expensive way to do it)
Spektrum DX7 AR6100 Receiver
Aerobatic Upgrade Kit with Heat Sinks
1300maH E-Flite LiPo
E-Flite 3-in-1
Bell-Hiller Mixing upgrade
Carbon Fiber Rotor Blades
Carbon Fiber Tail Rotor