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Ladies with Helis & Heli Widows Ladies who fly Helis and Wives of Heli Flyers. Guys, please leave the new threads to the ladies |
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01-16-2008, 11:07 AM | #1 (permalink) |
Join Date: Jan 2008
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my first crash
My first crash happened this morning and I've only had my Blade 400 for about a week. My bofriend tweaked everything for me till I learn how to do it myself (I know I'm spoiled)
So took it out in the yard and was practicing my hovering. It leaned a little forward and I pulled the stick back a smidge to get the nose up and it just went over forward more and the blades dug into the ground and one got caught under the stabalizer(?) on the tail. I was only about 4 inches off the ground. How did I do that much damage? I know the feathering shaft is bent from the blade getting caught. It really torqued it. I just don't know why it happened. It was flying perfect! Any thoughts on what I did wrong? |
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01-19-2008, 03:13 PM | #2 (permalink) |
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Hi Nan,
I don't know exactly what happened. I do know I hover practice at a height of two to three feet. If I'm much lower the ground effects make it real hard to fly. Just an idea Cheers, Leslie |
01-20-2008, 08:41 AM | #3 (permalink) | |
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Quote:
Thanks! thats what my boyfriend told me too! I was afraid to get too far off the ground but I think I did worse damage then if I would have crashed from a higher distance. Lesson learned. Its been too windy and cold to fly since the crash though. |
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03-04-2008, 11:33 PM | #4 (permalink) | |
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Join Date: Dec 2007
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Quote:
You should invest into RealFlight 3.5, it is worth every penny. |
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03-25-2008, 02:32 PM | #5 (permalink) |
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First off, I had a Blade 400, and it SUCKS !!! I put about 3 flights on mine and was not happy at all with it. I brought it home, Dissassembled it, And I'm selling all the parts on ebay. With the exception of the Spektrum TX and RX ( the only good thing about the heli )
Also the last person is "rite on". Go out and buy the RealFlight G3.5 or better yet the G4 simulator, and put as much time as you can on it. Its less heartbreaking hitting the reset button than it is "hitting the ground". |
03-25-2008, 02:50 PM | #6 (permalink) |
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The Blade 400 does NOT suck! I'd love to hear your reasons why after just 3 flights you claim it sucks? Do you know how to fly heli's? A CP heli of ANY type is inherently hard to learn on, but with time and practice is very rewarding.
The Blade 400 is not in the same class as a TREX, but for under $500 it is a very nice starter heli and hovers very nice. The radio is a nice one as well. Skarn |
03-27-2008, 06:11 PM | #7 (permalink) |
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If you are really serious about the hobby, a sim is a must-have. If your boyfriend tweaked your heli, is it safe to assume he flies? If he flies, does he have a sim that you can practice on? If not, Realflight G3.5 is all you need, and it isn't as much of a resource hog as G4. You can get 3.5 pretty cheap since everyone just had to get G4 so they could have floats and pretty water in their sim. Phoenix is another great sim. Don't bother with cheap crap sims.
As has been stated, you cannot hover at 4 inches. Get it at least waist high. I have found in my experience that the crash damage is no worse at three feet than it is at 3 inches. My forward flight crashes from 20 feet up were not as bad as my newb hover crashes. Like I said get the sim, it makes life much easier and cheaper. Once I got a sim, it paid for itself in ONE DAY in saved money from not crashing the real thing.
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700 size scale Bell Jet Ranger 206BIII, 450 size scale UH-1N, 180 size fpv race/freestyle quad w/Fatshark Dominator V3 goggles, mCPX BL, some edf jets and a plank or two, DX8, AMA# 923167, Clubs: Silver Hills RC, Coeur D Alene Modelers Association |
03-29-2008, 05:14 PM | #8 (permalink) |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Hi,
Sorry to hear about your crash Nan. I totally support the sim suggestion, mine has saved me some serious cash. One thing I read somewhere, G4 will not support older models from G2, G3 and G3.5. There are loads of free model downloads available on knife edges web site if you go the G3.5 route. As I said, I read this somewhere, I can not say if the info is valid or not, but as G3.5 is cheeper because of G4, lets face it, do we really need to fly off water. Good luck with your flying. |
03-30-2008, 11:17 AM | #9 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Jan 2008
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I think perhaps the setup on your radio may have been a little to "hot" for a beginner. If your pitch and throttle curves are set up for normal sport or 3D flying, it will take a lot more finesse to fly. Try setting your pitch to zero at lowstick, about +5 at midstick, and no more than +9 degrees at high. Also set up your throttle curve to increase very gradually over the sticks entire travel. this will allow you to adjust your altitude very easily.I'm currantly enrolled in an R/C flight school through my local LHS, and this setup was programmed in by my instructor, and allowed me to hover my Trex 450 solo my first night of class. Proper mechanical setup and radio programming can make a bird like this fly as mildly as any "beginner" heli on the market. If you can fly indoors and out of the wind, too, it will make things much easier( I practice hovering in my brakfast nook in my kitchen). Anyway, sorry about your crash, but don't let it spoil your fun.
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03-31-2008, 10:10 AM | #10 (permalink) | |
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Quote:
Thank you for saying that! I love my Blade 400. It is the perfect size. And my boyfriend has it tweeked almost perfect for me and my beginner ways! He also has the 3.5 realflight which I totally played with before even getting my heli. He has a hawk 50 and he let me hover it so I could see the difference between the blade 400 and his. And I crashed again - bent the feathering shaft, broke the blades, bent the main shaft and stripped the gears in one of the servos. Cost maybe $20 dollars including the blades. When he crashes the 50 its at least a $100! So I love my Blade!! Thanks for the hover advice all. I didn't realize that ground affects could make it so hard to hover!! I do more damage 6" of the ground that 3 ft! |
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03-31-2008, 11:20 AM | #11 (permalink) |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Altitude is your friend.
Being up higher allows you a little more room for error and more time to recover or correct the heli. |
03-31-2008, 12:02 PM | #12 (permalink) |
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Good info guys. I am new too, with a blade. I am going to use your ideas. Setting my pitch to more gradual curve could be a godsend. thanks.
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03-31-2008, 05:32 PM | #13 (permalink) | |
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Join Date: Mar 2008
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Quote:
I've got 2 of them, one to fly while I work on the other.. Anyways, one came outa the box great, the other had the famous tail twich, I took everyone advice here and upgraded ONLY the Gyro servo and the problem was solved. I myself don't see why some bash the 400, the cost and performance of it has gotten me even more hooked and am excited to move up to bigger and better when I feel ready. Anyways, rock on all you heli bro's and sis's |
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04-15-2008, 11:27 AM | #14 (permalink) |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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I like my Blade 400 too. I'm a noob, and I like learning to fly on a more difficult 3D heli like the Blade 400, cause if I can master it, then when I buy a 50 size nitro, I won't have any trouble flying the more expensive heli.
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05-30-2008, 06:50 PM | #15 (permalink) |
Join Date: May 2008
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I have seen the Blade 400 do the same stuff a T-Rex 450SE can do, that alone seems pretty impressive, and you always see people bashing it just because its cheap. Horizon is already releasing some CNC parts. People who buy a T-Rex off the bat get quality of coarse, but they have to build it, buy all the electronics, etc. With the Blade 400, you upgrade when you are ready. Anyways, almost EVERYONE has a T-Rex, I would rather be different.
Thats just my opinion. |
05-30-2008, 10:25 PM | #16 (permalink) |
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Join Date: May 2008
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Congratulations on your first, it was a relief to me to get mine out of the way. My first time crashing I was in stunned at the amount of carnage and that was on grass. The first time I crashed on concrete I was even more in dumbfounded I see now that the grass is very forgiving and concrete is BAD. |
08-12-2008, 08:58 PM | #17 (permalink) |
Join Date: Aug 2008
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hi Nan i have an idea . try trimming the cyclic back a bit . i had the same problem with the blade cp .and also they say its ready to fly out of the box .this is so wrong .you have to make sure collective pitch is right and your esc / gyro is perfect in gain and ratio . they say its ready to fly out of box .but you know thats not true . helicopters are the hardest thing to fly and maintain . i fly real helicopters and i must say rc helis are more difficulte than the real thing . i wish you luck . dont give up.
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08-29-2008, 08:07 AM | #18 (permalink) |
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Put 10-15% expo in your cyclic, it will smooth things out around center stick, but still provide full travel.
I find 15% is perfect, smoother around center, but the apex on the curve is still smooth as well. Any more than that and my heli wants to "snap roll" when I reach the apex.
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-Ari aka, Sir-Crah-a-Lot |
09-02-2008, 11:22 AM | #19 (permalink) | |
Join Date: Aug 2008
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Quote:
I'm a noob too, and working on my hovering. I've had several crashes, mostly because I've been trying to learn with wind, lacking the self-control not to fly when it's windy -- which it seems to be every day right now. After spending weeks building, learning, and tweaking these things (I have a micro -- Shogun -- and a 30 -- Swift). After two expensive crashes, I've put the Swift away, and am using the Shogun to learn. Now, about the comment above: Everything I read, and the advice of the guys at Century Heli where I bought the Swift, is to set the throttle curve (5 pts) 0%/45/90/90/90, and the pitch curve as you say (used my pitch gauge to get the travel percentages to yield 0deg at low stick, 5 at mid, 10 at high stick). My understanding of the theory behind this is that helis are designed to run full, constant headspeed hovering and in flight, blade pitch doing all the work of changing altitude. Won't setting the throttle to spin up and down while in the air encourage developing bad habits on the stick that will have to be "unlearned" when changing the throttle curve to the more typical setup? Also, can the "softening" effect be just as easily created by narrowing the pitch curve, setting the top stick value (and inbetweens) to a lower value? Say, a upper half-stick range of 5-8deg, or less, and then still flying with full, constant headspeed? |
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09-03-2008, 01:03 PM | #20 (permalink) |
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First I only have -4 degrees of negative pitch in hover and idle 1
throttle in hover mode 0-45-90-90-90 in idle 1 90-90-90-90-90 This means in either mode, you have a flat curve when you have positive pitch on your blades. I like to start in hover mode, but I usually flip it to idle1 before take off. The benefit is that when you come in for a landing, negative pitch will be smoother in idle one, and you can come down quick(but not too quick) in idle1. I don't fly inverted(yet) so I don't really need idle2 yet, but it will be full positive and negative pitch, and probably 95-100% throttle. This is what works for me YMMV
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-Ari aka, Sir-Crah-a-Lot |
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