Blade 400 as prep for TREX 450?

[morrisr]

I almost have my TREX 450 built. A little more head work, balance the blades, have someone help checkout the set up and give it a whirl (pun intended). But unless I can find someone on my side of town nice enough to help before our flying group meets next month, I have 3 weeks to wait till I get air-ready.

So I am wondering what folk's feedback is on the Blade 400 as a lower cost trainer in prep for my TREX. The PNP version is out now for around $280 and I can use my own DX7, extra receiver, and the same batteries as the TREX.

Best I can find out, it sounds like it needs some adjustments out of the box to calm it down a bit for noobs, but it also sounds like something I could risk hovering at home (maybe with training gear) to get back used to hovering a real bird instead of just the simulator.(been a couple of years since I hovered my Raptor 30).

Anyone got any stick time on a 400 and can give feedback?

[widower]

I've crashed mine once. Cost $20 to repair plus replacement of one stripped servo. I purchased a nice tail servo and kept the stock servos on the cyclic. I've also since purchased two 2200mAhr packs. That's it. I'm loving it. Mostly hovering indoors but have been outside 5 times. There's not much needed for adjustments. Locktight all bolts, verify swash is level. From stock, I added 20% expo, and modified my throttle curve from the factory settings on the dx6i.

I purchased the full kit that included charger and electronics. It's got my foot into the hobby and I've purchased some nice servos that I will put on the cyclic this summer (or after another crash that kills a servo).

To calm it down, I just used expo rates on cyclic.

[Skarn]

You don't need to get a B400 as a TREX 450 trainer! The TREX 450 flies better than the stock B400 and is a great heli to learn on.

If anything, spend your time on the simulator...you do have one yes? If not, there is a free one created by one of our own Helifreaks. Look in the TREX 450 forums...it's a sticky. It's basic, but it will teach you ok.

Good luck!
Skarn

[randerson07]

If you already have the Trex skip the Blade 400. Setup really isnt that hard, get your servos at 90, get the swash as level as you can by adjusting the links. Im pretty sure in the Trex manual they list the lengths you need your links to be, try to match those and make half turn adjustments to level the swash and get your blades at 0 pitch at half stick.

One you do that you should be able to hover, your tracking may be off, and maybe the heli drifts this way or that, but you will be flying. you would need to check the setup on the Blade anyways as out of the box its not perfect either, flyable but not perfect.

You can tweak everything else as you see fit, make sure your throttle and pitch curves keep the head speed up, it makes keeping the thing at a constant altitude much easier.

I think all this sounds much harder than it actually is.