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View Full Version : Big Al's Blade Chronicle . . .


BigAl07
03-26-2008, 11:05 PM
Ok a little about me...

I bought a Blade CP from a friend and instead of being patient and waiting for him to help me I kept trying it until I broke it enough times to where it was more expensive to fix than to replace on EBay. So I bought another one on and this time waited on my friend to come over to trim this thing out. He flew it and got it trimmed perfectly. After he left I got OVER confident and smacked into the deck. Only broke the blade & grips. Replaced those and sold BOTH together in one lot on EBay.

Bought a CX on EBay and "Accidentally" bought a CX2 within a couple of hours.

Felt like CX2 was a better "bird" because of the radio upgrade and it just "looked" less battle worn. Well the CX2 just seems to have motor or rotor problems because it don't even lift off the ground. I'll look into that on Friday when I take it to the LHS for some assistance.

So last night I finally got the CX out and much to my surprise it was rock solid and hovering right out of the box. I hovered through a couple of batteries and it was late so I stopped on a "good note" and went to bed. Well today I had to come home to get something for work and got "Brave" again. This time I went outside. It was a little breezy and I came in slightly side-ways and it tipped over. Somehow the only thing that hit was the Fly-bar. It snapped off the fly-bar hold down as the blades were almost stopped. Oh well. I put in a call with the LHS and they had the aluminum upper and lower in stock so I had a friend pick them up and drop them off to my office. After a trip to the auto-parts to get some thread lock I was once again ready to go. 5 batteries charged up and ready to hover. Well right off the bat it seemed "different" in that it would do nothing but sluggishly go from side to side and front to back. It was a battle to just keep the bird in a 15' circle. I couldn't believe it. I figure that maybe this "Upgrade" made it so much more sensitive that I was over-controlling it. I took the servo horns off and moved the control rods all the way IN to try and calm the beast down. Even with that it was WILD to say the least. When I finally looked closer I realized the fly-bar and top blades were VERY stiff and hard to rotate. I had apparently over tightened the two hold-down screws binding the assembly. I corrected that and it made a HUGE difference immediately.

So I finally get it all back together again and fired up. Right off it was ROCK solid. I was hovering tail in, nose in, and SOME side-ways with relative control. I flew for a good while on several batteries and even was able to use my cell phone to video some short flights. Then I got brave and started landing on a step stool. How COOL is that?

Well it's almost time for bed and as of this moment it's all on ONE piece! It will "Fly another day!" :)

Well that's it for today :)

Happy Hovering!!

BigAl07
03-27-2008, 02:34 PM
Brought the CX to work with me today. I work for a building supply company and we have HUGE warehouses with no wind. I only brought TWO batteries with me because I figured that would just about cover my lunch break. WOW! I must say... flying it INSIDE in a large area makes all the difference in the world. I was able to fly BOTH batteries and actually would like to thing my skills have improved! This may be a DAILY event :)

EPBDDSB
03-27-2008, 08:19 PM
Boy are you lucky to have the warehouse space to fly in.
:thumbup:

BigAl07
03-27-2008, 10:41 PM
Boy are you lucky to have the warehouse space to fly in.
:thumbup:

That's the truth! I'm planning to make it a DAILY ritual and maybe even more! Lucky more so in that I have keys to the building so I have weekend and night time access too :)

Man I LOVE this bird!!!

:)

frankyg
03-27-2008, 10:41 PM
Boy are you lucky to have the warehouse space to fly in.
:thumbup:


yeah really, i had a little wind outside today and landed a little too roughly (as in skid first into a brick wall) on an already broken skid (yeah i know, bad idea.) I am currently making temporary skids out of shishkabob skewers!!!! lol :wow2:

BigAl07
03-28-2008, 09:58 PM
yeah really, i had a little wind outside today and landed a little too roughly (as in skid first into a brick wall) on an already broken skid (yeah i know, bad idea.) I am currently making temporary skids out of shishkabob skewers!!!! lol :wow2:

Love the new "skidewers".

Well I took my other heli (blade cx2) to the LHS and the ONLY thing wrong with it was the upper/inner shaft collar wasn't tight on the shaft. So he tightened it and I bought the new Jet Ranger body. LOVE IT!

Here's the CX2 with the Ranger clothers on


http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc265/BigAl07_01/CX%20Heli/IMG_4487.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc265/BigAl07_01/CX%20Heli/IMG_4493.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc265/BigAl07_01/CX%20Heli/IMG_4501.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc265/BigAl07_01/CX%20Heli/IMG_4509.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc265/BigAl07_01/CX%20Heli/IMG_4510.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc265/BigAl07_01/CX%20Heli/IMG_4518.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc265/BigAl07_01/CX%20Heli/IMG_4520.jpg

frankyg
03-30-2008, 08:56 PM
starting to like the looks of that shell.

reminds me of flying the jet ranger on old flight sim 98

BigAl07
03-31-2008, 08:09 AM
starting to like the looks of that shell.

I wish it still LOOKED that good!! I was flying outside yesterday and doing slow lazy circles. No wind at all. Each circuit I would add a little more forward cyclic and it would get faster. Finally I realized (by my wife's comments) this thing was Zooming faster than ever. So I pulled back on the stick slightly.. no change... I pulled back MORE no change... It just kept accelerating but I still had control but finally I pulled back on the throttle and it had little effect until the blades almost stopped turning... Of course at that point it shot into the ground and Mach 1.2

luckily the area it hit was thick/tall grass/weeds so that absorbed MOST built up energy. The only thing that's worse for wear is the shell has some cracks in it and one place has a chunk missing the size of a quarter. It flies just as well as ever and looks fine from a couple of feet away.

Is this fast forward flight known to cause un-responsiveness on coaxial craft?

Allen :)

frankyg
03-31-2008, 04:56 PM
i smell a gremlin... hire a priest and it will go away...

but i have never had a problem like that. Was one of the servos stuck maybe? or its wire loose?
that would explain the unresponsiveness i would think

BigAl07
03-31-2008, 06:16 PM
i smell a gremlin... hire a priest and it will go away...

but i have never had a problem like that. Was one of the servos stuck maybe? or its wire loose?
that would explain the unresponsiveness i would think

That's plausible but honestly I can't get it to "re-create" the situation. I've flown it MANY times since then and it flies like a charm... thank goodness! Can you get it to flying TO fast in forward flight? I think maybe when I yanked to far back on the stick to slow it down I had a "Blade Strike" because the blades were stopped before it hit the ground but no blade damage.

:)

BigAl07
05-27-2008, 01:58 PM
Been a while since I posted in my own thread so here I am :)

I have highly modified this particular CX2 with Boomtown items top to bottom. This include upper & lower blade grips and XTREME blades.

Friday night I was flying in a TAD too much wind and when I really YANKED it hard it locked up (at about 70') and fell like a shot duck to terra firma. I must have done something GOOD that day because some how it landed in a hedge row and was greatly cushioned. 6" either way would have been a block wall or asphault. Only cracked the body a small bit. Straightened out the blades and flew back into the house with no problems.

Next night (Saturday) had some friends over for a cook out... decided it was time to show off a bit (Hey yall watch this.....) and again TOO windy. First thing I knew it was shooting skyward like a home sick angel at 1/2 throttle. The prevailing head wind was REALLY pushing it up ... Up... UP and away! With FULL forward it was barely able to maintain less than DRASTIC reverse flight. Next thing I know it's almost a mere DOT way up over head. I annouced that it was officially "Out Of Control" so the guests could take cover for what was about to happen... I heard a loud "SNAP" and watched it descend about 20' then it settled into another hover...another "SNAP" and it came down 30' or so. Once again it regained attitude and was rock solid. By this time it's below the tree line and slightly protected from the wind. I was able to gt it back to the deck and settled down for a SMOOTH landing. Friends clapped and accused me of "Putting on a show for their entertainment" but I convinced them it was REAL when I put it back into the case and called it a DAY! Apparently the "SNAP" was minor blade impacts but not enough to STOP rotation completely. I was lucky TWO nights in a row!!

Allen :)