What a blast this is! Crash and all.

[7wt]

Hey everybody. I just wanted to share with you all my first successful day of hovering (kinda). I just rebuilt the thing after a mild first flight crash that bent the main shaft, the feathering shaft, a flybar and stripped a servo. I was chomping a the bit to fly it so I decided to wait until I calmed down three days later. Today was the day so I hopped it and hovered it for half a battery pack until it got behind me and started to transition to forward flight without me so I chopped the throttle and set it down pretty hard and bent another main shaft and broke a set of blades but I am all smiles! I have been out of RC for the longest time and just bought my Blade 400 on a complete whim (thanks to Uncle Sam and his stimulus check). This is so much fun I plan to buy a Mikado after I get the Blade under my belt. I am going back to the store this week to get a sim so I can practice when ever I feel like it which translates to when I am working. Nothing in RC compares to hovering a helicopter.

[HeliMix]

Congrats. Ain't it great! :YeaBaby:

[Redfire SVT]

Congrats. Ain't it great! :YeaBaby:

Yup, he's infected.

Heli-crack-fever is running rampant these days!

7wt, helis are a blast aren't they! Hey, go ahead and learn the throttle hold switch A.K.A. the OH $h!t switch instead of chopping the left stick. If you know it's over and you are going down hit the throttle hold. You will have to break the habbit when you go to idle up.

[7wt]

Another rebuild, another crash. At least I learned something. I learned that you shouldn't fly off thick grass. The skids sink into it and the little thing will roll over as the head unloads and the rotor will smack the grass and make a mess out of your main shaft and strip a servo or three. Yup, that happened to me so Monday it's off to the store to get some servos. I am getting sick of rebuilding the stock ones. This flight wasn't as good as the last one but still loads of fun. I think I even like rebuilding the thing as much as flying it.

[Gsquared08]

Busy week for crashes. Must be that government conspiracy I heard about where they're jamming the 2.4Ghz freq's. You know right before I lost control yesterday, I felt a weird tingle run through my spine. Hmm:thinking

[Bladey]

Another rebuild, another crash. At least I learned something. I learned that you shouldn't fly off thick grass. The skids sink into it and the little thing will roll over as the head unloads and the rotor will smack the grass and make a mess out of your main shaft and strip a servo or three. Yup, that happened to me so Monday it's off to the store to get some servos. I am getting sick of rebuilding the stock ones. This flight wasn't as good as the last one but still loads of fun. I think I even like rebuilding the thing as much as flying it.

The stock skids are a pain in the ass for us learners and you are so right about grass.
Even with training ball and stick undercarriage it's not great on grass, a firm surface is better (but harder on crashes!). I have managed to break the stock undercarriage a few times plus 2 bent feathering shafts, 1 main shaft, 3 sets of wood blades and 1 stripped stock servo.
After reading through a load of posts on here and elsewhere I have upgraded to make life easier and less expensive while learning.
The first upgrade is the three cyclic servos. You could go for Hitec HS65HB or MG's which have stronger gears so shouldn't strip as easily, fitting requires slight modification. I went for HS55's which are direct replacements, they are cheap and they do strip (I have stripped one in a bad crash, bent main shaft and feathering shaft at the same time) but the beauty of the HS55 is you can get hold of the gears a lot easier than the Eflite ones! Once I get better I will upgrade again to the 65's but as I'm going to be wrecking stuff anyway replacement gears for the HS55 are cheap.
The next upgrade is to change the stock undercarriage to a Trex 500 set, they are wider, longer and thicker. They make the heli so much easier to plant on the ground without it being too big. In fact with this 500 gear on I don't use the training undercarriage anymore (my hovering ain't too bad now though, I've just done 6 batteries with no dramas, last 3 in windy conditions).
The best free modification though is to go through Sokals set-up videos for the 400. :clappp
Absolutely brilliant and makes a big difference to the way it flies especially after a few smashes have upset things (and replacing the servos).

I seem to like rebuilding and upgrading more than flying at the moment too! :Slap
Good luck :)

[7wt]

Thanks for the tips Bladey. I just purchased a major upgrade for my Blade, X9303. I felt a little silly doing it because I have a perfectly new XP9303 airplane version just sitting in the box teasing me but I figured I could sell it aloong with my 6i and come out close to even. This way I can have the better TX while still using the stock reciever. I think this week is servos as well. I might look into the 55's like you suggested. Seems reasonable.

[13Flatspins]

Another rebuild, another crash. At least I learned something. I learned that you shouldn't fly off thick grass. The skids sink into it and the little thing will roll over as the head unloads and the rotor will smack the grass and make a mess out of your main shaft and strip a servo or three. Yup, that happened to me so Monday it's off to the store to get some servos. I am getting sick of rebuilding the stock ones. This flight wasn't as good as the last one but still loads of fun. I think I even like rebuilding the thing as much as flying it.

I have a 2x4' doormat that I just toss onto the grass and take off from it. Sometimes I can land on it! I never have any trouble landing it in thick grass except my tail rotors are now green!

[razerhead33]

ive had about 12 flights the 2cnd of which i bent the main shaft burned out the main gear and bent the spindle and the bolt. of course i rebuilt having no previous experience i attempted to fix it. this went well prob 4 hours. yesterday iwas checking out the rotor head thinking i should check the bolts and the screws but i didnt i flew it yesterday it hovers with great stability but guess what shoulda checked them spindle bolts ie socket head cap screw cuz the blades just flew off after 5 min of hoverin'