View Full Version : A day in the life of a heli noob. A new pilots flight log.
Just to sum up where I'm coming from. I started with one of those 2 channel micro heli type things. I was hooked after destroying it in just 3 days. I bought a Lama v4 and was amazed. Not the greatest pilot but I was landing on top of speakers and having general fun. I needlessly upgraded every plastic bit I could. After I was done with upgrades, I was ready for something new.
I bought a blade cp pro and another cp pro 3 weeks after that (got a good deal). I truly believe I have 2 minutes total flying time with either of them. Mistake was trying to learn to fly indoors.
June 6th- I have read on more than one occasion that bigger is better when it comes to stability and those of us who have owned the blade cp pro or equivalent know it's just difficult to fly and even more difficult to learn on. A used belt cp was purchased off ebay
June 9th- A Honey Bee King II was ordered in arf form. My plan is to move the electronics from one of the blade CP's to the HBKII. The electric bits from one blade cp made it to the honey bee king II.
June 20th- I have spent hours checking and double checking everything and making sure the wire routing was clean on both heli's. I even got my driveway paved so that I'd have a nice place to take off and land. (I didn't tell my wife this was the reason.)
June 21st- Saturday morning I picked the HBK II and felt it was time to test it out. Noob gear was installed and battery was connected. Now, I am able to hover the blade cp for atleast 30 seconds before bringing it down do to stress, but the hbkII just felt weird. After a few attempts to gain control, I finally broke the blades and noob gear. My luck with the belt cp was only slightly better since it wouldn't even lift off the ground.
I began by inspecting both heli's carefully. I used one radio and checked server movement on both heli's at the same time. Both behaved differently and incorrectly. Upon further inspection, I had plugged 2 servo's in the wrong channel on both heli's. Duh! :DOH
I'm going to use this post as a log to advertise my noobizms so that other noobiles may learn from me. I decided to sum up this months events in one post.
DierWolf
06-23-2008, 11:17 AM
LOL wrong channel assignments will do that to you LOL..
keep us updated and dont give up..
Ber60
06-24-2008, 12:09 AM
Hi zore
A good idea to keep a log :thumbup: but if crashing is noobizm then we are all noobiles :lol:
Jonnyheli
06-24-2008, 08:36 AM
Great story Zore. I Enjoyed it. What do you think of the belt cp now after getting it too work? Is it easier to fly or just as hard as the blade cp?
Ber, crashing isn't noobie. Crashing because of wrong servo placement is:P
PS. Glad to here you solved your problem with the HBKII and the belt cp. Keep us updated.
-Jonny
June 26th- After a few days off on a business trip, I finally decided to see the belt cp and hbk II fly. I first tried the hbk II and after a few tweaks of the trim here and there, it flew better than I imagined. I lifted off and landed a few times until i lost control for whatever reason. It went from easy to fly to out of control in seconds. I have to check thru it but I believe damage is limited to blades.
The belt cp was next. I threw a set of blade 400 blades on it and decided to follow the advice of others and forgo the training gear. This may have been a mistake, but I was able to fly and land it pretty easily. What I did notice is that it was very slow to respond compared to the HBKII. My guess is that it's an adjustment thing and one of those deals when you buy someone's used crashket case.
All was well with the belt cp until something happend with the tail. All of a sudden it was spinning wildly out of controle and well, right at me. The following are some images of the damage. My wife wants me to go to the er to get it xray'ed seeing as I really can't use my left hand. This is what we call, here in NJ, a monkey ball. The swelling came down here quite a bit but it's the top of the hand that is really in some pain.
http://www.scrunchkin.com/iu/jj/IMG_0926.jpg
http://www.scrunchkin.com/iu/jj/IMG_0917.jpg
Great story Zore. I Enjoyed it. What do you think of the belt cp now after getting it too work? Is it easier to fly or just as hard as the blade cp?
Ber, crashing isn't noobie. Crashing because of wrong servo placement is:P
PS. Glad to here you solved your problem with the HBKII and the belt cp. Keep us updated.
-Jonny
When i say crash like a newb, what I mean is... it would probably take more time for me to yank a heli out of the box and smash it against the table than to fly and crash it.
I think once i figure out the slugish responce, I'm going to enjoy it. It was rather stable even with out the training gear. I'm wondering if they make slightly wider skids. I think that's all I would need.
pvande
06-26-2008, 08:52 PM
Zore
I started off with a fixed pitch 30 size nitro from Revolution that my wife gave me for my birthday - greatest birthday gift ever.
However it never made it off the ground before being completely destroyed as well.
One thing I learned from that episode is that setup is 99% of flying - if not more. Sounds like your helis aren't set up correctly.
My suggestion is that invest in a couple of good DVD's - I learned from Ray's DVD's - and make sure that you get your helis set up correclty...
You will be amazed at the difference and it might prevent further serious injury - damn that arm looks bad....
I agree. The belt cp needs some work, obviously now more than before. The hbk II is pretty good. It was more or less sitting in one spot and hovering with very little stick input. I think it's crash was caused by some radio glitch since it was really flying well before I lost it.
mnwizard
06-26-2008, 09:29 PM
Ouch! That looks like it hurts!
Be sure and watch the setup videos above.
With the Belt, I'm not sure what went on with the sudden loss of rudder control, but the general unresponsiveness before that was probably too low of a headspeed.
tom dubya
06-26-2008, 09:50 PM
We call it a goose egg here in st.louis. The first time i got one was about 10 years ago.I was crawling up a ladder with a 80 pound bag of concrete on my shoulder and slammed my shin up against one of the ladder rungs. A few minutes later there was a big bump on my shin about the size and shape of a goose egg. I started freakin out and yellin what the hell is that. And my boss said "relax its just a goose egg."
Ber60
06-26-2008, 11:36 PM
Hi zore
I know it hurts, my belt bit my hand once and after the swelling it even hurts more.
Like mnwizard said there are some good setup tips in the sticky's
Keep up your log :thumbup:
DierWolf
06-27-2008, 10:36 AM
I call that an "OWWWW!!" lol.
Jonnyheli
06-27-2008, 10:51 AM
Well we call it a lump or a bump. But before my dad hit his elbow and at first it was the size of a ping pong ball and it ended up that all of his lower arm went huge and swollen and it turned purple. It was something called bursitis. And it started off like this.
http://www.ontariolaserhealth.com/images/bursitis.jpg
Zore, Look at some of finless bob's videos. He shows you how to get the perfect setup step by step. You can't go wrong.
-Jonny
I took a peep at the internals of the head yesterday while the tylonal was working. I believe the chap before me put the head on wrong. I was missing atleast one big washer and one little one. I ordered new bearings and blade fingers.
Jonnyheli
06-27-2008, 02:37 PM
Sorry but I have to say this.
Zore is that cut of yours sore?:lol:
-Jonny
Heli Yea!
06-30-2008, 02:04 PM
OUCH! That looks bad zore. How are your finger nails? LOL:)
kianhon
07-03-2008, 01:54 AM
To make you feel better with your crash, here is my story.
April 1st. Bought a Belt-CP and arrived on my door step a week later. My transmitter was at full throttle when I plug in the Lipo. Obviously the heli wont spin becasue of the ESC safety mode which I don't know about it at that time. I made a couple of stick movement and finally my Belt-CP take off right away with full throttle and hit my ceiling and landed back to ground. From out of box to crash, only took me 3 mins. Didn't fix it until midd april.
The rest of the story is I spent $1700 in the next two months in repairing cost, tools, HH gyro, new Lipo, and Charger. Finally I get to hover it at the end of two months. But, crashed it after 6 packs of Lipo.
Kinda give up with it and bought a Lama v4 and I'm enjoying it right now. The Belt-CP is just sitting there with 6 Lipo packs. His sluggish response just make me crash it everytime a slight breeze of wind blows it up to the air.
To sum it up, took me $1700 and three months just to get it hover for 6 lipo packs and finally crash it again. I will stop flying my Belt-CP because I'm broke. In the mean time I will enjoy my Lama until I have the courage and money to try my Belt-CP again.
DierWolf
07-03-2008, 09:01 AM
Thats an aweful lot of money to spend just on repairs from the first crash, dont think i spent that much in total in all my crashes and my brothers crashes along with additional spare parts and new radios'.
sounds like you got jipped
Real_Sparky
07-03-2008, 09:22 AM
I have only just spent that much money. But that got Trex 450se V2, Dx7 and a Trex 500 cf.:smokin: for my $1700. I think I got a better deal than a busted Belt cp.:tongue
You should try buying a honey bee fp and learn how to hover a single rotor heli.
'
OR you could look up RADDS SCHOOL OF FLIGHT on google and follow it.
Might be a little cheaper for you.
kianhon
07-03-2008, 07:26 PM
The $1700 did not just spent on 1st crash. Is the sum of thousands of crashes in three months. I finally get to hover but will stop flying it in the mean time cuz I'm really broke. I will enjoy my Lama for now, this coaxial is really fun to fly, no stress at all, can withstand numerous crashes before repairing it, low cost.
I know it's been a while since I've updated my log, but today was the first day i've had enough ambition to fly.
I was sick of looking at the pile of heli's that weren't in flying shape so I decided to do what i should have done from the get go. Buy a honey bee fp. I ordered it on Monday and today it arrived.
I took it out of the box and charged the battery. While that was happening, I plugged in one of my lama lipo's just to check and make sure everything was square. I realized that this is about as twitchy as the blade cp I have only with out the constant wanting to flip over. I guess I got about 3 flights out of it before it flipped and i broke the head. No suprise there.
Seeing as I had the day off, I figured maybe it's time to give the honey bee king2 and the deadly belt cp another try. I finally threw some blades on them and went outside. I even started piecing together the 2 blade cp's I have so I can have atleast one of them in flying condition. When you crash as often as I do, plenty of backup is a good thing.
For whatever reason, I can't get the eflight blade cp controler to work like it should with the hbk2 even thow I'm using all the blade cp electronics. Shame I forgot about that when I took it into the air and lost control. I popped off some links and destroyed a set of training gear, but not much else. I have decided that training gear isn't helping me on any of these heli's except the blade cp. Unfortunatly, I hadn't noticed the bottom of the big link had popped off and I had a pretty serious wabble after I grabbed the esky controler. I ended up takeing it back downstairs to investigate.
I was on such a roll on turning my heli's in to piles of broken plastic, I figured why stop there. The belt cp really wooped my arse last time I flew it, literaly. I really needed to get over my fear of it taking my head off.
I turned on the controler and plugged it in. After a little throttle, it took pretty smoothly. It was wanting to fly to the left constantly but I was actually able to controle it. The lawn is a little high and I was having a tough time hitting the 4x4 ply wood i have setup for take offs but I was actaully able to put the blade holders back on this one and take it down stairs in one piece. I noticed the blade tracking was off some and that may have caused some of the leaning to the left.
Over all, not a bad day of busting flying things up.
helihathnofury
09-04-2008, 03:27 AM
Great story Zore.
I think you need to spend more time being precise in setting up the Belt. It flies fine, but only when set up properly. There are some good threads above, but believe me, you will be amazed at how well it can fly. Good luck and be persistent !!!!!
Mike
I agree, my base setup is rather lax. Other than leveling the swash plate and making sure things are balanced, I haven't gone much further. My plan is to go thru each and everyone of my birds and do the full inspection and settings on them.
The one thing I will not do, is too fully dive into upgrade feaver. I made this mistake with the blade cp pro and it hurt me in the long run. Some of the parts were worse than stock and were inconsistant, but they sure looked cool. I did the same with my lama and I'm down to the point where if it isn't OEM on something or made by xtreme, I don't want it.
I've added a picture of most of my fleet below.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/2825802581_8476bf9460.jpg
Yesterday I spent a good 3 hours checking thru the belt cp and making sure everything was fine. I ended up just yanking it all apart and starting over. It's one of the downers of buying someone else's smashed up mess.
I started with setup guide presented here and went from there. First thing I noticed was the huge difference in length the 2 long rods were going from the swash plate to the top of the head. I kept going thru the adjustment process until it was all level.
I believe it was time well spent so I'll be doing the same thing to my HBK2 when my crash parts get here.
I know this is primarily a Belt CP forum, but I think the information I've gathered might help other noobiles such as myself.
Last week I bought a HBFP. It was 99 dollars shipped. I've read on more than one thread is that it's an excellent way to learn to fly. Parts are cheap and it's a simple bird to fix. I'd also like to add, it's almost bullet proof.
Today is the first day in many, many years that i've actually had to fetch something of mine from up a tree. I think i crashed my fp no less that 12 times. The heli was almost prestine with not much scrached on it, until today. I actually had to drop kick it as it was coming at me.
It was getting away from me often enough, but I was getting some really good saves but eventually, I'd run out of luck and I'd auger that baby into a house or a lawn or a tree. Then I remember reading on here that using your thumb and finger gives you more control. :wow2: the difference was amazing.
I was now able to hover in a 3 foot spot with out much problem. I even landed it on it's skids a few times... fantastic. I'ts the first time, other than with my lama, that I've flown long enough to run a battery dry.
For those of you who only have a belt cp and maybe bought one for your first heli, go out and get an FP, they are fantastic fun.:happyd