Newbie Needing Encouragement

[Chieftan69]

Hey all, I'm brand new to the board, and pretty much brand new to the SR heli's. You know, I did the coaxial thing and pretty much had that down before the junk heli I got from the mall crapped out.

I enjoyed flying immensely and knew it was something I wanted to do more seriously. Went to the hobby store where a guy recommended the Blade 120 SR as a good beginner/intermediate heli to start out on and grow into. Went home and did some research and that's what I ended up getting.

So here I am, less than a week later, many crashes and part replacements have occurred, and I'm getting frustrated. I'm to the point of embarrassment when I show back up at the hobby store for parts, and well on my way to spending as much on parts as the bird initially cost. Granted, that includes some extra backup parts as well.

I fly mostly inside. The times that I have tried outside ended in some rough crashes thanks to the wind. When I fly inside, I do well at hovering but when I move it around it gets away from me in a hurry. Starting to get the hang of slower and more precise stick input, walk before you run and all that....

However, just as soon as I feel like I'm getting somewhere, my tail motor seems to be going out, ON THE TAIL BOOM AND MOTOR THAT I JUST REPLACED, a problem that seems all too common on the board here. I've got the death spin at anything over 50% throttle. This definitely adds to my frustration. Got an exchange on order at the hobby store. Grounded till then.

Sooo... Tell me it will get better. Tell me I will get better. Tell me you all went through that phase of crash/repair/repeat. Encourage me to have perseverance...please. Thanks fellas.

Oh, and any tips you have for me would be much appreciated.

[squish099]

I started with a 120 went through some parts to start.. If your using the stock 4 channel transmitter you can press the right stick down like a button.. it will click and the transmitter will beep.. that puts the TX in low rate mode.. slowing the inputs.. I didn't find it in the book or of much use but it might help..

[PDXFNG]

Hi, I am new to this site as well and this is my 1st post. I have owned my 120 SR for 3 weeks now and is my first heli.

Don't get discouraged! I started to at first as well and it is easy to, but don't let it happen. My swash plate was all out of wack right out of the box so this could be something for you to look at. Deffinately setup your controller for slow rate. Hard part is learning to control you thumbs! Slow and short movements can alter the heli's flight significantly. If need be, take it back to the hobby shop and have them test fly it and help you set it up just to make sure. My heli has NEVER hovered in one spot by controlling just the throttle like a coaxial! It moves around and requires constant input. Sometimes I can get it to hover in one spot for a few seconds and then it start to do the Toilet Bowl Effect. On lift off, I have to apply the right stick (cylic) back and to the right until the bird is in the air or else it wants to take off to the left. One to many hard blows to the tail motor can easily damage the really small wires. Other than that, this is pretty tough heli. I have crashed it all over my house and have only broken a skid and damaged the wiring on one tail motor.

I bought the Pheonix flight simulator and I have made huge jumps in progression with the real heli. Something that I think most would highly recomend.

Hope this helps some. Hang in there and good luck

[RoundWing]

The solution is to reserve the 120SR for times when you can fly outdoors in calm conditions.

As you observe its too big and fast to fly indoors so you crash into stuff. That causes damage and becomes a downward spiral of performance. I don't fly my 120SR indoors.

Outdoors on a calm evening, away from any obstructions there is very little that will damage it. You'll have the space to just get it up into the air, let go of the sticks and observe where it goes so you can trim it out properly.

Outdoors where you can fly it high and fast without worrying about crashing you'll come to appreciate how well it flys when you aren't puttering around worrying about hitting the lamp or the cat.

In FFF the 120SR has a tendency to bank CW into a dive so its necessary to either put the cyclic at about 10 - 11 o'clock to fly straight, or if you have a Spektrum Tx mix some left aileron inot the elevator with ELV>AIL R = -50 Start with -50, and adjust lower (i.e. - 60) if it still veers to the right and higher if -50 over corrects to the right.

Slight wind can be overcome via flying technique. See http://roundwing.nova.org/Wind/

[Bloosee]

I'm a bit of a newbie myself. I've had my 120SR for about 6 weeks. As soon as it came out of the box I new it was too big for indoors. I have an mSR for that. When there is absolutely no wind, take it outside on a grassy field, but bring a piece of cardboard or something to launch off of. Throttle up into the air about 6 feet up. Observe it's movements and make trim adjustments. Then go about making small stick inputs and seeing the effects. From that point on its just more and more gradual improvement. And yes as mentioned earlier, put it in "beginner mode".

[chefpilot]

Hi newbie I have a BLADE 400, BLADE SR, BLADE 120 SR , BLADE MCX2, and it is the most frustrating, but most awesome hobby, I have spent nearly 2 years now trying to fly. I first crashed my 400 so bad I had to buy a PNP to replace it because the parts would of run more than what a PNP cost, the MCX2 I fly well, I have all of them bound to my DX6 which is the way to go,thanks to heli freaks, I fly the 120 better outdoors than in, remember to check the wind, it dosn't do well in the wind despite what eflite says. GET A SIMULATOR IT DOES HELP!! READ HELI FREAKS !! GO TO RADDS FLIGHT SCHOOL, SUBSCRIBE TO RC HELI, DO ONLINE RESEARCH !! really it is an awesome sport stick with it and good luck.

[Dontfakelife]

I am right there with you - I went from a coax heli from the LHS and got bored with it very quickly. Ended up giving it to my father in law for Christmas. Thats when I got the 120sr. The main draw back from going from the coax to this is that you typically cannot fly it out of the box - of which we both obviously found out. It does take practice but believe me, when you get the 120 outside you will be happy with it! You will quickly gain skill with maneuvering and power control to the point that when you get back indoors you will be able to chase your dogs around quite easily with the bird! (or as it is in my case - don't tell my wife!)

[hobbyjumper]

Thanks for the inspiration. Need some right now. :-)

[abyssknight]

I'll chime in, since I think we're in the same boat. I went from the Syma s107 (cheap, durable, little coaxial) to the MCX2, straight to the mSR, and now the 120 SR in about 3 months. The 120 is the first one I've lost or damaged a part on. I'm not exactly the craziest pilot, but the 120 gets away from me too (sometimes even on low rates on my dx6i). It can fight the wind, but it'll be a roller coaster if the wind is gusty.

Indoors it is far worse, because there is just so much you can hit. When I first got my 120, I think I hit the TV, wall, and even a book shelf before realizing that was a bad idea. Blade got embedded in the plaster wall -- that was fun to explain.

Outdoors, just last week, I hit a patio chair with the tail rotor and lost the tail bearing. $3 for a new bearing, and did the bearing holder mod, and I'm back in business. Guess what happened on the next flight? Hit the tail again, but thankfully, didn't lose the bearing this time (thanks to the mod).

That little parts replacement cost taught me not to fly near things like planters, chairs, and sheds (yes, I ran into a shed -- several times). This hobby seems to be a lot about lessons; some of them are hard lessons. I just hope my wife understands when I tell her I want to get an mCP X in a few months.

Hang in there, it gets better, but there will always be crashes.

[whirlEbyrd]

Almost a week huh? I been on the Heli's now for about 3 weeks. On my second year with planes. Thanks to the internets with all the instant online info, things are a piece of cake compared to the way it was before.

Some hobbies take years to master. At least with RC, your body isn't going to take a beating.

There are fast and slow learners. Naturals and not so naturals. Give up quick and never give up types. In some sports it's the older newbies that are the never give up guys.

Windsurfing, my #1 hobby is a dying sport because of the difficulty involved in getting good. The younger generations don't seem to have the interest in a hard to learn activity.

Hang in there. You do need to be pretty handy with the tools and repairs to get the most enjoyment from the hobby.

[hobbyjumper]

Funny you should mention windsurfing. That was one of my sports too, and the only one I've ever tried where there's no such thing as beginner's luck. The learning curve was super steep. I'd forgotten how steep until I got into helis.

[shtmouth81]

I have been flying my 120 since it came out I have "WORE OUT" 5 main motors and 3 5 in 1 boards and I dont know how many tail motors I have destroyed I wore out 12 batteries and the 5 batteries I bought a couple of months ago are beginning to junk out and all of the blades skis etc. that I have broke tempering the plastic is a must, that bearing on the tail motor has absolutely nothing to do with anything, and add some weight to the bottom they are too top heavy and it will smooth it out you MUST zip tie the main motor so it doesn't jump around and cause instability after you do these things then you can begin to have fun

[Bloosee]

I just ordered a "fresh" version! Brand new BNF. I feel like I beat the living crap out of mine so much during the learning process that I needed to start over. Have thrown out 6 batteries, one battery ignited in a flash bang. Replaced nearly every part. Finally had my heli sorted and felt like I could fly it really well... Then I put the Rakon heli parts on it, whoa! Things got interesting all over again. Started driving her into the dirt again

I'm flying the mCP X more now but I still love to head to the park with my 120SR.

[Sharkey_t]

i also started with coaxial (mcx2) and moved to a 120sr. the 120 is too big for indoor flight, unless in a gym. i did learn to fly, or should i say hover, mine in my garage. the biggest improvement i made was buying a dx6i, it made a world of difference. i didnt have luck at first, i think with the parts i broke in a couple months i could have bought 2 more bnf 120sr's. i ended up getting sick of crashing, put it on the shelf and bought an msr to learn to fly better. it helped a bit, but i ended up getting back into my 1/5 scale onroad and shelved the helis for a bit. now a few months later ive picked the 120sr up again and now im having a much better time with it. im more relaxed, starting back at the beginning really helped out. now im able to push the 120, and am thinking of moving up (blade 450) as i realize the limits of the 120.

what i would recommend is flying early morning or before dusk, thats generally when the wind is the most calm. the biggest problem i had is you want to go out and fly, not just hover, and your not prepared for what happens when you go from tail in to any other orientation. that being said, start with hovering. run battery after battery through just holding the thing stable, keep it in one spot. once your comfortable with that, proceed to nose in hovering, then left and right in hovering. run a hundred batteries through it till you have that mastered. once you can hold the heli steady in any orientation, go to high rate on the radio and do it all again. and once you get that, change the swashplate links to the performance setting and do it all over again. yes this is very boring, but its what you need to become confident. once you master hovering any orientation, then start forward flight. fly tail in forward and back in a straight line, then left and right. once you get that, try it nose in, then left and right in. once you get that, then fly circles and figure 8s.
ay to move th
the biggest thing is learning what way sticks in each orientation. till you master that you will never keep the thing in one piece. it needs to become instinctive, if its not, you cant save it when you do get into trouble.

[44SkyHi]

Got an mCX2 in March. I'd never flown RC before (and I'm OLD).

Got a DX6i in April, and by then I had read everything about RC Heli flight I could find, including John Salt's Heli Flight School (and every other article) on RCHelicopterFun.com, and lots of online forums (of which, this is BY FAR the best).

Got the 120 SR in May.

The most important thing I learned from all of that reading, is exactly what Sharkey is referring to: the key to success, is hours and hours of systematically structured flying practice, in progressively more and more difficult orientations... always waiting until you've completely mastered one orientation -- in slow motion first, then gradually faster -- before moving on to the next.

Mastering the way that your thumbs need to move the sticks, is the same as learning to play a musical instrument (or any other highly exacting set of precision physical motions): all the intellectualizing, theorizing, and fantasizing in the world isn't going to do ANYTHING for your thumbs' ability to instantaneously respond appropriately and instinctively to the controls. As boring as it is... practicing the same simple maneuver, over and over again, is the ONLY way to correctly condition those reflexes.

The problem is, that even if they've somehow taught themselves to fluently read musical notation without ever playing a single note on an actual instrunment... NO rank beginner can sit down to a piano and play a Bach sonata. You have to start with "Mary Had a Little Lamb", etc., and work your way up.

It's not the same with these amazing little Helis, though. As soon as you've learned how to hover halfway decently, you can run outside and GO FOR IT.

Unfortunately, while it may be amazing and entrancing (and laugh-out-loud FUN) to see your little bird zooming around up in the air, barely in control... all you're really doing is programming yourself with a lot of completely erratic, inappropriate, BAD reflexes, resulting in MANY more crashes (and many more H-I-G-H I-M-P-A-C-T, E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E crashes) than would have happened if you'd taken it more slowly.

It may take weeks, or months, or years... but as every good pilot in here will readily testify... if you just keep at it, be patient, and have fun, it WILL come. And the time it takes won't matter.

Calm evenings, everyone.

[shtmouth81]

it's a great night to fly it's been too windy all day and I put a battery in and went to fly and just the tail motor worked ahhhhhh great broken wire on the motor sweet plugged in the iron I used yesterday and it decides not to work great

[Smracer31]

i went the opposite way most of you did, i started with a trex 450 pro, and got a bit intimidated, though i havnt crashed it yet, i 'hit a wall' when trying to learn nose in flight, i simply didnt have the confidence that i wasnt gonna fly into myself . The sr 120 so far has been a great learning experience, i havnt found it to challenging, but learning basic orientations, nose in flight and learning to control it in windy conditions has given me more confidence, and more enjoyment in this hobby. My advice is take your time and learn the basic hovering and cyclic controls, search youtube for starting out videos. always focus on the head of the helicopter, its much easier to fly if your looking at the head, as opposed to the canopy or frame (your looking at the pivot point essentially, if you look at the canopy, skids or anything else, its difficult to hover because your going to always be a step behind the helicopters movements). One piece of advice that i tell my friends when they want to fly the sr is, if your gonna crash, just power down the bird and let it do its thing, the tail blade stops quickly and the main rotors absorb the impact far better than if there being powered. And do as much research as you can on flying, everybody has there own advice and routines, learn what they have to say and suit it to what works best for you.

[Dex Olson]

I've had my 120 sr since the end of December and it too has endured endless crashes indoors. I live in MN so outdoor flying is pretty much out of the question until spring.

I've noticed that occasionally one of the linkage rods from the swash plate to the flybar will slip to the inside of the ball link. This will cause all manner of problems including spinning under any significant power. I changed that linkage rod and the issue was solved.

Now I've got new problems to try to resolve. Love the 120 though, if I could just learn to fly it towards myself without losing orientation. Maybe at 67 I'm just to old to learn new tricks!

[Dodge DeBoulet]

Originally Posted by Dex Olson

Love the 120 though, if I could just learn to fly it towards myself without losing orientation. Maybe at 67 I'm just to old to learn new tricks!

I'm 14 years younger than you and have been flying for approximately the same length of time. I've only recently gained some confidence with nose-in orientation, so don't feel bad. It will come . . .

[GD5015]

Lots of folks buy a sim to practice on, but I hate sim time. So, like Sharkey_t suggested, I practice with the 120 in very small steps. I fly only indoors right now, in a 10 x 8 space in the living room. Forces you to get good at hovering, before you try moving around much. I have broken a few parts, blades mostly. I can hover tail in and tail out, and can control it most of the time. Side in orientation is still a bit out of my comfort zone, but that's just the next step. If you are not the patient type, this hobby will nickle, dime, and dollar you into the poor house. I have probably 50 or so flights on this heli and am happy so far with my progress. I have flown planes for about 6 years, and that helps some, though not as much as some would think. Stay strong young pady-wan, and the force will help you.

John