When Will I Learn?

[Varc]

To just fly the damn thing as it came out of the box?


What is this sick disease that I have, that I buy a new helicopter, and it flies absolutely beautiful straight from the box. But, I've gotta be a dumb-shit and modify it to my liking. Example, both my Walkera V120's have this problem. First, my Airwolf was perfect when I first opened the box, charged the batteries and took off. It was beautiful. It's only problem was, me being the Airwolf nut that I am, didn't like the fact that it was silver and red instead of black/white. So, I took it apart, and had my friend paint it for me. Needless to say I'm quite thrilled at the new paint job and the Airwolf looks awesome just as it should've looked in the first place, but it took forever to get it to fly properly again. And even still it's not as perfect as it was when brand new.

Second helicopter, my V120D02 pod+boom helicopter that I got for Christmas. It was perfect right out of the box and it was my trusty, faithful companion that flew perfectly every time. So why the hell did I have to mess with that? I upgraded the frame, and tail assembly and then we had trouble getting that to fly right again.

Well, to put you at ease, we are getting closer and closer to having both helicopters fly like new again. The pod+boom's only issues are that the gears tend to slip off because that flat spot wears out for some reason. So, my next allowance I'm going to have to purchase a dozen or so spares.

The Airwolf is getting closer, but not sure what it's problems are at the moment. And it's still waiting for it's final pieces to be done and assembled.

Point of this story is, why do I have to mess with something that is perfect from the box? Why can't I leave one well enough alone? I feel like a dumb-ass having two perfectly good helicopters now not so perfect.

Is this just part of this hobby? Is this normal? What have you done to your perfect birds?

And as far as the MCPX goes, that was purchased specifically for reviewing upgrades and I had concerns with the blade-grips. So that was specifically planned ahead to be changed from stock.

[flyfasteddie]

That is a very good observation that I think everyone has asked themselves at one point or another. I really think it boils down to age, and how many times one shoots themselves in the foot trying to "improve" something.

I've been building/repairing/modifying mechanical things for close to 50 years. When I was younger I was always trying to improve everything - bikes, cars, surfboards, Jet Skis, RC vehicles, whatever was at hand.

At least in my case, I usually ended up causing more problems than any extra fun I derived from the modifications. Maybe I'm just a klutz.

Some people get pleasure from the modification/testing/troubleshooting process. I am not one of those people. I love being able to buy a helicopter that has everything included, and all of the parts have been designed to work together at a reasonable performance level. Getting a discount on top of that is icing on the cake.

Currently, I work as a flight instructor and experimental aircraft building consultant (full size). My first piece of advice to anyone building an airplane is to STICK TO THE PLANS. You would be amazed at how many people building a full-size airplane want to massively alter the thing in order to "improve" the highly-engineered and proven design.

[JoeW]

I did the same thing a while back with a Blade CPPro 2. It flew pretty good out of the box, but within a dozen flights I was swapping parts, changing motors and ESCs and so on.

It got further and further away from flyable with every tweak, and every time I went to fix the tweak it got even further away from flyable.

Within 2 months I had rendered it useless.... to prevent myself from spending even more time and money on it to return it to stock, I salvaged whatever electronics I could out of it and junked the rest, ensuring I wouldn't have a lapse in judgement again and think 'hey... I can make this fly if I just...."

[tomd27858]

Be careful with the upgrade and modding path.

Keep it down to the proven mod's that "really" improve performance. When I got started, I could have bought a heli for the money "wasted" in mods.

I found out pretty quickly in the beginning to stop fiddling with what isn't broke....

Glad you are getting them back flyable and you'll love the MCP X.

[squeky]

KISS - keep it simple, stupid.

The mCP X's blade grips have long been fixed, there's no need to upgrade them. Do the grommet mod and fly that thing until you break something.

[MpVpRb]

Originally Posted by Varc

Is this just part of this hobby? Is this normal? What have you done to your perfect birds?

For me, it's all about the flying, not tinkering.

I got a FB trex 600. Converted it to FBL and added high vis paint. Then stopped tinkering and concentrated on flying.

My atom 500 is totally stock, except for a little yellow paint.

[Varc]

Back when I was racing Kyosho Mini-Z's, it was all about look's. Making the chassis look as "pimped-out" as possible. Coarse, with the cars it's not as crucial as flying helicopters. But when I joined a local club and started racing on weekends, I quickly found out that some of my parts were just bling. I learned what the car really needed and didn't need. I still built several for show, but I also had several that were pure race bread. The Kyosho Mini-Z's are pretty darn good right out of the box, but for racing they really only needed the basic upgrades such as tires, bearings instead of plastic bushings, and springs of different rates. Sometimes when I build, modify, and fly my helicopters I keep thinking back to my car days and thought how much simpler the cars were. I understood cars, cars have always been in my blood and the Mini-Z's were the thing for me.
Problem was, I was starting to get bored with the cars cause I realized they were only fun on a proper track and I only had access to that proper track about an hour away every two weekends. Rest of the times the cars just sat on the shelves.
Where as with the helicopters, all I need is a wide open space to fly them. Plus the other advantage with airplanes/helicopters is, it's my Dad's hobby as well. So he more than helps me out with the flying stuff then he ever did with the cars.

Yes, the MCPX is a winner and I enjoy flying it. Right now it's on the bench due to a stripped gear and today we'll be heading into town to get replacement parts for it. The other two mentioned birds are getting there.

I guess it's all part of the hobby as much as flying is.