New SR

[Obsolete]

Hi everyone, just got a new SR for Christmas. Thought about taking it back, being my first real RC heli and exchanging it for a fixed pitch 120. But after much thought, I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to spend a week or so studying the manual, while I wait on the training gear, extra blades and tools I bought to come in before I try to get her off the ground.

So far the only problem I'm having is with the CG. No matter how far forward I put the battery, it seems to be a little nose up when I turn the flybar perpendicular to the boom and lift it up.

I did crack the canopy a tad when I was learning how to remove it. But I figured that could wait for replacement till I learn how to fly.

Thanks.

[Desert Fox]

MTC

Some Blade SR flyers go with 1300MAH packs to balance out their bird. You can also add weights to balance your bird.

[Obsolete]

That's a bit frustrating, because they say they are flown in the factory before being shipped. I guess if your good enough you can counter the balance in flight somewhat. Oh well, I'm expecting frustration during the learning process.

I'll check into getting some weights.

Thank you.

[Obsolete]

I sat down with the heli and kept adjusting the battery foward till I got a near perfect CG without the canopy attached. I think there was about 1 inch of battery on the nose of the frame. I'm a bit worried about how much weight it will take to offset that much difference in balance.

I'm picking the flybar up with my thumb and middle finger, with the flybar perpendicular to the boom. I'm assuming that this is the correct way to check it.

[Obsolete]

Also, should I adjust/remove the horizontal fin to help with the balancing issue?

[Old Blue]

Congrats on your new heli and Merry Christmas! If this is your first "real" rc heli, what were you flying before? I have one of these SR's but I am by NO means an expert on them. Everyone's different and I'm sure there are some folks that learned on one of these and did just fine but that was just not the case with me. Maybe it was just mine,(or me) but it was so squirrely right out of the box that I was getting very frustrated spending more time replacing feathering shafts than I was attempting to hover the thing. The training gear only helps so much. My previous heli was a Blade mcx which was an ok indoor heli that was very slow and forgiving and taught me basic orientations, but also taught me the nasty habit of just dropping the sticks anytime I got in trouble. You have to actually FLY a SR. Not a bad thing but it takes a lot of patience and time to learn. Before you do anything, spend time on a sim to get the feel of it, even the free heli sim you can download from the web is better than nothing. I havent given up on my Blade SR, but I did get an inexpensive fixed pitch heli to learn on (It's a Honey Bee v2).

I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other, this is just my my experience. One thing for sure is that this site is avaluable source of info and support no matter which way you decide to go. I would have given up on the idea of flying these things a long time ago without it.

Blue

[SYMAWD]

Removing the horizontal stabilizer will help a little. However, if it is just a bit tail heavy it should not affect it too much. The SR isn't as sensitive to CG as some helis such the mSR or Trex 450 Pro.

[Suburban92]

only advice I can give is be prepared for it to PULL LEFT when you first take it up

carbon training gear is HIGHLY RECCOMENDED

[joeblades]

Yup all helis will pull / slide / move left. Explanation: The tail rotor is sucking air from the left and blowing it right, hense the heli will want to glide to the left. You compensate with a bit of trim. When you get the left glide out "mostly" then you will notice the heli tilts a bit to the right when off the ground. That is normal.

You must be very patient when starting out. Some people are naturals, they pick up hovers like picking up a cold one. If you can't hover you will never fly. OOOOH ya you may get it off the ground, but it will be very short lived and put a big hole in your pocket. In fact it will remove your pockets, then your desire.

Here is my favorite vid. If you listen very close at the begining you will here someone say "It's just like the other one" I am assuming he ment a fixed pitch. It shows very well what will happen without patience. Notice he never attepted to see if he could hover. Notice also how fast it was over. about 3 minutes, maybe 1 minute total air time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=vxeiJ4Dz0cU

[Desert Fox]

MTC again,
The added weight to balance is far less than the added weight of going from a 1000MAH pack to a 1300MAH pack. In my case I added about 21 grams to balance my SR. I have some sleeving material added in my tail boom to prevent chafing. The Blade SR will fly out of the box. The skill level if the pilot will very! Go slow, read the posting and enjoy your bird.

[Obsolete]

Originally Posted by Old Blue

Congrats on your new heli and Merry Christmas! If this is your first "real" rc heli, what were you flying before? I have one of these SR's but I am by NO means an expert on them. Everyone's different and I'm sure there are some folks that learned on one of these and did just fine but that was just not the case with me. Maybe it was just mine,(or me) but it was so squirrely right out of the box that I was getting very frustrated spending more time replacing feathering shafts than I was attempting to hover the thing. The training gear only helps so much. My previous heli was a Blade mcx which was an ok indoor heli that was very slow and forgiving and taught me basic orientations, but also taught me the nasty habit of just dropping the sticks anytime I got in trouble. You have to actually FLY a SR. Not a bad thing but it takes a lot of patience and time to learn. Before you do anything, spend time on a sim to get the feel of it, even the free heli sim you can download from the web is better than nothing. I havent given up on my Blade SR, but I did get an inexpensive fixed pitch heli to learn on (It's a Honey Bee v2).

I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other, this is just my my experience. One thing for sure is that this site is avaluable source of info and support no matter which way you decide to go. I would have given up on the idea of flying these things a long time ago without it.

Blue

Thanks Blue,

The only thing I've ever "flown" was my oldest sons Air Hogs heli. He'd banged it up quite a bit and it took a lot of work to keep it from spiraling into the walls at take off, but it gave me the fever.

So the last few months, I'd been studying the different types, like coax, fixed and collective pitch. Watched youtube videos, that Alan Szabo test flight on the T Rex 700 E had is crazy.

Now that I have one, I plan on studying it's ins and outs. I wanted to start out on the 120 SR, but my MIL in Florida went to a hobby shop and even though the guy tried selling her the 120. She was (over) confident that her SIL could fly the bigger one. So she bought the SR and shipped it to me.

I'm just glad she didn't go any bigger.

I will wait till I get the training gear to even take it out. The first time I do though, I have no intentions of getting it off the ground. Just want to imagine the familiarize myself with the controls, get comfortable and imagine the flight first.

If, for some reason, after a while I can't get this thing to hover I will continue to study the design, parts and how it all goes together while I save up for that fixed pitch 120.

[Obsolete]

Originally Posted by SYMAWD

Removing the horizontal stabilizer will help a little. However, if it is just a bit tail heavy it should not affect it too much. The SR isn't as sensitive to CG as some helis such the mSR or Trex 450 Pro.

Thanks, I may just leave it on for when I do get around to the first test flight. I was worried if it was tail heavy it would come flying backwards at me when I do get around to getting it off the ground.

[Obsolete]

Originally Posted by Suburban92

only advice I can give is be prepared for it to PULL LEFT when you first take it up

carbon training gear is HIGHLY RECCOMENDED

Soon as I opened the present up, I snuck off to my laptop and ordered the training gear. Not sure if it's carbon or not. Got it from Horizon Hobby, are they like the Wal Mart of RC stuff?

[kickbackkid]

Originally Posted by Obsolete

I sat down with the heli and kept adjusting the battery foward till I got a near perfect CG without the canopy attached. I think there was about 1 inch of battery on the nose of the frame. I'm a bit worried about how much weight it will take to offset that much difference in balance.

I'm picking the flybar up with my thumb and middle finger, with the flybar perpendicular to the boom. I'm assuming that this is the correct way to check it.

If you only have that much battery left on the frame, you will be in danger on losing it in flight. I have a couple of quarters taped inside of the canopy to help with the CG. And as someone else suggested, you can remove the horizontal stabilizer. It serves no purpose other than catching the main blades when you land to hard and have a boom strike.

[Obsolete]

Originally Posted by joeblades

Yup all helis will pull / slide / move left. Explanation: The tail rotor is sucking air from the left and blowing it right, hense the heli will want to glide to the left. You compensate with a bit of trim. When you get the left glide out "mostly" then you will notice the heli tilts a bit to the right when off the ground. That is normal.

You must be very patient when starting out. Some people are naturals, they pick up hovers like picking up a cold one. If you can't hover you will never fly. OOOOH ya you may get it off the ground, but it will be very short lived and put a big hole in your pocket. In fact it will remove your pockets, then your desire.

Here is my favorite vid. If you listen very close at the begining you will here someone say "It's just like the other one" I am assuming he ment a fixed pitch. It shows very well what will happen without patience. Notice he never attepted to see if he could hover. Notice also how fast it was over. about 3 minutes, maybe 1 minute total air time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=vxeiJ4Dz0cU

Yea, I saw that video awhile back. Pretty naive of him, imo. Pretty funny to watch also. I don't even plan on trying to hover for a little while.

[Suburban92]

just get your training gear and remember BABY INPUTS

get it light on the gear, and control it forward backward right left skidding around you will get a sense for what its doing

[Obsolete]

Originally Posted by Desert Fox

MTC again,
The added weight to balance is far less than the added weight of going from a 1000MAH pack to a 1300MAH pack. In my case I added about 21 grams to balance my SR. I have some sleeving material added in my tail boom to prevent chafing. The Blade SR will fly out of the box. The skill level if the pilot will very! Go slow, read the posting and enjoy your bird.

MTC, in computer lingo means more to come, but it looks as though you may mean something else?

I'm wondering if I'm not holding the flybar correctly to check the CG. It seems as if I grab it more to the center it's not as far off as it seemed to be as when I held it with two fingers spread further out on the flybar.

The instruction manual says to pull the bullet connectors out, turn the transmitter on and plug the battery in to check the various functions.

Is this something you guys recommend I do? Should I be using a couple of needle nose pliers to pull them out. It's up in there and I gave them a slight tug with my fingers but they didn't budge. Don't want to mess anything up. I'll check out the SR Bible thread and check out some of the videos.

Appreciate the input.

[Obsolete]

Originally Posted by kickbackkid

If you only have that much battery left on the frame, you will be in danger on losing it in flight. I have a couple of quarters taped inside of the canopy to help with the CG. And as someone else suggested, you can remove the horizontal stabilizer. It serves no purpose other than catching the main blades when you land to hard and have a boom strike.

Didn't think about using quarters if I need to. Thanks.

I've seen video's of coaxs having blade strikes, didn't know they could have boom strikes though. Learning more and more every day.

I ordered an extra pair of blades along with the training gear. Does the horizontal fin really help them that much in the case of a boom strike?

[jetskier]

Go to LHS and get to know them, let them know you are a rookie and most likely if they have a heli pilot there, they will check your heli out and probably even fly it for you first. If not they will probably refer you to someone that can fly it. Thats what I did after a few crashes and rebuilds. I meet the guy out at the local field and him and about four other Pros spent about 15 minutes going over it and tweeking it and told me I did a good job rebuilding it. Then he flew it like it was nothing and gave me some pointers at the same time. They want you to succeed so you stay in it and promote the Hobby. I am still a rookie and currently rebuilding my SR again, but now I fly more and crash less.Dont worry about CG so much just get it close cause the traing gear throws it off anyway, and buy a few tail booms and tail motors and everything to rebuild the head. Always use small stick inputs, Sims help, but best advise get to know a Heli pilot you will learn more about everything and it will save you money.

[Mojappa]

If you've had no time on a sim or any 4ch heli then I'd highly recommend searching for the RADDs method of learning and stick to it word for word, your heli and sanity will thank you.