What did you do with your Blade 500x / 500 3D today?

[crashcopterman]

Gave the 500x a dirt nap, nothing like the first of the season. I'm stocked up on parts so a pot or two of java in the am and it'll be good to go.

[Nytro97]

Weather was decent today and got four flights in. I am so happy how this 500x flies. It smooth,vibration free and locked on. I am running the 12t pinion and just doing sport flying. I do like the larger bird and all the power.Really have no desire to fly my 130x right now.
I want to thank everyone here for the information shared because it is a great help.

Tom

[helirifick]

Just maidened my brand new 500X I got from horizonhobby. Holy crap, this thing is ballistic!!! I have a 450x that I am in perpetual upgrade mode and haven't flown for a year. I have been regularly flying my mcpx BL and I can fly inverted (fwd) with it. So, I flew 7 BL packs and then maidened by 500X. What a rush, just hovering it !!!

It's bone stock with stock battery. I first ran it without the main blades to check for vibes in the tail by placing my hand on the tail boom while holding it firm (be careful doing this). I then played around with tightening the vertical fin in/out a little bit until most of the vibes were gone.

I have a slow tail wag. I haven't played with the gain in the DX8 transmitter yet. I programmed the DX8 for the 500X as per the manual. I haven't taken apart the tail grips to make sure the factory installed the thrust bearings correctly.

Any suggestions to get rid of the slow fish tail wag??

[xenophobe]

Originally Posted by helirifick

Any suggestions to get rid of the slow fish tail wag??

Fine tune tail gain... increase or lower the gain by 1 and see if it gets better or worse. Then work from there.

[vronny]

I had a crash a week ago hit powerlines in IU #2 500X rebuit with a G-10 fiber glass frame moved the BX on top. Installed metal main grips, metal follower arms & metal rotor grips, metal pitch slider. These parts where on # 1 which now has all stock parts except a turnigy H3126-1300KV with 13t pinion along with KBDD 72mm rotor blades. I will get to fly tomorrow my day off this week. I did get to test hover # 2 seems smooth an no vibesHave Fun Vronny

[helirifick]

As I said above, I just maidened my 500X. I flew in a baseball field that's enclosed by chain link fence and 4 story high nets. It's probably a wedge-shaped area of 2.5-3 acres.

It seems to me that the 500X might be too big for this? People tell me it will go 90 mph in a blink of an eye. So, may be I should drive over to the club field (25 miles).

I did a few pitch pumps and this thing is a rocket. Or maybe it's going from mcpx BL to 500X (with a 450X that I haven't flown for a year).

What sized area do you fly your 500X in??? Don't say you comfortably do backwards inverted hurricanes in your living room, please LOLOL.

[chris-nc]

I have a very similar field that I used to fly at near my house. Baseball field with outfield nets. For my smaller birds and the 300X it was fine, but quickly outgrew it when I started to really fly my 450X. I'm currently flying my 300X, 450X, and the 500X at a larger area that has multiple soccer fields. Scheduling is the problem there because they are in use most of the time. I just discovered the athletic fields at the local high school and I think that will be my main place to fly from now on. Nobody there and school will be out soon too.

I have miles of open farms around, but I can't seem locate the owners to get permission, so for now these fields will have to work for me.

[ArmchairNinja]

Originally Posted by chris-nc

I have miles of open farms around, but I can't seem locate the owners to get permission, so for now these fields will have to work for me.

Just stop by the nearest farmhouse and ask. If they don't own it, they will almost certainly know who does. Farmers are a tightly-knit group.

[mjdee14]

Originally Posted by mjdee14

I found a guy on HF selling a converted 500 with lots of spare parts and may go that route...although it would be nice to have a complete new set up. Just don't have a lot of money to spare on this type of stuff right now.

Well bought the used converted 500 and it came with a bunch of spare parts and some aluminum upgrades. Got all the parts needed to get back in the air (which was almost EVERYTHING) I mean I totally destroyed the thing....motor, esc, frame, 3 servo cases, lipo, etc. It was a mess.

Just hovered it in the front yard and even the blade tracking was "right on"

Can't wait to get back to the field and do some circuits.

"Thanks to Steve" here on HF for the parts and the fast shipment.

[chris-nc]

Originally Posted by ArmchairNinja

Just stop by the nearest farmhouse and ask. If they don't own it, they will almost certainly know who does. Farmers are a tightly-knit group.

Here in NC, there are a lot of old tobacco farms that people are buying dirt cheap and using them as places to escape to for the weekend. Locals don't always know who owns the land now, and this was the case with these local fields. Everyone kept saying 'I don't know, some doctor in Greensboro'. Turns out, I met the doctor last night. Actually a general surgeon, and he was very cool and has no problem with me using the fields to fly! Success!!! I'll be there this afternoon for sure.

And to stick with the topic at hand, I just received my JR DS821 servos to replace the stock Spektrum servos that came with the 3D prior to my conversion. I also have an 8900G tail servo on the way and plan to install all of them and complete the FBL setup tomorrow since it's supposed to rain and Sunday is supposed to be windy again.

But today, we fly the BIG field.

[ArmchairNinja]

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning here when I left for work, so I loaded up the 500 and stopped by one of my usual farm fields to get some air time. Sadly, my hell had other plans. Ten seconds into the flight, it began pirouetting full-speed and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Thankfully I still had control of the collective and I set it down as gently as I could. The canopy hit a rock and sheared off the mounts, then got hit by the rotor. Overall, minimal damage but still annoying that I was done on such a nice day.

Upon surveying the damage, nothing was out of place. I guess the gyro just gave up on me for some reason.

[Uriah]

Tail blowouts are a big problem on the 500 3D. I'm quite sure it's a result of static buildup (which is now a proven problem on the 500 3D/X) and a bad combination of gyro & tail servo. Obviously, if your bird has a vibe issue that can throw the gyro out. But I know I had 3 blowouts on my 500 3D and it was vibe free. I don't have the patience for unexplained tail blowouts, so I ditched my G210 gyro and stock tail servo and opted for the Futaba GY520 gyro and Savox SH-1290MG tail servo. I also soaked my belt for 3 or 4 days in a sandwich bag filled with silicone lube to fix the static problem. I ended up using the G210 gyro on my NOBAR 300X (a 300X with no flybar or FBL unit - very rare - see link in my signature), and G210 seems to work fine with the much smaller DS76T servo and tail.

Again, I'm convinced the primary problem is static buildup, and I think the G210 is just really susceptible to it, whereas the AR7200BX is a little more insulated from it. Soak your belt in silicone for a few days or simply ground your tail boom and that will likely resolve your problems (assuming, of course, you've made sure you're free of vibes). But I'd still advise you opt for a better gyro like the Spartan Quark or Futaba GY520 just to be on the safe side - they perform much better and can be bought used for less than $50 these days.

[ArmchairNinja]

Nope, no vibes here. I had that bird flying smooth! Will definitely pick up a Futaba gyro. I forgot about the static thing, I can ground the boom easy enough as well. Thanks for the tips.

Edit: The GY520 seems kind of overkill--anyone tried the GY430?

[chris-nc]

Ninja - sorry to hear about your day. I've been there not that long ago, with a whopping 15 second flight on the 500X one day. Hopefully you get it sorted out and back in the air soon.

I was able to get in 18 flights today at the new field. The fellow that owns that land came over to check out my heli's and is a really nice guy. Very thankful to have his permission to fly here. I put 6 flights on the 500X, 8 flights on the 450X, and 4 on the 300X.

Oh, and a not so successful flight on 130X at the very end of the day...

[ArmchairNinja]

That field looks awesome; I need to come visit you!

[ahahn]

Originally Posted by ArmchairNinja

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning here when I left for work, so I loaded up the 500 and stopped by one of my usual farm fields to get some air time. Sadly, my hell had other plans. Ten seconds into the flight, it began pirouetting full-speed and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Thankfully I still had control of the collective and I set it down as gently as I could. The canopy hit a rock and sheared off the mounts, then got hit by the rotor. Overall, minimal damage but still annoying that I was done on such a nice day.

Upon surveying the damage, nothing was out of place. I guess the gyro just gave up on me for some reason.

Out of curiosity, you did pullThrottle hold, didn't you? Couldn't tell from your description.

Don't think this was static, because I would have thought you would have lost cyclic too. Didn't notice if this is a 500X or 500 3D. Could make a difference.

[Uriah]

It's a 500 3D according to his signature. We all now know that the 500 does indeed have a static buildup problem because of this video, but I'm guessing the AR7200BX is less susceptible to it, especially if it's mounted in a stock AR7200BX location (which is much further away from the tail boom). That would explain why the 500 3D guys seem to encounter the tail blowout problem much more frequently.

Again, whenever I claim static as the culprit, I'm assuming the bird in question is free of vibes, mechanically sound (i.e. no binding), and the tail servo is still fully functional.

[ArmchairNinja]

Originally Posted by ahahn

Out of curiosity, you did pullThrottle hold, didn't you? Couldn't tell from your description.

Yes, I brought it down to about 10 feet and then hit TH. The blades were saved and I don't think any gears stripped. I still need to do a full tear-down and inspection, though.

[ahahn]

Originally Posted by Uriah

It's a 500 3D according to his signature. We all now know that the 500 does indeed have a static buildup problem because of this video, but I'm guessing the AR7200BX is less susceptible to it, especially if it's mounted in a stock AR7200BX location (which is much further away from the tail boom). That would explain why the 500 3D guys seem to encounter the tail blowout problem much more frequently.

Again, whenever I claim static as the culprit, I'm assuming the bird in question is free of vibes, mechanically sound (i.e. no binding), and the tail servo is still fully functional.

Don't pay a lot of attention to signatures---too many things to keep track of.

But it was significant---if it had been the 500X, then I would have thought everything would have been zapped, not just the tail. With a 5003D, static is a reasonable hypothesis.

[mjdee14]

Overcast day here in Tn, just got the 500x back together with the 500 3d bird parts.

Got 4 good flights in and there was no wind. We had 7 helis at the field today, normally Onley see 1 or 2 so it was a good day. The 500 seemed a little sensitive on the collective so I lowered it a little when I got home 12 to 12.5 we'll see if that feels better.

Overall my disaster crash was about $300 dlrs worth of parts! !😭