What did you do with your Blade 230s today?

[LethalSassonic]

Originally Posted by fiddle

How did you get up there? Hike? Bicycle? drive? Curious for some reason

My parents live on a mountain, so I drove.

[Brick]

a little shaving & all good

[Liduno]

Originally Posted by Brick

a little shaving & all good

It needs something around the tail rotor. Still looks awesome though.

[motoxxxman]

Today I:
-taught my girlfriend how to fly. Had our first buddybox flight
-taught my girlfriend how to repair the 230s in the field

[BrokeDad]

Originally Posted by motoxxxman

Today I:
-taught my girlfriend how to fly. Had our first buddybox flight
-taught my girlfriend how to repair the 230s in the field

Now you're in big trouble

[motoxxxman]

Originally Posted by BrokeDad

Now you're in big trouble

lol, nah, she felt so terrible about the dirt nap, especially because I still had my new 245mm CF blades installed which both snapped in half. She had control of cyclic while I was operating collective and rudder. It was on a direct path towards us, and instead of taking full control back and flying away, I purposely stuffed it into the ground only 5ft in front of us. But I insisted she not feel bad, telling her it was my mistake for not taking back control quick enough. Which is true, I could have saved it, but my instincts kicked in.

She felt better, but still wished it didn't happen. So I popped the box open, told her to hang tight and watch, and proceeded to tear it down and rebuild it. In about 5 minutes I had replaced the whole head, main blades, tail rotor, both grip links, and did a quick lookover and powerup and pre-flight check, and we were back up in the air again. Gave her control again, and she actually flew quite well and loved every second of it. She's super excited to get back out and fly again now, preferably on a day with much lower winds. It was around 10-15mph steady wind today with up to 30mph gusts, which was part of the initial issue, and the reason we stopped before using all the batteries.

I see it as a good thing overall. She got to have her first flight be in tough conditions, have a crash, witnessed how easy it was to repair and get back up in the air, and continue flying tough conditions. Considering how she's pretty much instantly addicted now, the worst is behind us now, and better weather will make for a much more enjoyable experience in the future.

After every step of what happened through the process, I kept saying "welcome to the hobby!"
After we packed up and headed back to our vehicle, she said she now fully understands my passion for it while grinning ear to ear. Which then caused me to do the same, knowing our hobby has a new passionate [female] member, and knowing we as a couple now have another thing to share together.

[Allan114]

I managed to get out and do some flying in ideal conditions today. Sunny and zero wind. I am now starting to practice tick tocks but I notice that the heli seems to want to roll out of these. Its like hard pitch changes induce the roll. The heli fly's perfectly and I can't see anything that would cause the roll. Does anyone else notice this..
I think this is where the SIM has limitations because all the machines fly perfectly in the SIM. Come real life and there is more to think about.

[toadiscoil]

I think when I sold my 230s I was not doing yet tic tocs. At least not like I do know. I think I tried them but they kept dropping altitude quickly.

Your problem may be the lack of power on that little heli. Tic tocs need a lot of punch to stay in place or a lot of skill that allows you to manage your collective and cyclic interactions properly.

When moving up skill, probably an Oxy 3 would be a better machine around the same size but with enough power to do more things.

Have in mind, ironically, a smaller heli requires more skill to fly competently, however, the cost of course if much more manageable.

Originally Posted by Allan114

I managed to get out and do some flying in ideal conditions today. Sunny and zero wind. I am now starting to practice tick tocks but I notice that the heli seems to want to roll out of these. Its like hard pitch changes induce the roll. The heli fly's perfectly and I can't see anything that would cause the roll. Does anyone else notice this..
I think this is where the SIM has limitations because all the machines fly perfectly in the SIM. Come real life and there is more to think about.

[The_Fox]

Only thing i heared about, might affecting this, is the center of ballance. Blade 230S has a heavy tail.
I agree, a more powerfull Heli with pitch controlled tail would be the next step.

[fiddle]

360cfx makes a nice 2nd heli - especially at the price.

[The_Fox]

As i read a lot about tail wag issues with 360cfx 3S, i would not dare to reccomend. If You can find a 6S 360cfx, would serve You better.

[fiddle]

well ... best would probably be an oxy 4 or 4 max but that is quite the jump in price when including decent electronics. I think mine was about $1200 with 4 batteries.

[Allan114]

Thanks for the comments. From those I picked up the need to get a more powerful heli and one with main motor driven variable pitch tail. I had a Blade 180 with the torque tube driven tail and I had nothing but problems with failures and vibration Compared with the reliability of the 230 it was appalling and I wasn't prepared to put the maintenance hours in. If I went to a pitch control tail I think I would now be tempted with a belt driven tail and the 360 ticks that box. The problem is here in the UK that the price of these heli's is now quite high. A 360 bind and fly is in the region of $700 and spares are also not that cheap. I will think it over.

[BrokeDad]

Originally Posted by Allan114

Thanks for the comments. From those I picked up the need to get a more powerful heli and one with main motor driven variable pitch tail. I had a Blade 180 with the torque tube driven tail and I had nothing but problems with failures and vibration Compared with the reliability of the 230 it was appalling and I wasn't prepared to put the maintenance hours in. If I went to a pitch control tail I think I would now be tempted with a belt driven tail and the 360 ticks that box. The problem is here in the UK that the price of these heli's is now quite high. A 360 bind and fly is in the region of $700 and spares are also not that cheap. I will think it over.

Used is good too Maybe you can still find a NIB Fusion 270 ARF over there. They were cleared out here at $129.99. Just add FBL and servos.

[Allan114]

Well with the corona virus getting bad here in the UK, as it is in many countries, I think I will be limited to a bit of hovering around the rear of my garage to keep the model turning and burning. I'm going to try the equivalent of figure skating with slow precise maneuvers. Sort of the different end of the spectrum to 3D

[Allan114]

We are in corona virus lockdown here now but we are still allowed out for certain things, one of which is exercise. I figure that a walk to my flying field is fresh air and exercise so off I went today as there was no wind. No one around and a nice 18 minutes flying. I think this is the one thing I can still do now to stay sane. The house and cars have never been cleaner and all those crappy little jobs have been done.

[Me_How]

Another successful crash story. I clipped a top of a tree this weekend. Couldn't see it at all. Naturally I hit the dirt. Damage? Lost one head link and snapped AR guide. A short while later I was back in the air.
I can now conclusively say that V2 main gears are more durable than V1. It got only a small scratch from hitting the tree.
Still loving my nigh kit! Looks great flying at full moon.

[NCcraig]

Ordered a MH swash plate and canopy pins for my newly acquired and now properly flying 230S V2. I'm tired of the damn stock canopy pins stabbing me in the finger every time I put the canopy on.

[Liduno]

Originally Posted by NCcraig

Ordered a MH swash plate and canopy pins for my newly acquired and now properly flying 230S V2. I'm tired of the damn stock canopy pins stabbing me in the finger every time I put the canopy on.

It does take a certain touch to get that canopy on efficiently and with out injury..lol

Was it the main gear that was causing your tail wag?

[NCcraig]

Originally Posted by Liduno

It does take a certain touch to get that canopy on efficiently and with out injury..lol

Was it the main gear that was causing your tail wag?

The new main gear definitely quieted the heli down. I finally figured out that the tail wag was "operator error" induced.
Apparently the flight controller didn't like coming out of throttle hold in normal mode with the throttle hold pitch curve I was use to using. 50% across the board. I set the throttle hold pitch curve to the numbers in the manual and the tail wag disappeared. I'm still kicking myself for that little faux pas and my wife is still giggling about it.