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

[crashcopterman]

Originally Posted by Centurian

Come on now just strip somr insulation off and twist the wires together. If youre paranoyd after receint events get some lynx duct tape for the red wires. Them black ones is harmless

Think of all the solder ya can save!


sent without bling using "crappy" eflight electronics with 110% reliability.

I'm trying not to do this --------->.

[sn00p]

First crash for the 500

Ive always programmed my DR to the rudder switch as a combo. Only last week some mentioned in the 300x forum its a little dangerous being so close to the TH switch... of course i pooh, pooh'd it.... Was getting a little more comfy flying my 2nd pack and decided to up the rates. Yep you guessd it, i hit TH

Heard the motor shut down.... a few milliseconds later i realise what i had done. No issue i just flick the switch back... Obviously the slow start kicked in and haltered the blades even more Fell like i rock from maybe 15-20ft.

The local park was packed full of eager parents to take the children out for the first time this year (Sunny and warm) Panic was what i felt first... Lucky no one under neath. Tried to flare at last mo but the blades had barely anything left in them. Visually i took out the landing gear and horizontal stailizer.

Later once back on the bench i noticed it had considerably tweeked one of the main blades rendering it un-usable. The battery has a snub nose :-/ It ripped the battery clean out but no damage to the canopy which was a bit of a shock...

I wouldnt mind so much but the Revo blades here are still top $$$. I missed the chance last month just before i got paid to get a set of Edge FB at less than 1/2 price. Im now looking for some cheap ass blades somewhere in the UK.

I guess all in all i got VERY lucky no one was harmed, and the heli damage is quite minimal. No more park flying for the 500 though its just too dangerous.

[xenophobe]

First crash!

Was testing it out with the new ESC... flying decently, give it a pitch pump... hear a flutter, and watch my bird go sideways... hit TH, smack... cracked the frame, dented the motor can, destroyed main blades, crushed a battery, destroyed the skids, boom and broke the bottom tray.

I cannot find the main grip ball end that should have still been attached to the pitch link.

All I can assume is that it snapped off during the pitch pump because that was the only link not attached.

[Inverted2112]

Plastic main grips I assume?

I don't trust "Blade" plastic for the grips on a 500 sized bird, they really should have made them metal on this one out of the box IMO...

[xenophobe]

Yeah, plastic stock grips... and I have the metal grips in my cart on ebay... go figure. lol

That's the only thing I can figure really happened. Either that or the pitch link popped off and the ball end broke off during the crash.

[runtim23]

Ouch! So it wasn't the motor after all, just your esc?
I've heard a flutter from losing a bell-hiller mixer arm.
Sounds like you lost a link all right.

[Uriah]

Originally Posted by xenophobe

Yeah, plastic stock grips... and I have the metal grips in my cart on ebay... go figure. lol

That's the only thing I can figure really happened. Either that or the pitch link popped off and the ball end broke off during the crash.

I personally would recommend you keep using plastic main grips on the 500 3D/X. On more expensive birds, I world recommend you go metal if you have the option of metal or plastic; but on the Blade 500 the plastic grips make a pretty good break point in the event of a crash, which can potentially reduce crash costs by absorbing a lot of the impact. I could be wrong, but I'd think it highly unlikely that the main grips failed in flight.

[xenophobe]

Yeah, motor was fine... it was up in the air... was just testing... checked out piro and checking the tail gain... then decided to give it a couple of pitch pumps... then a loud flutter when switching from negative to positive as the heli quickly rolled to a side.... hit TH fairly high up... slammed into the asphalt really really hard.

One of the pitch links was detached from the blade grip ball end, but the ball end was not in the link, nor was it on the blade grip.

[girthy]

what did i do to my 500? Crashed one, posted crash video, and put all 4 up for sale in the classifieds here on helifreak

[wsntme]

Well, after crashing my 5003d a couple months ago I decided to put it back together this week. I crashed on my 4th outing with it due to loss of orientation and general lack of experience. Still not a great pilot but I am improving thanks to Phoenix sim and my 130x(s). I was able to fly it 3 times today and I'm getting more comfortable with the size/noise and less shaky/nervous.

Do you guys think my bird sounds like it should? It seems to fly okay so I assume my repair job was adequate but I'm always open to opinions/observations from those more experienced in this hobby (I started in August).
[ame]http://youtu.be/vUj6bjipOD0[/ame]

[xenophobe]

Got my metal grips installed and the rebuild started... needed a few extra parts, waiting for them to complete it. Nothing interesting. Can't wait to get it working again...

[Superholgi]

Originally Posted by wsntme

Well, after crashing my 5003d a couple months ago I decided to put it back together this week. I crashed on my 4th outing with it due to loss of orientation and general lack of experience. Still not a great pilot but I am improving thanks to Phoenix sim and my 130x(s). I was able to fly it 3 times today and I'm getting more comfortable with the size/noise and less shaky/nervous.

Do you guys think my bird sounds like it should? It seems to fly okay so I assume my repair job was adequate but I'm always open to opinions/observations from those more experienced in this hobby (I started in August).

Sounds perfect. No tail growl. And your flying is really good already! I took way longer until I inverted my birds.

[Precipitate]

Originally Posted by wsntme

Well, after crashing my 5003d a couple months ago I decided to put it back together this week. I crashed on my 4th outing with it due to loss of orientation and general lack of experience. Still not a great pilot but I am improving thanks to Phoenix sim and my 130x(s). I was able to fly it 3 times today and I'm getting more comfortable with the size/noise and less shaky/nervous.

Do you guys think my bird sounds like it should? It seems to fly okay so I assume my repair job was adequate but I'm always open to opinions/observations from those more experienced in this hobby (I started in August).
http://youtu.be/vUj6bjipOD0

It looks and sounds like you did good. I don't hear any tail growl.

[Precipitate]

There is an echo in here Sup.

[Uriah]

Originally Posted by sn00p

First crash for the 500

Ive always programmed my DR to the rudder switch as a combo. Only last week some mentioned in the 300x forum its a little dangerous being so close to the TH switch... of course i pooh, pooh'd it.... Was getting a little more comfy flying my 2nd pack and decided to up the rates. Yep you guessd it, i hit TH

Hey buddy, you might consider programming your flight mode switch as the DR switch. This way you're automatically on low rates in normal mode for takeoff/landing, and on high rates when you go into idle up...

[wsntme]

Originally Posted by Precipitate

It looks and sounds like you did good. I don't hear any tail growl.

Thanks! The tail growl is what I was curious of as I've read of it but not sure exactly what I would be hearing. I appreciate you having a listen.

[wsntme]

Originally Posted by Superholgi

Sounds perfect. No tail growl. And your flying is really good already! I took way longer until I inverted my birds.

Thanks for the complement :-). Yesterday was first time putting it skids up.

[ArmchairNinja]

Finally got outside and flew today! Hooray Spring!

Also flew my 500 for the first time with 100% DR and 100% throttle. Time spent on the sim all winter apparently payed off.

[mjdee14]

Just did the ESD mod.....changed to a 12 t pinion and on the back side of a loop it lost power and plowed nose first onto PAVEMENT ! Pretty much destroyed most of the heli. frames, servos, ESC, Lipo....and much more.

"Post mortem" NTSB findings were that the motor slid away from the main gear.....BUT not where I had removed the mm mount bolts....but from the TWO small bolts holding the motor to it's mount. I didn't even touch those....I just slid the mm back and changed out the pinion. The main gear doesn't have a mark on it....and I have never crashed without usually stripping a few gears.

I also didn't like the way it flew with the 12t....too slow.

Well I spoke with HH and they hadn't heard of that before and offered a discount on a new one.

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.

[chris-nc]

Weather was great this morning. I was able to get 11 flights in between my 300X, 450X, and the 500X.

I hope everyone else gets to fly some this weekend too!