Is there anyone fairly close to Rddhill way that would be able to assist in heli setup. Im Happy to make it worth while.

Currently have TREX FBL 600 nitro and lecy Rex 600 Copy with a DX8 Tx. Ive slowly learned to fly but have no idea on how to setup to fly these new ones. May look to Avicraft and have a trip tomorrow

Cheers

Dave. feel free to bung me a message 07976939743

I particularly liked the way the pilot eventually decided the launcher was never going to hold it at the right angle and grabbed the tail!!

Pre-ordered and received mine and flown in the back garden OK. but on the first forward flight circuits at an Indoor it tried to attack the person standing to my left so I grabbed it out of the air, suffering several cuts, but at least the person didn't get it in his face.

It had glitched the tail motor very briefly twice in as many seconds and I was trying to get it down in one piece when it spooled up and came at us. I had no control nor time for Hold to spool it down even if it had worked (Fail safe had been set on all zeros)..

Post Mortem, firstly, the manual recommends to bind to 11mS. While I had read this, it was not warned as essential and my Tx had bound to 22mS three times so I'd given up, thinking my Tx (metallic grey pre Euro DSM2/DSMX DX9) could not manage 11mS.

By Emailing out to my Indoor group that I was later back home able to set 11mS manually without rebinding, I saved another member possibly doing the same with a brand spanking new black case DX8, which had bound 22mS and he had not even seen the tiny manual indication for 11mS.

There are emerging instances of others experiencing tail motor glitching on left turns when the single very short aerial is pretty much masked from the Tx. Only a tiny sample so far but it appears to be worse with the higher "C" rated Nano-Tech, etc type cells. (I'm running 450/460mAh 3S 65C)

(The ESC has a ferrite ring, unusual for Blade, so maybe they have experienced something similar in development?!)

Incidentally, on the recommended 300mAh LiPo the heli balances extremely rearwards, it is still a little rearward on the 450/460 size.

Both he and I flew them today, he on 300s, me on 460s, and they flew perfectly on 11mS.

Suggest you are a bit careful though!

Now this is an interesting Blade Heli!

It shares some components with the 200 SRX, which in itself is pretty unusual, being a fixed pitch Heli with a head and blade arrangement somewhat nearer to a CP design.

The 230s, however, is collective pitch and capable of a full 3D Aero flight envelope.

What currently makes it very unusual if not unique though is that Blade have incorporated their "Safe" technology, so theoretically when you recognise that that "Chaos" or inverted move is going horribly wrong, a press of a Tx button makes the Heli recover to level upright attitude, though you do have to ensure you take off any negative pitch/throttle before it flattens itself into the ground!

It' has a direct drive tail motor rather than shaft/belt driven tail, and before you experienced Heli flyers groan, that's no bad thing on what is billed as an easy to fly easy to repair intermediate machine with 3D capability. Yes, possibly the most extreme 3D moves will blow out the tail and it'll lose hold, but if you are capable of and wanting to do these moves, what on earth would you have one of these for?

Can't as yet say what it flies like.....................laters....................

Oh Yes................

Hi everyone,

I've just bought my first kit heli (well few months ago). Having always bought rtf I'm not sure about the setup from scratch.

I have a 35mhz Futaba T7CP and the heli kit is an HK600gt.

I'm struggling with the TX setup and swash plate setup. Any help would be greatfully received

Cheers, Dave

A crash kit which includes another battery arrived Sat a.m. so I took it to an Indoor last night (Sat). No better........

Someone there asked what I thought and when I said it would not even pirouette properly he instantly said there was an undocumented calibration mode, and said what to do. We tried this and it did not work!! He then rang someone who works for Ripmax who confirmed what we were trying was exactly the right thing to do, but several more tries, no good. Then a youngster turned up with one, asking what we were doing as his was trying to drift the wrong way for stick moves. He'd not altered any settings from supply. His was worse than mine and also would not end turns or piros correctly.

The Calibration process worked first time on his and it then flew well. However, tried mine again several times but no luck.

What we were being told to do (on Mode 2) was:-

Power up and allow to bind

Press down on left stick to operate switch under it and hold it on

Wriggle right stick left/right

"Eye" lights will flash and calibration done!!

Getting back home (late) I went hunting and found in US forums that others were calibrating it differently, viz:-

Power up and allow to bind.

Press and release right under stick switch to put it into "Expert" mode (says Expert in tiny letters on LCD and red LED flashes)

Hold full right rudder on left stick (care - no throttle as it is live)

Wriggle right stick left/right

"Eye" lights will flash and calibration done!!

This worked on mine and it now flies MUCH better, piros being flat and ending in hover. :af

There is nothing in the Ripmax Notifications section of their website at the time of writing this, though they do clearly know.

One wonders how many are getting returned to the poor shopkeepers to sort or replace, or just thrown in a cupboard as too difficult................. : :

Hope this helps some people.......................it saved mine from being thrown across the room...........

This is the Blade 130x replacement. A phone call from TJD, and one has been added to the ever more bulging hangar (good job its small!!)

Its a little bigger (and only a little bigger!), has the new trend in servo placement (and they are "real" servos), and a round boom with shaft drive. The design looks basically good, but there's an extra pair of gears on the tail drive which any engineer will tell you is against basic principles of minimising fail/wear/friction points.

First thing that strikes on sight is that the twerp that thought silver and white on the canopy looked good and contrasted well should be shot. However, he should be hung upside down from some sensitive body part for a few days first after choosing a bright plain "grass" green to "go" with the silver/white. Boy is there ever going to be sales of after market canopies for this little beast! The "option" canopy Blade offer is not really any better either, only substituting orange for green.

I disliked it so much that I had to attack it even before I flew it!! Luckily I had some matching green and some orange vinyl to give some better and more easily orientated shape/tone, so for now it'll be perfectly at home in Ireland till I get a replacement that comes from someone who isn't colour blind and lives in an area with no grass.

Second thing is that the canopy comes FAR too close to the cyclic servo rods, right at the point where the ball joints end in a step to the smaller rod section...................you can see where this is going, can't you.............yes, the canopy can catch on the rod and stop smooth action...........excellent for a small fast responding 3D machine, that!! This DOES need doing BEFORE you crash it!! I used a hot soldering iron to mould two semi-circular recesses in the canopy edge, job done!

Thirdly, the EFlite batteries (one supplied, so that's 3 mins flying) are between £20-£25 each. They MUST be joking!!

Luckily, I already had some equivalent sized and proportioned HobbyKing Nano-Tech packs, bought for around £5 each.

This rip off first party pricing is the model equivalent of buying a printer and then the manufacturer stinging you for the ink cartridges!!

So, not up to much then, is it?? Well, wrong...................once you do put it into the air its immediately obvious its basically a great little flyer. Gave it a good first and second flight in my garden, which had a light but swirling breeze across it, and it flew well. This was with everything maxed and no expo, BTW.

The parakeets that inhabit my feeders seemed to approve, too, maybe its the matching green........I'd better change it before breeding season though.........

Is it worth replacing a 130X with it? That's to be determined..................more later as schools closed so no access to sports hall, its raining, and my dining room is a little small for 3D flight, esp with two fish tanks to burst!

Hi,

I am looking to move on from my 150 size heli which I have mastered quite well to my Trex 450. I went over to west London for a lesson with Flyin Fish, which was very good, but also a far distance to travel.

Is there anyone out there who would want to give a starter some lessons?

Many thanks

This guy will get you one..................

MMMMM, wonder what he's like with motorcyclists and where's the nearest deep river......................

It was being offered with a Dx6i DSM "X" Transmitter (with a broken menu roller), a large metal case, some good quality tools, quite a lot of spares, two expensive Fusano custom paint canopies with matching coloured sets of blades, a good quality mains/12v charger with a large selection of multi charge leads, five batteries (three being a top of the range larger capacity type), £45 8000kV motor and more.

At a silly money start. I watched it all the way through and didn't bid, it ended unsold. It was re-listed. I watched it all the way through again, bid the min at 5 secs, and since nobody else was prepared to take a chance on it, so I won.

It arrived so well packed it would have survived WW3 let alone Parcelfarce.

Look over showed it was well used but looked fantastic and no major faults evident.

Repaired the Tx (cost nothing from spares box).

Flew it........not great, wallowed quite a bit despite a high enough head speed (near ballistic in Idle-Up ).

After about a minute it suddenly threw itself onto the floor. (At this point, hands up all those thinking yes, that's what you get from EBay "bargains"!) No damage resulting.

Decided the boom last section beyond the braces was a little tired and flexible after handling the extra power of a bigger motor and blades, so "splinted" it with carbon strip on two faces of the square section, invisible once fitted...........again from bits box..........now as rigid as a rigid thing in rigidsville.

Decided the front cyclic servo "rack" was sloppy, so bought and fitted one (£13)

Flew it again, no more wallowing. About a minute in.................guess..................splat (again, no damage)

After a few tries that were off target, I realised that the motor pinion, a force fit to the shaft, was loosening enough when the motor warmed up to cause slip, upsetting not only the tail but also the whole 3 axis gyro.

Stripped out, thoroughly degreased, shaft keyed, and epoxy fitted.

After full cure time, flown again...............and again...............and again.............and again...........

Since I don't need to carry the charger I have added foam to the case to carry both my 130x's.

Bargain?........................... Bargain!

Read up on Heliaddict and elsewhere if you want detail, but briefly:-

If you thought 130x's MCPX's and Nano's prone to topple their gyros and roll over on spool up....................you ain't seen nuffin yet brother!!! (even the manual suggests its a "feature"!!!) Forget scale type take offs, this one needs rocket boosters.

and

They add more tail complexity, friction, weight and loading, yet do not fit a metal tail gear part they already have available as an "upgrade" which was actually introduced as a result of many many people having stripping/premature wear out issues with the standard plastic 130x product!

Looks 100%, flies perfectly OK once in air (but only briefly).

Two careful "circuits only" flights and mine is grounded waiting a metal gear replacement which will be harder to fit with the body than a std 130x. Two others I know of didn't even get airborne before gear failures!

NOT GOOD ENOUGH, HORIZON HOBBIES!!!

Eurocopter AS355 "Écureuil" (Squirrel) from an unpainted FunKey body. Pseudo Fire Service scheme (Will have "G-FIRE" lettering when I can get to a cutter IF it survives that long!!

Chassis is an ancient Hirobo Shuttle ZXX (top start), Std 148 servos, Futaba 401 Gyro, OS 32 engine.

I have modified the power and fuel systems to be able to access everything needed for normal use through the side window opening, also to show fuel level.

http://www.prostarhobby.com/product-p/blh7880.htm

But it's still cool...................

Custom frame:

Or alu swash plate:

I'm sure it would make no difference to my flying and very expensive, but I have to say it's cool!

Or even canopies:

If you want to fly this aggressively indoors or at all outdoors though, you'll find that the body acts like an unwanted drag parachute in flips and gusts.

Many people are flying them sans body but this makes the electronics vulnerable..............so............

I found a rattle can top which fitted perfectly as a push fit round the ring of the central frame, cut this down to minimum height to clear the electronics, with cutouts for arms, battery and aerial. I also revised the lamp wiring on two arms to avoid contact at all with the std or can case, and protected the other two (leads too short to alter route due battery position) with some clear tape. A bit of scrap flouro Vinyl applied to it provides orientation help.

Result? A free minimum drag protective case/body!!

Part of the reason for going to a bigger EP Heli is my travelling gets me near my club sites and with flying time, but transporting starters and fuel is an issue in a car often already loaded up with tools, and while my 450's (inc a HK 450) are great little machines, they ultimately are not that wind worthy.

This bird uses 6S cell size, that is, using my supreme maffematikal powers, it can use two times 3S...........

SO, my 3S 2300 450 size batteries can be used in matching pairs.

With the base Heli kit under £60, initially at least a £10 gyro, etc, will it be cheap and cheerful, or cheap and rubbish..............

Watch this space.................it might save you some money either way!!!

I was browsing articles on the model yesterday and came across this youtube video on vortex effects which is worth knowing about: