Eflite Blade Start to Finish

[Shadrack]

That, or what I am doing is a lot of practice on the Blade CX. This is great for teaching you the sticks and practicing nose in/side in hovering. These will translate to my blade cp once I have the space indoors to do it.

[Ron]

Sobamaflyer: congratulations on your success so far...hope you are enjuoying it as much as I am.

[Hunter850]

Originally Posted by Pyrock

I just have to shut her down as soon as the bird starts to show signs of power loss since it doesn't have an auto shut-off built in which leads me to my question....

Does anyone know how long a Thunder Power 3S 1320 will last in a normal hover before I should shut down? Also, any other tips before I try to take her up?

Check out this site. http://www.tjtrc.com/LiPoV2.html

He builds a good system for lipo alarms and lights and some have put them on their CPs.

[Chris]

Hey everyone, I finally caved and bought the BCP at my local LHS. This will be my 1st heli and I'm going to follow the Radd method,Inspired by Ron and his writing. Battery is charging now - cant wait.Just hope I have the patience to follow Radd's instruction.Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!

[Huki]

Hello all, had my eSKY CP2 for a few days now, and after reading Ron's accounts of his experiences with the Radd method I decided it was the way to go.(by the way Ron what a great read they were too!)
Battery 10 finally ran out of power last night so tonight was time to check and set up everthing in preparation to go outside tomorrow.
This is something I want to master as I have always been passionate about helicopters,so gonna give it my best shot.
Will update with progress tomorrow, bye for now............................................... ....

[Ron]

Huki....welcome aboard. Hope it goes great for you on the first hover.
You will have to remember to put some padding between your knees so you don't get bruised up too badly :-)

[Huki]

Well well, what a day. Got up this morning to cold, windy weather and thought I'd better wait for the wind to drop a bit. No such luck untill about mid-day and still gusting now and then to around 10mph. So decided to go out and look for somewhere with a bit of shelter to get stuck into hovering. Unfortunately the wind got the better of me and my heli and as I was lifting off for the 4th or 5th time it all went pear shaped and the rotors hit the deck bending the main rotor shaft. So that was the end of that. Took it home, fixed the damage and practised indoors for the rest of the day. Hoping for a calm day soon, in the mean time gonna take the heli down to my local club and get someone to check my set up, as I am new to this and want it checking by someone experienced. Hope to be able to post better news soon!!

[sobamaflyer]

I've been having such fun with my Blade the last couple of weeks, any day that it's not raining or blowing like crazy I've gone out back and flown out a battery pack with really encouraging results.

I was practicing nose in hovering today and at a couple of feet above the ground I goofed so I cut throttle and hoped for the best, well I picked her up, dusted her off and nothing seemed to be wrong just a couple of blade nicks. Well, now only the main rotor spins up.

I tried reversing the motor leads to see if the main rotor's esq would spin the tail, nothing. Tried applying power directly to the tail motor, nothing, tried plugging a spare tail motor into my 4 in 1, more nothing....

Is there anything else I'm missing or have I somehow smoked my 4 in 1? I'm planning on sending it in to Horizon (after speaking to thier very nice support staff) and hope for the best.

[Ron]

I kind of think that you first toasted the tail motor....sometimes when it goes in tail first this happens..if you applied power directly to it and it didn't go, I think you smoked it.....unfortunately you may have inadvertantly killed the 4 in 1 when you were experimenting with the power leads...first thing I would do though is replace the tail motor with one that you know works..if this is not successful, send in the 4 in 1.If you didn't disconnect the tail motor before you applied power to it then it's likely the 4 in 1...I have seen more than one ESC fry when power from the battery is applied to the wrong side of it......luckily the 4 in 1 isn't very expensive, and hopefully they will get you up and running quickly.

[debhicks]

I hit the ground when I panicked and it was the tail rotor motor. $10.00 and I was up and running. It was my mistake. Bad to chop the throttle. :o

[sobamaflyer]

more info found today, maybe someone can help:

I took off my 4 in 1, and heard a little rattleing, decided to open it up to investigate. Apparently this last little bounce has broken loose a tiny little microchip right beside the pins for the tail motor output.

Now do I still send it back and hope as before, or try to have it resoldered back on? Anyone care to advise as to which way is up and if it matters on this little microchip? Yeah, I know I just can't help myself from tinkering

[debhicks]

The positioning of the micro chip will make a difference as each leg has a specific purpose. You would have to have the schematics to know which way it should be unless there is a picture of it on the board itself. The chip will have an orientation point either a dent or a mark and would line up on the circuit board. If you can find that out, have a low heat micro soldering iron and a very steady hand, young eyes, oh what else. MMMMMMMMMM very small solder. It's all specialized equipment. The cost of the equipment schematics and worrying, you'd be money ahead to get another one and send the one back and perhaps Horizon will take care of it for you. You could call tech support and they will help you.

I would say a little bounce with a big jarr perhaps?

[sobamaflyer]

like I said, couldn't resist at least investigating, it goes to them tomorrow

.....admittedly this isn't the ONLY bounce my BCP has endured, just this one seemed rather minor. I don't care what anyone says to go through what folks like myself put it through it's a tough little bird!

[debhicks]

Oh, I thought I had snapped mine in half it hit so hard. I almost cried. Why I do that I don't know. Cry that is. But I was amazed that it powered up and nothing appeared broken at first. Then the tail motor would go. Didn't have any with me at the time nor did I have a soldering iron as we were at a fun fly as vendors that weekend.

Very durable. Will has crashed it real good a few times. Major part replaced besides blades. 1 tail motor

[Huki]

Sorry about the previous post that was here being in the wrong place,I should have checked.

[Ron]

Huki.....no offense intended, but you will be much better served with " how do I fix it " questions in one of the other heli threads....likely there are some there who know a lot more than those who are reading this thread trying to decide if they want to buy and fly their first heli......and looking to see if it would be a struggle or is reasonably easy to do.....this thread is meant only to give encouragement to those wishing to venture into a new section of this great hobby, doesn't cover repairs etc. and does not compare different types/brands of heli's with each other..eg...the which is best questions....( it only deals with the Blade )these other questions are best asked in other areas of the heli forums.....Still, I hope you are enjoying your new micro heli, and are able to get it adjusted correctly..................Ron

[sb13]

Hi Ron and group, I've been flying the blade cx and moved up to the blade cp today. I have'nt done much more than to check everything by the book and fire it up once. I noticed as you throttle up the front end wants to go to the right. Same as the cx. When I give it rudder input I see that it speeds up the tail rotor in one direction and stops it in the other direction. Is this normal? I can understand how and why it could or should work this way but I want to make sure it's supposed to work this way. Thanks for your input and Ron I really enjoyed reading your story.

[sobamaflyer]

Yep, it's doing exactly as it should

[sb13]

Thanks for the answer. I'm not going to take this one up until I can go outside. My basement is where I fly the cx but the cp needs more space with my flying skills. lol Can't wait to try her out.

[sobamaflyer]

I don't think I felt the "click" until I got my CP and took it outside where I had more room, something about the walls and impending doom I think was affecting my flying. Now I'm able to get a pretty solid hover for whole packs (tail in).

[Ron]

Scott likely a wise choice to wait for a good outside day.

Sobama....funny how you can be in a 20 ft. sq. room and be always in danger of hitting a wall, but outside where there's lots of room, you can stick a frisbee on the ground, and hover over it all day, then land on it consistantly with not much problem....still haven't figured that one out either :-)

[sobamaflyer]

I'm so glad you said that, thought it was just me

[Ron]

finally took the training gear off this weekend...I was going to leave it on, but a fellow who had just bought a Blade was out and asked if I could help with his, so in a moment of poor judgement I said yes....you guessed it his didn't have the gear on it, and I flew it with no issues...now my training gear is on his heli...at least they have a good home. :-)

[jcblough]

delete me

[Flying Foot Doc]

Ron, Great journal! I'm new to my Blade, 1 battery so far, but more parts than you...lol. I'd like to follow your path, I'm in no hurry to skip steps, I want to learn to control and fly this thing, not just jump it into the air, try to follow it around and then replace more parts. Where did you find the Radd method? I've seen it mentioned a few times. Enjoy your Blade. I'm enjoying the change and challange after 14+ years in fixed wing RC, Andy