[Tarl]

Hi folks;
Just joined the site and I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first heli. I bought an upgraded e-flite Blade CP from another forum member. I'm 50 years old and am new to RC flight. I did own a couple of string controlled planes back in the 70s and I've built lots of models in my day. Between a good sim and the Blade I'm really looking forward to learning and being part of the community.

[cassat]

Your main concern will be with holding the tail steady. Best to have a spare battery as
the tail may unlock as your battery voltage wears down. The Blade 400 is a steadier
machine but you have to start somewhere.
Best to get a spare pack of feather shafts and set of spare blades

cheers

ps. where is Aerosmith, Ont? lots of rock n roll?

[Tarl]

Thanks for the tips......

[bobreib]

Have someone help you with a buddy box connected to your transmitter.
An experienced heli flier can help you with the setup of the transmitter and can save your heli from mistakes that you may make when you first start to fly.

[7kcabfun]

Welcome to the addiction called RC Heli flying. The blade is a good machine for indoors. It is not always the best to start with as it is pretty unstable. Even though you may be able to hover inverted and do all sorts of cool 3D tricks on the sim the real thing is different. A good place to start is in the hover with the tail facing towards you and leave the idle up mode off for the beginning. This way if you get in trouble you can just throttle down and land. With idle up on going stick down will slam the heli to the ground and break the skids and probably roll over. Don't go at it with the idea that today is the day I am going to do "whatever new move" they will come when you are ready. When you crash just make sure to put it back together right everytime. I am sure someone can guide you in the right direction if you have problems. Hopefully you have the plastic head and wood blades. If you go Metal head or Carbon Blades you just break more expensive parts. The carbon blades almost always break the tail boom in a crash. The metal head is a lot more responsive than the plastic and the Bell-Hiller mixers need the ball links turned opposite ways before it will fly properly. PM if you need more info. Lastly go to a hobby shop and get a couple RC plane wheel locks, they look a lot like the little weights on the fly bar and they are only $2 compared to $6 for the weights from E-flite. Add them to the fly bar out by the paddles. Having the two sets of weights out there will slow the cyclic response and make it easier to learn with. Once you get better you can start moving them in towards the main shaft and speed things up a bit.

I learned on this heli and afterwards I found it dead easy to fly bigger electrics and nitro helis. I still have two CPs. Depends on which CP you have but some come with a Head Lock Gyro. If you don't have on start looking E-flite sells the stand alone one off the CP Pro 2 for about $50 US and it is worth every penny. Good Luck and Have fun its a great hobby

[marcham]

Welcome to the hobby, sounds like you're already on the right track by getting a sim.

Here is the basic training course I recommend to all my students:
http://www.dream-models.com/eco/flying-index.html

If you follow it to the letter and spend quality time on the sim (there's no point trying flips in the first 10 minutes) then you will be successful. The important thing with the sim is to treat it just as you would the real thing, don't accept a crash every 20 seconds and don't over estimate your abilities.

It's a great hobby...

[Jiver]

Originally Posted by Tarl

Hi folks;
Just joined the site and I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first heli. I bought an upgraded e-flite Blade CP from another forum member. I'm 50 years old and am new to RC flight. I did own a couple of string controlled planes back in the 70s and I've built lots of models in my day. Between a good sim and the Blade I'm really looking forward to learning and being part of the community.

Welcome!

Take your time and enjoy the process of learning to fly helicopters. If I may suggest; spend the majority of time on your SIM. It will pay off when you fly an RC helicopter.

Good Luck & Have Fun...

Thanks,

Gordon

[Tarl]

I went to my local hobby store today to by a charger and came home with an E-Flite CX2 (clearance sale). It comes with a charger and all that is needed to fly. Read the manual, watched the video and have gone through 2 batteries out in the garage. I can hover very well up to about 6 feet, can do some side to side, backwards and forwards and a little bit of spinning. I got the training landing gear on....no crashes but a couple of hard landings. Lotsa fun and everything is still in one piece. I figure I'll practice with this until my CP arrives.

[bensidus197217]

Good luck I hope you do well