new to Heli's ,my son and me.

[Birddog]

Hello , "Santa" brought my 10 yr old son a new Blade CX2 helicopter and we are both anxious to get started flying . It is both of our first RC flying toys. It is fully charged immediately after opening and we watched the DVD that came with it as well as me reading the instructions. It is a little overwhelming but I think with some light experience and forum help ,we can do it. Tonight I took it out to the center of our trampoline to try to hover . There was a light breeze and it drifted off quite easily once it left the surface. How should I best trim the heli . I'm still not used to the controls but I understand this is a work in progress. Should I buy the training gear or can I make some out of light(ceiling grid) wire and foam balls-or would this add too much weight ? Just one specific question of many .
Any help ,comments or advice is appreciated.

[chaos]

Hot dang... sounds like the fever has struck.

Training gear will probably save you some money. Make or buy.

My advice is to stay low and slow until you have comfortable control over the thing. To start with, keep it aimed away from you so that your left and the heli left agree. Corrections will be more natural that way. But while you're at it, try to think in terms of what to do with the controls from the perspective of being in the heli... try to put your mind in it... "left" is the heli left, whichever way that may be in relation to you. Take off, hover within a foot of the ground, and insist on holding it over a particular spot. Try not to overcontrol. When that feels pretty good, hover with it pointed left and right. When that feels good, hover with it pointed at you. Take off, hover low, and land, while holding it pointed in various directions.

It's no easy task to lift off and hold it over a spot and land while holding over the spot real accurately. It's worth the bother to practice that a lot. It takes a lot of work because the heli is flying in its own turbulence, in addition to any stray air currents. When you can put it down without any sideways or backwards motion, take off the training gear and practice the same thing a lot. Without the training gear it will be more responsive and you will have lost a visual clue, so expect to need more practice to get back up to snuff. If you can take off and hover and land while staying within a foot of your target spot you've got pretty good control of the thing. Avoid setting down with any sideways movement, cuz it will tend to tip over. If you do hit anything with the blades be sure to promptly cut the throttle. Otherwise you'll burn up the motor controller, and that will cost you around $50 for a new 4-in-1, plus maybe blades.

[Birddog]

Chaos, Thanks for the advice - We took it out again last night before dark .I did a step by step instructional in the manual and got to trim it out a bit ,play with the controls . It kept wanting to drift out of the area and catch a breeze coming between the houses and off it'd go -with my son on a chase. It ended with a low battery and a cracked blade tip 1/2 inch-wonder if I can just put a small piece of tape on it and be fine for a while or should I change it .I'll keep the control & heli right and left in mind when we practice. And I told him we need the training gear of some kind. Yes -the fever has struck .
Thanks again.

[hawkman]

Its a good site this one....very friendly and seems to help newcomers without question.

I would say to get a RC simulator so you can learn to fly on your PC.....such a thing is very very useful....it might seem expensive but if you choose carefully then it will last a long time....you can then try out different models...and crash them without breaking the bank and without breaking into tears

This is a fascinating hobby with something for everyone....I only hope you and your Son get as much fun out if it as I do.

Ask as many questions as you want...I will try to answer if I can help.

Rob

[chaos]

cracked blade tip 1/2 inch-wonder if I can just put a small piece of tape on it

I broke a tip clean off my CX and glued it back with crazy glue. Tape might be too heavy. Worked fine. But I wouldn't do that with a large motor.

[New-heli-pilot]

If it does start vibrating a lot more with some tape on just one blade, put an equal amount on the other blade at about the length from the tip. On a CX, tape can even make up parts of a blade. I once had about 1/4 of a blade made from tape, lost a little lift but hey it worked until i could get to the lhs for new ones.

[SacHeliFlyer]

I also just started in Heli RC's and also got a blade CX for X-mas. I have gone through about 10 battery charges at this point and have had one big intial crash about 1 foot off ground and three little crahses since with minor damage. Aftger the first crash I replaced the inner shaft with a aluminum one for about $14.00, looks cool and alot more durable then the plastic one it came with. I also bought a pack of baldes for the upper and lowers and that pack comes with three sets in each pack for about $4 to $6 a pack. I bought the heat sink for the motor which was about $5.00 and drilled a few small 1/4" holes in the fusalage nose piece to increase airflow around the motors and 4 in 1 controller. You will notice that the heli will tend to come out of trim and float around a little more then when you first start up. I notice this about halfway through a battery charge. I was told this was caused by the motors heating up at diffrent temps and the speed of the motor varies (my LHS, told me this opinion) I read on here that it is caused by the 4 and 1 control heating up and that some say taking the control out of the box and drilling holes in the cover is good. I drilled the holes in the nose fusalage to increae the airflow because of the above. I also bought an extra battery for about $28.00.


As for the flying part I think reading alot online has helped, my LHS has a flight sim that I played around with in the store for about an hour and that helped. I also took it nice and slow as the other heli pilot told you. Started at ground level and worked into a hover when I got comfortable with that I went to about 4' to get out of ground effect. You should probley stick to the garage or inside your living room or a large room so you don't have to mess with the wind, it will really effect this heli. The manual tells you anything over a light breeze is not good. I am cofortable enough now to fly in and out of diffrent rooms and land on a table, etc. I still have times when it feels like
I might loose control but I just fight it to the end as if I was really in the thing. If you feel like you are going to run into a chair or a wall, etc. I have noticed you can cut the throttle completly and let the heli drop from a foot or so up and it does fine, don't think this would work at three feet without some damage just remember like the other heli pilot told you cut the throttle if you crash.

I know that was alot to take in but thought I would let you know what has worked for me since I am new to. I know one thing this is addicting.

P.S. Buy the blades they are not that expensive and they are easy to install. I would also take the Heli semi apart to get used to changing parts etc. It is easy just remember where the parts go back on and buy a little packet of screws in case you loose any. My LHS sells a pac made just for the CX and has a dozen or so of various sizes.

Have fun

[Birddog]

So much to take in and remember . Thanks to all. I'm sure I'll be in here quite often.
I guess besides blades - what are the most common parts to break that I'll want to keep in some sort of repair kit box ? I understand aluminum parts are available to change to and for the added durability ,sounds very affordable .