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SpotTheCat
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Thu May 15, 2008 11:39 am

heli's are harder to learn, more expensive, and they break easier.
 
Heiwashin
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Thu May 15, 2008 11:44 am

SpotTheCat wrote:
heli's are harder to learn, more expensive, and they break easier.


Yea i tried that free sim for a bit, and the clearview. I'll get one of the controllers ya'll pointed out probly next week, but using a normal controller was interesting. Clearview was several factors more difficult than the free one though. Are these things really all that dependable?
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Thu May 15, 2008 7:28 pm

Angie1313 wrote:
in all honestly, how much would it cost to get involved with something like this? My nephew is talking about getting into RC airplanes but I think the helicopters are much neater.


Heli's are neater I suppose. I think so, but that is a personal opinion. Usacomp2k3 is right though. Helicopters require much more maintenance and setup. For example, I got my Blade 400 last weekend. It is marketed as a ready to fly setup. So far, in trimming it out, I have had to balance the blades (requires a blade balancer), track the main blades, and zero the tail (requires a set of calipers to do well and you should probably get a pair of ball link pliers too). Crashing, which I am lucky to have not done, can require a complete tear down of the head to check for bent parts.

I read a quote the other day that pretty well summed it up. "An airplane will fly pretty well as long as it looks ok. A helicopter can look perfect and not fly at all." Don't remember where I heard it so I can't attribute.
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Thu May 15, 2008 7:33 pm

Heiwashin wrote:
SpotTheCat wrote:
heli's are harder to learn, more expensive, and they break easier.


Yea i tried that free sim for a bit, and the clearview. I'll get one of the controllers ya'll pointed out probly next week, but using a normal controller was interesting. Clearview was several factors more difficult than the free one though. Are these things really all that dependable?


Yes and no... I have found the flight characteristics on the Blade CX in ClearView to be a bit more docile than my CX2 in real life. That being said, I have set up my CX2 a bit more agressive than stock. The Blade 400, however, I have found easier to fly in real life than in the sim. That may have something to do with the controller though as I am using the controller that came with my CX2 as the sim controller and it is significantly stiffer than the DX6i I use to fly the Blade 400 in real life.

I think it is safe to say that a sim will not teach you how to fly a specific heli in real life. You will still need some practice on a particular model to become comfortable and familiar. It will however let you learn the basics of heli flight without spending $50-$75 each time you make a mistake.
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Thu May 15, 2008 11:16 pm

Well, I crashed my Blade 400 this evening. I was practicing hovering nose in and it got away from me and "nosed in". It wasn't a particularly bad crash, only about 4ft off the ground. For those who are considering flying heli's, here is a run down of what I damaged in a minor crash and what it is going to cost to fix.

Main Blades - $12.99
Flybar - $3.99
Main shaft - $4.99
Tail boom - $6.99
Canopy mount rod - $2.49
Feathering shaft - $5.49
Servo gear set - $2.99
Canopy - $15.99
Pushrod set - $3.99
Ball link set - $3.99
Hardware set (screws and such) - $11.49

Total - $74.39

To be fair, several items come in multiple quantities even though I only need one (flybar, main shaft, feathering shaft, tail boom, etc) so I won't have to spend as much next time I bang it up. I don't have to fix the canopy. I nosed in and the battery tried to go through the front of the canopy cracking it a bit, but it is still serviceable. I'll get a 10% discount from the hobby shop since I bought the heli there.

Still, this should give you an idea of the expense involved. I haven't even included the hour and a half spent tearing down the whole helicopter get the bent parts out. Tomorrow after I pick up replacements, I'll have to put it back together and re-trim everything -- another two hours at least, probably three.

Lots of time and money... and LOTS of fun. :)

--SS
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Thu May 15, 2008 11:24 pm

SecretSquirrel wrote:
Well, I crashed my Blade 400 this evening. I was practicing hovering nose in and it got away from me and "nosed in". It wasn't a particularly bad crash, only about 4ft off the ground. For those who are considering flying heli's, here is a run down of what I damaged in a minor crash and what it is going to cost to fix.

Main Blades - $12.99
Flybar - $3.99
Main shaft - $4.99
Tail boom - $6.99
Canopy mount rod - $2.49
Feathering shaft - $5.49
Servo gear set - $2.99
Canopy - $15.99
Pushrod set - $3.99
Ball link set - $3.99
Hardware set (screws and such) - $11.49

Total - $74.39

To be fair, several items come in multiple quantities even though I only need one (flybar, main shaft, feathering shaft, tail boom, etc) so I won't have to spend as much next time I bang it up. I don't have to fix the canopy. I nosed in and the battery tried to go through the front of the canopy cracking it a bit, but it is still serviceable. I'll get a 10% discount from the hobby shop since I bought the heli there.

Still, this should give you an idea of the expense involved. I haven't even included the hour and a half spent tearing down the whole helicopter get the bent parts out. Tomorrow after I pick up replacements, I'll have to put it back together and re-trim everything -- another two hours at least, probably three.

Lots of time and money... and LOTS of fun. :)

--SS


Just so you are aware of it there are absolutely NO feathering shafts anywhere for the B400 so you are out of luck getting a replacement. It just so happens though that the Trex 450 feathering shafts will work as long as the are the V1 shafts. The V2's will not work they are to big around.
 
mattsteg
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Thu May 15, 2008 11:31 pm

Anything that eats time and money like that had better be fun :)
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 6:29 am

mattsteg wrote:
Anything that eats time and money like that had better be fun :)


You mean like tinkering with computers? ;)

--SS
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 7:29 am

SecretSquirrel wrote:
mattsteg wrote:
Anything that eats time and money like that had better be fun :)


You mean like tinkering with computers? ;)

--SS


I am starting to think computers are cheaper than R/C stuff. The more you have the more you want.

I have the next three days off so I am going to burn through a bunch of batteries and try to get a little better at flying mine. I need to start flying the 400 everyday like I did my CX2 when I got it.
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 7:45 am

SecretSquirrel wrote:
mattsteg wrote:
Anything that eats time and money like that had better be fun :)


You mean like tinkering with computers? ;)

--SS

There's a bit less breakage and repair involved there.
...
 
SpotTheCat
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 10:15 am

We flew our plane again yesterday! We mounted a camera in the nose, and had a live video stream from the camera. It was sweet.
 
Usacomp2k3
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 12:18 pm

mattsteg wrote:
There's a bit less breakage and repair involved there.

..but when said breakage occurs, it is generally more expensive. $300 mobo, $150 PSU, $200 CPU...
 
SpotTheCat
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 12:26 pm

Hour for hour, I'd give R/C hobbies 1000-1 in breaking incidents over computers.
 
mattsteg
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 12:30 pm

Usacomp2k3 wrote:
mattsteg wrote:
There's a bit less breakage and repair involved there.

..but when said breakage occurs, it is generally more expensive. $300 mobo, $150 PSU, $200 CPU...
Sure, but you generally have to either do something stupid or have really bad luck for those to happen. They don't break as part of the normal learning curve of learning to use a computer. Also, not a lot of need for $300 motherboards or $150 PSUs. Sure, you can throw money at things however much you want, but you do so because you choose to, not because an extremely high probability (inevitability?) forces you to.

Other than a $100 PSU and a 17 in LCD failing just beyond the warranty period, I can't really think of anything of mine dying that wasn't either so old as to make replacement cheap or still warranted. There's very little that tends to break unless misused. Much of it stands up well even to that. Heck, I've been running my video card without a fan for years, after the fan broke and fell off. The NB fan on my motherboard's been seized up even longer. Even with this abuse things have run smoothly, with the exception of occasional HD failures and the aforementioned psu and display.
...
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 12:38 pm

All very good points.
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 2:01 pm

Angie1313 wrote:
in all honestly, how much would it cost to get involved with something like this? My nephew is talking about getting into RC airplanes but I think the helicopters are much neater.
I'd start him the same way I did (and the same way I learned to fly for real) -- with a glider. You can get one with a 2 axis controller for not much money, and they tend not to crash very violently. There are some pretty good ones pre-built, of if he's into the whole balsa-and-glue thing there are some nice kits for beginners (more work, but you know how to fix them when you break something). You can get started just hand tossing it in a field or park area, getting it trimmed, learning how to reverse the rudder when it's coming towards you, etc. Then you can move on to either high-starts (using surgical tubing to catapult launch) or, if you have a ridge around with steady wind, he can ridge soar. From there you can move onto something with that spinning noisemaker on it. Many places have an RC club or a lose grouping of people centered on a hobby shop, and they tend to be very helpful with getting you up and flying.
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 2:39 pm

I am going to have to disagree UberGerbil. Get something battery powered first learn to fly with that then you can think about a glider. A plane like the Park Zone Slo-V would make a much better plane to learn on in my experience. Its 3 channels, flys very slow and teaches you all the basics of control. You can pick one up for a hunded bucks with everything you need to fly even the batteries.

Learn on a plane first then think about a helicopter. Planes are much easier to fly and not nearly as complicated to work on when it comes time to do repairs.
 
UberGerbil
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 3:05 pm

Yeah, definitely planes before helicopters (unless you're talking about those extremely limited indoor-only ultralight coax jobs). Yeah, I could get behind a slow powered a/c like that. Stuff like that wasn't available when I was kid, plus I really liked gliding (just like I always liked sailboats more than power boats).
 
Hance
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 3:43 pm

UberGerbil wrote:
Yeah, definitely planes before helicopters (unless you're talking about those extremely limited indoor-only ultralight coax jobs). Yeah, I could get behind a slow powered a/c like that. Stuff like that wasn't available when I was kid, plus I really liked gliding (just like I always liked sailboats more than power boats).


I have one of the Slo-V's and its a neat little plane. It will fly at not much more than walking speed and could be flown in a space the size of a baseball infield if the pilot was experienced. It is so light that it will act a lot like a glider does. I take mine up a couple hundred feet and then glide back almost to the ground then power up and do it again. I have got almost 20 minutes out of a flight by doing that. About the only trick it can do is a loop which I would advise against. To do a loop you have to dive and then crank back on the elevator when you do that the G load on the wing is high enough that it starts to flutter. At the bottom point of a loop one day I heard the wing flutter then a crack and then watched the wing fold in half and the plane fall like a rock. The high load I put on the wing broke it.
 
UberGerbil
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 5:27 pm

Hance wrote:
I have one of the Slo-V's and its a neat little plane. It will fly at not much more than walking speed and could be flown in a space the size of a baseball infield if the pilot was experienced. It is so light that it will act a lot like a glider does.
Sounds like you could soar it -- take it out on a parking lot on a hot day and find thermals to circle in. You could probably fly it all afternoon without using the engine beyond the initial climb.
At the bottom point of a loop one day I heard the wing flutter then a crack and then watched the wing fold in half and the plane fall like a rock. The high load I put on the wing broke it.
Yeah, that can happen on the real gear too. (Those links probably not for the white-knuckle fliers among us). Excessive control input above maneuvering speed tends not to end well.
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Fri May 16, 2008 6:16 pm

SecretSquirrel I just got done putting a replacement feathering shaft in my Blade 400 ( I used the TRex 450 V1 feathering shaft) make sure if you get them that you put a few extra shims in the head block when you put it back together. The shaft is to long but atleast they can be found at most hobby shops and will work with the extra shims. Now if the stupid wind would quit blowing I could go fly. I am going to try and get a video of me hovering and hopefully not crashing to post this weekend.
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Sat May 17, 2008 10:10 am

Hance wrote:
SecretSquirrel I just got done putting a replacement feathering shaft in my Blade 400 ( I used the TRex 450 V1 feathering shaft) make sure if you get them that you put a few extra shims in the head block when you put it back together. The shaft is to long but atleast they can be found at most hobby shops and will work with the extra shims. Now if the stupid wind would quit blowing I could go fly. I am going to try and get a video of me hovering and hopefully not crashing to post this weekend.


My LHS has the feathering shaft in stock. I rebuilt everything yesterday afternoon and got it out in the park across the street. Flew great and there was no real wind to speak off, which is unusual here. About half way through the battery, I made a mistake. Taking off in "normal" flight mode I hit the collective hard to pop up quickly and the tail gyro let go of the tail letting it swing around a bit over 90 degrees. I wasn't high enough off the ground to recover from the sudden loss of orientation. *sigh* Luckily I have most of the parts I need already. I did manage to bend to tail shaft this time so I will have to go pick that up. I also snapped one of the tail support rods, actually the end where it mounts. I also managed to snap the landing gear mount off the body. That was put back on with plastic cement and we will see if it holds up while the repair work is being done. I really don't want to replace half the body, not because of cost, but because I don't want to take the whole thing apart.

The good news is that now that I know how everything fits together, I figure I can have it apart and back together in about an hour or so.

--SS
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Sat May 17, 2008 2:31 pm

Did the hobby shop have many of the feathering shafts in stock ? If they did maybe E-Flite has finally got around to shipping some of them out again. They have been out of stock almost everywhere for months. I even checked e-bay for the feathering shafts and none were listed there :o Sucks that you crashed again but I guess thats all part of flying R/C. I had mine tore most of the way apart to replace a belt and it was a PITA I dont even want to think about a total tear down like you need for replace the main frame. It would suck large balls.
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Sat May 17, 2008 8:22 pm

I bought the last ones they had.

I ended up not doing a complete teardown. If you look at the landing struts they actually have two holes drilled in them. One set lines up with the tabs on the B400 body. The other set is inboard a few mm. On the rear, those second holes line up with the screw tunnels for the main body. I drilled a hole in the body there and put in a servo mount screw to hold it. I actually did it on both sides to strengthen it further.

And of course, I had yet another blade strike. This just hasn't been a good weekend. No serious damage. The covering on the blades wasn't even broken. It did however put enough of a bend in the main shaft that I have a nasty vibration. Luckily they are cheap and quick to change out. Still, I think I'm going to spend a good long while with the simulator before I fly the B400 again. :(

On a positive note, I got the Spektrum receiver installed in the Honey Bee King II and have it more or less trimmed out. I could fly it at least, though I need to work with the tail gyro some. It's a rate mode only gyro, but even so it wasn't holding the tail to particularly well.

--SS
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Sun May 18, 2008 3:20 pm

Hance wrote:
Just so you are aware of it there are absolutely NO feathering shafts anywhere for the B400 so you are out of luck getting a replacement. It just so happens though that the Trex 450 feathering shafts will work as long as the are the V1 shafts. The V2's will not work they are to big around.


The hobby shop I go to to fly and hang out on the weekends has a whole bunch in stock, perhaps a dozen or more sets. Do I need to pick a few up for you and ship them your way?

*edit*

The place I go fly is Mike's Hobby Shop (http://www.mikeshobbyshop.com) in Carrollton, TX. Fun place on the weekends. The track cams available on the website are pretty cool too (http://www.mikeshobbyshop.com/camera/tclrg.htm).

--SS
 
Hance
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Sun May 18, 2008 7:36 pm

SecretSquirrel wrote:
Hance wrote:
Just so you are aware of it there are absolutely NO feathering shafts anywhere for the B400 so you are out of luck getting a replacement. It just so happens though that the Trex 450 feathering shafts will work as long as the are the V1 shafts. The V2's will not work they are to big around.


The hobby shop I go to to fly and hang out on the weekends has a whole bunch in stock, perhaps a dozen or more sets. Do I need to pick a few up for you and ship them your way?

*edit*

The place I go fly is Mike's Hobby Shop (http://www.mikeshobbyshop.com) in Carrollton, TX. Fun place on the weekends. The track cams available on the website are pretty cool too (http://www.mikeshobbyshop.com/camera/tclrg.htm).

--SS


I picked up a couple of packs of the TREX 450 featherings shafts and am flying on them. If I trash them all I will keep you in mind though thanks for the offer.

I picked up Real Flight G4 today. I figure a bunch of sim time will probably save me money in the long run versus repair costs from crashing. If I can avoid one crash like SS had that cost him 75 bucks I have paid for 1/3 of the price of the sim.
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Sun May 18, 2008 9:07 pm

Hance wrote:
SecretSquirrel wrote:
Hance wrote:
Just so you are aware of it there are absolutely NO feathering shafts anywhere for the B400 so you are out of luck getting a replacement. It just so happens though that the Trex 450 feathering shafts will work as long as the are the V1 shafts. The V2's will not work they are to big around.


The hobby shop I go to to fly and hang out on the weekends has a whole bunch in stock, perhaps a dozen or more sets. Do I need to pick a few up for you and ship them your way?

*edit*

The place I go fly is Mike's Hobby Shop (http://www.mikeshobbyshop.com) in Carrollton, TX. Fun place on the weekends. The track cams available on the website are pretty cool too (http://www.mikeshobbyshop.com/camera/tclrg.htm).

--SS


I picked up a couple of packs of the TREX 450 featherings shafts and am flying on them. If I trash them all I will keep you in mind though thanks for the offer.

I picked up Real Flight G4 today. I figure a bunch of sim time will probably save me money in the long run versus repair costs from crashing. If I can avoid one crash like SS had that cost him 75 bucks I have paid for 1/3 of the price of the sim.


Got everything put back together and trimmed this morning. I got to run three packs indoors at Mike's. I'm still chasing some issues with the tail holding properly, but other than that, it was flying very smooth. The wind dropped off here at dusk but I decided not to push my luck. :)

I'm going to pick up a good USB interface cable for my DX6i so I can spend some quality sim time -- maybe 15-30 min a day for a while.

--SS
 
Heiwashin
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Sun May 18, 2008 9:15 pm

I think i'll postpone jumping into this hobby for a while longer, maybe once i've paid off my car so in a good couple months.
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Mon May 19, 2008 7:03 pm

Heiwashin wrote:
I think i'll postpone jumping into this hobby for a while longer, maybe once i've paid off my car so in a good couple months.


You can burn up a car payments worth of money a month on RC stuff pretty easy if you dont control yourself. It seems like there is always another plane or helicopter you want or a new cool gadget to try.

I am mad right now the wind has been blowing for three days straight and I have gotten ZERO stick time with my B400 the last few days :evil:
 
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Re: Radio Control Hobbies

Tue May 20, 2008 9:12 pm

Well I had a small crash tonight. My little boy decided to run over and look at the heli after he has been warned over and over to say away from it when I am flying. I ended up slaming it into the ground to make sure he didnt get in the blades. So far I have found a stripped elevator servo and it bent the tail boom. I replaced the gears in the servo. A set of gears is only 3 bucks or something like that so thats much cheaper than a new servo and pretty easy to do. Next up is replacing the tail boom its a bigger job but shouldnt take to long. After thats done I have to check everything out and make sure I didnt break anything else. :roll:

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