380/420 Crash !!!

[Blade 400]

Lovely calm day yesterday whilst charging batteries, but wind picked up at the field!
I thought it was sensible (not now!) to go to part of the field where a hedge provided some protection, but a sudden gust forced me to use a lot of forward on the cyclic (or it could have been a faulty servo - the stock E-flite servos are poor) and she shot forward, I tried pulling back and did lower the collective but she went into the hedge

The blades (which were on their last legs anyway) are shot and the only other thing I`ve noticed is the pitch servo arm is sticking straight upwards - also the practise plastic golf ball I have stuck to the tail fin (to protect the tail rotor) fell off.

I still had 4 fully charged Lipo`s so went to the car and brought out my new Blade 400 and went back to a lower head speed, which helped a lot with reducing the sensitivity of the controls and I didn`t try any new manoeuvres! She flew well and safe

I now have the opportunity to repair the backup Heli, which will help me in the future and I`ve also decided that I will head home if the weather changes again (I just hate having to return all batteries to storage charge as it takes longer than charging them! I read somewhere that using the dis-charge feature (which is quick) on my charger, reduces the life of the Lipo`s???

 

[D.O.G.]

OUCH! I hope this doesn't discourage you from flying again. Good percentage of induvial quit flying after the first crash because not having patience in this hobby. Which is a must. Dust the dirt off, rebuild and try again. Hopefully you can learn from the mistake and move on. Remember...if your not crashing...your not learning. Good luck on your next flight .

 

[Blade 400]

OUCH! I hope this doesn't discourage you from flying again. Good percentage of induvial quit flying after the first crash because not having patience in this hobby. Which is a must. Dust the dirt off, rebuild and try again. Hopefully you can learn from the mistake and move on. Remember...if your not crashing...your not learning. Good luck on your next flight .

Thanks D.O.G. I was nearly put off the hobby two years ago when I had my first crash, but I am back and I really want to master this particular Heli as I`ve bought several and lots of spares Having watched videos on YouTube (Thanks again for the link ) I`m looking forward to trying to repair her and will be very careful with the new bird now
I will be putting my batteries back to storage charge next time and will get on the Sim

 

[D.O.G.]

The sim is your friend Blade. Taking your skill from the sim to RLF is the challenge. There's that pucker and fear factor that gets your heart going. Once you can get pass that mental block...you should be fine to learn more maneuvers.

 

[Blade 400]

The sim is your friend Blade. Taking your skill from the sim to RLF is the challenge. There's that pucker and fear factor that gets your heart going. Once you can get pass that mental block...you should be fine to learn more maneuvers.

Thanks D.O.G. That`s the voice of experience Regular Sim time from now on

 

[Rackman]

OMG Bro so sorry to here ... I know the feeling, I've Been many times ...well don't give up any plains on the next one ? Elign is your best for finding part's that I've Found.. Well Hate to hear hope your find something worth investing in..

 

[Rackman]

Dog is right without my simulator..I'd be screwed .. you do have one don't you..? I use the Phoenix 6.0..& of course you can DL it from RCTHOUGHTS.COM...if you need more help or info on where to get a sim cable .. to run it hit me up .. of course I run my Spectrum DX7 to run mine ,, but anything i can do to help...im sure there are many here that know more that me ... but

 

[RandyDSok]

of course you can DL it from RCTHOUGHTS.COM.

The correct URL is actually rc-thoughts.com

 

[Geena]

OUCH! I hope this doesn't discourage you from flying again. Good percentage of induvial quit flying after the first crash because not having patience in this hobby. Which is a must. Dust the dirt off, rebuild and try again. Hopefully you can learn from the mistake and move on. Remember...if your not crashing...your not learning. Good luck on your next flight .

Ivan.... I have to respectfully disagree with you about "if you`re not crashing, you`re not learning". It is quite possible to learn new maneuvers without crashing. Just keep the helicopter high enough that you can get under it if you get in a bad position, so you can save it....and don`t go too far from your comfort zone all at once.

 

[Geena]

Lovely calm day yesterday whilst charging batteries, but wind picked up at the field!
I thought it was sensible (not now!) to go to part of the field where a hedge provided some protection, but a sudden gust forced me to use a lot of forward on the cyclic (or it could have been a faulty servo - the stock E-flite servos are poor) and she shot forward, I tried pulling back and did lower the collective but she went into the hedge

The blades (which were on their last legs anyway) are shot and the only other thing I`ve noticed is the pitch servo arm is sticking straight upwards - also the practise plastic golf ball I have stuck to the tail fin (to protect the tail rotor) fell off.

I still had 4 fully charged Lipo`s so went to the car and brought out my new Blade 400 and went back to a lower head speed, which helped a lot with reducing the sensitivity of the controls and I didn`t try any new manoeuvres! She flew well and safe

I now have the opportunity to repair the backup Heli, which will help me in the future and I`ve also decided that I will head home if the weather changes again (I just hate having to return all batteries to storage charge as it takes longer than charging them! I read somewhere that using the dis-charge feature (which is quick) on my charger, reduces the life of the Lipo`s???

Looking at the photos, it doesn`t look too bad. Best way to deal with a crash, is rebuild, regroup, and then go get a hair of the dog that bit you. I also learned early on in my flying career that worrying about crashing, can cause crashing. Crashing is never going to go away. it can actually get worse as you get better, because you start to fly harder and lower. so there is no reason to worry about it. Just have fun and enjoy your helicopter.

As for using the discharge settings in your charger.... I use mine all the time when I don`t fly off all of my packs, and I have batteries that are several years old and still going strong.

 

[Blade 400]

Looking at the photos, it doesn`t look too bad. Best way to deal with a crash, is rebuild, regroup, and then go get a hair of the dog that bit you. I also learned early on in my flying career that worrying about crashing, can cause crashing. Crashing is never going to go away. it can actually get worse as you get better, because you start to fly harder and lower. so there is no reason to worry about it. Just have fun and enjoy your helicopter.

As for using the discharge settings in your charger.... I use mine all the time when I don`t fly off all of my packs, and I have batteries that are several years old and still going strong.

Thanks a lot for the positive and supportive message Geena, its very inspirational
I have been flying too tentatively since my first major crash a couple of years ago! Thanks to advice from the great people on this website, my confidence has improved, the Flight Sim has helped tremendously and I do have several Blade 400 Heli`s and lots of spares
I did fly my new Blade 400 straight after the crash, as I did want to get "the hair of the dog that bit me" - so to speak
Cheers for the advice, I will be dis-charging my Lipo`s and returning to the Sim on windy days from now on
All the best with your new venture and Helicopters, I love the Canopies

 

[Blade 400]

Dog is right without my simulator..I'd be screwed .. you do have one don't you..? I use the Phoenix 6.0..& of course you can DL it from RCTHOUGHTS.COM...if you need more help or info on where to get a sim cable .. to run it hit me up .. of course I run my Spectrum DX7 to run mine ,, but anything i can do to help...im sure there are many here that know more that me ... but

Thanks for your kind and helpful message Rackman
I do have a Sim (Clearview) not sure how to link my Spektrum DX6i to it? I have a cheap Flight Sim TX that has a dongle usb that plugs into the Laptop and it works great. I have got a phono lead that fits my DX6i, I`ll have to try it with the laptop, I think I may need some other interface software???
Happy Flying

 

[RandyDSok]

I believe most USB adapters ( dongles ) for hooking up your TX are either setup to be recognised as a joystick or game controller just depending on how they were programmed. How you calibrate them and assign switches/buttons vary and I'd have to refer you to the documentation for the sim software for details. On Realflight using the USB adapter I got, it setup as a joystick and I had to use the Windows settings for the joystick to calibrate and assign the switches etc....


Just to get some terms corrected ... not that it matters a lot but it will help so others know what you are talking about...

A phono plug is a nickname given to RCA cables that are used to connect a phonograph record player to the amplifier. Most required you use an input that has a pre-amp in it in order to get a good audio signal.

An 1/8" aka 3.5mm plug ( which I think you are referring too ) is typically nicknamed the AUX jack ( aka auxiliary ). It probably got it's name because the RCA jacks were used primarily back in the day and when more modern sized components came out, often used the 1/8" instead since the RCA jacks were too large and they needed an auxiliary size in order to connect them to other things. These come in a variation of connector options, mono, stereo and more connectors... as well as varying lengths that can cause some confusion since if the plug it too long or short, it may not work properly in a specific plugin socket.

!/4" jacks ( 6.35mm ) are often just nicknamed guitar jacks since they were often used with musical instruments such as guitars and basses if they are mono and headphone jacks if they are stereo. These originated within the telephone industry in order to connect two phones together by an operator at a switchboard, also referred to as a patch cable.

I'm uncertain if any of these had other nicknames since the majority of my experience was in audio when I was younger, that is where I picked those up from.

 

[Blade 400]

I believe most USB adapters ( dongles ) for hooking up your TX are either setup to be recognised as a joystick or game controller just depending on how they were programmed. How you calibrate them and assign switches/buttons vary and I'd have to refer you to the documentation for the sim software for details. On Realflight using the USB adapter I got, it setup as a joystick and I had to use the Windows settings for the joystick to calibrate and assign the switches etc....


Just to get some terms corrected ... not that it matters a lot but it will help so others know what you are talking about...

A phono plug is a nickname given to RCA cables that are used to connect a phonograph record player to the amplifier. Most required you use an input that has a pre-amp in it in order to get a good audio signal.

An 1/8" aka 3.5mm plug ( which I think you are referring too ) is typically nicknamed the AUX jack ( aka auxiliary ). It probably got it's name because the RCA jacks were used primarily back in the day and when more modern sized components came out, often used the 1/8" instead since the RCA jacks were too large and they needed an auxiliary size in order to connect them to other things. These come in a variation of connector options, mono, stereo and more connectors... as well as varying lengths that can cause some confusion since if the plug it too long or short, it may not work properly in a specific plugin socket.

!/4" jacks ( 6.35mm ) are often just nicknamed guitar jacks since they were often used with musical instruments such as guitars and basses if they are mono and headphone jacks if they are stereo. These originated within the telephone industry in order to connect two phones together by an operator at a switchboard, also referred to as a patch cable.

I'm uncertain if any of these had other nicknames since the majority of my experience was in audio when I was younger, that is where I picked those up from.

Cheers RandyDSok, I appreciate your clarity on this

I found that the Clearview Sim recognised my Dongle TX immediately and just asked me to move both sticks to there fullest extent and away I went!
It is a 3.5mm plug each end of the cable I have. I haven`t tried it yet but recall that when I tried it linked to the DX6i TX and using the FMS Simulator years ago, I needed to download a couple of patches (If memory servos me right VJoy & ProPlus????) but no Dongle then? I will try the 3.5mm lead and will update this post.
Son-in-law plays Electric Guitar, so I`m familiar with the 6.35mm jacks, also from old headphones that I used to wear back in the day!
Thanks again

 

[Rackman]

The correct URL is actually rc-thoughts.com

Thanks for the correction & I forgot to mention that you can offer a donation which I did after my initial DL.. but Thank you again. I just hope it will help him..

 

[Blade 400]

Thanks for the correction & I forgot to mention that you can offer a donation which I did after my initial DL.. but Thank you again. I just hope it will help him..

Thanks for the link for Phoenix Rackman, I just need to get a dongle for the Spektrum DX6i TX?

 

[Blade 400]

Dog is right without my simulator..I'd be screwed .. you do have one don't you..? I use the Phoenix 6.0..& of course you can DL it from RCTHOUGHTS.COM...if you need more help or info on where to get a sim cable .. to run it hit me up .. of course I run my Spectrum DX7 to run mine ,, but anything i can do to help...im sure there are many here that know more that me ... but

Hi Rackman,
Is this the correct Sim cable for Phoenix and connecting to my Spektrum DX6i TX please? It states Phoenix 5.0 but I`m guessing it will still work with the 6.0 upgrade?
Thanks for your help

22 In 1 RC USB Flight Simulator With Cables For G7 Phoenix 5.0 Aerofly XTR VRC F | eBay

 

[RandyDSok]

That dongle should work for most flight sims including a newer version of Phoenix ... As long as that dongle also works with your transmitter, you are good. I'm assuming you are already using the DX6i with Clearview, if not then I may be incorrect since I assumed you were.

 

[Blade 400]

That dongle should work for most flight sims including a newer version of Phoenix ...

Thanks Randy

 

[HSL]

Hello Blade,
I am sorry about the crash.
Blade 230 s or Blade 150s are very good collective helicopters to learn with; they have features like stability mode and rescue mode.
Crashes are part of the learning process; these helis are relative easy and cheap to repair. Play over a lawn and the damage would not be as bad.
Good luck.