450 New heli on the way

R

RMB677

Member
Received confirmation this morning that the Blade 450 Basic BNF I ordered over the weekend will be here Thursday. Now I'll know if some of the problems I had with the HBK4 were me or the heli. Suprisingly it was the wife's suggestion "maybe you need a better helicopter" after watching me struggle with the problems I've been having and not being able to find a solution.

I strongly considered a T-Rex 450 kit but I don't think I'm ready for a kit build before becoming somewhat proficient at flying so that I know if problems are me or the heli.

I pulled the settings for the DX6i from Horizon's web site and'll load them in this afternoon. Sunday will be the first chance I have to test fly. Wish me luck.

Roger
 
murankar

murankar

Staff member
Good luck with the new heli! A lot of the settings are user preferance. I think the hardest part id the mechanical setup. With that is the swash, the deal breaker if you will. Once that is golden then the rest is you. I set mine uo with a swash leveler and had no issues on the mechnical side. The tail is a different beast all together but ends with machanicale.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Roger, either way you go, you will always get help here. I know it's too late now, but I will put my two cents in on this topic. I have found the blades to be good to start out in. Since that is what you are doing, then it's perfect for you. The 450 is supposed to be a great helicopter and as stated above, getting the swash level is half the battle.

Building a kit is not that hard. In fact I'm going through a full align build right now and uploading the videos. YOu can see what I have done so far HERE. As you can see, there are a lot of parts, but when you break it down, it's quite simple. I hope on your next build you will access these videos and build your first kit. Flybarless is great but there is a bit you have to know about the setup of the gyro. I will be getting into a lot more detail on this later on and only skim on it in this series.

Either way, the Blade helicopter is going to be much better than anything HoneyBee or whatever it is. I had two HBFP helis and they SUCKED! I sold them two weeks after getting them and never looked back. You are on the right track and we are always here to help.
 
R

RMB677

Member
I've been looking in on your build and paying attention. Supposidly the Blade BNF's are factory set and ready to go, but I'll be doing a visual check of the swashplate level and if it looks ok record some key measurments to fall back on when needed. "Its not if you crash, its when."
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Remember what I always say. RTF (Ready To Fly) only means everything is there to make it fly. ARF means most of it is there. I would double check everything before you spool it up the first time.
 
R

RMB677

Member
The new heli arrived today. One minor issue I didn't think about till yesterday is battery connectors. The batteries I have have the E-Sky propriatery (sp) connector. I had to order some EC3's to make them compatible. Hopefully they arrive Friday or Saturday. Anyway its too hot to fly today, already 99 in the shade here at the house at noon. I'm ready to go as soon as I get the battery adapters made up and the weather is tolerable.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Thankfully we will have a little relief here soon from this heat and maybe even some rain. Man I hate summer in the mid west lol.
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
Good luck with the Blade 450. They look like good helis. For me whether its RTF or a kit, you still need to check everything. I wouldn't trust that they put locktite on every screw and balanced and levelled everything properly. With a kit you learn more than just putting it together. You learn the mechanics of how it works, which gives you the inside knowledge to make you a better pilot. Also WHEN you crash it, you aren't going to have a clue how to put it back together in the right way. But hey, thats what we are here for. So good luck, and post up the maiden flight video. :D
 
R

RMB677

Member
Thanks for the comments all. I have gained a bit of experience on the basics of heli mechanics fooling with the Honeybee King 4 that I've given up on. Its the electronics that seemed to be my problem. If it doesn't sell for parts I'll put it on the shelve as a winter project, maybe replace the items that I haven't already replaced.
 
R

RMB677

Member
Blade 450 bind-and-fly is NOT. The new heli came in last week, and the battery adapters finally came in. I bound the DX6i to the heli Sunday and have had problems since. I used the Tx settings provided in the heli instructions. As soon as I connected the battery the tail started rapidly oscellating, I lowered the gyro setting to 50% before it stopped, I started raising it in 10% increments back to the recommended 77.5%, all seemed ok. Took it out on the driveway, gave it some power and it spun like a top, changed the gyro REV switch, no change. Set the gyro REV switch back to were it was originally and the oscilating started back. I e-mailed Horizon and am awaiting a reply. They advertise as ready to go out of the box after binding, bull. I guess there is no such thing as quality assurance anymore, especially in this hobby, or with anything coming out of China.
 
breeze400

breeze400

Spagetti Pilot
You have something not right in your tx settings I'd bet! Not sure where your located but, you can call horizon and get tech help right on the phone live you know.
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
RMB677 said:
Blade 450 bind-and-fly is NOT. The new heli came in last week, and the battery adapters finally came in. I bound the DX6i to the heli Sunday and have had problems since. I used the Tx settings provided in the heli instructions. As soon as I connected the battery the tail started rapidly oscellating, I lowered the gyro setting to 50% before it stopped, I started raising it in 10% increments back to the recommended 77.5%, all seemed ok. Took it out on the driveway, gave it some power and it spun like a top, changed the gyro REV switch, no change. Set the gyro REV switch back to were it was originally and the oscilating started back. I e-mailed Horizon and am awaiting a reply. They advertise as ready to go out of the box after binding, bull. I guess there is no such thing as quality assurance anymore, especially in this hobby, or with anything coming out of China.
Click to expand...

I was afraid of that. I haven't seen a single RTF heli that flew out of the box. Even the little MCPX needed linkage adjustment to get it to fly right.
 
R

RMB677

Member
Talked to Horizon tech and he thinks its a bad gyro and is sending me a new one. At least they stand behind their products even if they don't meet expectations. Unlike E-sky that for all practical purposes says that there is no warranty.

I'll let y'all know what happens after I receive and install the gyro.

Roger
 
R

RMB677

Member
The new gyro arrieved today. Just finished installation and an initial test (hover 6" alt.:)) and all appears ok. Now all I have to do is neatly bundle the wires. The annoying thing is how did the heli leave the factory, supposidly set up, with a bad gyro?

Roger
 
stokke

stokke

Well-Known Member
Nice to see things are working out, Roger.
Please post some pics of the newly acquired beauty!
 
R

RMB677

Member
A few comments on things I've noticed about the new heli vs. the Honeybee King 4 it replace. The power draw is greater - batteries draw down faster but the electronics get nowhere near as warm, hot on the HBK. The blade speed on the Blade 450 sounds a bit slower for the same/better performance. Stability and control response are much better. I guess the saying that "you get what you pay for" holds for this hobby.
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
The Honeybee and the Blade 450 are like night and day. Its like comparing a ford station wagon and a Ferrari :) Lets see some video and pictures
 
R

RMB677

Member
If I would have bit the bullet and gotten the Blade right off I would have saved a lot of frustration and probably be well ahead on the learning curve than I am now. As for photos there's not much to see, its a standard Blade 450 and as for videos, the camcorder I have uses a fire wire connection for downloads and the new computer, old one died, doesn't have a fire wire port. Also I'm not sufficiently computer savy to work with videos. But otherwise thanks for your interest and encouragement.

Roger
 
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