RunRyder - durability questions

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e-E-Flite Blade CP CX 400-3D > durability questions

antichip2000
Heliman
Location: Spring Hill, Florida

Hello everyone. After a long friday night of forum reading here I bought the Blade on saturday at the local hobby shop. I have never flown before but have always wanted to get a heli. I saw these humming bird thingies a while ago and was sceptical of there repairability and suport and so on, till friday when I was looking for a new boat and I saw RTF factory flown. so I read the forums and bought it along with 2 extra batts ,a crash kit ,a main shaft and both motor heat sinks. I have like 8 packs into it and am not liking the wooden blades real well. I know this thing is not meant to be crashed, but that is what I bought it for, so I am looking for some plastic blades. I have replaced the shear pin twice. straightened the shaft holding the main rotors, replaced and trimmed blades, and other minor tweaks. BUT I am learning, and each time I fix it it gets easier to crash(or land not so hot as my daughter likes to say).

08-09-2005 Over year old.

VERTICALRC
Heliman
Location: SAN ANGELO, TX

I DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PLASTIC BLADES, BUT I IF U DONT HAVE THEM I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE HELI TRAINING GEAR THEY SELL FOR THE BLADE. THIS IS MY FIRST HELI TOO AND HAVE BEEN FLYING IT FOR ABOUT 4 DAYS. I HAVE ONLY HAD ONE RUFF LANDING IN GRASS ( TAIL BLADE CONTACT). I DONT THINK THIS IS BECAUSE OF MY FLYING SKILLS, BUT BECAUSE THE TRAINING GEAR HAVE SAVED ME. FOR $10.00 BUCKS THEY WILL PAY FOR THEMSELVES WITH ONE SAVE. I HAVE ALSO FOUND THAT THEY SEEM TO MAKE THE BLADE MORE STABLE IN FLITE. I GOT BRAVE AND TOOK MINE OFF AND IT SEEM MUCH MORE SENSITIVE. I ASSUME THIS IS BECAUSE IT LOWERS THE HELIS CENTER OF GRAVITY AND CAUSES A DAMPENING EFFECT ON THE CYCLIC. IF U DONT HAVE THE TRAINING GEAR GET THEM THEY WILL HELP U AND SAVE U MONEY.

08-09-2005 Over year old.

jcrack_corn
Senior Heliman
Location: Lafayette, LA

I fly nitro and i got one of these suckers last week....trust me, they are durable as hell. One thing i learned from nitro is ***if you know it is going to crash*** to drop the throttle to zero before it goes in...

I've crashed my blade well over 30-50 times in the last week because you may have seen the thread that I was experimenting with getting JR tx to work with it (success!)...every time the throttle was dropped to zero before it went in, and the only thing it suffered was 1 set of blades and about 10 shear pins (PLEASE, USE PAPER CLIPS, they are very soft and save the head from any damage, but strong enough to fly with, and free)...the small paper clips work.

I also lost a bunch of those little tail blade silcone tubes, but that stuff is basically free too.

1.) WOOD BLADES FOR NOW!
2.) paper clip shear pins
3.) Zero throttle when going in (and if you can, try to level it out at the last minute, so that the tail hits first or so that you get it bouncing off the skids, both are made of very strong carbon fiber and can take the abuse (in grass).....

08-09-2005 Over year old.

xDevDogx
Heliman
Location: Washington

I agree, ALWAYS drop the throttle and the throttle trim to 0, otherwise you will blow the 4 in 1, I have gone through two 4 in 1's. The first one was not my fault because my LHS sold me a used Blade. The second was because I crashed and didnt drop the throttle soon enough. I sent the first one back to Horizion and they said that they would take a look. We'll see. Other than that, if you've never flown a heli before, expect to crash, and yes, the training gear helps a LOT

xdevdogx

08-09-2005 Over year old.

Mike Freas
Senior Heliman
Location: SanDiego, CA USA

Any reason for the all caps reply?

On topic, I have crashed my blade with the worst damage done when I hit a street sign. I agree the blades are weak but that is a good thing. If you spend 35 bucks on CF blades and smack it again something else will break. I also don't buy the shear pins. I use some .032 safety wire. I have a whole roll and although it's a bit smaller in diameter it works perfect and it doesn't cost any money. Contrary to what most do I like flying with the flat bottom blades and 1320 lipo pack. I don't plan on any inverted hovering or any attempt of 3D with my blade so they work just fine. I would say that learning to fly a R/C heli with a blade is a bit harder than a expensive electric or nitro ship it will make the transition seem easy.

08-09-2005 Over year old.

jcrack_corn
Senior Heliman
Location: Lafayette, LA

Mike, you should really go with the symmectrical blades, same cost (essentially) and they are "aerodynamically correct." It is more than just for inverted stuff, they have significantly less resistance when cutting through the air and can (even with standard battery) dramatically improve flight time and general flyability (is that a word?).

The only reason i can image that they ship with flat bottoms is to REALLY REALLY degrade performance so that they can be as friendy to noobs as possible.

08-10-2005 Over year old.

antichip2000
Heliman
Location: Spring Hill, Florida

updates

well first off I do run training gear. And I'v run through 12 full charges on stock packs never going over 3/4 power so imagine the number on smacks this little thing has taken. I also found a sutiable shear material but I am almost out so the paper clip is good to know. I cut off a half inch off my first set of blades and they wieghed to within atleast .05 gram of each other, The rotor speed was noticably faster and the whole thing was much more controlable and stable in 6 inch hover. in bad news the ball link on my rotor head frame broke off.

And yes I am very good at going zero throtle and I even practice hitting throttle up first(it's already off). See I don't like breaking what I can't fix.

08-10-2005 Over year old.

Riverman
Senior Heliman
Location: Peace River, Alberta

Hello

Judging by the responce of some on the durability question, I've come away quite lucky. I've gone through 5 sets of mains, 3 tail motors, one tail rotor, and one shear pin. I thank my lucky stars I haven't burned up a 4 in 1 by now. I've turned my Blade into a ball after hitting a bush and didn't have the reflex to shut of collective pitch mode so as to be able to turn the motor off. I swear it must of taken me 10 seconds of having the blades jammed against the tail boom at full throttle before I got the thing turned off.

jcrack_corn: Are you sure what you say regarding the symmetrical blades being "aerodynamically correct" really true? Seems to me you'd just have to increase the agle of attack on the blades to develope lift and induce more drag. Am I over simplifying things? I thought the benefit of the symmetrical blades was basically only realized in inverted flight.
Does anyone have any experience with the Blade CP running NIMH on the 9 tooth aerodynamic upgrade kit motor? I've havn't installed the motor or ran the symmetrical blades for fear I wouldn't have enough power on the 9.6v packs.

Regards

08-10-2005 Over year old.

jcrack_corn
Senior Heliman
Location: Lafayette, LA

yep, i'm sure, i dont have a reference off hand, but you can search and find it..

It might not be much of an effect with rotor discs as small as ours, but flat bottommed blades create negative air spaces due to turbulent flow over the flat surface, this increases drag. Symmetrical blades follow mr. bernouilli more exactly resulting in less drag and maybe or maybe not more lift (i think slightly increased angle of attack, but dont quote me on that).

Also...the other **big** thing is that we DO use negative pitch during regular fight, and the sym blades are obviously much better in those situations (comming out of FFF, and comming down!).....so its not just for inverted flying.

I dont believe any of that applies in the *real* world because real heli blades are infinitely more flexible than our super strong and stiff model blades....so i believe they are pitched around their center axis (a small amount compared to airplane prop) so that for a given collective input, there is less pitch at that tips (where the damn thing is screaming) and more near the rotor hub.....otherwise you would get cupping of the blade (so their design is completely different from ours)

thats what i hear anyway.

08-10-2005 Over year old.

racerdude
Heliman
Location: NYC

Riverman:
I am running a 9 tooth with 9.6 V but with flat blades, It works fine for me for basic hovering and forward flight, with the 9.6V, it helps if I increase the pitch by rotating the links connected to the rotor half a turn counterclockwise.

Also according to physics as far as I know, The lift by the flat blades is produced because the distace on the top of the blade is greater than the bottom, thus air has to travel faster and more distance on the top compared to the bottom, thus the airpressure is lower on the top compared to the bottom thus it pulls the blade up, same theory as an airplane wing.
The symettric blades don't have that advantage, and thus need a higher angle of attack to produce any lift, and at a higher pitch they are not as efficent as flat blades. I would think the flat blades are more efficent as they produce the same amount of lift as the symmetric blades at a slower speed and less pitch, thus requiring less power.

08-10-2005 Over year old.

antichip2000
Heliman
Location: Spring Hill, Florida

less lift

I have to believe from what I have noticed attempting to fly this greased squirl that a blade with less lift will have a higher head speed at hover and will be more stable. Right? some gyro effect er sumptin?

08-10-2005 Over year old.

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e-E-Flite Blade CP CX 400-3D > durability questions

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