Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Helicopters / April 2008

First a qualifier, I'm a very new pilot. I haven't done much more
than hover and zig zag back and forth a bit. But I just picked
up a Blade 400 and damn am I impressed.

My introduction to heli's was with a co-axial ESky Lama V4. I
got that down pretty quick and decided instead of putting money
into upgrade parts and more blades, I instead bought a Blade CPPro.

That was a fun machine to learn on. A tad touchy to say the least,
but as I have since learned, it's much due to it's small mass. As
my abilities have progressed, I started to run into a limitation
of the design - the tail rotor motor. I'd be flying around just
great and then suddenly be warned that my battery was running low
by the fact that I had reduced tail authority demonstrated by my
sudden inability to recover from that simple spin I just did. This
resulted in a lot a blade changes which was becoming discouraging.

I've only had two flights with the 400 and haven't done anything
but hover as it's a tad windy, but it's a breeze to fly. The
response is positive and crisp. Handling the wind isn't as hard
as the CPPro. I did notice it seems to hit translational lift
much quicker than the CPPro when hit by a wind gust. (unlike other
newbs being discussed, I know that wind gusts can cause TL in
a hover) I think this is likely due to the much higher head speed.

Tail authority is bang on. But then, the heading hold gyro is sure
to be helping there. I really like the fact that as the battery
dies I do not loose tail control, no doubt due to being a belt
drive.

Further re the battery, I rellay like the fact that as you wind
down the battery, the ESC drops power automatically and smoothly.
There is no loss of contral as you lose power.

My only concern at the moment is that battery time seems short.
But that can be remidied in any number of ways.

I haven't even gone through the manual on the new DX6i radio, but
the feel is smooth. I definitaly can feel the difference in the
resolution of the controls compared to the previous radio.

All in all, I am looking forward to my flying future.

Now ducking for cover from Beav ;)

Brian