Blade 500

[wouldbeflyer]

Well here goes,first time for everything.Blessed if I can find how to post but a chap kindly helped me to come here,thanyou.

Reading through I found it to be an excellent forum and coming from cars there is so much to learn, and I am in my second youth so not easy

After seeing my mate buy a heli,I wanted one.Trouble is I got the same as him ,both of us going in blind and getting a Blade 500 each.He smashed his in about 2 minutes so I took it of him for a nominal figure.Changed mine to FBL and it is now possible to hover in a haphazard kind of fashion.Just stripped the main gear and wonder if anybody can give me some advice,apart from bin it.

Anybody had dealings with these cheap trainer fibreglass blades cos i'm not at all sure of them

Cheers,Martin

[bigbladelittleblade]

First of all Martin if I were you I would try and find a club to join, that way your flying skills will come on leaps and bounds. As for the blade range of helis IMO parts can be expensive, so if you learning I would go with Align helis, loads of them about and pretty cheap parts.
Your on the right forum, loads of help on here, just ask away

[tomatwalden]

The Blade 500 isn't really a beginner heli as such. However, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It's a fairly modern heli and should fly really well all things being equal - I certainly wouldn't bin it.

When you say "cheap trainer fibreglass blades" - what exactly are you talking about? Link to example?

A stripped main gear isn't a massive problem - and should be cheap and easy to fix. My advice would be to fix the 500X and invest in a simulator - either Phoenix v5 or RealFlight v7.5

That way, you learn to fly the basics without crashing your heli all the time!

Also, maybe consider a beginner heli such as the Blade 200SRX and then come back to the 500X when you're a bit more confident!

[tomatwalden]

.. As for the blade range of helis IMO parts can be expensive, so if you learning I would go with Align helis, loads of them about and pretty cheap parts.
...

Honestly I think it's swings and roundabouts. For example ..

Align 500 set of two main gears : £9.48 H50018QAT | Align Main Drive Gear/162T (Black) - T-Rex 500E
Blade 500 set of two main gears : £8.99 BLH1851 | Blade 500 3D Main Gear (2)

Overall, Align parts are probably cheaper but I very much doubt the difference would offset the money lost in changing an entire heli.

[wouldbeflyer]

Yes thanks,aleady had a spare gear so done that,wrong way up was easy,right way up took 3 attempts.These trainer blades are from China,yellow and black,made of glass fibre I think.Ony about £13 on ebay for 2 sets but if its going to destroy itself then they seemed a cheap option.Like you say,this is no heli for a beginner but i'm hovering --well sort of.The mcpx bl seems usable at the moment but I definitely should have started with a learner type.I got bored stiff a couple of years back ,on a simulator bit you are right and no doubt Trouble is i'm in deeper than I planned so if its doable I will give it my best shot.After all,I have 2 of them since I took my mates for a few quid after he smashed a few bits when it was only 3 minutes old.
Cheers .Martin

[wouldbeflyer]

Thanks Tom,another side to it and its good to have another opinion. I'm grateful.
Regards
Martin

[Ruston]

You can turn the Blade 500 in to a trainer by simply using a 4s rather than 6s battery to drop the head speed to something a bit more sedate. You can then run a 100% flat throttle curve and it flys like a complete pussy cat. The motor and ESC also stay stone cold. I fly mine on a 4s 4000mAh and get over 10 minutes.

[tomatwalden]

If you're after cheap blades - I would say look for factory seconds ... eg.

HD420GQCB 425 Slight Seconds Carbon Main Blades-Blue Model Helicopters

[wouldbeflyer]

That would maybe make it a bit more manageable . What if I just alter the curve ,say down to 60%.Would that be any good.It really is violent at the moment and to be honest ,a little frightening

[Grumpy]

You can get dirt cheap carbon blades from Hobbyking: Helicopters & Parts>Helicopter Blades>Main Blades>300 - 399mm

While I might hesitate to use the cheapest ones at high headspeed, at lower speeds I'm sure they will be perfectly ok.

[Grumpy]

That would maybe make it a bit more manageable . What if I just alter the curve ,say down to 60%.Would that be any good.It really is violent at the moment and to be honest ,a little frightening

That would work but the ESC might run hot. Try around 70% is for a short flight and see how toasty the ESC gets.

The other way to soften the heli is to run a less aggressive pitch curve. Rather than the standard 3D straight line curve of + and - 12 degrees with zero at mid stick you might want to try a +8 to -4 pitch curve, with mid stick giving you +2 degrees will soften up the collective response a lot. This will make the slope of the pitch curve much flatter and so give a softer response.

[tomatwalden]

You can get dirt cheap carbon blades from Hobbyking: Helicopters & Parts>Helicopter Blades>Main Blades>300 - 399mm

While I might hesitate to use the cheapest ones at high headspeed, at lower speeds I'm sure they will be perfectly ok.

You need 425mm blades for the 500 ...

Helicopters & Parts>Helicopter Blades>Main Blades>400 - 499mm

[Grumpy]

You need 425mm blades for the 500 ...

Helicopters & Parts>Helicopter Blades>Main Blades>400 - 499mm

Yes, of course, i had 450 in my head for some reason... Doh!

[wouldbeflyer]

Just had a look at my book and I see it says 60% throttle curve so thats what I did,smaller batteries seem the only way

[tomatwalden]

That would maybe make it a bit more manageable . What if I just alter the curve ,say down to 60%.Would that be any good.It really is violent at the moment and to be honest ,a little frightening

What settings do you have for DR (dual rates) and Expo ?