Noob with Walkera 4#3B

[Wonderbadger]

Just thought I would come on and say hi! I've just gone against a lot of advice on here and not started with a simulator, instead going for a Walkera 4#3B so I can practice relatively cheaply inside.

So far I have just finished my 5th recharge and can now hold it in a steady(ish) hover and it seems nice and stable compared to what I was expecting. Certainly having fun with it although I obviously have a very long wasy to go before I am convinced I am controlling it rather than the other way round!

No doubt I will be coming on here regularly asking for help and advice when I manage to redesign the parts of the heli using the wall or the floor

Anyway, battery just charged again so I can go and have another go in 10 minutes!

Andy

[machasm]

Hi and welcome to the madhouse.
Hope you are enjoying yourself and if you are already hovering on a 4#3 then your a natural.
Looking forward to the barage of questions bound to follow.:-)
Adrian.

[Sieze2]

Awesome if you are hovering within 5 batts you are a natural. When you get bored try hovering side on, then with the nose pointing you.

[jboweruk]

And crash it, guaranteed, I still can't always get it nose in to me w/out crashing it, I'm getting better at saving it, but not at nose in with it, it's harder than my B400 for that. Though that may have a lot to do with space.

[Bugster]

Hi Andy - welcome to the addiction. You've really done well leaping on to the 3rd rung of the ladder and keeping it in the air

Just remember no question is too dumb to ask on here. We've all had to learn and the support you'll get here is fantastic - it's kept me in the hobby on the blackest of days

[Wonderbadger]

Thanks for the kind words... I still have a long way to go until I have tail in hovering to a point where i am happy to move onto hovering in other directions. So far I am trying to hold it within a square metre range (which being a small heli gives a fair bit of relative scope). I am able to do this on most attempts now and have had some hovers where I managed to keep it much tighter but only for 10-20 seconds before I loose it and put it down again

Its a fun learning curve and having a relatively small space to fly it in certainly concentrates the mind!

[brin]

hi andy welcome to the forum mate,got one of those little buggers myself like you not much room to fly indoors but i had it at the flying field even with a light breeze it was great fun,keep practising and i would still get a good sim .

[Wonderbadger]

Hi Brin, do you know if the transmitter for the 4#3B will work with any of the simulators? I have plugged it into the laptop with the supplied lead and the osciloscope shows its getting a signal, or will I need to get another transmitter to work with the simulators?

[Boggy]

if your lappy is seeing your tx then this free download should work. its not great but its a starthttp://n.ethz.ch/~mmoeller/fms/index_e.html

[cjcj1949]

Hi Brin, do you know if the transmitter for the 4#3B will work with any of the simulators? I have plugged it into the laptop with the supplied lead and the osciloscope shows its getting a signal, or will I need to get another transmitter to work with the simulators?

I think your system should see it as a joystick and allow you to calibrate it.

[cjcj1949]

Hi. Well done, not many people could start with such a small single rotor heli. I think you should enjoy this hobby.

[unwind-protect]

do you know if the transmitter for the 4#3B will work with any of the simulators?

The 4#3B tx works fine with Phoenix; the supplied adapter lets you use the Phoenix usb lead. Don't know about any of the other sims---no reason why not.

[Wonderbadger]

Hi Neil thanks for the info on using the 4#3B transmitter with Phoenix, looks like I will have to have a look at it once I get Christmas out of the way

Made a bit more progress today, got the balance sorted so its pretty stable (not quite hands free but seems to sit quite nicely where I put it now). Been practicing hovers with controlled takeoffs and landings which are going quite well, I think I am suffering from the Walkera random motor faliure now though, bit dissapointing after what must be about 12 flights. Don't think I am overheating the motor as I only have 1 battery pack so it gets 10 minutes cool-down after flight then 40 minutes while battery charges. Giving it a break for the rest of the day then will have a look properly in the morning, i do have spare motors and will look to fit them with heatsinks before using any more I think.

[Bugster]

A squirt of WD40 inside every 10 to 20 flights is said to double or even treble motor life. Can't do any harm to try it as far as I can see