First real flight with B400 went well. Releaved!!

[Hunders]

You may remember me from this thread in which I asked a heap of questions and got some great advice: http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/f19/he...-few-qs-16883/

Well... I am back to make a little update.

I received my B400 and Phoenix on Tuesday and up until today I have been caning the simulator in preparation for my first real flight. I am glad that I bought the sim because my heli would definitely be in pieces right now if I hadn't!

This morning I went and made some training gear out of some 8mm dowel and foam golf training balls because I didn't fancy spending £8 on a ready made one. When I was done I went to a local school playground and found it to be quite gusty but luckily for me I have been practising with wind enabled on the sim so I wasn't intimidated by it. I am getting pretty good on phoenix, flying around quite well, but I decided to keep the real thing pretty civil and only hovered about until the battery died but it was great fun! The only annoying thing is that it lasted a mere 6 ish minutes.

I have set my radio using the settings on here but found that I prefered it with no expo changes, it felt too numb at +20. I was a little surprised because I actually found the real thing to be more stable in flight than what it is on phoenix. From what I have read it should be the other way around

Anyways, enough rambling from me. I am really looking forward to taking her out again sometime

EDIT: On a less positive note, I think there is something wrong with my charger or battery... It's fine at first, all three cell lights are on a steady green and the charge status light is a steady red but about 5-10 minutes into the charge the fan keeps turning on and off and the cell lights flash between red and green while the status light is flashing red...

I'll phone up Hobby Hangar and ask for advice.

[cjcj1949]

Well done. Its not that its really more difficult, it just seems like it for most people. Confidence usually grows faster than ability until something breaks, but everybody is different.

[Boggy]

well done mate. and as you say expo can be messed with everybody has different preferences , i fly with non set also 6 mins on the standard battery is about right

[163phil]

Well done matey, I expect you've just experienced that buzz that keeps us all hooked

[est1976]

EDIT: On a less positive note, I think there is something wrong with my charger or battery... It's fine at first, all three cell lights are on a steady green and the charge status light is a steady red but about 5-10 minutes into the charge the fan keeps turning on and off and the cell lights flash between red and green while the status light is flashing red...

I'll phone up Hobby Hangar and ask for advice.

what 12v supply is feeding the charger, mine did this when I used one that didnt have enough juice, you need a 5amp one really the ones around my house are not powerfull enough. As a temp measure I hooked mine chager up to a 12v source inside my computer (hard drive power yellow/black cable)

[Hunders]

Cheers guys. It was great fun but I just wish the battery lasted longer! I think I will have to look into a 2200mAh battery or two.

what 12v supply is feeding the charger, mine did this when I used one that didnt have enough juice, you need a 5amp one really the ones around my house are not powerfull enough. As a temp measure I hooked mine chager up to a 12v source inside my computer (hard drive power yellow/black cable)

You could be onto something there... I am using a 12V car jump start power pack but it is about 4 years old and has spent much of it's life sitting in a shed. I will go out tomorrow and get a 5amp bench power supply from Maplin and give that a go.

Cheers for the suggestion!

[Hunders]

Double Post.

[Bauerjack]

Well done. Its not that its really more difficult, it just seems like it for most people. Confidence usually grows faster than ability until something breaks, but everybody is different.

Also a well done from me - sounds like you set it up right.

But I agree with CJCJ - this happened with me.... Try not to get too confident on your next few goes. Take it steady and you'll do well im sure!

[callum]

Good Job

Your making good progress, as what the others have said, take it step by step and learn the basics, and dont do what i did on my 7th flight and do backflips and what not with the training gear on,

Well, i will be maidening my Belt CP with the Spektrum DX7 and headlock gyro and new servos tommrow, without training gear, so i hope my flight goes as smooth as yours did

Keep us posted on how your getting on

[Hunders]

Oh don't worry, I plan on taking it very easy. There is no rush

Here is something you might find funny! When I was learning on Phoenix the rudder controls were reversed... I.E. left on the stick moved the tail left and not the nose! As you can imagine I had a bit of a shock when I first fired her up for real! I had to reverse the rudder control so that the heli responded to how it did on the sim...

I had no idea that was not right! Haha... When I got home I set Phoenix up so that the rudder responds how it should do so now I have to re-learn rudder control :P

[callum]

i went trough a stage like that in the simulator,

i found it was easy to fly forward, but then i changed to a different sim, it was correct and from then i cannot fly the old way lol


Quite funny you mention that because ive been trying to set up my heading hold gyro, and it wasnt working correctly, and was moving to the left instead of holding, dumb nuts i am didnt check the servo reverse menu, so i had to reverse the rudder! haha

[heliTV]

Well done Hunders - sounds like thiongs are going well!!

Keep bashing the sim...

All the best

Graham

[Mart61]

Well done! Can't wait to get my 500 in the air...

[Hunders]

I popped into town today and picked up a 13.8V 5amp benchtop power supply from Maplin for £19.99. My battery is charging now and it seems as solid as a rock with no flashing lights.

I was hoping to fly today but the wind has picked up quite a bit so I don't think it would be very wise to take her out

[Hunders]

I just thought that I would make a little update today.

Today, as it was quite calm, I went out again and had a blast! I was a bit more daring and flying around a lot more while also keeping it fairly civil.

I had a bit of a scare today though... After flying I went back to the car and drove home, ran upstairs to re-charge the battery but it wasn't in my pocket!? The first thought was that it must have fell out of my pocket in the car and was on the seat but when I checked it was nowhere to be seen. Then it dawned on me that it must have fell out of my pocket at the field I was flying on so I quickly raced back there and traced my footsteps and luckily I found it. I was rather relieved!