Blade 400. Good for a newbie?

[dazzystar]

Hi All,

Is a Blade 400 good for a newbie? I do have flight experience with planes if that helps in your decision.

thanks
Daz

[Tony Brazao]

Hi All,

Is a Blade 400 good for a newbie?

Yes.

I learnt on one.

If I was starting again, knowing what I know now I'd still get a blade to learn on. They're easy to repair & much cheaper than align.

[dazzystar]

Thanks Tony. I posted the same post on heliguy forum and got the opposite reply. This is why it's so confusing for newbies like us to make our first purchase.

[jonny]

Hi,

Blade 400, well I have learnt to fly on one and have just picked up a TREX 450 (12 months later!).
The blade lets you fly out of the box and all parts are really easy to get hold of and relatively in-expensive.
Make sure you have a look at the setup advice in the Blade 400 forum; this will really help you out.

Some web sites you may want to look at are:

www.rchelicopterfun.com – Some good information on learning to fly
www.hobby-hanger.co.uk -This shop seems to have a constant supply of Blade spares
www.repairblade400.com - Good source of information to help with repair after the inevitable!!!!

Hope this helps

Jonny

[spunkmyer]

Yep go for a Blade 400, yes you dont learn how to build it but don't worry you will do after your first months flying.

[tiddler]

If your budget can stretch to it, its worth taking a look at the Thunder Tiger Innovator MD530. Its a brilliant beginners cp heli

[wayne123]

The blade 400 will get you in the air quick and that's not a bad thing, spares seam to availably anywhere and at the right price for a beginner, one thing that you will need to do once you get on to doing some aerobatics is you will need to up grade but I wouldn't worry about that at the minuet.

one other thing is get yourself a phoenix sim this is going to help you more than anything else, it's the best thing I ever bought and your not going to regret it once you have one.

[Twisted]

only thing i would say is upgrade the gyro and its a great little heli.

[dazzystar]

Oh. What's wrong with the stock gyro and what would you replace it with?

[3dx]

The stock gyro/tail servo on the blade 400 is fine,,it will only blow out on fast backwards stuff- it's not really meant for hard 3d anyways,,,
My previous one had a 401 and a futaba digital tail servo(can't remember spec)- now that was a good setup..

[Grant85]

Oh. What's wrong with the stock gyro and what would you replace it with?

This is the problem I found with the Blade 400.It made learning that much harder as the tail was just all over the shop So I upgraded the gyro and tail servo.I got a second hand GY401 gyro off a member on here for £50 and also I got a Fytaba s3153 tail servo off a member here for £19.Then it was alot better to fly with,not brilliant though flying the Blade has made me better as when you get to fly anything else after you realise just how skittyish they are.I flew my mate's T-rex 450 and instantly sold my Blade 400 and now I own a T-Rex 450

The Blade 400 is only good I found for the Spektrum radio and receiver as you can keep this to use on your next helis.I see the Blade is around £300 now.If it was me now I'd get a cheap second hand Dx6i which I have done before for around £60 then a reciever about £30 then I'd save the other £210 and get a decently kitted out second hand T-Rex 450,few going cheap now aswell since the newer versions have been released.

Cheers Grant.

[Scautura]

My Blade 400 has a tendency to blow-out on launch (I noticed it a lot more today because of the training gear on it allowing it to rotate more - at one point it did a full 180, not something most newbies would be able to deal with!) but once it's in the air, the tail is solid.

Even at the one point today where I "lost it" (the wind picked it up higher than I'm used to, sorry guys! ) I kept my head and managed to get it back on the ground with minimal fuss, it's a solid heli for the price, and you can't go much wrong given the least you'll take from it is a DX6i. At best, you'll take away a love of the hobby and the desire to move onto something better.

[challis349]

if the gyro and tail servo combo is bad (i dont know never flown a blade) i use a kds800 which was less than 20 quid, with an align ds520, and for a beginner like me, the tail holds rock solid

[cambs flyer]

I've set up a few 400's in the past and found there total pants out the box, the tail is under no control whatsoever, however a fixed throttle in idle up on the '6i of say 75%, normal linear pitch curve, a tame swash mix of ELE 50%, Pit 50% Ale 50%, with expo around the 15-20% on the swash surfaces makes a huge difference.

Just tail in hovering and left right orientation learning will keep you busy for a while, but defo see about upgrading the Gyro,the new GP750 from Align is cracking teamed with the S3153 tail servo is solid match.

Other then that you can buy the DX6i from Inwood Models for just over £70, and a second hand "cared for" T450 be it the XL/S/V1/V2 would be idea, there's loads of great buys out there and anyone selling here would be a very safe buy, tbh this is the route I started with ages back with a DX6 & Trex 450XL and I loved it, for me it was the perfect learning machine, plus one would grow with you more so then then B400 RTF which will in the long term save you money.

Regardless either route will see you in good stead and you'll have a blast, stock up on a few spares, batts (not e-flite as they suck and a total rip off) Loong Maxx from Giant Cod do some 20C's for under £20, and Turnigy do a great little charger for just under £30 which is heaps better then the stock e-flite charger, plus will support larger Li Po's in the future, but keeps the price down for the time being while you get kitted up.

Turnigy Accucel-6S Balance Charger Discharger

[Hangar-7]

I spent more time repairing my B400 than flying. Well it taught to how to repair a heli quickly and also to understand "Throttle and Pitch curves".

As other have suggested, you'll need a better gyro, better tail servo and three Hitec 65 cyclic servos (plastic gears are ok for a beginner). The stock servos strip gears if you breath hard on them....

Well, we have a resident B400 expert, Boggy AKA Ron - have a word with him. Very helpful guy - he can sort out any problem you may have with B400.

PS : I now fly 450 Pro and love it. My B400 is gathering dust.

Cheers