Newbie with a Blade mCX2

[owend]

Got that, Neil! I've solo'd in a (real) aircraft so I know the stick movements there, what you say makes sense. You can tell I'm new to helis: what are the stick commands on a CP? (I'm inclining to a Blade 130X next, which is CP and flybarless as you probably know) and probably a Spektrum DX6i. The mCX2 is 4-channel, left stick yaw and throttle, right stick called elevator and aileron, but where elevator means fly forwards and backwards, and aileron means fly sideways left or right.

You say that on a CP "elevator" acts the same as on a 3-axis aircraft - presumably "aileron" banks the helicopter, also as for a 3-axis plane? So to turn left, it would be left yaw plus a touch of up elevator plus a touch of left aileron?

Owen

[Liam B.]

That post slightly confused me, but the way i and many others lernt is on a simulator. The best are phoneix and realflight. But cheaper ones are good too but you get what you pay for. Realitycraft and clearview are good though.

[nobbycopter]

Got that, Neil! I've solo'd in a (real) aircraft so I know the stick movements there, what you say makes sense. You can tell I'm new to helis: what are the stick commands on a CP? (I'm inclining to a Blade 130X next, which is CP and flybarless as you probably know) and probably a Spektrum DX6i. The mCX2 is 4-channel, left stick yaw and throttle, right stick called elevator and aileron, but where elevator means fly forwards and backwards, and aileron means fly sideways left or right.

You say that on a CP "elevator" acts the same as on a 3-axis aircraft - presumably "aileron" banks the helicopter, also as for a 3-axis plane? So to turn left, it would be left yaw plus a touch of up elevator plus a touch of left aileron?

Owen

That's about the size of it! Except you put aileron in, then elevator and rudder...well i do anyway

Before you try to hover your CP heli I'd recommend spending some time on a sim, will save some repair bills

[nobbycopter]

That post slightly confused me, but the way i and many others lernt is on a simulator. The best are phoneix and realflight. But cheaper ones are good too but you get what you pay for. Realitycraft and clearview are good though.

Which post Liam, mine or Owen's?

You can learn without a sim, I only got a sim in the last month or so and passed my A cert back in the summer. However the easiest and cheapest way is to use a sim. My flying is coming on in leaps and bounds now I use the sim.

[Liam B.]

Yes, owdens, i know you can learn to fly without a sim, its just eaiser and cheaper if you get one!

[owend]

Neil, Liam: yes, I've got the message about using a sim, from reading almost everyone's posts on the forum! The simple Tx that came with the mCX2 doesn't have a jack/USB/whatever socket to connect to a computer, though, so until I get a "real" tx I can't use a sim. I may jump the gun and get the Tx soon (wife and bank manager permitting), before deciding on the next helicopter, hoping that the heli and the Tx match up eventually.

I found the smoothest way turning a full-size aircraft was aileron plus rudder together, then feed in elevator to keep level, plus possibly increase throttle, but it's all pretty much simultaneous.

[Liam B.]

If you do then this is a great deal SPEKTRUM DX6i DSM-X 2.4ghz 6 ch. TRANSMITTER/AR6115E RECEIVER MODE 2 COMBO NEW | eBay. Also a good sim phoenix comes with the adapter and is a steal at £50PHOENIX RC FLIGHT SIMULATOR V3-V4 LATEST VERSION FREE ADAPTER LEAD! | eBay.
Liam

[one life fly it]

Alex: a 30X is probably my next move too, so it's good to hear you get on well with it! The mCX2 isn't an angry wasp type, so I've been lucky there, but it's fun to fly indoors. It can't cope with any sort of wind outside though, so the 130X seems a good compromise between smallish size and outdoorability

Been out again today with my larger planks and the 130 had max 16mph gust and she handled it. If you were local I'd let you try my mcpx then I'm sure you would be wanting a 130. If only this stuff was around when i started in this hobby .

[Liam B.]

Read up on the 300x's, there has been a fair few problems, but when they are working well they are lovely machines, apparently. Although you may be better off spending a extra £50 and getting a 450 which is a much more standard size!
Liam

[gram]

i loved my little mcx2, it was my first heli too. just to throw a spanner in the works maybe you could upgrade to a fixed pitch srb machine like the msrx or 120sr first? they're a little more difficult to fly than the mcx, but nowhere near as twitchy as an mcpx, resale values are good too so you won't lose much money.

[owend]

Liam: I've looked at the 300, and like you comment, I'd probably go a bit further and get a 450; still thinking!

Gram: thanks a bundle, that's complicated my thinking even further! More research needed tomorrow on Marx/120sr!

Owen

[Stanley Speel]

With trex 450 sports going for £100 on bmfa there really is no reason to go for a fixed pitch heli.

I think fp helis like the 120sr teach bad habits as they self right due to a 90 degree flybar (don't think an msrx does this).

A trex 450 can be made very stable and perfect for learning orientations circuits and ff - they are built very well too and crashes don't cost much at all on a low head speed. It can grow with you too so will last a long time .

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[owend]

Thanks, Stanley, I hadn't noticed that the 120SR was a FP, I realize that I need to go to CP next for experience. £100 for a Trex 450 needs my attention!

Owen

[owend]

450 now sold, back to drawing board!

Owen

[owend]

First major crash today! Calm day, so I thought I'd try outdoors again, all went well for one battery. Short cooling break then the second battery in, thee minutes or so and a small gust caught the mCX2, which doesn't have much gust-resistance, leading to a slightly uncontrolled landing. In the bird-bath. Which was full. Of water.

Hasty retrieval, remove battery and front canopy, pour out the water (!) from the rear, and hasty, careful application of paper towels.

Three hours of drying at room temperature later: no change to battery (after careful observation - no swelling, leaking, fire etc - but I'm not going to try to recharge until tomorrow).

Refit same battery, the heli flies! Even without front canopy! Possibly even smoother than before! Moral: dunk your helis regularly? Call them Wellycopters?

Very impressed with the robustness of the mCX2, less impressed wih my flying skill.

I took the plunge (no pun intended) last week and bought a Blade 450 RTF, not flying it yet because of weather (hail, rain, wind, cold on Sat and Sun) and no transformer for the charger yet (out of stock), so carefully reading the handbooks and fantasising! I'm not in a rush to start flying with it, it's going to be slow, starting from VERY gentle hovers!

Owen