Going to the darkside?

[BrianG]

Due to the cold weather, I picked up a Blade mCX2 helicopter, and wow is it fun! I suck at flying just as much as I suck at driving - let's just say my cat and dog find somewhere to hide pretty quick when they hear/see it - but it's still quite fun.

I've only had this thing for about 2 weeks and I've already had to replace both spur gears; I landed hard and one of the motors slid down in its holder causing it to touch the other spur gear. I got tired of taking off the rear canopy to adjust the motor (have since shoe-goo'd it in place), so I tried using a boom tail part (whatever it's called), but the heli wants to fly forward now no matter how I trim it. Not sure if it's a weight/balance issue, but I had to put the stock rear canopy back on. Oh well.

I modded the charger so that it charges at 120mA instead of the stock ~200mA to keep the charge at 1C. And since the charger seems to eat AA's, I made an adaptor out of an old Nintendo Gamebox supply (it only outputs 5.3v @ 200mA but it's close enough). I then made a series adaptor thingy so I can charge and balance up to 4 packs at once using my Xtrema charger if I'm in a hurry.

Man, these batteries are small! I feel like I'm going to break them. I had gotten two extra Turnigy batteries, but one was weak so the LHS replaced it with a EFlite one at no charge.

Pics of the heli and my series charge adaptor:

[kulangflow]

Those are tons of fun during the winter. I have an MCX and an MSR. I use one of these to parallel charge 6 at once. I use the same batteries for a couple of my micro planes.

[whitrzac]

the novus CX is MUCH better than the mcx... the blades pivot, so when you hit something they fold back, and it is 10x more maneuverable...

[Bondonutz]

I have a MSR and it's a hoop, tough and fast.

Clever charger you built BG !

[brainanator]

I have a Venom Troop Transporter



My little brother tipped me off last christmas. He found one at the local Hastings Entertainment here ($25!!!!) They sell on tower for $40!! I recently picked on up from hastings for my girlfriend's father. They are easy to fly and tough. Of course they are super high performance...and the battery isn't removable, but fun for sure!!

[simplechamp]

I was thinking about trying one of these over the winter: http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...rce=google_ext

Do you think it is too much for a beginner? I don't really care for the look of coaxial helis, so I'd rather something like this, but if it's going to be impossible to learn on I could settle on a coax. I like that the tail rotor is driven by a shaft, not a tiny electric motor (which from what I have read tend to not work as well).

If I don't get the heli I'll probably get one of the micro planes like J3 cub or mustang from parkzone, but I like the idea of a heli more.

[Bondonutz]

A lot of guys never think for a second how awesome a quality simulator really is.

http://www.realflight.com/

[E-Revonut]

I just sold an mcx and msr. Had them for awhile and never really enjoyed them. They where cool, I liked to say hey I have a RC heli and I can fly it but going around in circles in my apt got old quick. I definitely have more fun with land based RC

[PBO]

I had a few 'flys' with a Blade mSR in a large 4 storey open shed. Great fun & not too hard if you have space...having another to race would be awesome. I had a micro coaxial which was dull after a few batteries...still have it somewhere. The cat hated it

[tashpop]

i've been logging lots of time on a sims. i plan on getting into heli's too.

[pinkpanda3310]

I had a co-axial a few years ago. Was fun for a short time. I like others I know, was starry eyed and thought about dogfights and the like but it was a challenge to just get the thing in the air as a beginner. I think the co-axial is just a stepping stone/ training device for the better quality ones.

Mine copped some very harsh crash landings ,lol, and I only replaced the main rotor shaft (aside from blades). I busted the body and skids and battery housing but either botched it up or didn't worry about it. I also didn't like the radio set up so I opened it up and swapped around some of the stick controls.

Since then I figured boats and planes/heli's are probably fun but when the battery runs out they don't fall out of the sky and I don't have to swim for it lol.

[BrianG]

Well, this works fine for now until I get the hang of the controls. Once things get easier, I will most likely move up to a larger model more suited for outdoor use. But indoors, the mCX2 works great. And it's hardly boring as there is a ceiling fan and the wife has a lot of stuff to maneuver around.

[pinkpanda3310]

What, what!?

Originally Posted by BrianG

.... the wife maneuvers around a lot.

[BrianG]

lol, I meant she has a lot of knick-knacks on shelves and such.