34th flight of my Blade CP helicopter |
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13th flight of my Blade CP helicopter |
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 OK,
I'm back in the helicopter business as of July 29, 2005, when I went
to K-C Hobby Shop, in High Point, NC, and purchased a new E-flite Blade
CP. This chopper is amazing! As advertised, I charged the NiMH battery
pack, put 8 AA cells in the transmitter, and away it went. Since seven
years have passed since flying (kind-of) the ECO 8, my initial couple
attempts were pretty embarrassing. By about the 3rd charge, I could
hover for about 30 seconds. I was continually trying different tail
rotor gain
 and
gyro settings to keep the tail under control. As it turned out, the
secret to keeping the tail under control is to actually control the
tail with the stick! Once I figured that out, hovering was a cinch!
I found that correcting the tail excursions, along with very slight
cyclic inputs allowed for extended hovers. Oh, another tip is to slowly
increment the throttle until the Blade CP gets light then throw in enough
to get it to jump into the air about a foot or more. That eliminates
the adverse yaw from main rotor spin-up, and get the beast out of the
worst of the ground effect where everything is the slipperiest. After
establishing a stable hover, going back down into ground effect is easy
to handle because the tail is already under control. Of course, all
of my flights have been inside a 4-car garage with no wind, so that
has helped in the learning process.
  As
you can see in the August 8th video link at the top, by the 13th flight,
I was in pretty good control of the Blade CP from a tail-in hover standpoint.
After recording the 20 second clip, I went on to fly out the remaining
charge in the stock 650 mAh NiMH battery pack in a single hovering session!.
A second, and possibly third, battery pack is in order to be able to
fly for more than about 7-8 minutes before having to go charge the pack
for a couple hours (yeah, I could fast charge them, but don't want to
sacrifice the lifespan). I tried using my 2-cell, 1500 mAh Li-Poly pack,
but the nominal 7.4 V output was not enough to even turn the airborne
system on. The 3-cell Li-Poly packs will definitely be required, but
I'll hold off until I am ready to try some hotdog outside maneuvering
outdoors.
  My
next step in the learning process will be to try to fly to four corners
in a square and hold a hover over each corner with tail in. After that,
I'll try nose-in hovering. That should be exciting. I'll keep you posted
on the progress. Just remember, if I can fly this machine, then just
about anyone can!
OK, so I just put in my 20th flight today (August 14, 2005). An adjustment
to the flybar paddles really smoothed the whole operation, and also
made the controls even more sensitive than they were already. I removed
moved all three pushrods in by one hole on all
 three
servos to tame the beast. It worked incredibly well! Now I can almost
control the Blade CP. Hovering in one spot is much, much easier now,
and deliberately moving forward, reverse, and sideways is actually doable.
After about another 10 flights I should be ready to try hovering nose-in.
As of August 28, I have 43 logged flights and everything is working
well. Vibration is very minimal and flights are extremely consistent.
All three pushrods have been moved into the inner servo arm holes to
tame down the response, and it makes a big difference, but still leaves
a lot of control. The battery packs both consistently give 10-11 minutes
of hover time (I have never done more than slow lateral movements in
my garage). When there is about a minute left on the charge, it is necessary
to start feeding in right tail rotor.Water Break-In Method
for Electric Motors
  Since
the problem of suddenly having the power drop out persists, I decided
to install a new motor, and to use the water break-in method of seating
the brushes. There is a plethora of information o n the Internet forums
detailing the procedure, so I will not duplicate it all here.Basically,
I applied about a volt and a half for around 12-15 minutes with the
motor submersed in (softened) tap water. It was then removed and dried
with a Monokote shrinking blow gun, being careful not to get it too
hot, and shaking the motor to dislodge droplets trapped inside. Finally,
a small amount of 3-in-1 oil was applied to the front and rear bushings.
I learned the hard way a few year back to be careful with oil on the
bushing closest to the brushes, because it can easily creep onto the
commutator and ruin the brushes. Here are some pictures of my setup.
GWS PG-03 Gyro &
E-flite 2-in-1 Controller
The GWS gyro and E-flite 2-in-1 Controller shown in the following
two photos were used for maybe two flights, and are in perfect
condition. See below on page for the installation I used when I had
the Spektrum DX6 radio installed.
E-flite 2-in-1 Controller.
Modified E-flite Blade CP electric helicopter radio compartment for
Spektrum DX6 radio, GWS gyro, and 2-in-1 controller
...continued from
above
May 2006. I now have a dedicated
BladeCP.net website
that will become the primary location for information on the Blade CP.
BladeCP.com is
a German website, so I figured having an American counterpart would
be welcomed by the extremely large Blade CP community. In the near future
I will be installing my
Spektrum DX6
spread spectrum radio into my Blade CP. Stay tuned for details.
April 2006. I finally pulled my Blade CP out of its box and fired
it back up. It flies well except for still having the occasional power
dropout for no apparent reason. I'm going to try replacing the motor
since I cannot force the radio system to glitch - that's with having
the motor running and orienting the transmitter antenna at all different
angles relative to the receiver, and with holding the transmitter still
and rotating the Blade CP through all different angles. It's a strange
problem that might just be a flaky motor. Eventually installing a brushless
motor would be nice.
October 2005 already! I haven't done much flying. So as to not totally
waste time, I replaced the main rotor shaft, swash plate, and main rotor
blades. Everything has been meticulously balanced and aligned now, and
the Blade CP runs very smoothly. Now, I just need more hours in the
day...
Today is September 12, 2005, and only a few flights have been added
due to a lack of time. I did manage to take it outside an get it up
to around 20 feet a few times. All the outside flights have been basically
in the hover mode, with tail pointing in. Nose in is still in the works,
and I'll be doing all that practice in the garage where there is no
wind and a nice smooth floor so tip-overs will not be a problem. I did
replace the main rotor blades because the dings were getting ugly. In
the process, a full balance procedure was performed per the article
in the latest edition of Backyard Flyer magazine. So, now there are
strips of clear tape wrapped on the blades to achieve the balance both
along the blade lengths and overall balancing (weight added at the light
blade's CG). After adjusting blade tracking, it was back to a really
smooth flight. I finally discovered the source of the squirrliness of
the Blade - the double-sided tape that used to hold the 4-in-1 to the
vertical mount was torn loose. Replacing the tape totally cured the
problem. 10-12 minute flights are still the norm on the 650 mAh battery
packs.
As of August 28, I have 43 logged flights and everything is working
well. Vibration is very minimal and flights are extremely consistent.
All three pushrods have been moved into the inner servo arm holes to
tame down the response, and it makes a big difference, but still leaves
a lot of control. The battery packs both consistently give 10-11 minutes
of hover time (I have never done more than slow lateral movements in
my garage). When there is about a minute left on the charge, it is necessary
to start feeding in right tail rotor.
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