michael birks

p.s 57 quid for the autopilot. in the long run a lot cheaper than the hassle of getting new spares fitting etc..

I feel for you TonyS i remember racking up the credit cards with spares for my trusty old mfa sport500 and morley mxb,no internet back then just a dvd(VHS tape) made by jim davey of model helicopter world magazine,it is really frustrating to start with not sure if this will help but if you attach the training undercarriage and just slide around lifting maybe mm's off the ground just so it's light on the skids maybe putting in tiny hops every now and again,before you know it those hops get longer....more stable flying a heli has been compared to balancing two poles one on each hand a balancing act,,dont try to hover staight away take it easy get comfortable with sliding around tiny hops and honestly i swear those hops will become a hover it's just patience,their is however a product on the market today called the Alien command stabilisation system,it's an autopilot for rc helis begginers can be doing circuits in a matter of hours it wont let the heli get out of control and uses sensors to keep it level, if you get into trouble let go of the sticks and viola,straight and level flight resumed,i used one for aerial photography on a trex450 and a flycamone 2,you could actually let go of both sticks and it would sit their even in a breeze,as you gain more experience just start turning down the gain,i sincerely wish you all the best with your Blade400 stick with it and you will be rewarded.

Must say I agree with regards etrm they can be a pain the bushes don't seem to like 11.1volts in the past I have used the dual motor config to split the work load of the tail motor used to get sick and tired of buyin new motors every week a company offered a brushless upgrade which cured it once and for all as I recollect my outlay in motors for the tail ended up costing more than the heli itself but the one point that went in its favour is I had full authority on the tail even below quarter throttle in a descent due to it not been driven by the main motor the newer etrm helis have direct drive motors as opposed to been geared thus increasing life and reducing workload unbalanced gear etc lots of vibration etc

really like the optional canopy sunset red,hopefully going to try and get a bind n fly version i would prefer practising 3d with an electric heli as opposed to using my Raptor due to the cost of spares,i used a cp2 for a while and loved the fact that it would only cost 15-20 after a major crash the cp3 would be a viable alternative but as usual i really dont need another tranny plus the good point about E-Flite gear is when then say it's set up at the factory it does seem to true,i had a lot of fun with my MSR and was chuffed to bits when i heard it had a bigger brother i will hang on until the better weather arrives and the price has settled,i think the BNF price is around £145 but perhaps someone has seen a better deal????  happy easter!!

on saying the above i doubt it's a true reflection of the shop,they are probably a really good shop, just  an isolated one off incident, that rarely occursEdited By michael birks on 08/02/2010 11:11:38

Hi Timbo, yes each time i rang i made a point of been really polite thanking them for their time etc, i did get passed over to the manager and i explained that i couldnt wait any longer bearing in mind it had been nearly a month,it does state on their website that if the items are not in stock a full refund would be given,i took time off to wait in i wasnt even informed that it was out of stock so i waited in the next 3 days,i have phoned on numerous occasions but really not sure if this is right having to consantly chase them up,i was basically told that it was all Ripmax's fault,cannot understand it reall,but for the record i made a point of been polite and understanding, even thanking them for their help etc,having read up more info in the terms and conditions it looks like another 30 day wait before a refund is given making it a 7week transaction in total.

Just had a really bad experience with Elite Models, i thought i would give them a try as they were advertising in RCM&E ,i ordered an os32sxh online and paid for next day delivey,nothing arrived a few days later so gave them a ring "it should be in within the next day or two sorry about that" no problems i thought,a week later i phoned only to be given same response it will be in shortly a day or two,ok waited another week same response eventually phoned on the friday again to be told it may be in next week,bearing in mind they still had it advertised on their website 2 minutes to put out of stock surely,i phoned once again and just asked for a refund.......still waiting!!!,it looks like trading standards will have to be involded to get my money back the bank and so on,i paid in good faith and since have been informed they should not be advertising goods they dont have and secondly they should not have deducted my debit card,but you live and learn never again.

i have the Atom1.6 and it's a no go (unfortunately) (Toshiba NB100) it can just manage FMS lol,my p3 450mhz can runprograms that my Toshiba NB100 cannot possibly due to its Nvidia 64mb GFX card, My Toshiba has 1gb of ram 1.6mhz pro 64mb shared GFX its ok for surfing odd work document excel etc but anything heavy just stalls it forgive the pun.

Heck seems to run fine,but on saying that Austen my old pentium 3 450mhz will run software that my Toshiba NB100 wont run? must be something to do with the gfx chipset?? not bad for a £200 netbook will have to look into a trade in if thats the case i always assumed netbooks were purely just laptop for surfing the net and genral light duties but it appears not technology moves so fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

i purposely bought a decent second hand pc just so i could run phoenix,it's a brilliant sim.

unfortunately a netbook wont run phoenix,its the lack of a decent spec graphics card thats causes this,you can download the demo off their website to check if it will run on your system,you can get a really good refurb high end laptop for 200quid with a guarantee, we use netbooks but they are a pain if you try and load them up so to speak FMS works ok and several other sims but you have to sacrifice graphic detail ,i.e smoke,shadows and clouds to name a few,hope this helps

fms does work though although it lacks in the physics department and a few others do but you have to turn smoke shadows etc off clouds to name a few

no way will phoenix work on a netbook 1.6mhz Atom, is fine its just the graphics card it lacks 128mb at least netbooks have shared graphics,how do i know i tried it their is a demo on their website you can download to test your system.

excellent mate like the photos, unfortunately we still have the rain so its another no fly day today.