Ajohnw

There are 3 video's that cover setting up a cp helicopter in this series including pitch, tracking and fly bar all by the same person.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VArYrRQ4dxw On blade balance things are a bit varied but one person removes the blades and holder and balances that on the rim of 2 glasses. Makes more sense than weighing each of them to me. In the early stages he also suggests setting the fly bar to 5 degrees pitch for hover practice and reducing it later to about 3 for actual flight.  The person in the previous post also describes a test stand but it looks a bit manic and ott to me. A board with a hole in it and a length of tubing does work. Add some sort of adjustable stop on the tube to limit lift and set the size of the board in relation to the size of the training stand if fitted so the that heli can't tip over. The hole size needs to be considered in relationship to that too and say 2ft or more lift. Fix the lot to a table with a woodworking clamp etc. This is probably more challenging that actual hovering at 4ft plus but with practice it should be possible to move in all directions and turn in any direction - if the helicopter is up to it. Maybe the video's will help with that.  One of the comments  in the first link I posted doesn't sound entirely correct to me. Left right turns in relation to the tail rotor thrust. At any point when it's stable it's running at a speed to counteract the main rotor, increasing speed or reducing it's speed to turn could have more or less equal in effects, depends on the slow down rate to speed up ratios and thrust changes.  John   

There are some interesting comments and info on cp2 type helicopters on here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc_l0PDZHps John   

Hi Andy I'm not exactly a beginner but not what you would call proficient either. As I pointed out I started with a 40 2 stroke MFA sport a long time ago. I could fly it around with a mishap from time to time. Thanks, your suggestions will help. The mfa basically worked.  On the cp2 I didn't intend to do anything other than skid it along to set up the trims -. as per included instructions. One skid was well on the ground when it flipped. It really isn't wise to try actually lifting a new helly without a training stand which I now have. Having been down this sort of route before I've visited a model shop. Came away with length of carbon tube. This will be fixed to the centre of the training stand and will pass through a hole in a landing pad a little larger than the cp2's stand. The pad will be on the end of something maybe a piece of ally tube about 4ft off the floor. The carbon tube will have something on the lower end to prevent it pulling through the hole. The hole will be sized to allow the carbon tube to angle something like +/- 30 degrees maybe a bit more in any direction. May sound daft but this will allow me to get a feel for the thing and practice hovering in one spot with little risk of any damage and to see what is going on. Actually no idea about now but people used to set up their transmitter mixing and trims this way. Cost from the model shop was £6 including a piece of lightish ply that I might need. Not ideal I know but this helped a lot with the mfa that had so much power that the carbon rod was a garden cane and the pad was a hole in the centre of a large steel garden table. The pad could be as big as you like really but I'm curious about rumours of ground effects on helli's but think it's mostly a lot of twaddle.  Model shops are terrible places. Helicopters the man says have you seen this and promptly flies a micro twister around the rather small shop followed by you have a try. I'm impressed. Micro Twister now sits along side CP2 Twister. Lift off is easy, forwards reverse too, left right rather sensitive as usual. The trim is fine if one's pushed. Ideal for practice or even learning. Full replacement rotor including blades about £8 but I managed to run the shop one into a metal stool and it survived - it uses IR so I had no control as it was behind the counter. Flying in the lounge and not sure what to do because it's going to hit something - easy - forwards or reverse it away. Many metal parts and rather well made. Good value too at about £35 even though they could probably be knocked out for 1/2 that. Sure of many hours of fun and lowish upkeep costs. Cheaper on ebay by a few quid but support your local model shop many of them need it at the moment. It's rather unusual for me to approve of something like this. In the case of the CP2 if it had flipped as it did and I had just bought it would go back along side a demand for my money back. Nothing should be that bad with centred trims.   Out of interest this small model shop has sold 35 micro twisters so it sound like I'm not the only one who is impressed. Flying a CP2 in the lounge would be a little dodgy to say the least. It's really for mild weather outdoor use and probably a handful too but I expect that. Interestingly left right could be less sensitive but then it would be tooooo easy. On the training stands some manic importer and cleaver chinese designer who wants to increase the sales of spares is bringing in one that has legs that don't join at 90 degree so the width and length spread isn't equal. ideally they need to spread in all directions equally to something  over the diameter of the rotor. Even larger to start off with even covering the tail boom too. Oh well at least it was cheap and too big so that I can shorten it at some point. The MFA's training stand was 2 crossed ally arrow shafts with one of those 75mm dia hard plastic balls with lots of holes in them on each end. Whole thing held on and together with cable ties. Just a thought for people with larger helli's. I bought the mfa of some one who could really fly it and he used the stand most of the time. Why waste money on spares, just remove the stand when you really need too.   Hope there are no of my bizarre typo's in the above  John

The tail rotor and gear etc looks fine. It also seems to have sped up a bit. Maybe the motor was a little sticky for some reason. Could be just lack of use but it still needs a lot of trim.  Looking at the swash plate neither the forwards/aft or the left/right movements are any where near equal with the trims central . Both bend the body in one direction. This I think explains the flip but I'm surprised how quick it was. One skid didn't even leave the floor and whack. There is a slight wobble in the head at low rotor speeds well below take off speeds. I'm not sure if that's normal. Or if it was there before the whack - think it was but not sure.  On the static pitch of the rotors I assume these helicopters mix in tail thrust against and speed while changing the pitch. So if the heli lifts too soon because the pitch is incorrect it wont set enough  tail thrust. This suggests that the whole mix will be out and the gyro is left to correct it. This is not good in my humble opinion.  It's all interesting because I don't think it's been used much. The guy who sold it couldn't fly it even with professional instruction. The video that comes with it states these are very suitable for beginners - jp's web site offers an entirely different opinion. One point. Do you find that the elastic band that holds the battery in place is a joke. A really bad joke. Anyone know of a fix? It shows the same band in the video but doesn't show what the guy did before he actually flew it. No way will it fly with the battery simply slipped into the band. The c of g will go all over the place. Actually the battery would fall out.  To add to this I understand exactly the same helicopter is sold under various names even in different boxes.  I would be interested in names of compatibles for parts if I can't find the jp ones.  John

Hi It's a cp v2 with a separate motor driving the tail rotor. Looks to be the same as the gold except for colour, even says TEST FLOWN on the box.  I'm using the TX that came with it. Looking from the rear it flipped to the left.    All a bit terse as I'm cooking tea. The rotating oven in the stove is stuck. John  

any moons ago I could hover and move about an MFA sports helicopter that's still kicking around some where. Next I tried a small esky lama. Slightest puff of wind would send it anywhere but the biggest problem was take off. Very very reactive and nigh on impossible to control. Thought I would try cp next so bought a used twister cp2 of ebay. Not had to play with adjustments much before so need a few ideas. 1st problem is that the tail rotor trim is at the end of it's travel. This controls it until I set enough lift to allow it to be skidded along the floor. The tail end then drifts out and then snaps back to the correct position. Seems the gyro works but the gain might be up the screw. Can the trim problem be corrected by reducing the static main rotor pitch?  2nd problem occurs at the point of lift off. Flips over rather rapidly immediately. Things look level and straight so I am at a bit of a loss. I haven't tried to trim that out but I suspect it would use up all of the trim travel or more.  Fortunately I tried it on carpet 1st which might explain the jerky gyro response.   Any help gratefully appreciated.   John  

In my case when I start to type in my email address it comes up and I select it with the cursor, then hit tab and type in my password. One big problem - it drops the @ in my email address. Since I've remembered to add the @ I haven't had any problems.  John

Hi All I found this forum while looking for instructions for a Digi Fleet Omega transmitter. Some one called electrotor offered a pdf of these a few years ago. I have sent a message but so far no reply and I wondered if any one else could help. Not everybody's idea of a good transmitter I know but it suites me and I would like to get back into the hobby after a 10+ year lay off. Hopefully Thanks  John