David E

The light I'm talking about isn't actually visible from the outside of the controller. It's a small orange LED on the circuit boards inside, roughly under the sticker below the aerial IIRC. (no, not the red power LED) I don't think it's anything important, just wondered if it was telling me something about the batteries.   Can anyone else see my "forum face" btw? I can't, just get the red cross thingy :-s

Thanks for all the replies guys, for some reason I didn't get notified of responses for this thread, will need to check my preferences.   New batteries have fixed the charger issue.  The TX seems to be working fine still quite a while after I noticed the orange light, and a multimeter shows 1.5V on the cells still. The dead ones in the charger were down to 1.3V without load.   I've ordered some of the new nifty rechargeables that retain their charge much better (80% after a year apparently) so will probably be using those in future, certainly for the TX. I'll have to see how they work out with the charger. Reports of success seem to be mixed on that front.   I thought charging the lipo off AAs would really annoy me, but actually it's quite handy not having to plug the charger in each time.   Now to hunt for spare lipos... Thanks for the suggestions!  

Interestingly they don't seem to have anything for the MCX. There's got to be a market for that considering the popularity of the MCX.

Alex, I'm looking for a club near Crawley or Horsham.  Think I've found where and when Crawley's next meet up is, so I might pop along.

I have a question about the charger that comes with the Blade MCX: When I put the battery in to charge, the light doesn't ever seem to go out, and when I take the battery out, the light stays on, but blinks off every few seconds. this only seems to stop if i take the AAs out and put them in again. It seems to be charging the battery ok,  but I'm a bit concerned that it might be doing the lipo a mischief. Is this simply a sign that the (included in box) AAs are getting a little flat, and that it's struggling to put the last bit of charge into the lipo? The manual doesn't say how to tell that the batteries need changing. I'd estimate I've done about 10-15 charges, so I guess they could be low. Also, another slightly question, there is an orange light on inside the TX. (the TX that comes in the RTF bundle.) It's visible past the right hand stick, and is located near the centre front of the transmitter. Does anyone know what this means? I haven't noticed it before, but maybe it's on all the time. Is this the low battery warning for the TX? How many flights do others get off a set of TX batteries? Also, while on the subject of AAs, does anyone have experience of using rechargeables? The appeal of not having to constantly buy new AAs is high, but I know the voltage is lower, 1.2V instead of 1.5V, so i don't know how well they work. Are charging times increased for the charger? One last question(!)  Does anyone know somewhere with the lipos for the MCX in stock? Would like to get a couple of spares. Many thanks!

Cool. Useful to know in case I have the same problem.

Yeah, that sounds like a plan, though some clubs seem a little secretive about where they fly. :-/ I'll have another look at the nearest club's site again, see if I can figure out when and where they're next meeting. One club has got back to me, but they seem to only meet up monthly and I think their outdoor site (currently out of action due to mud anyway it seems) could be an awfully long way from me, so might not be great if I want to fly outdoors in the future. Are many clubs running at capacity then? Is this down to a shortage of flying fields?

Hi Alex, I recognise your name from the MTB forums, I was one of the first members on Bikemagic, but haven't been very active over there for a while. I found my way over here from a link at the bottom of BM, and have just bought my first r/c aircraft, a Blade MCX helicopter, which is great fun. I'm also looking to join a local club too but they've mainly been quite slow getting back to me Can't be too desperate for new members I guess. Maybe I should try phoning... I spotted a few other MTBers on these forums doing model a/c too.

I have recently bought an MCX (my first r/c a/c), and I might consider buying one, if the price was right, it looked good enough (I'm a stickler for realism on scale models so I'm probably unreasonably fussy about this), and it didn't affect the flight characteristics negatively too much.  There are lots of other things I'd be looking to spend cash on first though. So I guess that's not terribly positive I imagine it could be a pain accessing the battery on the MCX with a scale body shell, but I'm no expert on these things! I think other mod parts like different stabiliser bars for different levels of stablisation could be interesting. As for types, how about something a bit different, perhaps a KA-50, or some other contra-rotating type, which would be much more realistic. The Hokum-A looks pretty mean too, but I think the weapons would have to be omitted. I wonder whether removing/replacing the tail boom would give more flexibility.

I haven't had any trouble with the one that came with my MCX, but I haven't bought any spares as SMC didn't have any in stock. Is it possible that the one that works ok is the one that came with the heli, and the rest are sligtly different? I assume they have the same part number on and everything? Good luck getting them working, anyway. Tim, I find getting it out of the charger easy, as I can get a fingernail under the two ridges on the side of the plastic block, to pull the battery up.

Yeah, I've spotted this effect too, it can be quite amusing. I was at my brother's place on the weekend, and he got me to show the thing to his kids, it was really funny, my 3-year-old nephew thought it was great until i took it within 6 inches of the ceiling, at which point he decided that he didn't like it at all and wanted me to stop. It emerged later that he thought that if I had hit the ceiling, it might have made the house fall down. LOL!  Fortunately I managed to avoid hitting anything, or my sister in law might not have been too happy! I'm starting to get the hang of coordinating the controls now, though just like when I did some gliding, there are times when one's brain seems to get overloaded and you totally lose coordination, until it all becomes automatic.

yeah, i've noticed that you get funny effects if you take off slowly next to a large object. The heli tries to fly towards the obstruction, I think caused by circulating air destabilising it. I think part of the earlier problem may have been that I missed the bit in the instructions about letting the gyro stabilise. Also the battery sometimes moves if I stuff up so I have to remember to check that. I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I'll have to try some larger rooms soon. It's great fun!

Yay! Managed to get it delivered to work today! Had a quick test flight in the office, it doesn't seem quite as stable as the videos I've seen, but great fun! Will have more of a play later! To be fair, the courier was pretty good in the end, though it seems they're much more geared up for deliveries to businesses than home deliveries. So... next time I need to buy from SMC, it'll have to be either a visit to Worthing, or a work address delivery.

DOH! It seems that they have used a cheap courier that has their nearest distribution centre in Lewes. Which is further to drive to than Worthing! They don't do Saturday deliveries, and can't deliver to my office without approval from the sender. To make it more annoying, looking at the courier's rates, it seems that they charge less than half what I've been charged for postage, and that's for a next day service. It was supposedly dispatched on Saturday. Even Parcelfarce is better than this! Sigh. Looks like no flying for me for some time yet then. I don't think I'll be mail ordering from SMC again.

Sorry, I didn't make myself very clear. I can log in ok, and the order is there, but the "status" column is blank. I was just wondering if this changes to shipped when the order has been shipped or whether it just doesn't ever show anything. I'm a bit dissapointed that they told me the order was shipped on Saturday (I assume by Parcelfarce 48 going from the amount charged to my credit card) but it still hasn't shown up. I should have asked for a tracking number I've emailed them to see if they can give me one, but I'm not holding my breath. Not yet a happy customer...

A question for others who've ordered from SMC before, if you log in and show previous orders, is anything listed under order status? It's blank on my order. I phoned on Monday to check the order status and was told it had been shipped on Saturday, and should arrive Tuesday, but no sign when I left for work this morning.   Actually, I had a red card from the postman yesterday, but when I went to the Post Office, it turned out to be a package for my wife.  The posty had only written the surname! I should have know as it wasn't a Parcel Farce card, I thought maybe they'd used Royal Snail instead for some reason. When I phoned it took ages to get an answer and the guy sounded really harrassed - i guess they're a bit busy with the holiday backlog... I'd still like to know when I might get my hands on the new toy Starting to wish I'd made the journey on Saturday.

I ordered on Fri afternoon, as it wouuld cost me more in petrol to drive to Worthing and back as I'm in Crawley. I guess I've been spoiled by mail order places where you order at 2pm Friday, pay no postage and get delivery on Sat morning (eg Chain Reaction Cycles, I found my way to this site from bikemagic.com), but I'm wondering how long I'll have to wait for the new toy. I've received an email saying the order has been received, and checked stock by phone first, but nothing since... must.... be.... patient! Have emailed a few local clubs, only one has replied, and they only seem to meet up monthly :-/ Thanks again for the advice. Will report on progres.

cool, mode 2 it is then. Ah yes, cyclic, that was the word I was trying to remember - it's been a while since I played with a heli sim. The postage is quite steep at 6.50, but if it's a shop people have had good experience of, it's prob worth that. glad to see they sell a good range of spares. will need to have a think about flying location, but will probably be ok at home to begin. Thanks again!

Thanks very much for all the thoughts guys. Can anyone recommend where to buy a Blade MCX at a good price? Would the Sussex Model Centre linked to by Jonathan be a good choice? My budget is quite limited at this point Tim, thanks, I've already read most of those, but will have a look at the rest. I see that the Blade MCX is available with mode 1 or mode 2 controllers, I understand this could mean different arrangements of the channels on the sticks. Can anyone explain which is which, and offer any opinions on which to go for? (hope this isn't one of those subjects that could start a big argument!) I would imagine that I would find throttle/collective and rudder on the left stick and pitch on the right stick to be the most intuitive. Is this either of these two? If I get on ok with the MCX, I'll get in contact with CADMAC which seems to be my local club. It seems they do outdoor flying for non IC models, and indoor in a local sports centre.

Hello everyone, I'm totally new to model flying, and have been toying with the idea of buying a RTF helicopter. I've done a bit of gliding (non-model) when I was at uni and spent quite a few hours in the past on flight sims on computers, both fixed wing and helicopters. I live in Crawley, West Sussex, where I understand that there is a club, but I'm a bit intimidated by the idea to be honest, especially because I don't have a great deal of time to get involved due to other commitments. I don't know if they have any outdoor flying locations. I don't think there is any model shop in Crawley. I suspect I'm mainly going to be put off the idea, but I guess I'd rather that if it wouldn't be for me. I had spotted the RTF Esky Honey Bee 4CH electric RC helicopter, and wondered if it would be a suitable for someone like me? I would expect to have to use the included simulator to get the hang of co-ordinating the controls, and have a reasonable understanding of the theory, would I need to get someone to teach me to fly? Is it likely to be a pile of junk I'd be better off not buying? Of course there's the question of where to fly. I imagine it might be considered bad form to join a club just so you can turn up and have a place to fly occasionally? Any thoughts welcome! Thanks!