I am still trying to master hovering and landing with my Blade CP. Somehow, right as I start getting it trimmed out to be very docile, it always finds a way to hit a tree or the ground and I am back to square one. It never fails: I take off, get it smoothly hovering at a constant altitude... then a small gust will disturbs it... and it takes off for the nearest obstacle. But most of the damage I suffer results from blade and tail rotor strikes while near the ground. It really gets frustrating just trying to take off smoothly.
I don't have a place to fly without wind and I have gotten too lazy to keep driving down to the high school football field to minimize obstacles. I have finally found a way to minimize interference on takeoff: start on top of one of the Air Hogs cardboard boxes as a level, grass & twig free surface. This has a dual benefit of making some trim issues obvious before getting into the air. Sometimes, while doing slow run ups to verify trim, it vibrates in one direction, falls off the edge, and a blade strikes the ground before I can get into the air.
I know I could already be flying pretty well if I had a CX... but I am having a lot of fun tryiing to master the interaction between the collective, cyclic, tail rotor, and the inherent instability and unreliability of conventional tail rotor helos. I could probably save a lot of wear and tear by getting the $200 R/C sim with the USB transmitter, but my wife says she would rather see me spend the money on a CX than blow that much on just a pc sim. I don't know... the sim has many applications and never costs any more money after being bought until the transmitter needs to be replaced.
