Hello everyone,
So i finally got a mini titan pro from a friend of mine.  The ARF includes the heli + 4 servos and gyro.
The servos are already installed and it seems that there is not much to do before i can start flying ( and learning ).

Since this is the first time i am going to build and fly a heli , in fact the first time i have seen a RC heli so closely, and i am amazed at the complexity and how many parts are there in this. I am glad i chose an ARF rather than a kit, otherwise i would have surely messed up.

The next steps i see are :
Install the tail boom
Install blade grips and main rotor blades
Install receiver
Install Decals and canopy,
Go fly !

As i thought i would be needing help from Anwar and everyone here who has experience with helis.
The first question i seem to be having is that the battery has bullet-type connectors. Now though i have a charger, i am not sure how to connect these. Are these connectors available locally ? I would appreciate some advice, so i can charge the battery !

Thanks
Gaurav

Rajesh/Rotorzone is our best resource when it comes to Mini Titans.

I would be surprised if the battery did not have a balance connector.  Depending on the charger, you can charge through the balance connector alone (you have to do slow charging, like at 0.8A or something like that, as the wires of the balance connector are thin, and this method is discouraged by some), *OR* you can use the bullets to do the main charge at full 1C rate and use the balance connector for balancing alone (but you will have to solder up a corresponding bullet connector whose other end is compatible with your charger connectors).

Bullet connectors are available at RCDhamaka :

http://www.rcdhamaka.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=bullet

but make sure you get the right size.

The first question is, what charger do you have ?

I have the Tahmazo Charger. It supports Lipos and has a balancing port. I needed the bullet connectors so i could solder them to a Deans, which the charger supports.
I will search the local market today to see if i can find these here.

I am very excited !!!
I attached the tail boom, and the main blades, and then connected the Rx, battery and wow this thing worked !!!
I had to get out the manual in order to get past the ESC's tone-alerts and setup , but once set i got the servos to operate and the main rotor to whirrr !!!

There are a bunch of things to still finish, and i "just" hope to learn to fly this !

Why have multiple connectors? Just remove the bullets and replace them with Deans. Observe polarity!!

Guess he is going to use the new "bullets on one end and deans on the other end" only for charging only, and use the existing bullets on the battery and the ESC for flying 

Right ! I am trying to find the bullets and will solder them to a Deans using some wire, and use that for charging...
I do seem to require a smaller screwdriver set, as some of the screws are so small ! Will get one jeweller's screwdriver set today

Sushil bhai's point is that you don't have to wait if you just replace the bullets on the ESC and the battery with deans, if you have them in stock. This would be a better solution long term also, as more and more 3s lipos are now coming with deans females pre-soldered.

The excitement continues  !
So i had the main rotor blades in place, soldered a connector to the batter th at was compatible with my charger and charged the batter at 1C (2.2A) with the balancer connected.
Everything looked good, and i was dieing to see the heli in action. So I took it out in my garden, and very slowly increased power. I must say that ther sound of the blades was sweet. So now i was around 40% power and the heli seemed light on skids. i wanted to ensure the trim was set up OK. So i gave a little bit more power and noted that the heli wanted to bank to right with its nose down. SO i reduced power and gave 3-4 clicks left and up on the trim. Till tis point i did not have the heli leave the ground.

Then i tried again, and there it was ! just took off straight up and i hovered it at 1 feet for around am minute. I must say it was sensitive and felt JUST like the sim. This was so exciting !!

I need to practise a lot to get used to the sensitivity, and overcome the enxiety. I did do 2-3 hoverings again , though just at about 2-3 feet.

I had not put up the training gear, so in of my hoverings, i had the main blade touch the ground ( ouch ! ) and the the tail rotor too ( However nothing broke, though there are small nicks on the blades. I want to continue with them and change later. Would that be ok ?

I have the battery on charge, and will try again in the afternoon wit hthe training gear on.

Good thing is that my lawn is perfect for helis, and now i can get into RC without going to the field and getting all the airforce attention !!

-Gaurav

Two points to note :

1.  Real life is never like the sim   Depending on a lot of factors, these CP helis does NOT lift up perfectly and come down perfectly with throttle. I have had a hard time with some flyers when I do setup for them, where they insist that it does not hover like in the sim 

2.  Hover above couple of feet.  The "ground effects" can induce instability.

About the cuts and nicks on the blades, if you do not feel significant vibrations (which started after the blades were hit), you are probably OK for now.

BTW, post some pictures of your wiring etc.  Also, how did you setup the gyro (what gain etc) ?

Ok, I am aching to go back home for lunch and try this again. I guess it was beginner's luck for me, as i had to do no setup at all ! ie i went with the factory settings on the gyro, esc etc .. I do plan to read and understand the manual, but as of now i think i need to practise

Good going. If you have damaged the shrink wrap on the blades, it will cause lot of flutter and might even rip off. Since a major part of the blade is holed out for lightening, this could be disastrous. If you have to, use tape to fix and balance both blades.

thats some really valuable advice.. thanks !!
Would you be having CF blades for this ? or should i order from HK

I wanted to give an update on whats happening here.
I have been able to do some hoverings, and like the heli. I do feel that it will take some practice before i can move on to other stuff .
I did also had a minor crash and broke the main blades, which in any case were extremely flimsy. Also i noted that the gears on one of the servos were stripped, so currently waiting on the spares to arrive.

I did want to buy the Carbon fiber blades form hobby city, and liked this one : http://hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=8395&Product_Name=325mm_Carbon_Fiber_Main_Blade_Yellow_(1pair)

However someone has commented that i would need the CFB holder too . Does that mean that i would need something else before i could use these blades on my heli ?

I plan to order the CF main rotor blades and the tail blades from Hobby city

Thanks
Gaurav

They must be talking about these, which are plastic spacers that have to be bent and placed in the blade holder, to compensate for the difference in thickness of the blades where they are attached to the blade holders.

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_info.php/cPath/2_375_569/products_id/16223/n/Thunder-Tiger-Rotor-Spacer-E325 (shows unbent state).

http://www.radiomodellers.com/pv0829thundertigerminititane325rotorspacer-p-74.html (shows bent shape).

BTW, we always used to say that CF blades are a waste of money when you are starting out.  But at these prices, it has become sort of just a matter of personal preference now. 

Thanks Anwar.
What are the disadvantages with the CF blades over wooden.  Cost wise they are the same to me, and i believe CF would be a better choice ? I am not after performance or optimizing battery time etc. My main aim is to be able to learn to fly helis at this stage, while keeping the costs down as much as possible.

CF blades are higher performance.  They usually come better balanced, are sturdier and many people notice lesser amps drawn while using them.

But as a beginner who is prone to crashes, the wooden blades may be slightly better, as they take the impact when crashes happen, and save other parts of the head from breaking.  Of course, what all ends up broken depends on the nature of the crash etc, but it is good to let the first guy take the bulk of the impact, and the woodies do better in that aspect. 

One thing is for sure.  When you start doing aggressive flying, it is better to use the CF ones.

Just got my package from Rotor containing 3 nos Hitec 65MG servos. Cannot wait to put them in my heli.
I will be replacing all 3 servos with these metal gear ones. The Ace C1016 servos which were there originally, stripped way too easily with a tip-over.

Now over the last week i read through the manual, and inspected the heli closely to understand the part names, and what-goes-where. I did also find a small issue with the motor pinion not set at the correct length hence not using the entire main gear's width , which i fixed.

Will install these new servos today and hopefully will be flying tomorrow !

-Gaurav

Well I have had some mixed experiences over the weekend.
First i replaced the C1016 servos with the Hitech 65MG ones. The mounting holes did not match and i filled the existing holes with epoxy and then drilled the new mounting holes. Changing the servos was a big excercise, as i had to remove the main rotor assemble in order to drill/mount the servos.
Then the linkages needed to be adjusts to match the new servos. I went by the manual, and had the swashplate level.
Went out in my garden and hovered !! loved it ! . Though i ferlt that a bigger space would have given me more safety.
On Sunday took it to the flying field and hovered it with the tail towards me, for the entire battery pack. I did notice a couple of things and perhaps the Heli-experts here could comment on it :
1. When i rev-up the motor and the heli leavs the ground, the tail swings. I use the rudder to get it back in place, but is this something that always happens , or is it somethign wrong with my setup.

2. Perhaps it was the wind, but somehow i felt that when hovering my heli was slightly tilted to the left Not that it was going in the left, but i just 'felt' it was not perfectly level. Again is this something wrong with my setup ?

3. To check the swashplate i just viewed it from the back and side, but i guess that isnt a very accurate method. How do you use the bubble-level to measure this ?

4. I have the Thunder Tiger Pitch gauge, but it seems big for the mini titan blades. Any way i can use this ? or do i need to shell more $$ and buy a smaller one.

Ok So i am all happy and excited with my heli, took it out today again, and though flying well at the end i brought it down faster than planned and had a tail strike ( ouch ) ! Well the tail boom, main blades, tail-blades, and the mixing lever got damaged. Well time to order !!!
The lesson i learnt was that i need to spend more time practising with the Simulator.

Look forward to your comments.
-Gaurav

Are you taking off too soon before the head RPM builds up ? If so it is normal, just wait for the RPM to build up. If the tail swings when on pitch pumping, you need higher gain on the gyro.

Doesn't make sense, it should be tilted to right unless you are hovering inverted

Measure the pitch on one blade at every 90deg rotation. If it is not same, your swash is not level.

The big gauges are too heavy and twists the blade/head a bit to get proper readings.

Oops Yes its tilted to the right !!! Sorry about that ! Is that normal ?

Looks like you have been bitten by the heli bug 

Furthermore, hopefully you do realize that such crashes are part of the deal, and do not get discouraged now itself (I have seen so many of those )

I have been using an Align pitch guage, which works well for all sizes (300mm to 700mm blades) :

http://www.heliproz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=335471

Were you flying with training skids ?

Yes indeed. I am starting to like Helis and the main reason is that they promise me ore regular/frequent RC activity than airplanes. Although i have had 2 crashes in my not so long heli career, i am not discouraged yet. Thanks to this forum, especially Anwar and Rajesh, and thanks to the LHS it is now possible for someone like me to enter Helis and not worry about parts availability.

Yes i was flying with training skids, and though they help me, i need to be very patient and slowly progress. I tried to hurry up things today that led me to this crash. I guess i will 'just' practise tail hovering for at least 20 flight before moving to anything else.

So my question went unanswered. Why is the heli slightly tilted to the right even when hovering ?

Rather than me trying to explain and messing it up, here it is :

http://www.iheartheli.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=16&Itemid=38 (see the question "Why does the helicopter want to slide to the left? Why does it lean to the right when in a perfect hover?")

Think of it as something similar to why you need the 3degrees right+down thrust in airplane engine mounts.  Not exact, but similar in that it is an effect of the rotating and counter rotating forces generated.

Thanks,
Quick question : I have a Futaba 10C . Now the Mini Titan came with a Gyro that has ECCPM mixing built in, and that is what i have been using so far. Is it better to continue using this, or should I setup my TX to Heli mode and use that ?