I think balr is correct. I looked at the early CB180's and rather than reviews I go to youtube. The first thing I noticed was people always seemed to fly slow. I didn't watch every 180 vidieo by any means, but I never saw one of anyone ripping up the sky with it.

On a side note we did some range testing with walkera. We found the 2401 started to show signs at about 250'. The 2801 had better range at 800' or more (we couldn't do line of sight over that distance so range varied depending on where I stood with the heli in hand due to buildings, trees, chain link fences, etc). What stood out was that the first indication was loss of throttle. The servos continued to work fine - no chatter just normal servo response. But the throttle dropped to zero and wouldn't come back until we got closer to each other again. My old Futaba fixed wing radio will drop to 25% throttle when it gets close to range limit as a failsafe, so I wonder if this is walkeras (bad) idea of a failsafe warning? Having an FP heli drop to zero throttle as a failsafe will certainly catch your attention.

We did some further tests today indoors and outdoors the 2402 is pathetic as far as range goes and I'm extremely disappointed.

Compared to a cheap ESKY 4 CH 2.4GHz radio.

At the office I turned on the TX set on the desk and set the heli to very low throttle.

With the ESKY I went through 3 cinder block walls and I walked outside 200+ feet and whet behind another building before I began to lose signal. and the light would flash.

With the Walkera Heli and 2402 TX It started cutting out when I got on the other side of the first cinder block wall 20 ft away from the TX with the doorway wide open.

The Esky was solid working through 3 walls shut doors and going outside the buliding and 200 ft. away.
I was unable to get signal from the Walkera anywhere outside the building or in any rooms past that first cinder block wall.
This is not good or normal for 2.4GHz. as compared to my other tests phones & wifi was well.

I also verified with a spectrum analyser that there are no interference issues or that the walkera TX is NOT hanging out somwhere where there is interference.

Yay!

Originally Posted by N8LBV

...

With the Walkera Heli and 2402 TX It started cutting out when I got on the other side of the First cinder block wall 20 ft away from the TX with the doorway wide open....


This is not good or normal for 2.4GHz. as compared to my other tests phones & wifi was well.

I agree, not good or normal. I'm also pretty much done with Walkera, so I'm not outright defending them.

I don't expect a walkera radio to perform the same as a Futaba, etc. I can't even begin to make out enough detail to fly even a 450 at 250 ft - it'd crash before it got that far away. Same with a small parkflyer type plank. So while walkera is far from being best, or maybe even good, it's usable for what I use it for. I have the Esky radio too, came with the esky lama. And yeah - the walkera should give about the same performance as the esky.
So while I won't suggest everybody should run out and buy a walkera radio system, yours isn't typical and it's not even performing up to walkera standards.
And what really irks me is you have limited options. Either stop flying the CB-180 entirely, buy a new walkera radio (no warranty at all with this stuff), or replace the radio with a different brand. Since the receiver has the gyro (and I think the 180 has the esc built in as well?) that last option is way worse than it sounds. And no matter what, you've still got the original problems Balr described.
I have the ufly and it also has design flaws, but probably flies better than your 180. I wouldn't recomend anybody buy one, but it wasn't a cheap heli so I'll try to keep it airworthy to fly here in our apt parking lot when I just don't feel like going to a larger location. It's my last walkera.
I know I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, just a case of misery loves company.

I probably really need to put this topic to rest eh?
But just as a final thought and to give everyone an opportunity to laugh..
I did make it to my flying class today but not with my CB180D which is in pieces.
I took my heavily modified ESky hunter coaxial with extreme blades and shortened flybar
and extended servo arms and did 3 hours of fast (10MPH) haha indoor flying in a Gym.
And didn't crash or lose control once.
Guess I'm still stuck on the coaxial for a bit and need to be patient :-)

Here's my buying experience with XHeli which also has been much less than favorable.
I posted a negative review for the Heli on their site which surprise surprise..
was deleted and you only see POSITIVE reviews on XHeli's site for the products that
are up for sale.
Here's that review I attempted to post there.
Please see *this* http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1618431 forum thread about the Heli which at first I thought the problem was me, then the antenna problem was revealed and then this forum points out
some problems about the Heli.

I'm throughly upset with both XHeli and the Walkera180D. Xheli for Not returning any support calls or emails in over a full week (I have two open support issues) and clearly not caring about customer support whatsoever.

I ordered $40 in parts paid and waited for my order to arrive.
4 days later I get an email from XHeli saying that I must agree to pay an additional $11.95 in an additional shipping charge and that I need to agree and pay this $11.95 before the order will be released (after I paid already and my order was complete and supposed to be on it's way).
This has set me back over a week so far and I did not have my heli parts to get it going again for my flying class this weekend. + the issue is still not resolved I'm without my parts and XHeli has my money and are holding my order. I've sat on hold and have been unable to get though on the phone yet.
My Walkera CB180D was defective out of the box I had already ordered replacement parts after I first tried to fly it outside in Zero wind and it went out of control very badly and crashed.
I didn't realize this until after I had already ordered my parts and under very close inspection I discovered the small antenna wire was NOT soldered into the RX board on the Heli.
And this is why I lost control after about 10-15 feet away from the TX. you had to look very carefully UNDER the label to realize it was not soldered into the board.
When I first tried to fly it it actually fell out of the board. I originally thought it had broken off due to the severe crash but once I looked closer and noticed no solder on the antenna wire or the board I was pretty upset!
This is not Xheli's problem but they do not care and have been absoltuely no help at all and appear to be ignoring my messages to call me back or it's just not a priority for xheli to help me get both of my issues
resolved. It's been over a week now since I sent a support request about the defective RX board and resulting crash.
My two open issues (for over a week with XHeli are: The bad Heli and the parts order that has been put on hold after I paid for it.


Please Do not buy this Heli if you expect to do more than gentle hovering and no more than 30-60FT from the TX and that is if you get one that's not missing solder on it's 2.4GHz antenna wire.
See the forum link mentioned above for more details and problems with this particular Helicopter and it's radio system.

I learned the hard way that trying to deal with xheli through xheli is a waste of time. I've gone their own support forum and just had my complaint deleted (paid extra for UPS because they leave it on the porch - it got shipped by much cheaper US mail and they left a note in the mailbox and I had to take time off work to go get it at the post office). The phone is eternal hold and email is useless.
There is an xheli support thread here at RCG and since it's a public thread on a popular forum it gets more attention. No guarantees, but can't be any worse than what you've experienced so far. http://www.rcgroups.com/xheli-579/

Interesting that they deleted your review.

Originally Posted by karlik

Interesting that they deleted your review.

That was harsh of me.
I'm assuming it got deleted.
When I posted it I got a notification that it would be processed and if approved,
would get posted.
It never showed up.

Thanks W.

I'm unbelieveably frustrated at the moment. with this total piece of crap for a number of reasons.

I have the servos set for full throw and I'm not the slightest concerned about hand's off
or super stable hover characteristics.
Just want to be able to fly without it suddenly twisting out of control into the ground.
I'm a newb but not mechanically electrically or aviation declined ;-)
I certainly did take the time to check blade balance level the swashplate adjust the linkages and servos for midpoint at mid stick etc.
and trim it all up properly in hover etc. before taking it out for any real flights.
The usual stuff and making sure I have full control range of it set up properly.
Yes I also made sure the swash plate (or anything else) is not binding under all conditions along with getting that full range.

I've been flying my old coaxial (esky hunter) outdoors in wind 3-5 mph without any issues at all.

It's heavily modified (very short fly bar and extended length servo arms).
Pulling full left or right stick will smack it into the wall instantly creating a nice pile of broken plastic parts.
It's not very stable but I can fly it great! goes about 10-15Mph! which is
way nicer than it was stock.

I think the 180D was a huge and stupid mistake.

I've been spending a LOT of time on the simulator flying CP and FP helicopters.

Sounds like I'm trying to actually *fly* the 180D and it's really only capable of slow indoor flight and hovery type stuff.

I'm also gathering a simple 3Mph breeze may be killing me where my coaxial is handling this just fine.
Now when I say "just fine" I mean I can keep it under control and land it safely if needed..
The 3-5 mph are still a 'battle' to fly in with that little coaxial but I can manage it and do not crash.
And by that I mean a proper safe set down on the skids without tipping or striking the blades.

I'm able to hover the CB180 just fine outside and have been handling hours of small wind gusts in all of my hover in the wind practice.

I'm good all day hovering this thing, holding it in place in the wind handling small gusts & all that (very comfortable at this now)
And getting it down safe if the wind starts to get out of hand for it.

It's just when I try actually *fly* it get it moving go in circles up and down etc. (even without wind) that it just suddenly does what looks like a snap roll into the ground and all 3 times now I have absolutely no clue as to what *I* did or did not do to cause it.
Although I've been getting some help here on the forum most of the help points to the "That heli sucks" box.

:-)

And yet here's another reason why I think it may be a total piece of crap..
Not even related to the heli mechanical design or flying :-(
As if that wasn't enough Grr-r-r-r-r
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1621681

As I recall, there were issues with that transmitter having only 1/10 of the signal output of the 2801. I think they fixed it with a subsequent upgrade, but I'm not sure.

Yes, I'm experiencing that 1/10th TX power issue in a bad way.
On top of my other issues I cannot fly this thing much higher than 40 or 50 ft. up or out before it goes out of range and the main motor cuts out.
This has been my first Walkera experience.
I'm not happy with it at all.
Nor am I happy with Xheli their level of non service as well as their still selling
this @$150 with a page of only extremely positive reviews on thier site which state about everything this heli is not. especially about it being durable and very forgiving of crashing.
Each time I have crashed it I have lost some major parts as well as all of the blades.

In each crash I've broken major items and stripped the main gear despite my powering off before impact.

Not that I'm complaining but it's been a lot of work a lot of waiting for parts and very little flying.
It doesn't match those positive views at all from "beginners" on xheli.com
If you go take a look over there you'll see what I'm talking about.

:-)

I've pretty much had it with this thing.
I'm going back to my Belt CP V2.
If that flys fine it will be official and I'll fight Walkera on what a bad deal this was.
If I can't fly that, I'll shutup and work on my piloting skills on something
that will actually fly.

The 180D was supposed to help get me ready for the CP.

So far it has just cost me a buch of time and forced me to study a whole lot of hours
But no good flight time.

During this time I've put 40-50 good hours on the simulator and am flying very well on that
with every helicopter they have in the sim. (clearview).

I can fly that sim extremely well and do lots of neat stuff and not crash.

The 180D is not at all like the sim. as far as it going out of control.
!at all!

I learned all of my quick nose in stuff on the sim which transfered over to real flying quite nicely.

I'm also doing all the inverted stuff on the sim pretty well. never tried that in real life yet.

I'm not even worried about inverted stuff yet just want to fly something around outside that go up & down turn and stay in control.

Just that it is so easy in the sim to try it out, addicting.
Also getting out of abnormal attitudes in the sim and getting the helicopter
back on track is a piece of cake to me in the sim.

On the 180 once it's not slow and upright there nothing that will pull it back into shape, you cant yank on the throttle and cyclic and just pull it back up into the air upward. :-(

Maybe the sim is giving me a false sense that I can do this or maybe I'm actually ready for CP and need CP to fly outside in light wind and just don't realize it at all.

Clearview heli physics are not realistic. They make the helis a lor more stable than they really are and much less likely to roll. Going straight to a CP heli, without a programmable TX, would be quite leap.

Ok good to know.

Bummer on the physics get $40 bucks worth the physics when you only spend $40 eh?

Are any of the sims really realistic? or do they all kinda fall short here?

I've also been on realflight but not lately..
I don't remember it being any harder to fly than clearview, just a lot prettier and more options.

Real Flight has a hover training option on the menu bar. If you can do that in all orientations, you are ready to fly just about anything. The first time I tried it, I couldn't last 15 seconds on tail-in. Now I can hold tail in for as long as I like. I can hold the other 3 orientations for at least 5 minutes before I screw it up.