I just want a reliable heli to fly around (I'll call it 'scale flying') inside my house. Without doing fancy moves and not running multi batt packs in a row, do you think this would be a reliable and consistent running heli for indoor 'scale' flying?

Maybe, but I think you should buy small a-symmetric blades to get longer flights.
I did see some scale fuselages on this heli on youtube. Hughes 500.

Originally Posted by dtheli

I just want a reliable heli to fly around (I'll call it 'scale flying') inside my house. Without doing fancy moves and not running multi batt packs in a row, do you think this would be a reliable and consistent running heli for indoor 'scale' flying?

Not really......an MSR would be alot better..this thing is really wild..like a dragonfly on steroids.

I think for scale flying, the nCPX is better. It can be a dragonfly. But it can be very stable too. Up to the pilot.

The mSR has too many nasty tendencies to make it a good scale, indoors flyer IMHO.

Put a Bravo SX body onto the nCPX and you take one step closer to scale.

Here's the scale Nano thread over at HeliFreak:
http://helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=457989

Here's Varc's nCPX with the Bravo SX fuselage:

Originally Posted by Jake8131

Not really......an MSR would be alot better..this thing is really wild..like a dragonfly on steroids.

For scale? I disagree completely. The nano can be tamed down considerably with a proper transmitter, even more if the goal is slow smooth scale flight. The AS3X does wonders for making the heli 'look' more stable than it is and cyclic controls are nice an flat. A little negative pitch at low throttle glues it to the ground and it's way easier to keep it clean on take off while the rotating parts get up to speed.

The nano has more power to lift a scale body, and that's not even before it gets a bigger battery and a more powerful motor. The air frame is narrower and the wash control arms are shorter, so it will have a (slightly) easier time of fitting it in a shell. And of course, there's no flugly bar messing up the scale looks, and with a CP head, there are possibilities for 3 and 4 (or more) blade hacks.

There maybe cause for concern over the additional skill required to handle it, but if micro scale is your thing, then the nano has hit the sweet spot!

I don't even like flying my MSR anymore. Nudging it around like a balloon with a pendulum, I can't even imagine it trying to pull off a scale flight with it. It's going to get voted off the island soon...

I think the mcpx is better for scale and the nano is better staying light. Be sides there are more options for different scale looks for the mcpx

Just maidened mine in the living room. Copied my 130X program to a new slot in my 10CHP, checked the controls, spooled 'er up & YAHOO! Fun little bird! Much more stable that I was expecting, given her diminutive size. She's definitely a responsive little thing, though. I tamed her down a bit on low rates for living room flying. I'm running 65% rates w/30% expo on cyclic, and 70/0 on the tail. I'm still fine-tuning the curves a bit to suit my flying style, but this bird flies great right out of the box.

Charging batts....

Originally Posted by turboparker

Just maidened mine in the living room. Copied my 130X program to a new slot in my 10CHP, checked the controls, spooled 'er up & YAHOO! Fun little bird! Much more stable that I was expecting, given her diminutive size. She's definitely a responsive little thing, though. I tamed her down a bit on low rates for living room flying. I'm running 65% rates w/30% expo on cyclic, and 70/0 on the tail. I'm still fine-tuning the curves a bit to suit my flying style, but this bird flies great right out of the box.

Charging batts....

I pretty much settled on the same type rates for indoor flying too Joel. I also softened up the middle of the pitch curve a little to make it less jumpy around mid stick.

I'm about to give up on Horizon as my sole supplier of hobby stuff. It seems like this years products might be more at home in a mall vendors kiosk rather than a hobby shop.

This year:

#1 Blade 450 X - AR7200BX receiver quit after 10 flights. Would no longer connect to my DX8 transmitter. Sent it in and rather than replacing it they "soldered" something and sent it back with a note that they had installed diagnostic software and I would have to reprogram it before I could use it. Still sitting on the shelf.

#2 Carbon Cub - Didn't make it past initial bind and the elevator servo stopped working as it disassembled itself. Returned at my expense and they sent me a replacement in August (6 months after initial preorder) that I have been reluctant to fly.

#3 Mig - Awesome for 4 flights then the elevator servo locked in full UP on the fifth flight. I wasn't good enough to save it with throttle management and the nose is scrunched. All Horizon would do is send a new elevator servo, the scrunched fuselage wasn't addressed. Sitting on the shelf. It was great while it lasted.

#4 Blade 300 X - Still flying with no issues.

#5 Micro Stryker - Still flying with no issues.

#6 Blade 130 X - the list is long. Bad tail servo, C gear was slipping on the shaft (fixed with dental floss and CA), bad tail shaft (not square), tail blade broke in mid flight and TH to the ground. It's sort of flying now but in Stunt 2 the motor torque still makes the tail blow out from C gear slippage. Despite all of these problems it's a great flyer but I don't like the maintenance time required to keep it in the air. I like flying it enough to do it so far. The good news it that it's taught me a lot about fixing heli's (that I didn't really want to know). All of these problems with no crashes. Who knows what would need fixing if I had crashed it. I prefer flying to fixing. I know some of you don't mind the fixing and tinkering but I just want to fly.

#7 Blade Nano - I wasn't going to buy one of these but I saw it fly at the Hobby Shop 3 days ago and had to have one. We have a gym at work that's rarely used and it seemed perfect for some noontime fun. For the first 5 flights it was awesome. On the 6th flight during an inverted hover I heard an odd sound and the motor RPM dropped significantly. I flipped it back over and landed. Now at full throttle the motor runs about 1/3 speed. It will barely lift off the ground. All servos function OK. From what I've read in this thread today (I started on page 50 or so) a few of you have lost the main motor around 50 flights. I think that's what is going on with mine but I'm only on flight #6. I believe it was Jasmine that mentioned somewhere in the thread that a bad board can't clobber the motor but a bad motor can clobber the board. It looks like my board is toast or near toast too. Both of the large chips appear partially melted (see picture). I called Horizon and they said they didn't know what could be wrong and I needed to send it in (expletive muttered under breath).

I own 40+ Horizon products and I've been very happy up until this year but I'm no longer receiving the good support I have come to expect (and been spoiled with) and the quality of the products seems to be on a huge downhill spiral. I think a few too many people have been scamming them for parts and now all they'll do is ask that the model is sent in in many cases. I've spent a lot of money on postage returning things they used to send parts for. I dunno, maybe I've just reached my limit and I have a bad attitude. I stopped buying from everyone but Horizon several years ago because the others didn't have the support and Horizon products had seldom disappointed me.

I hope Horizon doesn't get any worse. For a long time I bought 1-2 models a month from them. I'm gun shy now. There's about 10 things I want but I'm tired of having these issues nearly every time.

My Nano is going back to the Hobby Shop.

End of rant.

I'll get over it.

The blade 450 you can do a factory reset and fly.

The chips on the nano look good to go, probably just a bad motor which sucks but happens. Id still call them and have them give you another

I have had to send a lot of stuff back to them as well but they always fix it so even though it takes some time it does get corrected. But I dont limit myself to just HH products too many good things out and about to do that!

I bought two nanos and a few 130x's and they all fly pretty good. So just occasionall bad luck when they sell so many pieces of each product i guess

I hear ya with the Horizon Hobby stuff. It's just something I expect of them. Something is always gonna be wrong. Been gun shy with them for a while now.

Regarding the chip, it doesn't look melted to me though. Looks like their typical epoxy stuff. (Which btw, is often the reason for crash damage leg lifts of the chips.) The cheap chinese RX can definitely take more abuse from what I've seen of them.

I think the reason they scratch off the text on the chips and epoxy the leg is to prevent being cloned. But hard crashed cracks the epoxy and ends up lifting the legs, resulting in binding issues. There was thread I saw yesterday with some macro shots of the damages.



That said, my Nano is what I've been waiting for. Can't wait to see the competition in this space though. Like Indoor said, too many other good birds to limit oneself.

Originally Posted by NwRcFlight

It looks like my board is toast or near toast too. Both of the large chips appear partially melted (see picture).

Uhm, no. What you're looking at is the goop they put on the chips to seal off the pins (moisture protection?). It's not melted chips. Chips don't melt. This sizzle spectacularly the split and pop shrapnel everywhere. But not much short of a lightning strike would do that. If the chips are truly burnt out you won't see any obvious signs by looking at them.

I've suffered through the pain of burnt out MSRX motors, which are a disgrace. I'm hoping the nano motors don't suffer the same heritage, but I have a nagging suspicion that many will suffer pre-mature motor death. So far I haven't read a significant number of complaints about motor burn out so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Sounds like you have the mis-fortune of a burnt out motor and a new motor may be all it needs.

As for the rest, as they used to sing on Hee Haw "if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all". I hope your luck changes.

I love my nano.

The board looks ok. My guess is that you have a bad motor. Mine sounded strange from the start and never quite made power before dying at around 40 flights or so.... I already had a few spare motors on hand and the second one has been fantastic now for about 20 flights, and I'm hoping for the best.

I emailed Horizon and they said the motor isn't covered under warranty.

I'm thinking the quality control of the main motors may not be very good right now. I only hope it improves

Originally Posted by indoorheli

I think the mcpx is better for scale and the nano is better staying light. Be sides there are more options for different scale looks for the mcpx

The mcpx is ideal if you've got the room to fly it (gym scale). A lot of plastic model kits come in a good mcpx scale, which can then be used to make molds for lighter bodies.

But I'm ready to jump on a whole new wave of 'living room' scale micro helis with the nano

Yeah, these little motors are junk.When I got back into the hobby last year, I did not understand all the complaints of brushed motors. I used them for months and never wore one out in my 1/10 scale cars years ago. These little micro motors don't last long. I am having my MQX with not more than 30 flights already have motor failure. Horizon Hobby told me tough luck on the brushless motors, so I am going to retrofit V929 motors. It's cheap chinese stuff for me, I never got great customer service for anything out of warranty. But it is what it is. These little motors are junk, and we gotta replace them often. At least it's only one motor, my mqx has 4! I am still intrgued to get a nano cp x and probably will if I find a deal. So far the best deal is on ebay where you get 3 free batteries and free shipping. I will buy one when there is an affordable brushless kit for it.