Barak1001, I just got this one here (the first link you provided)
https://www.helidirect.com/advanced_...1b6d4f&x=9&y=6
At $2.85 the price was right and saved on shipping as I picked it up. I also got the aluminum center hub and inner shaft set (EK5-0206) $10.50. Still waiting to set it up. Gotta pick up a few other things first. I'll have to check out that weight setting you suggested. Does that make spin-up a little better?
Mike

Originally Posted by AchillesPDX

I apologize if this is the wrong area for this, but I'd really like to get a Lama V4 and I'm having troubles finding anything that looks even remotely like a reputable site to buy one from. If someone could direct me to a decent online reseller or even an eBay seller I would be most grateful. I'm located in the US and would like to spend somewhere around $100 with decent-speed shipping.

Also, if there are any suggested initial upgrades or spare parts I should order at the same time please let me know.

I had a BladeCP for a short time about 3 years ago and couldn't get the hang of it so I figure I'll try again with a smaller dual-rotor model.

Hi. The Lama V4 is a really GREAT little heli to get started on. I bought mine from KA-Planes, in Florida. They are really nice people, answer email questions quickly, and are very helpful. I have ordered from them several times, and things always arrive here in Ohio by Priority mail in 3-4 days.

One of the first things you will definitely want to get is Extreme Hard Blades for the Lama. Since it is coaxial, there is an A set and a B set, so you need to order both sets. They are white. The black stock Lama blades will crack/shatter just by looking at them. After I went through 10 broken blades in a short span, I switched to the Extreme Hard blades, and have only broken one, and it took a really nasty crash, in which I didn't cut the throttle fast like I should have, against a steel tool chest, to break that one. You will like them a LOT better.

Other parts you might break or bend are the flybar, and the gears on both shafts. The outer shaft gear comes with the shaft, and the inner shaft gear can be ordered separately. However, the inner shaft "can" bend easily in a crash, so I would recommend a spare for that part as well.

Mike, at KA-Planes, had recommended their "Sonic" brand Lipo batteries when I inquired. One Lipo only gets you about 10 minutes flight time, and takes anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes to recharge, so having extras is nice. The sonic ones I bought are "2S - 7.4V - 15C discharge rate, and 850 mAh rating at $9 each. I have used all 5 of mine many times in the Lama and now in my Hummingbird FP, and they are performing well for me. I bought a second Esky charger too, so I can charge 2 Lipos at a time.

If you decide to order at KA, and you have any other questions about ordering, send them an email and I am sure they will help you out.

Originally Posted by AchillesPDX

Hrm... I'm just realizing how large this Heli will be... 13.4 inches for the rotor diameter is quite a bit bigger than I was expecting... Is this thing too big for an average sized living room / kitchen flyer? How much room do I need? Should I instead go towards something like the Walkera HM-5G6 or are helis that small more difficult to fly?

Thanks for all the great info around here!

I learned / set up my Lama in my living room, but it wasn't really easy.

If you can fly in a place that has about 20 x 20 feet of free space, your learning curve will be greatly reduced. Until you get things in line like leveling the swash plate and adjusting out the all-too-common yaw tendencies the Lama can have when it arrives, it will move around a bit as you get used to hovering. So the more room the better. But I can say that, once you get things set up well, and you learn to fly it, you can most definitely fly it indoors.

My son is home on leave from the Navy, and wanted to try my Lama. He has never flown anything like it before. I gave him a few pointers, and he had it up and hovering inside a minute. It is far easier than, say, an FP, to learn! Of course, I had already gotten it trimmed out for stable flight, and it has a lot of upgrades so I can fly outside in windless conditions, but the point is that it was really easy for him to just pick it up and go.

Originally Posted by rbinc

Correct. It can be mounted facing any direction as long as it is still standing vertically on the same edge it was shipped; the piezo is still oriented up and in parallel with the rotor shaft.

Rate mode gyros simply stop uncommanded yaw and the tail ends up wherever the rate gain decides it has stopped unwanted yaw. A HH gyro will do the same, but instantly RETURNS the tail to the heading it was at PRIOR to uncommanded yaw.

Regards

Hey, before I do the dredge-the-thread thing to find the info, can you tell me:

I have an Extreme extended outer shaft, which came with a white Delrin gear. When stipped a couple teeth, instead of paying for another shaft+gear combo + shipping, I learned that it, as well as the stock outer shaft gear, is just pressed onto the shaft. So I pulled the delrin gear, and pulled a stock gear off its shaft, and pressed it onto the Extreme shaft. I had to dimple-punch the shaft and use some Loctite Blue to make it stay put, but it has been working fine, until my son and I just chipped a couple teeth on it. Now I need to do that again.

What I would like to know is, can I order that delrin gear without the shaft from somewhere? Let me know if you have seen these available. I really don't need to order more outer shafts, although having one might be a good idea, but I would like to order a few gears.

Thanks.

<quote>Mike, at KA-Planes, had recommended their "Sonic" brand Lipo batteries when I inquired. One Lipo only gets you about 10 minutes flight time, and takes anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes to recharge, so having extras is nice. The sonic ones I bought are "2S - 7.4V - 15C discharge rate, and 850 mAh rating at $9 each. I have used all 5 of mine many times in the Lama and now in my Hummingbird FP, and they are performing well for me. I bought a second Esky charger too, so I can charge 2 Lipos at a time.

If you decide to order at KA, and you have any other questions about ordering, send them an email and I am sure they will help you out.<quote>

I've got 4 stock and two chargers. What's the fly time and charge time on those Sonics? I recommended to AchillesPDX to buy one extra batt. Trying to keep the price down but, at $9.00 each for those Sonics, sounds like a good buy.
Mike

Here's an interesting site for LiPo batteries (2-cell & many more). Zoandar, the battery you refer to I believe are "Sonix."
Check it out:http://progressiverc.com/2S_Lipo.html
Helidirect carries these from what I see..My favorite place
Mike

I use Mystery 900 mah 15c lipos in my lama. You can get them from DX for $7.78 with free shipping.

I get about 8 minutes of outside flight time with them (considering the high head speed I have to maintain when fighting the wind, that's actually pretty good).

You can pick them up here.

I average about 7:30 of outside flight on the stock battery, so the Mystery batteries actually last a little longer.

Edit:

Apparently DX also offers a battery that's made for the Lama for $1 more. The battery weights 6 grams less than the mystery batteries might want to check it out.

Just got this heli as my 1st 1 ever. I got it out of the box and noticed that the flybar is connected only to the main blade grip on 1 side by what looks like a link bar.

Is this correct? It looks like it should be attached with a link bar on both sides.

al210 Flybar help on new Lama heli
Only 1 ringlike pushrod is used on the flybar to blade grips. Some use 2, but didn't work well for me, it wanted to bind up, it has to work freely.

Rick
My Heli Page: http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Dunes/7600/heli.html

Originally Posted by Barak1001

I'd suggest buying this flybar when he gets some more made. It's carbon fiber so you don't have to worry about it bending from the slightest bump. It's also lighter than the stock flybar that came on the chopper.

The turbo kit in question probably came with a metal swashplate? I'd suggest testing how much movement the new swash has. Take your outer shaft out of the chopper. Put the metal swash on it while holding the shaft in your hand. Now move it around in different directions while spinning the upper part of the swashplate that has the balls on it. I'm not sure about the swash from that kit, but the CNC purple swash I have has less possible movement than my stock swash. So I decided to use the stock swash instead.

The swash from the turbo kit is loose and have lots of movement.
The bladegrips on the other hand are total crap, the lower one has the 2 grips at slightly different heights, so it is impossible to get a decent tracking.

The head on the innner shaft is a bit wider at the mounting points for the bladegrips, so you have to shave a bit of the plastic if you want to use the stock grips.

I did that and it works great.

And finally the parts from boomtownhobbies came

I installed the longer servo horns and put the servo arms in hole 2, and took it outside for a test.
What a difference no blade strikes and good speed, but I got a bit carried away and flew the heli over the house and into a neighbors tree

Today IŽll put the servo link out in the hole 3, and see how that works.

If anybody are thinking of getting the complete turbokit from helipad, I say donŽt. Just buy the 2 cm longer shaft, the adjustable flybar and the metal swash, the grips are not worth it.

I also got the ultra flex skids, extreme canopy and the model 3 CX2 boom, the boom is very easy to modify to fit, just file a groove down the middle of the mount, and it fits. IŽll get some pictures tomorrow.

How do you guys paint the canopy ? I would like to have it transparent at the cockpit, and the rest should be white.

I'm running a stock red cx2 canopy on mine, but if you're using the xtreme canopy you need to paint it from the inside.

That way it'll show a gloss finish on the outside.

Originally Posted by Chap1012

<quote>Mike, at KA-Planes, had recommended their "Sonic" brand Lipo batteries when I inquired. One Lipo only gets you about 10 minutes flight time, and takes anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes to recharge, so having extras is nice. The sonic ones I bought are "2S - 7.4V - 15C discharge rate, and 850 mAh rating at $9 each. I have used all 5 of mine many times in the Lama and now in my Hummingbird FP, and they are performing well for me. I bought a second Esky charger too, so I can charge 2 Lipos at a time.

If you decide to order at KA, and you have any other questions about ordering, send them an email and I am sure they will help you out.<quote>

I've got 4 stock and two chargers. What's the fly time and charge time on those Sonics? I recommended to AchillesPDX to buy one extra batt. Trying to keep the price down but, at $9.00 each for those Sonics, sounds like a good buy.
Mike

I get about 10 minutes of flight on them, and they charge back up usually within 90 minutes, I think. I use a 2 hour timer on the charger each time, and put the charging batteries in a LipoSafe bag, so I don't watch them very closely. But when I notice the green light has stopped flashing, I'll swap in another set to charge and reset the timer, or shut it down if I am done.

Originally Posted by Chap1012

Here's an interesting site for LiPo batteries (2-cell & many more). Zoandar, the battery you refer to I believe are "Sonix."
Check it out:http://progressiverc.com/2S_Lipo.html
Helidirect carries these from what I see..My favorite place
Mike

I think you are right on the spelling. I admit I didn't look to make sure, and the batteries themselves don't have a name label. My apologies!

Thanks for the link. That's a nice compilation of data and vendor source!

However, when I clicked the link to Heli-Direct for the Sonix battery, it gave me a "product not found!" message. I wonder how old this data is and if anyone is updating the page to keep it current?

Here they are (well, would be, , ) at KA-Planes. Normally they have these in stock, so I would hope they will get more in soon.

Update : 7/22/08 - per Mike Jr. at KA-Planes - these batteries have been discontinued, so they won't be getting any more in. Too bad, because they have served me well for the price!!

http://www.ka-planes.com/inc/sdetail/1094

Originally Posted by argieX

T (snip)

And finally the parts from boomtownhobbies came

I installed the longer servo horns and put the servo arms in hole 2, and took it outside for a test.
What a difference no blade strikes and good speed, but I got a bit carried away and flew the heli over the house and into a neighbors tree

Today IŽll put the servo link out in the hole 3, and see how that works. (snip)

A fir tree, I hope? Deciduous trees aren't very forgiving!

I have been thinking about trying "non-cut-off" servo horns myself. I have all the other parts needed to fly outdoors (CNC, extended, SE180s, etc,) but what I would like to know is how you dealt with the canopy to keep it from hitting the longer horns? Also, could you let me know the part number of the horns you ordered, or are they pretty much all the same spline size for these helis?

Thanks!

Hi y'all!

Noob heli flyer here. Let me just say that this thread helped me decide which heli to get. I ordered my V4 & its on its way. Got 3 sets of Hardens & 2 Lipos to go with. WoooHoooo!!!
It's also safe to say that I'd be hoverin' around this thread most of the time.(still browsin thru 200 pages!)

NOw the wait...

-Allan