RedGage

Hello everyone. Robert here...Had some free time, so I decided to attempt my first "blog".  I'm not here to "compete" with anyone nor am I an expert by any means, I'm just here to share my knowledge, what ever little bit that may be, in hopes that someone out there might find it useful enough to warrant getting into the hobby. I'm in the hobby for fun, and for the love of the world of R/C. I'm married, in my early 30's, no kids, live in sunny South Florida, been into r/c surface models for 20+ years, just started with the "airborn" models about a year ago.... ok ok...enough about me...onto the fun stuff!!!


Brand new from Thunder Tiger.. The Innovator MD530!!


From what I can tell, the MD530 is the perfect platform for the switch from co-axial(Tandem Counter-rotating blades) helicopters to CCPM(Collective Cyclic Pitch Movement) heli's. First off, here are some of the stats of the new heli....

Full Length of Fuselage: 650mm/25.6in
Full width of Fuselage: 135mm/5.3in
Total Height: 265mm/10.4
Main Rotor Diameter: 712mm/28.0in
Tail Rotor Diameter: 150mm/5.9in
Gear Ratio: 1:1 : 4:95
Full equip weight: 840g/29.6oz/1.85lbs
Rotor Blade: Foam Blade
Stabilizer: STD Version
Motor: 3700KV
Battery: 3S1P 1800mAh / 15C
Speed Control: 35A


Now onto to the stuff that matters... I personally have not flown very many rc helicopters, so my comparison will be based off the units I've personally used, which are the E-Flite Blade CX2, E-Flite Blade 400 3D, Walkera Dragonfly #60, Blade CP Pro. I, unfortunately, started with the Walkera, not knowing anything about co-axials. Needless to say, the walkera is still sitting in the garage. It's been in the air once. 5 inches off the ground, tiped to the right, blamo go the blades, and some other small plastic parts for the head.. I was then introduced to co-axials. I've had all the models in the E-Flite CX series. After modding my cx2 for better performance, I flew the crap out of it till I mastered it. Once I did, I felt it was time to move into a CCPM heli. I decided on the Blade 400 rather than getting the walkera back up and running. I made a training gear kit for the 400 and off I went. Started with the basics... hovering, side to side, blah blah...the "norm".. It was tricky, and yes, there were quite a few "mishaps", but I finally got the hang of it. I'm now able to "scale" fly the heli. I know the 3D stick movements from using the simulators, but I haven't tried anything on a real model yet.

Upon opening the box, I was somewhat dissaapointed with the packaging. 2 molded hard cardboard halves with 1 small piece of foam for the transmitter. Neither the battery, transmitter or the helicopter had any form of shock proofing in the box. I then found a folded peice of paper in the small plastic bag which read: Quick- Setup Procedure ...hahah nothing "quick" about that guide....

The transmitter is a basic 6 channel 2.4Ghz transmitter. Runs on 8 AA batteries, or a rechargable pack offered by T.T. The MD530 must be used with it's own transmitter...unfortunately... It's tied into the programming in the helicopter. The sticks feel like they have more tension than the Spektrum DX6i, and the E-Flite CX series transmitter. The on/off switch could have been designed better. Press it, radio turns on, hold it down till the radio turns off. It does off an auto shut off though, after I believe 2-3 minutes of no stick movements, it will shut off.. The helicopter has a similar feature.. You're guess is as good as mine whether the heli will be available in a BNF version.

Once you fully understand how to setup the helicopter, the entire process is "Quick". Unfortunately, the guide is somewhat confusing, esp when it comes to the LED and Buzzer. I've made two VERY amateur videos of the entire "auto set-up feature", and the "starting procedure".. Links are below... Please forgive me...they are made with an old camera and my shaky hand.

After messing around with the first unit I got for less than 24 hours, I found it to be defective. A problem with the sensor in the helicopter. I exchanged it for the last model they had at my local hobbyshop. I've now flown 15 full battery packs without a single issue. During this process, I found out, the battery has to always been near fully charged for the helicopter to "start". I noticed, after hovering in the store for 45 secs, if I remove the battery and try again 5 minutes later, the helicopter will not start, and I'll get a very annoying error LED and buzzer. Always make sure your battery is topped off before each and every flight.

When I first powered up the helicopter, the very first thing I noticed was the lower rotor head speed. Which immediately threw me off, being used to the speed of the Blade 400. I raised the throttle trim, started to move the collective up and just like my cx2, it lifted straight off the ground and hovered 4' off the ground with no right stick input from me. Granted, this was in the back room of the hobbyshop, which has no wind. As soon as the blade wash hit the heli, it started moving to the side. I gave it a little opposite aileron and back to hover.. Apparently, the stabilizer on the MD530 works mainly for the elevator control, where you push the elevator stick forward and release it quickly and the heli will go back to level flight. The aileron stabilizer isn't as sensitive. The heading lock gyro works flawlessly, and it's been well tested....in winds up to 13mph. It's this hovering "assistance" that makes the MD530 anything like a co-axial. As far as normal level flight, the MD530 is like any other CCPM helicopter, only much smoother... The system comes preset with two flying modes. Indoor(1500rpm) and Outdoor(1800rpm). On indoor mode, the dual rates and expos are set extremely low, the helicopter feels very sluggish and unresponsive. Outdoor mode sets the dual rates and expos quite a bit higher. I've been able to demonstrate the helicopter inside the store on outdoor mode. The movements of the helicopter are no where near as fast as the Blade 400.

This past sunday was my unit's maiden outdoor flight....with altitude and speed I mean... I was very pleasantly surprised. This thing handles like a dream... And man does it look nice flying around. It's very easy to fly this machine. I flew it with about 4-5mph winds and had no issues. It's a very forgiving helicopter... Pirouettes are not an issue to the helicopter either. Now remember, this bird will not fly as fast or move as fast as some of the main 450 size helis on the market. It will however move around quite quickly so don't get me wrong and think it's as slow as a co-axial. At this point, I only wish I would have gotten the MD530 before I purchased the Blade 400. I'm not sorry I bought the Blade 400, I just wasn't ready for it.

I honestly believe this helicopter is going to do exactly what it's supposed to do.... get more people flying.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post. As I said, I'm no expert, but I'll do my very best to answer any questions anyone has. 

Hope to hear from ya!!