RadioHelicopter.com

Product Description:

The flight experts have done it again. The Blade® CX3 RTF gives pilots unbelievable micro-heli excitement. The CX3 includes a radio system equipped with Spektrum™ 2.4GHz DSM2™ technology in the LP5DSM transmitter and Spektrum AR6100e receiver, providing 5-channel control with interference-free flying. It’s covered with an attractive police trim scheme.

Just like its predecessor, the Blade CX3 offers first-time heli pilots exceptional stability and incredible control through the coaxial, counter-rotating head design and 3-in-1 control unit. In addition, this CX3 also features two feather-light S60 Super Sub-Micro servos that provide full cyclic movement of forward, backward and side-to-side maneuverability. The Blade CX3 also includes a heading lock gyro to provide better control and locked-in performance. As with other co-axial Blade helicopters, no flying experience is required to begin your heli flight with the Blade CX3. This indoor helicopter is 100% factory-assembled, test flown and ready to fly out of the box, no assembly or setup required—and nothing left to buy. The Blade CX3 is the first coaxial heli to incorporate a heading lock gyro, a Spektrum DSM2 2.4GHz radio system and a scale body all in one convenient ready-to-fly package.

Product Details:

• Advanced 3-in-1 control unit including main motor ESCs, mixer and heading lock gyro
• The heading lock gyro in the CX3 offers incredible hold and control to maximize your flight experience.
• Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 10.2 x 8 inches ; 4.8 pounds

The transmitter requires 4 AA batteries and these are also found in the box and take just a few seconds to install.  The transmitter in the RTF (Ready to Fly) model is pre-programmed for the Blade CX3 so once the batteries are installed, most of the hard work is done. The Blade can be flown comfortably indoors in even modest size rooms.  A large area such as a school gym or enclosure will give you enough room. The Blade CX2, and this new one, the CX3 are very stable and very easy to learn.

Torque is the tendency of a force to rotate about an axis. Radio helicopters also have a large rotating mechanism which is called a rotor in this case.

Reactive Torque

The big rotor in a helicopter is creating a lot of reactive torque in the opposite direction. Therefore the helicopter will want to spin in the opposite direction of the rotor. This also means  any change in engine power to the rotor or collective pitch will produce corresponding changes in torque.

There are three ways to deal with this reactive torque:

1. By using a tail rotor which is the most common solution in today’s helicopters. In this situation the force from the tail rotor must match the main rotor to cancel out the reactive torque and preventing the helicopter from spinning.  This movement is called the YAW.
   
2. An alternative way to control yaw is to use a coaxial rotor, because they will spin in opposite directions.

   With electric coaxial rc helicopters this is easy to do with two separate motors when they are spinning at equal speeds. However when trying to control a heli with two rotors and having to change torque between both blades to get movement does require some practice.

3. The least common solution is called NOTAR (No Tail Rotor) and instead uses air pressure to counter act the thrust created by the main rotor. This air pressure is piped down the over sized tail boom and vented out to the sides.