A massive thanks!

Got a Syma X5C-1 quad and it was immediately obvious I was no natural flyer and required a LOT of practice before I would be allowed to fly in the kitchen again (one irreplaceable hand made wine glass my Mrs got many many years ago became a victim of my poor flying control)

I had a real good look around and did my research - I needed a sim to practice on and a controller

After much searching I spotted this forum, noticed how inexpensive the Devo 7E was for the features it /could/ achieve
Also bought a cheap Phoenix dongle

After larking around on Phoenix I realized flying helis was hard, MUCH harder than my coaxial ...but good rewarding fun...and kind of addictive
... so I got a V911 (which blew my IR coaxial chopper away!) and had the side effect of making the Syma feel like it was unbelivably easy and docile and slow to fly

Got the extra TX boards on order with Bang good for the V911 and Syma...seems it going to be a long wait, but worth it

I did the shorting of the diode (heartstopping moment when the diode came away attached to the tip of the iron!...point of no return once wiped off on the damp sponge)
Luckily managed to dab a thin wire across the pads with the aid of good lighting and a loupe

So whilst I was "in there" I did the 3x2 switch mod

Today a 2nd hand Blade mcpx arrived, and after a lot more reading I had it in the air...and hovering !

I didn't get too far away from the chopper - but I assume that because I DID have (relative!) control I didn't break anything when I did the range mod?

Had a few crashes/over corrective moments and did a bit of fiddling with expo and rates (more reading on here!)

Landing gear to body pin pinged off and there seems to be a fair bit of play in the swash plate (not sure how much is acceptable, but for the sake of £5 its being replaced ... it was already missing one ball when I got it)
Parts are on order and hopefully here for weekend!

Anyway....if it wasn't for this forum and the copious amounts of info and everyone's kind generosity at sharing the info and diagrams NONE of this would have been possible

Thanks once again
Made it VERY easy for me!

Regards
Rob