New Heli and First Mods

[HPIguy]

I have a sickness, and the only cure is MORE HELIS!

It's no big secret that I've been waiting on this one though, picked it up yesterday.

The new Blade 130x, shaft driven variable pitch tail just like the 450, in a 130 sized package. Brushless out of the box also, with the AS3X flybarless system that I love so much, only this time, you can adjust the gains for the system on all three axis. For anyone thinking about one, it's not without it's teething issues being new, and as such I tore it down (as you really should with any RTF or BNF collective pitch model anyway) and went through it before I did anything.

Here are the issues I've had so far;

1. A gear was rubbing the FET on the front servo (easy fix)
2. TT (torque tube) was seated too far in leaving improper mesh between A and B gears
3. Had to loc tite retaining screws on feathering shaft and tail grips
4. Installed silicone O rings on all linkages and blade grips to remove slop (common on plastic micro stuff)
5. Leveled the swash and set 0 pitch at mid stick

I still have a nasty vibration in the tail so I haven't flown it, I'm going to try and dynamically balance it tonight. The tail case bearings on these are known to be crap, and I have better bearings on the way. There have also been many instances of the tail shaft itself not being true, and I forgot to check that last night.

I have to say, I'm proud of myself for having the patience to do all of this rather than just take it out of the box and go play. Ten years ago, there's no way I could have resisted. But, like I always say, it took helis to tech me that patience and perseverance pays off big time in the end. Setup is everything.

On to the pics (sorry for the quality, my camera died right as I went to take these so I took these with my phone. Literally died, not just battery.)

30 minutes after I got it

Tail assembly next to a bic lighter for size reference

See that little O ring? Those go on the tail linkages

All done for the tail

Adjusting gear mesh for the TT

Glued the C gear with a tiny drop of CA to prevent it slipping or getting lost in a crash

Main rotor head is done too

All done

 

[tmaxxfreek]

Nice, whats the price range of these?

 

[HPIguy]

They retail for $279

 

[Mn Monster]

another bird? you need to get help !!!! lol ! rotor addiction is not covered by any insurance plan....so i guess you better just keep going !!!! nice bird !!!!!

 

[HPIguy]

^^ Thanks

Well, it looks like it's not my week for rotary winged aircraft. My 130x is a dud, and is going to have to go back to HH to be warrantied. It loses bind with my TX, and the tail has so many vibes that it's not even flyable when it does bind. Oh well, I knew they had issues as I stated initially, and that I was beta testing for them.

 

[Rolex]

another bird? you need to get help !!!!

The only help is another one to keep you distracted.

Keep us posted on the new one.

 

[HPIguy]

^^Ha ha, so true Rolex.

Added a couple more mods, and have one or two more on the way.

Well it turns out my bird had a bad 3 in 1, but HH has awesome support as always, and luckily my warranty parts were here in time for the weekly club fly yesterday. I also had to replace the tail case bearings as they're junk and were causing my tail vibes (lots of this going around over at HF, it's a common issue). Got it all back together Saturday night, and got up bright and early before it got hot and headed to the field. First pack lasted all of 30 seconds, and the heli just didn't "feel" right, and it went in the dirt (inverted in idle up BTW), and lost the C gear (it was glued BTW). So I flew a plank for the first time today, and even landed it successfully!

Came home, and I was putting away my stuff I noticed all the switches on my radio were all weird. I had carried it out in a small duffel with the heli, and never thought to check them. DOH! I'll be checking that from now on out for safety reasons with bigger helis.

So, I replaced the C gear, glued a tail grip that had a tiny crack in it and went back out Sunday evening. I flew three packs back to back to back, and man what fun I had with this thing! Don't get me wrong, I still don't think it's right that we have to spend more money to make it right, but dang what a great little bird this thing is. I do get some slight porpoising in FFF if I'm flat out with the performance blades, but nothing I can't live with. I was also shocked at how fast it was, our runway is 250' and I can cover that at an astonishing pace for a micro heli. Rumor has it 50mph + coming out of a dive. I need to turn down the tail gain a bit, maybe -2 to start as I have just a bit of wag, but other than that it flew flawlessly.

Seriously, I freaking LOVE this thing!!! It's just big enough to fly really fast big air stuff, huge stall turns, 100' tail slides, etc; yet at the same time it flies like a much bigger bird so flips, rolls and inverted hovering are rock solid stable, barely moved in 8-10mph winds. It's tough and durable, stable as can be, fast, and fun; what more could I ask for? (other than better QC ) Now, I need more packs ASAP. I freaking love this thing, I think it's my favorite heli now!

PS: I'll get some video from the club on Sunday for you guys

I added the lime green performance main and tail blades, and a heat sink for the motor.

 

[HPIguy]

Just thought I'd throw out an update. I haven't gotten more than three or four packs in a row yet due to part failures of some sort, and Monday will be four weeks of ownership. The QC on these things is abysmal to say the least. It flies great when it flies, but I'd wait for a V2 if I had it to do over again.

This was the 6th pack, tail case bearing

And halfway through the 10th pack, the tail servo quit completely

 

[Rolex]

It's WAY too tiny for me to see. I have a few micros for indoors, but I wouldn't try something that small outside.

 

[HPIguy]

It's WAY too tiny for me to see. I have a few micros for indoors, but I wouldn't try something that small outside.

Yeah, I can understand that Rolex. I can actually see it pretty well a long ways out, the bright green helps with that, and it does fly much bigger than it is. I think its roughly 13" nose to tail. The big appeal to me is the variable pitch TT driven tail just like my bigger birds, so that I finally can have a micro 3D heli that the tail doesn't blow out on in hard moves. Plus, it should be pretty durable at this size and weight, and it's simple to work on so in theory it would be a great heli to learn new moves on.

Now if I can just get the parts to hold together. I don't mind crashing if it's my fault, it's part of it, but crappy QC ending your day for what these things cost is just unacceptable in my opinion.

 

[ksrichard]

I'm new at helis have mcx, 2 mcx2 both junk in my opinion. 2 120sr.
nice heli. and 130x. very hard to fly. 7sec in flight broke vertical fin

 

[HPIguy]

I'm new at helis have mcx, 2 mcx2 both junk in my opinion. 2 120sr.
nice heli. and 130x. very hard to fly. 7sec in flight broke vertical fin

The MCX's were great birds to teach orientation IMHO. The SR 120 is a great fixed pitch outdoor bird as well. But there is a BIG leap from the SR 120 to this in terms of knowing how to setup a heli. I've been doning helis for a while now, and more than once I've wanted to set this thing on fire. They have lots of issues out of the box. Have you been over to helifreak.com and done all the recommended fixes before flying your 130x? I highly recommend it, as it won't hold together very long if not.