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
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
Last edited: