rrTV-PHOTO   New HD TV
HOME   rrTV-PHOTO   GALLERIES   MY GALLERY   HELP-FAQ
myHOME PM pmRR MEMBERS 702 ONLINE 44 EVENTS SEARCH REGISTER  START HERE
 
2 pages [ <<    <     1     ( 2 )    >    >> ]5185 viewsPOST REPLY
HeliProz . Ron’s HeliProz South . Century Helicopter

.
.
e-Ark X-400 - MX400 > x400 tail blade shoot out
 
 
littlepiston
Senior Heliman
Location: Carlsbad, New Mexico

i second that dtm360

3 kits sold it crashed just enough to buy hs 56's for my new xl and its a great heli so far
07-02-2005 Over year old.
 
 
robertraptor
Heliman
Location: malaysia

i go to xl. anyone looking for x400 contact me, i can give special offer.
07-02-2005 Over year old.
 
 
/\/ew2He//i
Heliman
Location: PA

I am pIanning on purchasing an electric heli soon. I have been researching alot of helis (including the t-rex and the x400) for the past couple of months and i have been leaning towards the x400. Now, with all of this talk about tail rotor blades flyin off and injuring some people i dont know if i should go with the x400.
Basicly, my main question is if i get some other tail rotor blades for my x400 (such as trex blades or some carbon fiber ones) and the cnc tail case ( becuase from reading this i understand that the tail case becoming loose caused the blades to become unstable)the x400 will be descent enough, right?

Thank you.
07-03-2005 Over year old.
 
 
Swashplate
Key Veteran
Location: UK

/Vew2He//i
Yep you are right. a longer set of screws would do the job with different tail blades.
07-03-2005 Over year old.
 
 
MA Boy
Senior Heliman
Location: London

Quote 
and the cnc tail case ( becuase from reading this i understand that the tail case becoming loose caused the blades to become unstable)


There is no need to buy the cnc tail case, the stock plastic tail case does fine. My tail case in the beginning was loose and twisted on the boom, I just added a layer of electrical tape around the boom then placed the tail case over it,now my tail case tightens up nicely and will not twist on on the boom (even with force).

All that is needed is trex tail blades which cost a few bucks.

MA enthusiast
07-03-2005 Over year old.
 
 
/\/ew2He//i
Heliman
Location: PA

thanks rame and ma boy. its nice to see some people supporting the x400 in this "deadly tail rotor" topic.

i think i will still get the cnc tail case in part becuase it is a little more solid and in part becasue it is cool looking. bling is always good even if it adds a little weight lol.

as for the tail rotor blades, do u think the carbon fiber tail blades for the x400 and the t-rex are ok or should i just get plane old t-rex blades?

this forum is very helpfull. thanks again.
07-03-2005 Over year old.
 
 
MA Boy
Senior Heliman
Location: London

Quote 
i think i will still get the cnc tail case in part becuase it is a little more solid and in part becasue it is cool looking


I agree totally.

Quote 
as for the tail rotor blades, do u think the carbon fiber tail blades for the x400 and the t-rex are ok or should i just get plane old t-rex blades?


Whatever takes your fancy, there is no difference in the tail blades accept for apperance. I went with the new "yellow" trex xl tail blades.

MA enthusiast
07-03-2005 Over year old.
 
 
Swashplate
Key Veteran
Location: UK

As a matter of fact, personally, i havent had a misfourtune of tail blades giving way, I am still using them. But if i were to change, i would go for the TRex one. Ofcourse, CF would be better

I second what MABoy says regarding the CNC tail gear case. There would absolutely no need for that, If you improvise if necessary. My tailgear case is still holding fine. If atall it starts slipping, i would use longer nuts + bolts for the tail gear case instead on just nuts or tape mod as suggested by MABoy.
07-03-2005 Over year old.
 
 
petey
Heliman
Location: Kitchener, ON - Canada

Quote 
Whatever takes your fancy, there is no difference in the tail blades accept for apperance.


Other then visual there is a big difference. The simple fact is whoever molded this big ass bunch of blades for the x400 was having a bad monday or something, its a bad batch of molded plastic (made to brittle) nothing more or less.

My experience with the machine is almost all positive but I will conceed that if its White and Plastic on the x400 its crap and should be replaced including tail blades, and landy gear struts. I certaintly wouldnt dump the x400 from the fleet because of a bad tailblade it flys too good for that, espectially when 5 bucks replaces em with better molded blades.

not that it makes things better for people that have had them fail or been "Impaled" with flying rotor parts =( For the record I actually broke my tail blade before ever running it up and switched to rexs after finding threds like this one hehehe.


just my 2 cents
07-21-2005 Over year old.
 
 
Swashplate
Key Veteran
Location: UK

My tail blades were probably moulded on a friday afternoon when the guy was happy thinking about which pub he should be spending the evening. Hasnt shown signs of any weakening after about 50 flights
07-21-2005 Over year old.
 
 
MA Boy
Senior Heliman
Location: London

edited.

MA enthusiast
07-22-2005 Over year old.
 
 
slybynight
Heliman
Location: London

Stories like this scared the hell out of me, so I bought some ARK CF tail blades. BEWARE - they are slightly larger than the white blades. After a lot of fiddling and research, I found out that this effectively means that you have to turn down the gain on your gyro in order to prevent tail wagging. Reducing the gain means it feels less "locked in" and you have to control it more. This is the downoside of a larger rear disk. The plus side is that you have a more powerfull tail for those Balls out Hardcore 3d manouvers (apparently) - but this is not much use to lil ol me trying to hover side in !!
11-21-2005 Over year old.
 
 
jh4db536
Senior Heliman
Location: Monterey Park, California

i bought my x400 when it first came out. Fortunately i did my homework on the 1st review of this heli kit - i had trex blades on before maiden and remounted/tiewrapped the landing gear.

ark already addressed the problem with white plastics in the X400 'improved version'. new maingears, new landing gear, and pretty much all white plastic (there's not much of it on the x400 anyway)

i remember reading a technical note concerning the manufacturing process. ARK's intent backfired - they wanted to harden the plastic by sucking all the moisture out of it during molding. This in turn made it brittle so it was prone to cracking when a mounting screw was wedged through it. they said boiling the white plastics long enough could make them flight worthy and i have yet to try this.

anyhow those new improved kits have been out for months now. i dont know how many of the old kits are still circulating in inventory, etc. this problem is WELL known as far as forums go - unlucky consumers who had to learn this the hard way get to complain in here.

Fix = replace them with trex blades or aftermarket ones.

im still using the original version 1.0 landing gear on my x400 not even boiled. it's been through 1 major wreck and many minor accidents. dont even remember how much flight time i have on it.
11-21-2005 Over year old.
 
 
bugsb
Veteran
Location: rothwell//northants UK

this has been a problem for some time
WARNING do not use the blades that came with the kit
get the trex blades

also WARNING head block very weak can break at any time
i have seen it once but heard of it many times

ron
11-24-2005 Over year old.
 
 
ARMSMASTER
Veteran
Location: spokane, wa

I have one of the Helimax MX400's. I have two actual flights on it with no problems with the tail blades. I also have ran it up about eight or nine time just during the set up process with no problems. My third flight on the heli I was setting up my idle up mode and caught a skid on the grass. The heli listed and I tipped a main blade. The whole head blew apart. One of the tail blade grips blew apart also. The main blades did not even get scratched. The spindle was not even bent, just every part on the head broke. The main block has been broken twice now. I have ordered the metal one for now. During my initial set up I did have the tail blade grips come loose. My fault; as I did not lock tite them before initial run up. Perhaps they just had some bad production runs on the tail blades.

Caution or the Earth will Swallow you Up!
11-25-2005 Over year old.
 
 
2 pages [ <<    <     1     ( 2 )    >    >> ]5185 viewsPOST REPLY
RC-Direct . MTA Hobbies . MRC/Altech Marketing USA

.
.
e-Ark X-400 - MX400 > x400 tail blade shoot out
  UPDATE SCREEN   PRINT TOPIC Advertisers 

Subscribe to This Topic

Sunday, July 6 - 9:54 pm - Copyright © 2000 - 2008 runryder.com | email | link to rr | runryder needs cookie