dhc8guru
Senior Heliman
Location: Texas
| I am throwing out my two cents on the Blade CP weak points.
1.Weak landing skid, they have a tendency to brake at the skid to strut connection point.
2. Easy breakage @ left skid strut to frame. the frame boss itself breaks off.
3. I am on tail motor #5. one brush will wear down. I think this is due to using a lipo pack.
4. Inconsistant gyro stability and functionality. My first 4 in 1 unit quit completely and it took returning three units before I got one that functioned somewhat properly. Considering that these are almost half the cost of the Heli itself, you would think the quality would be better than they are.
5. Constant problems with the CP head sticking. This is a known problem as posted on Horizons website and they give tips to correct the problem.
6.Forward flight at highspeeds is almost a joke because the swashplate and servos are to weak to slow the heli down and bring it back into hover for landing, also on the same point if you get to far out of wack correcting for a bad input during hover maneuvers you'll run into the same problem of excessive swashplate flex that cannot reverse excessive control inputs. Basically the Heli can put itself into a bad situation but it cannot pull itself out of it,
I am not dogging the Blade, it is fun to play with and overall a cool helicopter. If you are new to Helicopters and are using it to learn on, saddle up for some bucks in repairs, because they add up. Expect to shell out another $100 in repairs just to learn to hover this Heli. I have another $250 in repairs and replacements in about twenty hours of flight time, This included buying another ARF kit just because it figured up cheaper than piecing parts for repairs. If you don't go crazy and try doing aerobatic flight in it, you may keep your repair bills down considerably.
I quit flying my Blade because of two many annoying problems that cause crashes and add to the repair bills. My latest problem is, while holding a stable three foot hover, the blade will go full positive pitch for no reason and take off upwards like a homesick angel.
Some extra advice, don't use a Lipo battery pack, I think most of the my problems electrically are do to this. I followed Horizons directions to a T for Lipo usage, heat sinks, pinion motor change etc... The one thing I have noticed is the 4-1 unit gets alot hotter using a Lipo over the NIMH battery and causes it to glitch . My friend who also has a Blade does not use Lipos packs and has never had any electrical problems.
Horizon could do several things to this Heli to exhance its durability and hopefully they will because they have a great micro heli that just needs some tweaking and some quality control.
I moved onto a Mikado Logo 10 that has excellent quality and I have not had anything break because of quality control issues. After coming off the Blade which is touchy to fly, the Logo 10 seems to practically fly itself.
Happy Flying! |
