I have experienced for 14 years with Horizon.
Most related to Sailplane gear transmitters and the like.
New to me are the helis.
I have my host of issues starting with a MCPX, 130x 300x and 450x.
Horizon has done me well in every case.

Recently I botched a landing at our field with my 300x and had a blade strike in the grass alongside the runway.

Result was a stripped servo gear and a stripped main gear I replaced the feathering shaft and main shaft for good measure.
I replaced them with new and in doing so, removed the ball link's to the blade grips (aka unscrewing them)..upon reinstalling these same grips I find the ball link mount to the plastic to be loose or stripped on one grip Not a fan of ca to tighten the stripped threads so I buy another set of plastic oem blade grips ...Newbie mistake according to my teacher Edit yes I have ball link pliers and will use them into the future...:0

Rant begin's here:
The old blade grip bearings would not remove from the stock blade grips so back to LHS new bearing set $16.00 and discover a BLH4502A Aluminum Grip set from Blade they have the bearings for $29.99 I buy them instead...After installing and trying them I learned a lesson on Symmetrical vs Asymmetrical.
Well the stock Blade grips are Asymmetrical which makes them fool proof for rookies such as myself and these BLH4502A are Symmetrical......Not a word of warning or in fact instructions for installing these?
GET IT WRONG or a %50 percent chance of failure and your spinning your blades into the wrong direction!

I GOT IT WRONG!

The result was a stripped servo, stripped main, gear bent main shaft/feathering spindle and hacked up my pristene OEM carbon blades and broken BLH4502A Blade grips and lost time on the process

Lesson learned on Blade grips and thought I might share to keep others from blundering as I did.

I will contact horizon and tell them of my problems and I feel they need to redesign this part or at least put directions in the package....DOH!

Happy none was hurt only my pride :0


Happy flying.

Alan

Originally Posted by Terminator

I have experienced for 14 years with Horizon.
Most related to Sailplane gear transmitters and the like.
New to me are the helis.
I have my host of issues starting with a MCPX, 130x 300x and 450x.
Horizon has done me well in every case.

Recently I botched a landing at our field with my 300x and had a blade strike in the grass alongside the runway.

Result was a stripped servo gear and a stripped main gear I replaced the feathering shaft and main shaft for good measure.
I replaced them with new and in doing so, removed the ball link's to the blade grips (aka unscrewing them)..upon reinstalling these same grips I find the ball link mount to the plastic to be loose or stripped on one grip Not a fan of ca to tighten the stripped threads so I buy another set of plastic oem blade grips ...Newbie mistake according to my teacher Edit yes I have ball link pliers and will use them into the future...:0

Rant begin's here:
The old blade grip bearings would not remove from the stock blade grips so back to LHS new bearing set $16.00 and discover a BLH4502A Aluminum Grip set from Blade they have the bearings for $29.99 I buy them instead...After installing and trying them I learned a lesson on Symmetrical vs Asymmetrical.
Well the stock Blade grips are Asymmetrical which makes them fool proof for rookies such as myself and these BLH4502A are Symmetrical......Not a word of warning or in fact instructions for installing these?
GET IT WRONG or a %50 percent chance of failure and your spinning your blades into the wrong direction!

I GOT IT WRONG!

The result was a stripped servo, stripped main, gear bent main shaft/feathering spindle and hacked up my pristene OEM carbon blades and broken BLH4502A Blade grips and lost time on the process

Lesson learned on Blade grips and thought I might share to keep others from blundering as I did.

I will contact horizon and tell them of my problems and I feel they need to redesign this part or at least put directions in the package....DOH!

Happy none was hurt only my pride :0


Happy flying.

Alan

Sorry to hear that but, thanks for the headsup on the blade grips. Unfortunately, sometimes we learn the hard way.

Alan

Do you mean that the grips being asymmetrical can be installed backwards with the blade trailing edge facing forward (like if you install the blades the wrong way around in the stock plastic grips)?


Just trying to understand the issue so I don't muck up if I go Al.

Cheers

Stephen

Me too, how can blade grips have symmetry? I think the blades were just installed with leading/trailing edges reveresed.

Originally Posted by stevebarrow

Alan

Do you mean that the grips being asymmetrical can be installed backwards with the blade trailing edge facing forward (like if you install the blades the wrong way around in the stock plastic grips)?


Just trying to understand the issue so I don't muck up if I go Al.

Cheers

Stephen

Stephen
What I meant was the BLH4502A Aluminum Grip can be installed in either direction which reverses the direction of the lever arms which controls throws on the swash. reverse the lever arms and you reverse the swash travel.

The stock plastic Blade grips can be only installed in the correct orientation or Asymmetrical in design for good reason as the head of the allen bolt will be on the top and the holding nut in it's holder on the bottom. Also indexing the position of the lever arms.

The Aluminum BLH4502A has no such Asymmetrical design and can be reversed which in doing so reverses the lever arms reversing those changes the direction of the swash... symmetrical in design without a nut holder just a hole which gives you a 50% chance of failure not good % for success.

....in answer to your question with either blade grip style you could put the blades on backwards.That was not the problem here. The leading edges were facing the right direction or travel.

Good news is noone was injured and I kept it close to the tarmac problem being I could not hit throttle hold fast enough and it was in idle up 1 which was a train wreck.

Hopefully Horzon will help me out here.
Another observation is the lever arms are one piece with the blade grips and not replaceable on the blade grip...another oversight.


ALan

Thanks Alan that clears it up.

Most metal blade grips are going to be like that because they are machined. Plastic is molded so it's not hard for them to put the Nut holders in.

Reversing the grips is a common "learning experience"... I have learned that as well, and now I always make note of parts (or pictures) when removing parts.

There is an exploded view of the parts in the manual, but it's not the best as far as instructions on building the head.

Originally Posted by stevebarrow

Thanks Alan that clears it up.

Good deal.

I called Horizon Hobby today and told my tale. With a enhanced lesson in blade grip installation, a new list of OEM parts coming from Horizon I am ready to rebuild and light that 300x up.


Alan

Hey guys, I just wanted to let those of you who might be looking at good, cheap alternative servos, I found some great ones.

They are the Solar D654. They are $8.50 a pop and are metal geared

I have used them for awhile now and can say from my experience, they are solid, handle well, and can take a crash MUCH better than the stockers!

The specs are tiny bit slower/lower than stock, but nothing you can't make up for by adjusting D/R, expo, etc... They are a little heavier, but I personally cant tell a difference in flight.

There are a couple things that you need to do however before installing. One, is that that come with a little foam part on the inside bottom of the servo. You should loosen the back/bottom of the servo and move this to be underneath the motor, as the motor has been known to slip a little . I did this before mounting and have had zero problems. Also note that to fit this into the elevator slot, you have to either put shims on the servo mount, or cut a little bit of the frame (between the swashplate area and the motor area... but not much. I would not recommend this if you dont have some sort of brace, like from Astroid-Designs. But if you do have a brace, it makes no difference as the brace is WAY stronger than that part of the frame anyway!! And because they are just slightly bigger than stock, when you mount them in the rear aileron slots, they fit nice and tight, no need/room for shims back there

Here's the link:
http://hobbypartz.ecommerce-site-sea...bypartz.com%2F

Check that the canopy isn't binding the control links.. Was happening on mine, crashed once because of it.

After learning the Beast X controller on my 450x, I found out that I have been flying my 300x in Extreme Mode since I purchased it.

Weird, I always thought it was a bit touchy. Mine came with "Extreme" as default

There were also a few other settings that were not default. Blade pitch was way off as well.


Can't wait to fly it today after a thorough setup.

Originally Posted by mixfisto

Hey guys, I just wanted to let those of you who might be looking at good, cheap alternative servos, I found some great ones.

They are the Solar D654. They are $8.50 a pop and are metal geared

I have used them for awhile now and can say from my experience, they are solid, handle well, and can take a crash MUCH better than the stockers!

The specs are tiny bit slower/lower than stock, but nothing you can't make up for by adjusting D/R, expo, etc... They are a little heavier, but I personally cant tell a difference in flight.

There are a couple things that you need to do however before installing. One, is that that come with a little foam part on the inside bottom of the servo. You should loosen the back/bottom of the servo and move this to be underneath the motor, as the motor has been known to slip a little . I did this before mounting and have had zero problems. Also note that to fit this into the elevator slot, you have to either put shims on the servo mount, or cut a little bit of the frame (between the swashplate area and the motor area... but not much. I would not recommend this if you dont have some sort of brace, like from Astroid-Designs. But if you do have a brace, it makes no difference as the brace is WAY stronger than that part of the frame anyway!! And because they are just slightly bigger than stock, when you mount them in the rear aileron slots, they fit nice and tight, no need/room for shims back there

Here's the link:
http://hobbypartz.ecommerce-site-sea...bypartz.com%2F

Great post! Thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by lkagan

Has anyone tried a 10t pinion yet?

Guys, get the 10t pinion! I can't believe what a change it has made in this bird! It flies a whole lot more like my 450X and I LOVE that heli.

The higher head speed makes it more stable in hover and aerobatics. There's a huge difference in collective. Pitch pumps will make this thing rocket up and down. During a set of aileron tic-tocs, there used to be considerable bogging of the head, now there's barely any.

There's no detectable temperature change (without tools) in the battery, esc or motor. Everything is still luke warm after flight just like with the stock 9t pinion. I'm still getting 5 minute flight times of moderate 3D with room to spare.

They really should have included this in the stock configuration.

FYI: Only use the 10t pinion with carbon fiber blades.

Hope this helps a few of you enjoy this bird even more.

Here's a link to the pinion. It says Blade 400 & 450 but it's the same size motor shaft as the 300X.

Larry

Originally Posted by lkagan

Guys, get the 10t pinion! I can't believe what a change it has made in this bird! It flies a whole lot more like my 450X and I LOVE that heli.

The higher head speed makes it more stable in hover and aerobatics. There's a huge difference in collective. Pitch pumps will make this thing rocket up and down. During a set of aileron tic-tocs, there used to be considerable bogging of the head, now there's barely any.

There's no detectable temperature change (without tools) in the battery, esc or motor. Everything is still luke warm after flight just like with the stock 9t pinion. I'm still getting 5 minute flight times of moderate 3D with room to spare.

They really should have included this in the stock configuration.

FYI: Only use the 10t pinion with carbon fiber blades.

Hope this helps a few of you enjoy this bird even more.

Larry

Which 10T pinion fits? Is it on horizons site?

Originally Posted by johnnyrocco123

Which 10T pinion fits? Is it on horizons site?

I added the link to the original post above yours.