Originally Posted by sertav

How heavy are those Trex 250 skids? The 130 X could already use a bit more power as it is and those have to be heavier than stock.

Not sure. I've seen other people say about five grams heavier than stock. Not really a big concern. I'm flying with 300mah 30 and 35 C batts, and I can still zip around just fine. My batteres are lighter than stock by a gram or two, so maybe a net gain of 3 grams. Stock, the 130x is 107 grams, so we're looking at less than a 5% increase in weight. Also, I only used the four screws to hold them to the frame, so I saved a little weight there. The rubber grommets hole the aluminum skids in place. Honestly, I don't notice any difference.

Of course, if you are going for hardcore, seizure-inducing 3D, maybe you wouldn't want to put them on, but I don't fly that style, so no worries on my part.

Originally Posted by liduno

You're both grumpy..lol

YEP. At least sometimes.

Originally Posted by indoorheli

So far it seems walkeras quality has been the same as Blade (some areas better) just a year or so earlier on release... Luckily they still have stellar support by HH though and is why I still might pick one up this week even with all the issues i have read

I was referring to the comment about the Boca bearings. I wasn't talking about Eflite vs. Walkera helis. Unfortunately, both birds are made in China anyway. But HH's excellent customer support wins my business.

Originally Posted by racie34

while your beating your chest,and before you run outta hard earned us dollars.....run down and get a radio too and anything else you may need to get in the air......let us know what you are able to buy from american companies so we'll know.

Remember - someone insinuated that there is something wrong with buying high-quality Boca bearings for this bird. I did not criticize anyone for their choices. So, why are you criticizing me for mine?

You make it sound as if there's actually something wrong with preferring quality things & buying local, when possible.

There is surely nothing wrong with wanting high-quality stuff - and supporting local business when possible is an excellent thing to do. I like solid, well-engineered products from companies with strong customer support, who still reward their engineers for making things better than 'just good enough to get by'. I like real wood cabinets, doors, and floors. I strongly believe that outsourcing & endless cost-cutting is the root-cause of many problems over here. I hate buying stuff that doesn't last. So I vote with my paycheck. I try to buy as much of what I need for daily living as I can from locally-owned companies. I try to shop at businesses that are known for treating their workers well & providing good benefit plans. I support my local hobby shops. I have an American-made lawnmower and snow-blower - both made by family-owned, private businesses. I don't buy Chinese radios. I don't buy Chinese stereo or video gear. And I don't buy Chinese replacement parts for my cars, either. Experience has taught me that there is usually a large difference in quality & longevity between "bargain" parts & the good stuff. At the office, I make a point to buy what we need for our R&D work from Minnesota companies first, and US companies second.

There is certainly nothing at all wrong with that.

Joel

Originally Posted by rikybob

Hiya NwRcFlight!
It's a shame that this little devil is coming out with so many design flaws because I want one so bad I can taste it!
I appreciate that H/H stands behind their goodies but because H/H doesn't constantly command QC from their products you end up with this situation.
b

My 130X developed bad tail vib on the second flight, (purchased week after release date).
3rd flight, it looked like that it will self destruct. It's been with HH for "repair" to this date. While waiting for it to be fixed, got the 300X , which is a true BNF out of the box.
But I really like the size of the 130X just like you. So I just clicked my mouse and got this newly released 120 size version2, others call it version 3, from Walkera. Great feedback from RCGrp V1,V2 owners. Pretty solid from what I heard. Not hi-jacking, just want to share this heli.
while waiting for my 130X back from HH.
ALL my helis (6) are eFlites, 1 Multiplex. This is my first (walkera) "non-local" company made heli I'd own, just because the 130X had failed my expectation, and really want the size.
No offense to anyone, purely hobby & fun...
- http://www.ehirobo.com/shop/product_...ducts_id=11969
- thread
-Spyro

Originally Posted by liduno

Thread some dental floss through the C gear before you put it on the TT..

As for stripping frame holes out, the 120 sr main shaft screws are longer than the frame and main shaft screws on the 130.

They hold alot better and they will in most cases reach past the stripped part of the hole made from the shorter screw.

Good advice, Thanks.

A quick update on the KBDD tail blades. They required tape for dynamically balancing the tail blades just like stock blades. That may be due to a HH engineering/manufacturing issue with other parts of the tail. Plus, they rub the shaft screws, they're too long on the inner side of the root. Not a great job by KBDD IMHO. But I'm using them because I ordered the white ones and they look good with the blue/white canopy & skids. Just had to mod them a tiny bit. I wouldn't avoid using them but there's no real benefit.

Originally Posted by turboparker

Remember - someone insinuated that there is something wrong with buying high-quality Boca bearings for this bird. I did not criticize anyone for their choices. So, why are you criticizing me for mine?

That yahoo would probably really criticize me for my Bocas. Aside from the main and tail grips, my entire 130 X has Boca Bearings and it flies great. it's only six bearings. Ain't gonna break the bank...

Originally Posted by Spyro37

My 130X developed bad tail vib on the second flight, (purchased week after release date).
3rd flight, it looked like that it will self destruct. It's been with HH for "repair" to this date. While waiting for it to be fixed, got the 300X , which is a true BNF out of the box.
But I really like the size of the 130X just like you. So I just clicked my mouse and got this newly released 120 size version2, others call it version 3, from Walkera. Great feedback from RCGrp V1,V2 owners. Pretty solid from what I heard. Not hi-jacking, just want to share this heli.
while waiting for my 130X back from HH.
ALL my helis (6) are eFlites, 1 Multiplex. This is my first (walkera) "non-local" company made heli I'd own, just because the 130X had failed my expectation, and really want the size.
No offense to anyone, purely hobby & fun...
- http://www.ehirobo.com/shop/product_...ducts_id=11969
- thread
-Spyro

A lot of our 130 Xs are flying fine and we're having a ball with them. Apparently, you didn't want to put just a bit of effort into the tail. I wouldn't expect HH to make it much better as they'll probably just swap stuff out with other stock parts (namely bearings) up to and including the entire heli and tell you that the horrible spool up tail vibe is "normal", which it isn't. But, since you already own it and when you get it back, take 30 min to fix your tail and you'll have a great flying 120 sized heli. That Walkera looks cool, but many of us don't want yet another brand of TX that doesn't work with anything else. How's parts for that thing? I know my LHS doesn't carry anything Walkera and I can get HH parts in two business days.

Originally Posted by lkagan

A quick update on the KBDD tail blades. They required tape for dynamically balancing the tail blades just like stock blades. That may be due to a HH engineering/manufacturing issue with other parts of the tail. Plus, they rub the shaft screws, they're too long on the inner side of the root. Not a great job by KBDD IMHO. But I'm using them because I ordered the white ones and they look good with the blue/white canopy & skids. Just had to mod them a tiny bit. I wouldn't avoid using them but there's no real benefit.

I agree and found all the same, although I really didn't bother to balance them. With my Boca bearings and the Xtreme Walkera slider as well as all the O-rings and few other things I did, don't have balance vibs even with not balancing the blades.

Just for a few things I noticed though, the blade root at the screw hole seems to be large through out the section, so the blade seems to stay truer when you don't even run them tight.

Also a little plus is at least for the places I saw them at, they are a few cents cheaper.

Originally Posted by sertav

A lot of our 130 Xs are flying fine and we're having a ball with them. Apparently, you didn't want to put just a bit of effort into the tail. I wouldn't expect HH to make it much better as they'll probably just swap stuff out with other stock parts (namely bearings) up to and including the entire heli and tell you that the horrible spool up tail vibe is "normal", which it isn't. But, since you already own it and when you get it back, take 30 min to fix your tail and you'll have a great flying 120 sized heli. That Walkera looks cool, but many of us don't want yet another brand of TX that doesn't work with anything else. How's parts for that thing? I know my LHS doesn't carry anything Walkera and I can get HH parts in two business days.

I did put some effort on it. I have called HH support & spent hours on the phone and followed what they recommended. Cut the story short, I was warned not to do any mods myself or it could void warranty. So I just follow what they asked me to, send it in.
Also, the reason I sent it back for repair, so that HH would realize or make effort to improve the 130X, just like the mCPX1 based on consumer's reviews, complaint.
As soon as I get it back, that's what I'm going to do, make the mods myself, that's why I keep my eyes on this thread as much as I could. Horizon's parts is just 2 min from my house, & supports my LHS as well. My friend works there as well. He could even special order parts for me through his ipad 24/7. His 130X's tail has also been problematic. I love the 130X among all the helis that I now own. And I'm not giving up on it. Like I mentioned, I'll do the mods spend the time & money on it when I get it back.
- Spyro

Originally Posted by Spyro37

I did put some effort on it. I have called HH support & spent hours on the phone and followed what they recommended. Cut the story short, I was warned not to do any mods myself or it could void warranty. So I just follow what they asked me to, send it in.
Also, the reason I sent it back for repair, so that HH would realize or make effort to improve the 130X, just like the mCPX1 based on consumer's reviews, complaint.
As soon as I get it back, that's what I'm going to do, make the mods myself, that's why I keep my eyes on this thread as much as I could. Horizon's parts is just 2 min from my house, & supports my LHS as well. My friend works there as well. He could even special order parts for me through his ipad 24/7. His 130X's tail has also been problematic. I love the 130X among all the helis that I now own. And I'm not giving up on it. Like I mentioned, I'll do the mods spend the time & money on it when I get it back.
- Spyro

I see. You made it sound like you tried to fly it three times and just sent it back. My apologies. This really is a cool little heli. Yes, at the current time, it takes some TLC to get *some* birds flying smoothly. Apparently, there are some 130 Xs out there that flew perfectly out of the box, as people are saying they've had zero trouble with theirs. Whether I believe that or not is another story and "flying perfectly" is a very subjective term. I will not tolerate any vibrations, so someone else's "perfect" may not even be close to mine. After owning two 130 Xs (second one was a keeper), I'm confident I can whip any new vibrating 130 X tail into shape with a set of better bearings, ensuring the tail rotor shaft/hub is square and some scotch tape in 30 min or less.

Originally Posted by Spyro37

I did put some effort on it. I have called HH support & spent hours on the phone and followed what they recommended. Cut the story short, I was warned not to do any mods myself or it could void warranty. So I just follow what they asked me to, send it in.
Also, the reason I sent it back for repair, so that HH would realize or make effort to improve the 130X, just like the mCPX1 based on consumer's reviews, complaint.
As soon as I get it back, that's what I'm going to do, make the mods myself, that's why I keep my eyes on this thread as much as I could. Horizon's parts is just 2 min from my house, & supports my LHS as well. My friend works there as well. He could even special order parts for me through his ipad 24/7. His 130X's tail has also been problematic. I love the 130X among all the helis that I now own. And I'm not giving up on it. Like I mentioned, I'll do the mods spend the time & money on it when I get it back.
- Spyro

I really love the stuff I hear people say they get told from Horizon. Simply put, read the docs on anything they sell, and there simply is no warranty. It always says something to the effect that its guaranteed to work as it is supposed to when you buy it in the box, but the minute you use it, that's over.

The only thing then when you call up is that they do something the resembles a warranty but really what it boils down to is the good graces of who ever it is you deal with and by what ever things they feel like doing or not doing with you. With maybe some history thrown in there.

But really is just boils down to that and really more so also, how bad of a rep the product is getting on the boards that they want to use the replacement of parts to reduce peoples talk of that.

I mean call up for a servo on the brand new 130x and you might get one, call up about one the Apprentice 15e thats been out for years but that you just bought, and thats a different story.

But despite all that gets touted about them, I have read plenty of times too where one person with a problem just a day before got theirs taken care of and for absolutely nothing, they the next day another person with the exact same gets completely skunked.

I even love the fans that chime in too and say, "well...just how nice were you to the guy on the phone"...like what am I supposed send them some flowers or something?

I mean I paid the price for the product and it's clearly defective out of the box and they should just step up and fix that, so what does how I behave have anything to do with that?

I mean I'm not talking about being abusive but what...I should be like them and act like some 12 year old school girl who just met their favorite boy band member back stage, all just to get the proper service I should get? And that if I didn't, well then there's a perfectly justifiable reason one gets what they should get or not?

Anyway, point I'm trying to get to here is really, what your going to get from them is a crap shot, but whether you mod something in the helo or not, that's just crap, if a part is bad, its just bad and they should just step up and replace it.

But for me I've seen and read enough that if I ever were to call them up, I'd just be like, look, I know this part is bad and especially as I have it in my hand and have been running the thing, I can tell that way better they someone on the phone can, so just tell me if your going to replace it or not and just let me know and don't waist hours of my time trying 50 different things that won't work as the part is just bad.

Again not saying be rude here, just practical.

These things aren't nuclear power stations here, there pretty simple and really, for something like the 130x, I can't see any reason for more then five questions for anything and five min on the phone to know what is needed or not...unless the only real goal is to do anything but replace the part.

Personally, I've found the HH guys to be very receptive if you call in with actual knowledge and know what you're talking about. I'm not referencing anyone specifically, but calling up with the attitude of "Duh, uh, stuff just done broke" probably doesn't work very well. I explain the issue/part in detail and what I've done to troubleshoot it and/or what the EXACT problem is. Case in point... I had a DOA servo in my first 130 X. Got a spare no problem. I told him I had tried the servo in other channels on the AS3X board and it was doing the same thing, so it wasn't the board. Had there been any doubt on the board they might have had me send it in instead of replacing that rather expensive part without being absolutely sure. He actually thanked me for basically doing his job for him. In fact, he didn't care or even mention the fact that I'd had to disassemble the entire heli because the bad servo was the forward one. Bottom line is, if you provide HH product support with details, they're apparently more willing to work with you. If you call in and seem clueless, they'll very likely ask you to send the whole thing back in so they "in the know" can look at it instead of spraying out free parts.

That's been my experience from reading many posts about HH service and, very often, the people who were told to send everything back to product support were the very ones who seemed somewhat clueless (or, at least poorly spoken/written) in their very post about their problem(s) and complaining about HH.

Originally Posted by sertav

. After owning two 130 Xs (second one was a keeper), I'm confident I can whip any new vibrating 130 X tail into shape with a set of better bearings, ensuring the tail rotor shaft/hub is square and some scotch tape in 30 min or less.

I will do the same mods you did, even more if I have to once I get mine back
I had over 10 total flights with it, & really loves it due to it's size and where I usually fly. I just don't want HH to think that there is "nothing" wrong with 130X, as one of the reps told me
Yes, I understand that part of the hobby is DIY mods.
-Spyro

Originally Posted by sertav

.. , very often, the people who were told to send everything back to product support were the very ones who seemed somewhat clueless (or, at least poorly spoken/written) in their very post about their problem(s) and complaining about hh.

wow!