Originally Posted by KTMDirtFace

Just joined the 130x fold. Fun little thing power for days! ( unlike my mcpx )

The only thing I did was setup my DX6i and fly it, then found some threads on tail issues..which I didn't even notice but I did put one small piece of tape on one tail blade that nearly elimated the crazy shake on spool up. ( Which I did not notice on my first flight anyway )

Might be my favorite right now.. i'm new started with MCPX, then Tarot 450 V2 Pro ( which I'm still scared to fly but have about 7 flights on that one one )...now 130x on a whim..wild hair saw it in the LHS and just bought it lol. and it is fun!

You'll learn a lot real quick with the 130X. Congrats on your good choice and welcome to the forum.
Garry K.

Horizon Hobby & Blade Product Develpment Team,

You guys create some truly great products for us RC hobbyists, and we thank you for that.

That being said, how can you release a potentially great little heli like the 130X with such a glaringly obvious engineering flaw? Of course I'm talking about the ridiculously extreme tail resonance issue.

Why would you use your customers as Beta Testers for this 130X? Surely your highly skilled Product Development Team was aware of this ridiculously obvious flaw in either engineering or manufacturing of this heli. Are you trying to tell us that you "missed" this problem when in testing phase? Because if you did, you need a new team. It shouldn't take your customers having to discover and deal with this kind of flawed product. It should have been EASILY caught & FIXED, prior to release. This is a case of basic incompetence in your quality control. It's too bad, because if this heli didn't have such a MAJOR problem, it could be a great product.

I hope that "James" from Blades Product Development Team reads this thread and learns a little something about pulling the wool over the customers' eyes. You're telling us 130X owners that the tail resonance is "normal", that we simply need to quickly throttle past that point, is TOTAL AND UTTER B.S, and you KNOW IT!

It is NOT normal to have such an EXTREME tail resonance/vibration during spool up. Some of your customers, me included, are resorting to using Walkera parts to fix this Blade 130X! That's got to be a kick in the teeth for the Development Team.

You are talking to a LOT of highly experienced RC heli pilots here, and you are not fooling us James. You are simply loosing credibility with us when you make such an absurd statement. You are not helping the development team's reputation by not being straight up with your customers.

This is clearly an engineering & or manufacturing screw up. Instead of calling this problem "NORMAL" James, which we all know it isn't, why don't you acknowledge the problem as being something that you need to FIX.

For $279 for this micro heli, we should NOT have to modify it right out of the box to make it fly correctly. It's a Bind and Fly, not a Modify, Bind and Fly!

I think you need to actually SOLVE the problem here, tell 130X owners what the REAL problem is, and send out whatever parts are necessary to fix this issue...ASAP...before the damn tail explodes on someone, and they get hurt!

Do NOT ignore this problem, and expect us all to believe it's "normal".

A ticked off Blade 130X owner,

Richard B

My tail did explode on the second flight.
I contacted customer support and they are sending replacement tail parts.
I questioned him on the tail vibration and was told that is a trait of this helicopter.
I said it may be a trait but it is not normal and there is a problem.
He admitted they did not know why the 130X has the vibration on spool-up.
He suggested moving quickly through the spool-up range where the vibration occurs.
He seemed to want to side-step the issue, and I was just happy he was sending parts without charge.
I have ordered a Boca bearing kit in hopes it will smooth things out.

Originally Posted by northernsky

... It's a bind and fly, not a modify, bind and fly!
...

MBF lol

Originally Posted by northernsky

That being said, how can you release a potentially great little heli like the 130X with such a glaringly obvious engineering flaw? Of course I'm talking about the ridiculously extreme tail resonance issue.

It's not really an engineering flaw. The parts are fine in "design". It's poor quality control that causes all of this. When you get good, straight, square (i.e. tail shaft and hub) parts, the heli flies very, very well...and smoothly with balanced blades...

Are you trying to tell us that you "missed" this problem when in testing phase? Because if you did, you need a new team. It shouldn't take your customers having to discover and deal with this kind of flawed product. It should have been EASILY caught & FIXED, prior to release. This is a case of basic incompetence in your quality control. It's too bad, because if this heli didn't have such a MAJOR problem, it could be a great product.

Agreed. However, the one glaring thing I do not agree with is their claim of every one having been factory test flown. There is no way that is true. Many people have had dead electronics right out of the box (especially servos), including me.

I hope that "James" from Blades Product Development Team reads this thread and learns a little something about pulling the wool over the customers' eyes. You're telling us 130X owners that the tail resonance is "normal", that we simply need to quickly throttle past that point, is TOTAL AND UTTER B.S, and you KNOW IT!

Don't know if he follows this forum or the threads about his helis here, but I know he posts over on Helifreak.

For $279 for this micro heli, we should NOT have to modify it right out of the box to make it fly correctly. It's a Bind and Fly, not a Modify, Bind and Fly!

I call it "Bind N Fiddle".

Originally Posted by rsmheli

My tail did explode on the second flight.
I contacted customer support and they are sending replacement tail parts.
I questioned him on the tail vibration and was told that is a trait of this helicopter.
I said it may be a trait but it is not normal and there is a problem.
He admitted they did not know why the 130X has the vibration on spool-up.
He suggested moving quickly through the spool-up range where the vibration occurs.
He seemed to want to side-step the issue, and I was just happy he was sending parts without charge.
I have ordered a Boca bearing kit in hopes it will smooth things out.

Don't expect just bearings to fix your problem. A huge issue is the tail hub not being square with the tail rotor shaft. That is what's mostly causing the massive vibrations for people. And what trashes bearings. The stock bearings aren't that bad and they do work. They just don't last long at all when faced with that massive high frequency vibration. Check that the hub is square by measuring as accurately as you can the distance from each end of the hub (where the grip screws go) to opposite end of the tail rotor shaft. Another quick and dirty (i.e. easy) way is to line it up on some notebook paper. The two red vertical lines on the left are the exact same distance apart as the hub thickness. Line it up and see if the shaft is perfectly straight against one of the horizontal blue lines. If not, that's your biggest tail problem right there. The hub is just pressed on to the shaft and held with some sort of adhesive, so they're very often misaligned. You can try to fix it, but I'd just ask for another one from Horizon. After that, use tape and trial and error to balance your tail blades.

As for Horizon not admitting that this is an issue or that they don't even "know about it" (I was actually told that once by product support)... Yeah, right. How come we can figure it out quite easily, but the actual pro pilots and other paid "professionals" there apparently can't?

Tail problems notwithstanding, I am glad they released this wonderful little heli. I am having so much fun with it.

Originally Posted by jhroof

Tail problems notwithstanding, I am glad they released this wonderful little heli. I am having so much fun with it.

Oh, I definitely agree. I fly mine a lot because it's dialed in and just so quick and easy to burn a few packs. It's just sad to see the poor quality control upsetting and driving so many people away from the 130 X when Horizon could have had a 100% slam dunk from the start, especially for what's almost a $300 heli. There really is no better flying ultra-micro CP heli when it's flying smoothly and correctly.

Originally Posted by crvnation

Don't expect just bearings to fix your problem. A huge issue is the tail hub not being square with the tail rotor shaft. That is what's mostly causing the massive vibrations for people. And what trashes bearings. The stock bearings aren't that bad and they do work. They just don't last long at all when faced with that massive high frequency vibration. Check that the hub is square by measuring as accurately as you can the distance from each end of the hub (where the grip screws go) to opposite end of the tail rotor shaft. Another quick and dirty (i.e. easy) way is to line it up on some notebook paper. The two red vertical lines on the left are the exact same distance apart as the hub thickness. Line it up and see if the shaft is perfectly straight against one of the horizontal blue lines. If not, that's your biggest tail problem right there. The hub is just pressed on to the shaft and held with some sort of adhesive, so they're very often misaligned. You can try to fix it, but I'd just ask for another one from Horizon. After that, use tape and trial and error to balance your tail blades.

As for Horizon not admitting that this is an issue or that they don't even "know about it" (I was actually told that once by product support)... Yeah, right. How come we can figure it out quite easily, but the actual pro pilots and other paid "professionals" there apparently can't?

HH is also sending me a tail hub.
He said it may have been bent during the tail explosion.
I will check and see if mine is square and balance the blades.
Can these hubs be straightened?
I looked at the spare parts at my LHS and most of them were not square.
I could see with my own eyes there were not correct.
Out of the five they had in stock, only one appeared to be square and correct.
I purchased that one!
Very poor QC!

Originally Posted by rsmheli

HH is also sending me a tail hub.
He said it may have been bent during the tail explosion.
I will check and see if mine is square and balance the blades.
Can these hubs be straightened?
I looked at the spare parts at my LHS and most of them were not square.
I could see with my own eyes there were not correct.
Out of the five they had in stock, only one appeared to be square and correct.
I purchased that one!
Very poor QC!

I've seen where people have actually pulled the hub off the shaft, re-drilled it and fixed it with silver solder, JB weld, etc. More work than I wanted to do. Luckily, I was able to visually inspect and pick up a couple of straight ones from my LHS. I "made" Horizon keep sending me tail shafts/hubs until I got square ones to replace the crooked ones I'd purchased sight unseen from them on-line.

I agree with everything said about the tail servo. I am disappointed that I spent twice as much (almost) on this heli as an mCPx. If the price was less, then I wouldn't care. As with the mCPx, mods were necessary for tail blow outs. It left much to be desired power wise. This 130X is way better power wise, and tail wise other than the vibes. It hit the target for me as for what it is when flying right. I've been lucky enough to have replaced the tail hub and got a good one the second try. I've LOVED this heli more than any other I've had and have learned SO much in such a short time because it fly's so much like a simulator.
Any heli I've owned needed to be gone through. Even BNF. I want Horizon to stay in business and keep producing great products like this one (and parts. 8) ). So if they need to get that much for this heli, then I'll pay it. Provided it works like advertised. It's always better to under commit and over deliver than over commit and under deliver. This heli has done both for Horizon.
When mine came out of the box and only flew 1.5 batteries before the tail bearing housing blew apart from excess vibration from a bad tail hub, I was pretty upset. I didn't get a chance to learn what amount of vibs were "normal". I will also say that with there customer service and a little patience on my part, ( which is hard with a new toy.) that I would go through it all again knowing that they've got my back.
Garry K.

CRVNation,

I believe you are right that this may not be an engineering problem, instead a manufacturing Quality Control issue. But we do agree that it is an actual issue on Blade's part. I just wish they would put out a bulletin acknowledging the problem, telling everyone what that problem is, and offering free replacement parts as needed, etc.

If they operated like that, I'd be a huge customer for life. They should have pulled the Blade SR before it was even released...what a massive POS that thing is, and it's still on the shelves!

And forget this new and improved V2 stuff (mCPX) for these helis. Just fix Ver.1! If you're going to release a Ver 2 of a heli, it shouldn't be a "fixed V1". To me, a Ver.2 should add newer features, improve (not fix) functionality or parts, etc.

I don't like to attack HH or Blade too much because they do provide us pretty cool toys, and I appreciate them for that.

But c'mon guys, test fly these birds extensively before you start shipping them out by the thousands.

The real shame is, by overlooking their Qaulity Control issues, they ruin the chance of hitting some major home runs with helis like this.

I thought the blade SR flew well for what it was

QC issues it happens but if you hound them HH will make it right

Is this a good heli for someone moving from a v911 and later a 250 (just sport flyign the 250 so want to try some 3d on something smaller first).

Does it work well out of the box ? i only used the standard rtf transmitters so far on helis so i was wondering if i buy this and a dx6 if it would be too hard to get going, although i think i've read somewhere the manual comes with settings for d6xi and other transmitters which should allow me to get going.

Was thinking this one or the walkera mini cp or the mcpx.

Thanks in advance.

I don't fly helis much anymore as I fly multis and planes Fpv allot now but occasionally I take out my v120do02s and fly a lil 3D in my yard. It has an upgraded motor and still doesn't seem as powerful as I wanted. I have been flying spectrum radio since I started in this hobby and I've been flying mostly HH planes and helis. What I've noticed is that HH builds poor quality stuff for the mass's. All of my eflite helis I'd have to upgrade like crazy to get to fly great. Reading about this Heli having a problem that there not addressing just reminds me more of why I'm selling all of HH crap. This problem is the exact same as the parkzone extra 300 wing airfoil being messed up and them not fixing it. I bought my dx7s new for $300 and then a cpl weeks later I needed a radio that could have interchangeable modules bc I use dragon link, and 2.4ghz. So I bought a hitec aroura9 for $300 brand new and wow that was the final straw for me bc the aurora9 is 10x better than the dx7s and it's the same price. The with the hitec I feel like I have a $500 remote it's very high quality where my spectrum just feels mediocre and worth maybe $200. To me HH sells mostly crap that's overpriced. Atleast walkera sells decent stuff for a decent price. Idk Its been a while since I've bought any HH stuff but I see that there quality problem still exists. I've had 3 brand new rx's not work from them and it's another quality control issue bc they don't work. I'm not here to bash HH bc they have actually had 4 things that I liked my 1st Heli the mcx, the beast biplane v1, the parkzone radian pro, and parkzone vapor. But the msr, blade sr, parkzone extra 300, dx7s, and there rx's are garbage atleast that's my opinion. If this Heli ever becomes pnp and the tail issue fixed I'd probably buy it but since I know they can't make it so I could fly on a hitec or Devo 7 I won't.