Blade 130X

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the Blade 130 had a little argument with a patio and stripped a couple of teeth from the  bevel gear which feeds power to the tail rotor. Thanks to quick delivery from Fast Lad a new, upgraded metal gear has arrived.

Tonight I sat down to fit the new gear and tail, this is where I made a small mistake which cost me about an hour of time, but thankfully no damage to the heli. I now know that to replace the bevel gear you can simply disconnect the swash from the head, remove a couple of screws and yank the head and main shaft straight out of the heli. I tried this, but it didn’t feel like the main shaft was going to part company from the main drive gear at the bottom. So I decided the only way forward was to separate the two chassis halves and take the shaft out that way.

DON’T DO THAT! Of course does work, but it is one hell of a job. The proper way is shown in the video below, oh well it’s back together and flying OK. At least I learnt a bit about how it is all held together

Between house moving noise and a silly busy period at work, I’ve not been getting out much. The Tuc is seeing some progress in the evenings, but that has been about it. The clocks went forward a couple of weeks ago, bringing lighter evenings but since then we have had seriously strong gales. This week however we have been graced by a nice spot of low wind and sunshine.

As a result I’ve been getting out into the garden with the 130x almost daily, most times putting all three batteries through it.  I’m getting a pleasant 6 mins out of the two Overlander batteries, with the charger reporting about 300/350 mAh going back in so they could be pushed even more.

Last night I had a little crash which snapped off the lower 2/3 of the tail fin, so I’ll have to order a new one and I have stripped a couple of gears on the main bevel gear which feeds power to the tail shaft. I’m going to replace it with the metal optional part (BLH3735). Even with a few teeth and the fin gone she flys just fine though!