Has e-flite adressed the poor life of tail motors yet?

[coreyfro]

It's been months since I flew this thing. I have gone through more tail motors than I care to count.

These motors bind, then I lose rudder, and then I am grounded until I can get another one.

I have had several motors DOA from online stores. The most life I've gotten out of a tail rotor was 20 hours of flight...which is acceptable. Most motors give up in less than 5 hours, counting the ones that never worked.

I've replaced landing gear twice. All other parts are stock, from the day I bought it, and working fine.

Has e-flite done anything about the tail motors, yet? I'm not spending another time on this craft unless they have.

[Pfloyd]

Last time I talked to them getting a new motor, they told me that they had no idea that there was a problem with tail motors. Seems to be a similar problem with the tail motors on the 120SR.

[CocoSantango]

I wouldn't mind a BL mSR with a DD tail. If they had to make it a tad bit bigger that would be ok with me too.

[Mojappa]

They have a very large suppy of replacement motors, problem addressed and solved. :)

[BaconRaygun]

If you think about it, what can they actually do to the motor to improve its life without making it bigger, heavier and more expensive? Nothing really, it’s a small motor and most people that complain about them breaking are learning and crash a lot. Yeh it sux man and I do feel your pain (I have gone through like 8 or 9 already) but my answer is crash less. I know it’s not what you want to hear but if you don’t crash hard then you won’t break as many motors.


Oh, 20 hrs, yeh man that’s not bad at all in my book... If you do the math (assuming each flight is 4 minutes) that’s 300 flights... If you can do 300 flights without needing a replacement motor then I say its a win, I can 100% tell you that I have not had a motor last more then 50-60 flights and that’s because of me crashing... and I'm not a bad pilot, I just like to push limits.

Good luck man, don’t give up cuz it only gets more fun!

[Mojappa]

+1 Same with the SR tail "problems". Yes, a few have recieved legitimately bad motors, it happens when dealing with mass produced cheap little motors, but most often leave out the important detail of slamming the tail into sh!t like the ground. The shaft on these motors is very small and bends very easily from impacts which introduces vibes to the motor and heats things up faster which leads to what seems to be a premature failure which is really just crash damage. Remember, helis are designed to hit air, nothing else so failures due to crash damage aren't quality issue's, they're pilot issues, and more accurately, learning curve related issues. The more you fly, the less you'll crash and the parts will last much longer.

[nothinbetr2do]

i've got one of the original msr, when they first came out. i'm still running the same tail motor it came with. maybe i got lucky, i don't know. i did put a piece of heat shrink on the end cap to keep it from popping off in a crash. if you do a search, i posted pics of it awhile back about it. my msr has been good to me, i can't find a bad thing to say about it. i don't fly it much any more, but my friends crash it from time to time

[Jabsten]

If you think about it, what can they actually do to the motor to improve its life without making it bigger, heavier and more expensive? Nothing really, it’s a small motor and most people that complain about them breaking are learning and crash a lot. Yeh it sux man and I do feel your pain (I have gone through like 8 or 9 already) but my answer is crash less. I know it’s not what you want to hear but if you don’t crash hard then you won’t break as many motors.


Oh, 20 hrs, yeh man that’s not bad at all in my book... If you do the math (assuming each flight is 4 minutes) that’s 300 flights... If you can do 300 flights without needing a replacement motor then I say its a win, I can 100% tell you that I have not had a motor last more then 50-60 flights and that’s because of me crashing... and I'm not a bad pilot, I just like to push limits.

Good luck man, don’t give up cuz it only gets more fun!


I understand about the crashing, but I have purchased bad tail motors to begin with and that isn't acceptable in my opinion. Crashing and motor time is, but bad right from the start? Nope.

[Mojappa]

I'm sure it's frustrating but honestly it has to happen quite often to be considered a problem worth investing in, which it doesn't seem to. It happens, yes, but not as often as it doesn't. The SR's is the same way, people have recieved bad ones and gotten them replaced as well. There is going to be an acceptable percentage of defects, especially in tiny cheap motors, just the nature of manufacturing in the real world.

[hydro_pyro]

Tail motors bind up when you crash them. Helicopters are designed to fly, not to crash. That's not a quality problem, it's a pilot problem. My tail motors stopped "failing" once I actually learned to fly the bird.

If you have an issue with your tail motors, why not ask Horizon about it?

[coreyfro]

Again, I want to reiterate. I've flown for probably 30 hours. I've not replaced anything except tail motors and landing gear. I am a cautious flyer. I get lots of DOA motors. I know these coreless pager motors are cheap pieces of crap. I also know they are less than a dollar a piece for eflite. If they are going to buy crap motors, then they should sell them in bulk. It's wasteful, I know, but it's also wasteful to put your customers through this.

[BaconRaygun]

Well the problem with that is most people that buy the mSR are not experienced in this hobby... In order to replace one of those tail motors without replacing the whole boom requires soldering, if you don’t know how to solder then how will you replace a motor?

So then they should put a connector there!!!
No they shouldn’t, it would add unnecessary weight and another fail point making the heli more complex.

Use better motors and not charge more? Well, how would you like it if your boss (assuming you have one) told you he was cutting your pay and giving you more responsibility? You wouldn’t like it right? Because you are doing more and making less...

I agree that the motor sux but that’s the way it is and I personally see no alternative. While the motors may cost horizon pennies they still have to install them, test them, package and sell them and still make some money.

Evil corporation? Maybe, but if I designed, built and distributed a quality micro heli with better components then the mSR would you be willing to pay the absurd price tag? probably not...

EDIT:
Oh, DOA motors, you can either call the distributor and get a replacement or call horizon and get a replacement... simple as that, it sux but it does happen. I have gotten DOA LiPo's, had missing parts, broken parts and all that fun stuff over my 14 year RC career and I'm sure it will continue happening... But, I have yet to have a DOA part not be replaced by either the distributor or the manufacturer... I know it’s a PITA but its not the end of the world and it does not happen that often.

Ok, one time I got no replacement and the runaround... and this is why I will never give microheli another dime, EVER!

[Pfloyd]

The 120SR has a little plug by the tail motor and it really hardly weighs anything.