Lightningheli quad rotor blades

[MariusArgona]

Hi,

After being in admiration in front of a video on you tube of a 450 scale heli, i decided to start my own project. I bought a heliartist fuse on a good UK site (I recommend Fast lad performance for their professionalism). I got the fuse after 4 days.

I decided to buy also a quad rotor blades(lightningheli) from rc-expert.com. I ordered and got the rotor in one week. I opened the package and my attention was drawned by the fact that the ball link were not tightly attached to the studs (on the swash). They seemed well-worn, old...

I took the swash plate between the fingers of my left hand and i tried to give 2 or 3 rotations to the rotor.
What a bad surprise, the ball bearing of the swash plate was completely jammed,gripped... It didn't rotate smoothly like any other swash plates that i got with my Align helicopter kits. In fact it didn't rotate at all!

I decided to try to clean the swash and specially the ball bearing. I put some grease on the bearing. Unfortunatly, i didn't succeed to bring it back to life. It continues to itch. I suspected that this rotor was stored in a humid store in really bad conditions.

I had the evidence when i decided to remove the shaft from the rotor head. The top of the shaft has several marks of rust. Of course, i contacted the shop to ask for a replacement for the swash plate. They replied me that each item is checked before they send to the custome (maybe i should understand that i'm a liar?). They kindly invited me to send back the rotor (shipping cost for my own wallet!). Then they will check the item and if they consider that there is really a problem then they'll send an other 'new' rotor .

I decided to don't send it back because it will cost me more than 1/3 of the rotor price to ship it and i really don't trust anymore in those people. I joined 3 pictures. pic1 shows the rust on the shaft, pic2 shows the swash with scratches here and there. The pic3 show the grips (top view). I noticed that two oposite grips are not on the same axis. Is that normal?

Maybe one of you knows if there is a way to extract the ball bearing from the swash and replace it?

Thank you.

[odieser]

These things have had a quality control issue from day one and they were suppose to be addressing that very issue. It would appear that eith Rc-Expert or Lightning heli is shipping crap to customers and I would have stayed far far away from both. I got my heli from Rc-Expert without trouble but many here on the freak have had problems.Personally I would not fly that head as it may cost you much more if your heli explodes in mid flight. Send it back and get your money back or try to.
Mark

[ChasHeliCop]

Well, first let me say, I bought a Lightning Heli 3 blade rotor head. I purchased it from HeliDirect. Before you get too far along, I suggest you change out the balls, and links. I used 450 balls on the swash and 600 SS balls on the head. I also used 600 servo links and ends. If you take the links apart you will notice the are barely threaded at all. Well, at least mine and another were not. Secondly, the screws used on the head are very poor quality and the balls just don't cut it. The swash I can't help you with much, mine is working ok, for now, but I would suggest using your stock Align swash. Still building my kit, but you can make it fly.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZtlD4ebyPbw

[odieser]

ChasHeliCop check out his last pic that shows the head the blade grips are not 90 degrees to each this thing he has is in my opinion a old damaged piece of crap and I sure would not even be tempted to fix it without demanding compensation or a new one. But this is me
Mark

[ChasHeliCop]

ChasHeliCop check out his last pic that shows the head the blade grips are not 90 degrees

Yep, I saw they were offset, and I wonder if the other two blade grips are offset too. I do 100% agree there is a bad quality control problem, and wish I had saved the email Fung sent me from Flying-hobby. I also noticed his quote below, and was trying to save him some time and headqaches.

I decided to don't send it back because it will cost me more than 1/3 of the rotor price to ship it and i really don't trust anymore in those people.

[odieser]

I agree that it is costly to send back but if we don't start demading better quality and send this crap back to the manufacturers they get off scott free and sell more garbage to people. If it was purchased thru a more reputable firm such as helidirect perhaps it would be easier and cheaper but with all the problems with RC -Expert lately I wouldn't touch them with your ten foot pole anymore.
Mark

[MariusArgona]

well, apparently it's worst than i thought.

Is there somebody who has the same quad rotor blades? Could you check if each opposite grips are perfectly on the same line like if the grips were on two feathering shafts that make a perfect cross with 90° angle? It's hard to believe that they shipped me such a crap.

I can't replace the swash by the Align swash. I need 5 studs on the swash for the ball links (see picture).

I really wonder if by sending back the rotor in China, i will loose my money and the crappy rotor.

It would be great if we could maintain an online list of shops on which people can vote positively and negatively and on which we can share our customer experience.

Thanks for your feedback.

[ChasHeliCop]

I agree Odi, 100%. Anyway, If you look, Flying-hobby, and HeliDirect, are both out of stock on alot of the heads. especially 4 and 5 blade heads. I asked Fung at Flying Hobby when they would be getting them back in stock and he replied there was a "quality control" problem at the manufacture, that was it.

Sorry Marius, I forgot about the extra ball on the 4 blade head.

[MariusArgona]

OK, Thank you for the information.

[Rodan]

I have a 3 blade and 4 blade head from Lighning Heli, and have not had the QC problems many here have. Then again, I bought both from what was probably the first production run. I replaced all the balls/screws with Align hardware right off the bat.

It's a shame they've gone so far down hill in QC, as they had a pretty good market niche with these products. Maybe someone will step up to fill the void with a reasonably priced alternative...

[ChasHeliCop]

Here's a post I found on another forum about the 5 blade head.

http://www.archeli.com.au/cobra/showthread.php?t=115256

[MariusArgona]

Yeah, it's a good lesson for me. Next time i will not forget to google on the brand and shop before buying on inet. Lightningheli is a user of helifreak. I probably dream by thinking that he might propose to replace the faulty rotor after reading this post...

Is there any alternatives for a quad or penta blades head manufacturer for a 450 sized heli?

[Deron Douglas]

Hey ChasHeliCop,
I see you got your 3 blade head, mine arrived last week from Helidirect as well. Seems you got lucky, mine is a piece of crap and needs to be rebuild. Here's the problems I had:

- bearing is seized on one grip.
- main hub is not centered ... the hole for the button and offset screws are drilled 2-3mm off center.
- the head wobbles VERY badly
- when I took the main hub off the shaft, the "factory" had stuffed a piece of plastic in the hole to "tighten" it... without it it wobbles even worse!

I contacted HeliDirect and described the problems as above "Vu" stated that they are "setup" problems and won't take it back! I guess they are stuck with a bunch of these as well.

Instead, I'm going to redesign the main hub and turn a new one on my lathe... replace all balls for 450 and 600 SS ones, and use an old Align swash in place of the "stock" LightningHeli one.

I'll also replace the main shaft with an Align shaft.

So basically I'm just using the grips and phase arm. Incidentally, I'll not going to set the phase mechanically, but use the mixer to do it.

The first 4 blade head from Lightning I bought in Jan of this year was MUCH better quality. This one is :BSS

I'm also disappointed with HeliDirect, I've placed over $1000.00 (easy) in parts over the last 6 months and they won't take back a defective product.

Luckily I have a lathe at home and can fix most of this.

[sgil123]

Hey Deron,
Is the rotor a 600 size or a 450?

Steve

[majuro15]

I've been watching a 4 blade head on Ebay for a while but have no info on whether it is an "old" unit or a "new" unit. I found another head a while back, I'll see if I can find the link. I'm wanting one for a S76 I'm building, but now I'm too afraid!

http://flying-hobby.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3_25_114&products_id=2385

Of course, they are out of stock too. Anyone have this one?

Edited to include the link.

[MariusArgona]

It doesn't seem to be a lightningheli product. Maybe you should avoid to buy a rotor head directly from China. I don't tell that buying items on a US or European site give you always a 100% guarantee to get decent stuffs. But i believe that the vendors who post an ad on helifreak do not want to loose their reputation by playing with the patience and money of their customers. And i hope that those same vendors (even if they are intermediaries between the chinese manufacturer and the final customer) will perform a QC before they sell the article to their own site.

The chinese shops seem to do not care about a single and isolate customer. But if their customer is a shop who buy them several pieces a month, then they will care.

I'm wondering if Heliartist does not plan to manufacture CNC rotor head... The option menu is in their catalog (see on the left side of the homepage) but it still disabled.

[Deron Douglas]

Hey Deron,
Is the rotor a 600 size or a 450?

Steve

Hi Steve, it's the 450 size.

[MariusArgona]

I got a mail from rc-expert this morning. They agreed to send me a replacement for the swashplate after sending them the same pictures that i posted and a short video in which i try to make the rotor rotate without success.
I explained them also than sending back the rotor to China will cost me nearly the half of the price of the rotor itself (with no insurance).

I keep you informed when the package arrives (if it arrives).

[majuro15]

Keep us updated. I saw another thread on here where new quality kits were shipped to distributors according to lightning heli. If anyone gets one, post a quick review! Good luck to all those who have ordered them...