Getting sick of the 120 SR!! What's with the tail motor??

[Scull]

Hi,

Is it common for the 120 to keep having their tail motors burned out?

I've got the stock one to stop working after maybe 7 times of usage (40 min each time) and the new replacement stock has stopped functioning after even a shorter period (my 2nd day after replacement).

Now I have to order one and wait... Or i'll just sell it off and get a more sturdy Heli... I just keep on replacing parts for this model!!

If you have any comments please share them.

[2005h4]

I don’t know how long you have been flying this heli but …… I do feel your pain. 120 sr is my second heli and after flying about a month I can see the great potential having fun with it. But the downside, I had to replace just about everything except the main board and the main motor. Also consistant wobble and vibration keep me frustrated trying to figure out the cause. A lot of people are saying 120 sr can take beating but in my opinion, not true.

[airshot]

When people say they can take a beating, that is a way of saying light crashes don't really hurt them. Severe crashes will damage most anything. Many new pilots have not learned to chop the throttle before an impact and that one thing will prevent damage. Then again just like everything else you can get a bad one on occasion.
As much as I hate to say this and no disrespect intended you are probably crashing an awfull lot. Many new pilots are in to big a hurry to start flying around and end up crashing and that causes damage. Learn to hover first, then small movements short distances, when you can do this without crashing then you can move into forward flight. Been flying my 120 for more than 3 years and only have used 3 or 4 tail motors and only on second main motor. My guess is you are trying to move to fast and doing to much crashing and this does damage the tail motors along with other parts. Slow down and learn.....this is one of the easier helis on the market to fly other than a coaxial heli (twin rotor). So moving to anything else is going to be more difficult to fly.

[Krinaman]

When I first bought mine I had no problems with the tail motors. However, the last several motors I've had all done the same thing. They work fine for a couple flights. Then the heli starts to make a loud vibration noise and the tail spins. At first it's short and the tail just kicks a little. A couple of flights later it gets longer and longer until it just spins out of control. It will do that a couple of times and the motor is dead. I put more money into trying to fix it than it's worth, including a new board (which was stupid since I could of replaced the whole thing for that price had I realized they are so cheap now). Note that I am not wrecking the heli at all during this time.

In any case, I just retired it since I didn't fly it that much any more.

[JonJet]

Originally Posted by airshot

When people say they can take a beating, that is a way of saying light crashes don't really hurt them. Severe crashes will damage most anything. Many new pilots have not learned to chop the throttle before an impact and that one thing will prevent damage. Then again just like everything else you can get a bad one on occasion.
As much as I hate to say this and no disrespect intended you are probably crashing an awfull lot. Many new pilots are in to big a hurry to start flying around and end up crashing and that causes damage. Learn to hover first, then small movements short distances, when you can do this without crashing then you can move into forward flight. Been flying my 120 for more than 3 years and only have used 3 or 4 tail motors and only on second main motor. My guess is you are trying to move to fast and doing to much crashing and this does damage the tail motors along with other parts. Slow down and learn.....this is one of the easier helis on the market to fly other than a coaxial heli (twin rotor). So moving to anything else is going to be more difficult to fly.

One of the worst habits you can develop as an R/C pilot

[mtwarych3@msn.com]

Make sure the bearing is on the tail shaft and the rotor is on right side out and not causing drag on the motor by being pushed on too tight.
I burned my motor because I lost the bearing and pushed the tail rotor all the way onto the shaft.
Give it a little room.

[Cahdek]

I have found that the eflite batteries are horrible and switching to glaciers made a huge difference. With the eflites, whenever I would power up, the tail would whip around. Initially thought it was the tail motor. Replaced it and same thing. Got new batteries and the problem was solved. My eflites are less than a month old and dont have that many flights on them. I've also noticed that the tail motor and main motor are significantly cooler using the glaciers after 6 minutes of flight. The eflites die out after about 4:30 and everything is hot including the 5-in-1 by the LED

Been trying to slow cycle the eflites to bring them back to shape but no luck yet.

Not sure which batteries you are using but figured I'd share what has worked for me.

[2005h4]

I agree with cahdek. I have 5 eflite batteries and 5 gforce batteries. I have noticed when I use eflite batteries, it only lasts about 4 min of total flight time and first 2 min heli flies horrible. Then after 2 min battery seems settle down a bit and heli starts to fly a lot smoother. But gforce gives better and smooth flight all around with 5 min flight time.

[nmsuman]

Originally Posted by JonJet

One of the worst habits you can develop as an R/C pilot

I don't know that I agree. Cutting the throttle when 20 ft up because of lost orientation, yes bad idea. Cutting throttle when headed to a bush, fence, ground due to other circumstances probably a good idea to save pinion, main motor, tail from trying to spin while caught up on something.

I, as an slightly above newbie, am cutting throttle less and less as recovering ability, orientation confidence, and overall confidence grow.

Again, this is where my hypocrisy comes out, sim time comes in. Practice and understanding here had helped me greatly when I stayed committed.

But that assumes an other than RTF transmitter, laptop/Desktop, and Sim program are within your budget or are available. If not then cutting throttle appropriately is the alternative to higher repair costs, and down time.

[ricky.davis.129794]

Originally Posted by Scull

Hi,

Is it common for the 120 to keep having their tail motors burned out?

I've got the stock one to stop working after maybe 7 times of usage (40 min each time) and the new replacement stock has stopped functioning after even a shorter period (my 2nd day after replacement).

Now I have to order one and wait... Or i'll just sell it off and get a more sturdy Heli... I just keep on replacing parts for this model!!

If you have any comments please share them.

I had a 120Sr for a year before I upgraded to a 450 size bird and to be honest with you it was a great and fun micro for me, it took some beatings and replaced the tail motor once after 6 months. My personal opinion I would buy another just to fly around.

[Cahdek]

One other thing to note too is that if you're flying battery after battery, the motors don't have a chance to cool down. After every battery pack, I feel both the tail motor and the main motor to see how hot they are. If they are a little bit warm, probably ok to continue, but if they're hot to the touch, let it sit for about 10-15 min before flying again.

It could be the continuous strain and heat that is damaging your motors. From what I can tell, these aren't industrial strength motors that are designed to run constantly.

Just an additional thought

[ricky.davis.129794]

Originally Posted by Cahdek

One other thing to note too is that if you're flying battery after battery, the motors don't have a chance to cool down. After every battery pack, I feel both the tail motor and the main motor to see how hot they are. If they are a little bit warm, probably ok to continue, but if they're hot to the touch, let it sit for about 10-15 min before flying again.

It could be the continuous strain and heat that is damaging your motors. From what I can tell, these aren't industrial strength motors that are designed to run constantly.

Just an additional thought

Agree[emoji1]

[Scull]

Originally Posted by Cahdek

One other thing to note too is that if you're flying battery after battery, the motors don't have a chance to cool down. After every battery pack, I feel both the tail motor and the main motor to see how hot they are. If they are a little bit warm, probably ok to continue, but if they're hot to the touch, let it sit for about 10-15 min before flying again.

It could be the continuous strain and heat that is damaging your motors. From what I can tell, these aren't industrial strength motors that are designed to run constantly.

Just an additional thought

This is actually what happened! The tail motor was so hot.

I guess now this is the reason.