Getting pretty sick of "Blade"

[chuck-o]

Three major purchase now, TWO 120 SR helis, and a dx6i, all three screwed up straight from the factory.
I figure I have spent about six hundred dollars on this "entry level" helicopter that is SUPPOSED to be an inexpensive means to break into this hobby.
First helicopter blew a fet, broke contact with the tx and took off straight up in the air never to be seen again. Two weeks down time.
Bought another, shorted out tail motor right out of the box. Several tail booms and motors later finally have something semi reliable.
Go to fly this morning and the rudder trim switch on my new dx6i is broken. Worked fine last night.
WTF???
Do these people produce ANYTHING that works the first time?
I wont go into all the hours spent fine tuning and replacing crap parts that only SORT of work.
Blade needs to seriously address some factory quality control issues.
Six hundred bucks later (for a 120 dollar helicopter)
And I am grounded again.

[Metal]

I am sorry to hear of your experience with Blade products. I am brand new to the heli hobby as well, and like you I purchased Blade for a cost effective solution.

I started with the mCX RTF kit, and was beyond that in an hour or so. Still flys great, no damage probably close to 150 flights thru it.

2 weeks later im back at the hobby shop and am dropping $700 on an mSR X, mCP X v2, and the DX8.

My experience with this companies products is at the complete opposite end of the spektrum (lil joke ).

To date my lil mSR X has over 300 and prolly closer to 400 flights on the stock motor. Had to replace the tail a little over a week back. It died of old age... Had to replace several blade grips, but at 4 bucks a set im not gonna gripe.

The DX8 is everything I expected and more. Flawless, precise, and for indoor / park flying small aircraft, it fits the bill perfectly.

I have less time on my mCP. I expect it to live up to my expectations though. Down till I replace the feathering shaft.

[gryffin2007]

I too had some issues with my 120 & Dx6i. After taking forever to get the two to bind, I couldn't control it no matter what settings I used. The Tx worked (and works) fine with my mCX2, mSR and with both the B400 and my B425 creation. I was about to put the 120 up for sale as someone else's problem. But then I re-bound the 120 to the stock RTF Tx, and now I'm hovering the thing in my teeny, tiny living room. Go figure.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. On the whole, I've been very pleased with Blade/Horizon and the customer service at HH has been excellent, even concering my second-hand B400.

[chuck-o]

The main reason I went with blade was there is a "dealer" a mile from my house. These guys will sell you anything on their shelf but parts availability is spotty and when something is wrong they don't want to hear it, keep telling me to call horizon support.
All three larger purchases have had factory defects and buying motors is a crapshoot, might get a good one, but probably not.
After listening to all the complaints on the forums I am finding more and more I aam not alone.
These things are a blast to fly when they work, which for me means that out of two months I have gotten about a month's worth of flying.
Spare me about how great horizon support is. When I did call them all they told me was too bad, buy another helicopter, which I foolishly did.
Now I have to send the damn transmitter back?
I'm looking into a trex 250.
Might have a sr120 and a dx6i up for sale soon.

[gryffin2007]

Spare me about how great horizon support is. When I did call them all they told me was too bad, buy another helicopter, which I foolishly did.

Wow! I would call HH back and ask to speak to a supervisor if that was truly the attitude of the CSR with whom you spoke. That would never fly (no pun intended) in my office.

[chuck-o]

Originally Posted by gryffin2007

Wow! I would call HH back and ask to speak to a supervisor if that was truly the attitude of the CSR with whom you spoke. That would never fly (no pun intended) in my office.

They aren't going to do anything about it.
The helicopter literally flew away.
My word against theirs.
For all they know I could be lying.
I took that one with a bit of understanding.
Now I am all done looking at this from "their perspective".
The second helicopter was also messed up. A shorted tail boom wiring problem that took a couple flights to pin down, for those couple flights everything was overheating, tail motor, main motor, AND five in one.
Guy at the local hobby shop pretty much insinuated I must have damaged it, which I didn't, and told me to jcall horizon about it. For the fifteen bucks I just bought a new boom and tail motor.
I haven't been able to take it outside yet, too windy around here.
Frankly I am a little nervous that latent damage in the five in one will result in another bird flying away on me, which is what I suspect happened to the first one.
Right now I am waiting for a call back from horizon to see about sending the transmitter in for repair.
(Snip)
Just got off the phone with horizon, the guy says he will ship a few extra trim switches, apparently this isn't that uncommon either.
Glad he didn't call me a liar too.
So right now the jury is out.
I ain't happy, but that's a better result than sending it back and probably having to wait another couple weeks.

[chuck-o]

Originally Posted by gryffin2007

I too had some issues with my 120 & Dx6i. After taking forever to get the two to bind, I couldn't control it no matter what settings I used. The Tx worked (and works) fine with my mCX2, mSR and with both the B400 and my B425 creation. I was about to put the 120 up for sale as someone else's problem. But then I re-bound the 120 to the stock RTF Tx, and now I'm hovering the thing in my teeny, tiny living room. Go figure.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. On the whole, I've been very pleased with Blade/Horizon and the customer service at HH has been excellent, even concering my second-hand B400.

When I first bound the 120 to this dx6i I couldn't fly it either.
After going through the menu I found that the factory had set the expo at around seventy percent.
No way you are going to be able to correct in time with the controls set that sluggish.
I currently run everything at negative ten expo and 100% on the dual.
She cruises around my living room beautifully, though you do have to be careful to keep stick movements very small.

[Thalios]

You're looking at a trex 250 and you think blade helis sucks? Good luck.

You got 3 bad products in a row from your LHS. 3 products that are usually pretty good. Maybe there's a common denominator there??

The dx6i is a great transmitter. The 120 sr are ok. If you condone blade for bad support and or bad QC, wait till you start building the 250...


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[litehawkdown]

Originally Posted by Thalios

You're looking at a trex 250 and you think blade helis sucks? Good luck.

You got 3 bad products in a row from your LHS. 3 products that are usually pretty good. Maybe there's a common denominator there??

The dx6i is a great transmitter. The 120 sr are ok. If you condone blade for bad support and or bad QC, wait till you start building the 250...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He will learn a heck of a lot as long as he shows patients.

[upankatz]

Originally Posted by Thalios

You're looking at a trex 250 and you think blade helis sucks? Good luck.




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Pretty strong opinion on the 250......

Thems almost fightin words....

250's rock dude.......

[Thalios]

I should have phrased that differently.

Thd T250 don't have the best reputation. If he's having issues with the 120 Sr and ends up saying blade helis sucks, what will it be when he starts hunting for issues on the t250?

T250 require a whole lot more maintenance and care than the little blade helis.


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[Thalios]

And by the way, by common denominator, i meant the LHS, not you.. Maybe they're selling non functionning stuff?


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[upankatz]

Originally Posted by Thalios

Thd T250 don't have the best reputation. If he's having issues with the 120 Sr and ends up saying blade helis sucks, what will it be when he starts hunting for issues on the t250?

T250 require a whole lot more maintenance and care than the little blade helis.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I agree, not noob friendly at all....Should probably have some building/rebuilding and troubleshooting skills before attempting a 250, plus some sorta cp flying skills wouldnt hurt either....

Cant get any more noob friendly than a Blade, plus they do what it says in the ads for the most part, gotta give em that for sure......

[chuck-o]

Originally Posted by Thalios

I should have phrased that differently.

Thd T250 don't have the best reputation. If he's having issues with the 120 Sr and ends up saying blade helis sucks, what will it be when he starts hunting for issues on the t250?

T250 require a whole lot more maintenance and care than the little blade helis.


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I am not "hunting for issues", they are presenting themselves. No hunting required.
I am pretty mechanically inclined, after addressing the issues with the heli itself I have a beautifully stable responsive helicopter that is a blast to fly. After a couple months (counting a month of down time) I can fly figure eights pretty comfortably around my living room, piros are a breeze, smooth left turns, like I said when it works it is awesome. Just had to Wade through a couple hundred bucks worth of faulty parts. Now I have faulty parts on the transmitter. It's bad enough fixing the stuff I actually break, I do not enjoy fixing the screwups of others.
You may have a point about the lhs though, at minimum I will no longer be making the larger purchases there. Not much point if they are going to sell stuff that doesn't work and then not back it up. Never had that problem anywhere else.
The horizonhobby Rep was pretty helpful this time, said four new trim switches are on the way and should be here Thursday.
Tried flying with the stock tx tonight, manageable but sucks. Even on the long swash arms and the "advanced" setting there is WAY too much dead stick around center.

[xpftp]

i have a 6eye also .. and yes after a year .. one of the trims tab broke.. i called them and few days alter i had 4 new trimers in mail ..

the 120 doesnt like the 6eye for some reason .. i had control issues as in like it had 100% epo .. couldnt figure it out .. but the 120 flew like a champ for me on its own control .. i loved that lil heli for my starter ..

now the mCPx.. was a pile of junk .. i hated it i had V1 of the mCPx.. but nope a pile of junk ..
i had the SR and had tail motor issues .. called them up and bang new motor at my house ..

i have nothing but good with them .. i would tell anyone to buy a 120SR then a B450 and stay away from the mCPx.. and other smaller helis that small .. there to picky to me . to touchy .. my LHS i think stoped stockin the mCPx becuse it was such a pile of junk ..

[Thalios]

Originally Posted by xpftp

LHS i think stoped stockin the mCPx becuse it was such a pile of junk ..

Wow, so the most succesful RC heli probably of all time is a pile of junk?

[InFocus]

With the mSR, the heli had 2 modes within the board attached to channel 5 (gain setting)..
The first mode, was super soft. Full bang of the sticks and the heli would barely move in any direction.. Great if your just learning, but if you already know how to fly, you wonder whats going on. If you just bind the heli to the DX6i with no changes, this is the mode you would be in.
On the stock TX, you get into this mode by press down on the left stick. (tx light blinks).

The other mode, by setting the DX6i gyro gain to 100%, it would fly just like the stock transmitter with full throw on the swash, all normal.

Again, this is my experience with the mSR.

So my question is, does the SR120 have a similar thing? It would explain why when you fly with the DX6i it doesn't seem as aggressive as it does with the stock tx..

Just a thought.

[InFocus]

Originally Posted by xpftp

My LHS i think stoped stockin the mCPx becuse it was such a pile of junk ..

The more likely reason is they were sold out because it is so popular.

[tyoung560]

I've owned mcx2, 120sr and mcpx. Dx4e, dx6i and the stock mcx2 TX. I've never had any problems other than the 5n1 for the 120 went bad after 2 months and probably 75+ flights. They replaced it no problem.

Bottom line: not to sound harsh, but I think you're having bad luck

[xpftp]

Originally Posted by InFocus

The more likely reason is they were sold out because it is so popular.

nope not sold out . and

Thalios yep show o never mind not worth it .. your right sir ... its the best ever ..