As advertised, Lightning Heli’s Tri Blades Rotorhead, it comes completely pre-assembled and ready to be installed. I ordered mine from RC-Expert, in Honk Kong, and it came not in a box but in a soft pack wrapped in bubble wrap. There were no instructions included in the packaging.
The rotorhead, without any modification, is a drop in replacement for the stock T-Rex rotorhead assembly.
Except for the shaft locking ring’s set screw, all of the screws had thread lock applied.
The blade grips all seem to have had too much slop, one of the 3 much more than the other 2. I disassembled the blade grips and was able to achieve a tighter fit.
The plastic linkages are thinner and felt like a more brittle plastic than the stock Align linkages. The linkages also seemed to have a bit of slop on the linkage rods and turned too easily.
Setting up the Tri Blades Rotorhead was easier than setting up the stock T-REX Rotorhead.
Level the swash, 0 pitch at center stick, set up -/+ pitch, check and adjust tracking.
I took the heli out for a flight, and found that the cyclic was super sensitive and the heli was not as stable, requiring lots of corrections. A higher head speed in Idle up help with some stability.
The Rotorhead has a lot less linkage than the stock T-Rex Rotorhead, and will require you to make some adjustments. I moved the Elev, Ail, and Pit servo linkage to the first hole, closest to center, on the servo horn. I also replaced the 325 blades with 335 blades, and gained a lot more stability and control of the heli.
It was still a bit harder to control, than a stock set up with no weights on the paddles, and the heli seemed tail heavy, kept dipping the tail and I was constantly correcting for it. Physically the Heli was actually slightly nose heavy.
The Tri Blades Rotorhead is advertised as “3D flying capable”.
I executed an in place right roll, and the heli bogged a bit in negative pitch, and then I had to work to get stable flight again. I attempted another roll, the heli dropped its tail, I couldn’t pull out of it and it crashed.
IMO, it is 3d flying capable, but wouldn’t recommend it. I don’t believe that the linkages are strong enough to support 3d flying. The Rotorhead looks cool, but is difficult to fly on a stock set up. Flying will probably require some modifications, as others have mentioned, i.e. more gyros and weighted blades.
After looking at the youtube video again, I can see the heli exhibiting all the characteristics that I experienced, I can even hear it bog when inverted. Notice how quickly the pilot launches and lands the heli, without attempting to hover the heli.
This item is a recommended don't buy.
