Good times. The Blade CX3 is one heck of a fun bird to fly.

The first update today was to add the factory heat sink for the main motors.

After removing one of the motors, installing the sink was pretty simple.

Motor re-installed and bolted back into position:

The fame looks a little naked without the body installed. But it does not take long to put it back together, and ready for flight.

A little time lapse video of re-assembly:

Ready to enjoy some indoor heli flying fun.

Well, it was, until the plastic factory swash plate decided to separate. I’d been fighting with adjusting the swash links most of the evening, after putting the heli back together again. I thought that maybe I’d bent a servo link rod during the heat sink install, so I worked on adjusting the cyclic/swashplate links.

Trying to stop a hard forward and starboard liftoff, and full rear cyclic would barely have any effect. It was not until an hour or so later I noticed that the plate where the servos attach was separating from the bearing and main rotor shaft. Duh. This explains why 2 directions worked great (pushing up on the plate) but the opposites failed (pulling down on the plate, but the upper bearing remained in position, thus no control. No control, but one check of an exciting crash!

The official term for this is TBE (toilet-bowl effect). Not fun. There is quite a discussion of the problem HERE. Once I discovered the problem, it was a matter of deciding how to solve it. There are a couple of solutions.

First of which is a pretty inexpensive factory replacement part.

Second is one of the CNC or cast metal solutions from E-Flite (the original manufacture) or other sources. Research indicates that the E-Flite is the one to buy.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other heils in the shop ready to fly.