Well the training gear just came in to the shop I work at, as well as rotor blade sets (they came before in crash kits only, but now we have just the blades). I bought one of each and came home to hook everything up, my previous rotor blades took some damage so I figured replacements wouldn't be far behind....

When I came home, I replaced one of the new blades with a semi-beat-up one. the other older blade had a little damage but it wasn't terminal. I tried tracking but it seemed like one blade was actually longer than the other! I guess that there was a weight difference between the new and old blade, as no amount of tracking fixed the issue: the heli would jump around and vibrate a lot at any throttle setting. I swapped the remaining old blade with the second new one, used a red and black sharpie to mark the ends of each one and tada! There was practically no vibration even though the blades were out of track. After putting them perfectly in track it was phenominal, the helicopter wouldn't vibrate at all. This was all with the newly purchased training gear attached.

Be forwarned: the training gear does not have a manual. They expect you to know how to attach them. If you don't know how to attach them, it's very simple: those four small plastic pieces each mount to the join on the skids between the actual skid and the little plastic "neck" that attaches to the carbon fiber rods that run up into the body of the heli, with the two hook-like pieces attaching to the bottom of the skids and the clamp in the middle attaching to the neck. Do this for each one, pass a wire with a ball on it through each one and hook each end up to the circular plastic piece in the center and you're set.

So then I went to actually fly with the training gear, and THAT was awesome. The training gear do not swivel, they are locked in place. Their purpose is to stabilize the helicopter, by extending out a long way this makes it harder to tip, makes it take longer for the rotors to hit the ground, and they weigh the helicopter more in the center so it is not as responsive and does not move so quickly to give you more time to think. They also they provide a larger, more flexible landing surface so when you have your newbie landings you don't put so much stress on your skids and break them. It performed all of these functions very well. I was actually sustaining a fairly good hover for a few moments, doing small circles around the backyard and doing other maneuvers with more control than i did before without the gear. Finally, however, I screwed up as I tried to bring the heli forward after moving too far back towards the raised soil platform where some of the plants are. The heli was too low and as it came forward, one of the blades caught on dead branch lying on the ground, right at the anchor point on the rotor head and snapped right there. I had already cut the throttle a second before this happened so the blades immediaely stopped, and surprisingly the other blade was not even scratched.

Anyways the impacted blade was a ruin and I broke it apart in my hands. I noticed that lead (or whatever metal it is) weight down at the middle of the rotor blade. It is placed at the leading edge or the blade behind a bit of wood, and it is a long metal rod that extends almost to the tip of the blade. It did not come out easily, and it's not a small slug so it would be difficult for this weight to somehow fly out. The only way it could have a remote possibility of coming out would be if the blades were broken on the tips at least 1/2", and that's a lot of damage to the rotor blades to be still willing to use them. As far as the scare of getting hit with a weight, I think it's not a big risk as long as you throw your blades out after the tips get bashed up enough to lose a good amount of covering. By then they're ineffective anyways, as they will weigh differently than normal. Sure, you can try to cover them with tape and balance them, but you might as well replace them.

Anyways, to sum things up, as it seems I'm rambling...

1) Training gear are very helpful to all you new flyers. Horizon just got restocked, get them while you still can!
2) If your rotor blades are showing any signs of damage, get another pair and make sure the old ones are still performing well enough to not have to be replaced (check them with one old blade and one new blade for excessive vibration)
3) The metal weight in the blades is not going to sling out at you unless you try to make it sling out at you.