Mark,
Lol on the 450 TT, on my first flight, which was pretty good. I landed in some heavy grass and stripped the front umbrella gear. Been snooping around the different forums and found that I probably had my tail blades to tight. I loosened those up, not so much that the flop around though. Also, I modified the vertical stabalizer. I had some old landing skids laying around and trimmed off one of the poles. Then I ca'd it to the veritcal stab, then wrapped it sewing thread and ca'd that. Next, I found that some of the guys are using the 500 size landing gear, that helps prevent tip overs and brings the heli a full inch higher off the ground. So I did that. I also, had to replace the main gear, it was out of round. And the anti-rotation gear, it was warped. I replaced all with Align products. I've been using Trexparts.com, average price, great shipping cost and get it in 3 or 4 days.
So for right now, I've got an addition 30 bucks in it. I've had only 4 flights on it since I stripped the umbrella gear, but all is fine and dandy now.
Dave
ORIGINAL: Aframomum
Yep, those motor magnets will get ya every time!
One thing to remember with the clones is you will have to replace certain parts with authentic Align parts to get things up to par. For example, on my Tarot 450 Pro TT I had to replace the main and spindle shaft, as well as the main and auto gears. Most of the build threads will already have this pointed out so you'll know what you need from the start of the build. It's not really that big of a deal just something to keep in mind.
For your next heli I would recommend you stay away from a torque tube model - a belted model would be more ideal. Reason being any type of tail touch and your risking stripping out some of the TT gears which could get very aggrevating over time.
Mark