hey guys, i just got my first helli (an airhogs reflex that i got off of ebay). Its been through quite a few wrecks due to my newbeness. it flew fine when i first got it but now it flies to the left in a nasty "down the drain" kind of way. still does it even if i adjust the trim. tried putting weight on one side, nothing works.

Might check to see if the main shaft isn't cocked to the left. If it is, no amount of triming is going to help. Look at the heli from the front, the shaft should be 90 degrees straight. If it isn't you have a problem.

Hi all. I'm brand new here. I have always been interested in RC flight but the commitment in both time and money always scared me away and then.... I saw these really cool micro electric things that you can fly inside!

So I got myself a Reflex last week. I had some initial disaster flights but felt like I was getting kind of good at it. Then suddenly yesterday I started to have the left death spiral problem! To me it isn't down the drain it is slingshot into the wall!

I take off and get up to about 5 feet and then it starts it's slow forward drift, except it doen't stay slow it gets faster and faster with a left turn. If you rotate left it accelerates even faster. If you rotate right it just stays in it's orbit flying backwards. The turn radius starts at about 3 feet and expands with every turn and the speed just increases. I've tried weighting the tail and it slows down the initial acceleration but once it gets going the same thing. I cranked the trim wheel way over one way and then retrimmed it from scratch. No change. The shaft seems straight but I have a feeling it would only take a slight bend to mess it up.

I called the help number and am waiting to hear back from them. The guy I spoke with said he had never heard of it but he would ask the engineers. Anyone have any suggestions.

yeah, thats exactly what mine does, the shaft and tail all seem straight, i dont understand it.

I think one crash too many. Something has to be unbalanced with the rotor disk/Shaft. When spinmaster calls me back I'll post their input. I think I might just go get another one and chaulk this up to a learning experience and not crash the new one. Rats. It only lived 5 days.

I just went out and got another one. It flies fantastic. And I think that I've gotten pretty good since trying to control the screwed up one. I also bought the havoc heli since it was just sitting there on the shelf. That flies great too. So what if it's only two channel, you still have to control it the same way. Anticipating the inherent movement in the heli and using it to keep it in the middle of the room. The tail rotor on the havoc is really exposed though. One good crash and it's gone.

Yea ,finally I find someone with this problem too what do we do Ive looked it over and nothing is bent Ive tried weight and everything and nothing just the down the drain effect . cant wait to get the eflight blade thats nice this is reflex is junk .

I don't think it's junk, really. This problem might have had something to do with crashing it into walls over and over. I came up with an idea though. I might try and put a little turn and/or twist on the tail and see if that isn't the problem.

tryed the tail twist on mine when it first started having issues. all the tail can do is change the spin, doesnt help with pitch.

Ok so NOW THE NEW ONE IS HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM! It started very faintly and has continued to get worse and worse. I DID NOT CRASH THIS ONE EVEN ONE TIME! Until of course it started sailing around the room counter clockwise.

Ok! I just called Spinmaster. The Manufacturing dates on both of the heli's are between October and Feburary (holiday lot). Louis, at spinmaster was very helpful and said I can either return the Heli's back to the store and look for a date code either before October or after Feburary or send them back to spinmaster which would get me the latest lot. Toys-R-Us had a lot of them in stock so I'm going to go look.

The date code is on the bottom of the Heli and the Bottom of the Package.

It looks like this 061128 HM486 Which translates into 2006 November 28th So I am looking for 070201 or later.

The bottom line is that it is probably a defect and that Spinmaster is very willing to fix the problem for you. Call 1-800-622-8339

Update. After all that, I decided to just return the Reflex heli, get my moneyback and went to a LHS and threw in another good chunk-o-change and bought a Heli-Maxx AXE EZ. NOW! I have a helicopter. I am still learning but I hovered in about a 2 foot wide circle 1 foot off the floor. My advice is forget the Airhogs stuff and go out and get a real helicopter with a cyclic control. It's expensive but you would have the thing forever compared to the semi-disposable Reflex which is 60 bucks out the window.

Here are some things for the Air Hogs Reflex helicopter that have worked for me to kill the death spiral:
Background: Bought Blue Reflex online 19 Feb 07 from Toys R US for $44.99 with $10 Google pay discount. It flew too fast forward out of the box, so I wrapped a 2.5 inch wire tie from the container it came in to the end of the tail. I had good hover and control after that. I flew it daily. Mainly inside, some outside when there was no wind or just a slight breeze. My Reflex heli, or my current skills, don't do well in any kind of even gentle breeze...The usual occasional crashes ensued over the days. They were all fairly minor and I was able to chop power to minimize gear damage. One of the things you might want to check is for stripped gears. This would not be easily, if at all fixable, so do chop power immediately when you see a potential crash about to happen. OK, lets do a little inspection. Line up the bottom blades with the body. When you do this, the top blades should be perpendicular. If they are not, that would indicate a possible stripped gear, probably accompanied by a rough grinding-like noise in the worst cases. If that is your problem, then you will likely have to do major surgery to fix this...or see if it can be returned...good luck with that. To further minimize damage to delicate and hard to find blades, I applied 2 inches of clear packing tape over the leading edges of all four blades. It still flew just fine. Then, after one minor crash a few days ago, the spiral of death, as described here and other r/c forums, reared its ugly head. These were ever increasing widening circles and speed that if left to continue would smash the little heli into anything in its wild path with possible further damage. I applied several "fixes" that worked for some others: First, I oiled the shafts at the bearings. I used 3-in-1 oil applied with a toothpick. Others have used WD-40. This is probably good maintenance, but it did not seem to correct the spiral for me. Second, I noticed the tail was very slightly twisted, so I straightened it. There still was no noticeable fix on the spiral. Third, I tightened the hub snugly all the way to the right and flew with the body spinning. I noticed it would stay in a hover this way...hey, some progress! Then I started turning the hub to the left one or two notices at a time and hovering it with the spinning body. I did this gradually until it stopped spinning. At this point, the spiral of death seemed to be reduced, but not eliminated. Then, upon close inspection, I noticed that the top of the bearing that the outer blade shaft goes into at the body of the heli, was sticking out of its hub, ever so slightly. I put the heli in my left hand and pushed down on the bottom blades hub with my right hand's fingers, forcing it back into the bottom of its seat. It really didn't take much pressure, so if you hit the gym everyday and lift the 60lb dumbbells’ in order to grow massive biceps to wow your girlfriends as you fly this little heli with its tiny controller, well then be gentle Reseating the bearing seemed to do the trick for me so far. It flies as stable as it did when new and has for the last few days now. I do not see any cracking in the plastic around this hub, but I might try a very carefully placed small amount of superglue to keep it in place. I have had to push it in a couple of more times after some crashes when the spiral returned. The good news is that reseating it did stop the spiral every time! Now, all of this said, any one of the above might work for you. I may have just hit on a lucky combination, but give'em all a try. Please add more fixes to this forum string if you come across or find any that work for you.
Good luck and happy hovering!
Jim

jesolins - have you got a digital camera you can take a pic of that bearing hub area?