During the first flight, the tail rotor made contact with the grass and I lost all tail rotation. Examining the heli, I noticed that the main gear and tail rotor were totally disengaged from each other. Apparently, they went to a plastic torque tube in the 180. When the rotation of the tail rotor was impeded, the motor was easily powerful enough to twist the end of the shaft right off.
I thought about replacing it with a metal one but decided against it. Something has to give, and if it isn't the torque tube, what will it be? I learned this with the 130, if you start changing everything out to metal, you can start bashing the helicopter up really bad in crashes. The torque tube is so easy to change out, you can do it in less than a minute.
After removing one screw in the side of the tail fin, you pull off the whole tail assembly and the torque tube falls right out. I found this pack of 2 for about $13 on Amazon. The shaft rides inside a bearing that fits inside the tail boom, and the new ones come with the bearing already on the shaft.
I'll try to post a flight video soon. Stay tuned.
