The E5 seems like a high quality helicopter with design innovations and beefy over-engineered components. However, the way the kit is shipped with pre-assembled components is making the build not as straight forward as could be.
I understand that having components loosely pre-assembled makes it easier for Synergy to make sure all components are included and that nothing is missing. From the customer end, it is nice to not have to look through bags of hardware, and possible get similarly looking hardware confused. However, if some pre-assembled parts are going to indiscriminantly be assembled with Loctite or some other kind of adhesive, I rather not have any of the components pre-assembled at all.
The worst offender so far is the spindle shaft. Not just Loctite, but Red Loctite? If for whatever reason (legal reasons have been rumored) Synergy cannot ship spindle shafts pre-assembled without Red Loctite, please do not ship pre-assembled. Yes, I know I can apply heat to loosen up the screws, but there should not be a need to do that in the first place. 
Pre-assembing the two mushroom gears is also not good. The mushroom gears are difficult to remove without potentially damaging the bearings. I like to grease these high rpm bearings with the greaser, but I do not want to risk destroying the bearings in the process of accessing them.
The tail Pitch Slider Assembly is another one. I almost destroyed it trying take it apart to apply Loctite and CA like the manual states. If Synergy is going to pre-assemble this part with Loctite, the manual should reflect so.
Lastly, all screws come with a protective film of oil. I understand that I have to clean off each screw individually. However, how does one clean off the oil residue from inner threads? Q-tips are too big to fit inside M3 and smaller holes. I would prefer if the inner threads were not contaminated with oil from pre-assembly.
BTW, my wife does not want me to place parts either in the oven or in the freezer or anywhere food goes in order to loosen parts.
I can only imagine the research and development that took place to engineer the E5. After all that effort, it's silly loose points due to shipping with detrimentally pre-assembled components.
I have assembled two Synergy E5s and assisted in the assembly of a number of others. In addition I have assembled a E7 and I disagree with some of your statements. I find the Synergy E5 build pretty straight forward.
Having loosely pre-assembled modules helps new to Synergy builders understand how components or sub assemblies should be assembled. Further, nothing is more frustrating than a kit missing pieces if you have never experienced this then my guess is that you have been very lucky. I have assembled helicopter kits from two other major manufactures both of which were missing parts. The replacement parts took nearly a week to arrive further adding to my unhappiness.
The reason that some parts are assembled with thread lock is because of the refusal of people to take responsibility for their actions or in this case lack of action (IE. forgetting to thread lock main blade grips to the head axle shaft). This of course leads injury which leads to litigation which in turn leads to higher prices for the consumer (you, me, us). Next, lets assume that nothing was thread locked and all of the parts were bagged as you suggest. You build your new helicopter per the instructions and it flies great. Sooner or later you are going to crash it (hopefully much later). After you crash your helicopter are you not then going to repair it? If so would you not have to deal with the same thread lock that you are dealing with now? If you are having problems disassembling the head axle shaft I would suggest that maybe you do not have the proper tools. I know that you have "T" handle wrenches from your previous posts. If you also have a Grippy nothing more is required except torque. Heat will reduce the amount of torque required but if you are using quality hardened tools even red Locktite will break loose without heat. I really dislike digging through bags of parts and hope the current method continues.
Every kit manufactures bolts have oil on them without exception. The oil exists because when you use a die to cut threads on a bolt there has to lubricant present to lubricate the cutter. I am unaware of a helicopter manufacture that removes all of the oil before shipping. From a practical stand point all that is required is to drop the bolts and or components in a bowl containing denatured alcohol let them sit a minute, remove them from the bowl and let them dry. The whole process takes only a few minutes which IMHO is much less time that it would take to dig through a bunch of plastic bags for parts. The other option is to use Locktite 243 which is oil insensitive.
The freezer and oven trick I mentioned are for those that don't have proper tools on hand in most cases. That said, if you have ever had to replace the bearings in a nitro motor, heating the crank case in order to remove the old bearings is standard practice. I guess this is the reason it seems pretty natural to me to have to heat parts like blade grips and bearing blocks to remove the bearings.
When I joined the world of RC if you wanted to fly something you purchased plans and Balsa Wood and built it. If you were lucky you could find a kit that you liked with die cut Balsa parts (woohoo
) but, you still had to build it. Building required skill, patients and the right tools for the task. Today the RC world is inundated with ready to fly airplanes and helicopters, simply take them out of the box charge them up and fly. What has been lost to parts of our hobby is the skill and patients involved with actual modeling. When the ARF / RTF fliers crash one of three things generally takes place. One, they quit the hobby. Two, they buy a new ARF. Three, they ask you to fix it. I remember a time that if you showed up at a club flying site with a ARF aircraft that you would be practically shunned. Today when you visit most club airfields all you see are ARFs and foam aircraft. I don't want a cookie cutter helicopter (you purchased a Synergy obviously neither do you) and I have no desire to be part of the "herd" of people that do. Yes, Synergy helicopters require some modeling skills to complete. Yes, they require tools that the plastic snap together helicopters do not but, in the end you have a helicopter that will reward you with great flight performance and durability. When newbies ask, "You have to build it?" or "you built that?" you can have a since of pride in answering, "Yes I did!"
I have on a couple of occasions heard Matt say " his helicopter kits are not for beginners or novice builders" I always argue the point that anyone with some modeling skills, some mechanical aptitude and the proper tools can build any Synergy kit. Lacking any one of these can make the build seem more difficult than it actually is.
I hope that I'm not misguided in thinking that there are many of us that still enjoy the building stage of modeling, to include the challenging parts. After building kits from other manufactures I can't think of a single thing I would change in the way Synergy kits arrive. Synergy helicopters are "builders helicopters" and I for one hope that never changes. IMHO Synergy hasn't lost any points!
Rich
