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With me being a Flybarless virgin, all this talk of V-Baaaaaaaaaaaaa and 3GX and anti-bounce, de-piro stabiliswotsit had my head in tatters trying to work out what the hell you lot were on about!!
Enter Sheryl with a Knight 3d airframe for £50, me being northern, a bargain cannot be missed. Money exchanged hands, I had a K3d again after 4 years since I sold my last two when I sold up! Woohoo!
My intention after a discussion with Sheryl was to go flybarless with the K3d, as I already knew how well they fly from when ive had them before. And thus came the time to choose a flybarless controller. The choice was quite simple really. I already fly Spartan Gyros and they are rock solid, so a Vortex was sourced off here again for bargain money.
First impressions...... GOD ITS TINY!! the sensor is the same size as a quark gyro, and the main unit not much bigger!! It was duly mounted on the Knight and then some Align DS615's, a DS655 on throttle and a Bls251 on the tail were also introduced to the mix along with a Redline 53 for power and a KDS Regulator.
Setup was super simple, step by step procedure in the Datapod, and within 5 mins a flybarless virgin was all set ready to rock, all bar the usual throttle arm fettling and tail rod adjustments that youd need to do on a flybar machine anyway.
SO fast forward to last weekend, and the maiden flights. All preflight checks done, throttle set up on bench, and a tentative hover in rate mode to set the tail and were ready to rock. Or that would be we WOULD be ready to rock if the damned engine wasnt being a pain in the posterior!!
Fast forward some more to today and ive got the engine running miles better, still not 100% but close enough to fly! So without a do, I do the trim flight as advised in the manual. All values came down acceptable even in a strong breeze, which was very re assuring. Canopy on its time to give it some welly.
What a transformation!! The heli is soooo stable yet as agile as a 450!! It tracks perfectly, does everything youd want effortlessly and its got BAGS of poke!! I did a couple of speed runs with it to try it out and I now have flies splattered on my canopy!! WOOP
Through loops it tracks perfect arcs, it flips on the spot, its quite simply exactly how youd want a heli to fly!! I did initially have the unit set in sport mode, but wheter it just me or not felt that there was less negative pitch than positive. So 30 seconds with the datapod and im in 3d mode!!
Its alive!! All of the above just better!! It seems to just do everything BETTER in 3d mode!! It feels like my Raptor 90 to fly now and thats a well sorted and damned fine machine! Yet all the aforementioned agility is still there maybe a bit more besides!!
Yes this is my first flybarless machine, but the bug has been bitten!! Im converting the lot to Vortex now!!
Possibly the best £200+ ive ever spent on helis!!
Videos below first is in sport mode 2nd is in 3d. And you can hear the engine just not quite right causing a minor tail oscillation, but ill dial that out next flight.
Enter Sheryl with a Knight 3d airframe for £50, me being northern, a bargain cannot be missed. Money exchanged hands, I had a K3d again after 4 years since I sold my last two when I sold up! Woohoo!
My intention after a discussion with Sheryl was to go flybarless with the K3d, as I already knew how well they fly from when ive had them before. And thus came the time to choose a flybarless controller. The choice was quite simple really. I already fly Spartan Gyros and they are rock solid, so a Vortex was sourced off here again for bargain money.
First impressions...... GOD ITS TINY!! the sensor is the same size as a quark gyro, and the main unit not much bigger!! It was duly mounted on the Knight and then some Align DS615's, a DS655 on throttle and a Bls251 on the tail were also introduced to the mix along with a Redline 53 for power and a KDS Regulator.
Setup was super simple, step by step procedure in the Datapod, and within 5 mins a flybarless virgin was all set ready to rock, all bar the usual throttle arm fettling and tail rod adjustments that youd need to do on a flybar machine anyway.
SO fast forward to last weekend, and the maiden flights. All preflight checks done, throttle set up on bench, and a tentative hover in rate mode to set the tail and were ready to rock. Or that would be we WOULD be ready to rock if the damned engine wasnt being a pain in the posterior!!
Fast forward some more to today and ive got the engine running miles better, still not 100% but close enough to fly! So without a do, I do the trim flight as advised in the manual. All values came down acceptable even in a strong breeze, which was very re assuring. Canopy on its time to give it some welly.
What a transformation!! The heli is soooo stable yet as agile as a 450!! It tracks perfectly, does everything youd want effortlessly and its got BAGS of poke!! I did a couple of speed runs with it to try it out and I now have flies splattered on my canopy!! WOOP
Through loops it tracks perfect arcs, it flips on the spot, its quite simply exactly how youd want a heli to fly!! I did initially have the unit set in sport mode, but wheter it just me or not felt that there was less negative pitch than positive. So 30 seconds with the datapod and im in 3d mode!!Its alive!! All of the above just better!! It seems to just do everything BETTER in 3d mode!! It feels like my Raptor 90 to fly now and thats a well sorted and damned fine machine! Yet all the aforementioned agility is still there maybe a bit more besides!!
Yes this is my first flybarless machine, but the bug has been bitten!! Im converting the lot to Vortex now!!
Possibly the best £200+ ive ever spent on helis!!
Videos below first is in sport mode 2nd is in 3d. And you can hear the engine just not quite right causing a minor tail oscillation, but ill dial that out next flight.
and a platinum star 
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