Align 600 vs Raptor 50

[Gate88]

3hrs to change a front torue tube gear set..a bit far fetched me thinks.

No, 15 to 20 mins max, the rest of the time was taken up by trying to put the bearings back on the gear so it ran straight & true without damaging the shaft or gear head, the only way we could do it was make up a rig that pulled them down evenly and into the corrct position, then trying to work out why it made such a god awful noise when in position, repeating the whole proccess with another gear, then trying to fit all the screws back in the plastic hex nuts after they were threading and stripping all over.

[gramey]

For someone relatively new to heli's I find my T Rex 600's easy to work on and in my short time I've found that they are fairly easy to set up. I read one of the posts saying they could barely get their new 600 NSP to hover, which I really couldn't understand. With a modest tool set and a decent swash levelling tool it takes very little time to repair and set mine up in the event of crash.
I don't own but have flown Raptors and they are probably easier to learn on as the one's I've flown have seemed more docile than my 600's. They are however in the right hands as capable a machine as your likely to need. My personal preference was the T Rex as it's easier to calm the 600 down than it is to sharpen the Raptor up.
They're both good heli's and each has their own following I think it's going to come down to your own preference regarding which you like the look of and the price/availability of spares. Whichever one you buy it will still have the same thumbs on the end of it!

[barney]

I assume you are talking about the umbrella gear Gate?..To remove it I use a short piece of an old Torque Tube to drift it out whilst the housing is still between the boom housing halves.

To refit I just put the umbrella gear face down on a piece of wood (cloth on the wood) and push the housing down and tap the housing down over the umbrella gear till its fully home. I then check to see how much gear play there is when its all assembled and then if necessary will use the TT tool to tap the umbrella gear back out a shade to ensure a good mesh.

Meshing the gear as above and running the tail blades fairly loose will help avoid pre-mature gear stripping

Robgt has a good repair thread over at 50 tuning concerning this.

The rear plastic hex spacers can be replaced with the alloy ones.

[electricsceadu]

Hirobo/JR make lovely heli's but there spares come at a price and tbh alot of people in this hobby want it cheap and cheerful Have seen the SDX close up and very nice bit of kit .. or even a JR Vibe .. Align do have the parts pricing sown up over other mfrs , but there's still others out there that do decent prices on spares ... I got no issues with my 2 knights and only got the second one because I liked the first one that much and with Rappy paddles on it, it makes it nice for my style of flying ..I even sold my Raptor as they are like chalk and cheese to fly

i can see the sdx every day as i own one
and yes its a great bit of kit
but the question asked was raptor or 600
having only ever flown the raptor 30/50's but never owned one and owning a 600
it has to be a raptor, sorry to all the align fans on here the trex has no durability compared to the raptor,sceadu/sdx50

i was the odd one out at the club flying a sceadu not a raptor
so you don't need to follow the sheep

but one thing i will say is that if you are crashing every time you go flying then go for a 600 due to the normal crash item spares are cheaper than the others but be aware some of the spares cost more

[Gate88]

Chomp Chomp Chomp!


That's the sound of me eating humble pie!

After a many, many, frustrating hours, at 2:30 today my 600 was finally airborne.

After such a series of nightmares I was determined to hate this heli but I have to admit,

I actually really like how it flies.



I said: I really like how it flies ok!

A lot of thanks goes to Mark B & especially Jaco for sticking with it but dispite hurricane force winds it flew like an absolute dream!

[crash-alot]

Remember to update your SIG!

[snapshot]

After all that frustration and hating it, it finally flies and you like it.

Glad you got it sorted, often a problem with S/H but perseverance has paid off!

[waveydavey]

I'm not glad he got it sorted I was going to be a Super Sport up for a tenner, oh drat.

[barney]

Thats cool Gate..glad you persisted. Sometimes it takes a little while to fall in love..LOl.

cheers Brian

[anth.payne]

Dont mean to hijack the thread here - but i just joined

I've been looking at helis for ages now, however not been looking for a while due to personal circ's.

Originally I was dead set on a Trex 600. Was thinking of getting a Super Pro kit since it pretty much has everything exc. servos gyro and radio...

However I've seen some positive reviews on the ElyQ Vision 50? Just wanting to throw this in the mix - is it a viable budget option?

[moyesboy]

Hi and welcome to the forum
its unusual for folks to resurect threads that are more than a few months old. There is no need to be worried about asking quastions that have been asked before. sometimes foks will refer you to pics and stuff from old threads in the responses.

Since this thread, raptors got older and didn't change much. They launched a new SE i think...
At our little remote club where raptors once ruled most have changed to 600n.

The elyQ uses many raptor parts and i think works out cheap. however it still uses a split plastic molding frame design and you have to pen it to change bearings etc. folks say the raptor is mechanically good but I found the clutchand drive bearing bit was not up to .50 power. The bits for this on the ElyQ are all the same as the raptor. The elyQ is a ccpm 3 servo swash and the head at least has more pitch range than the limited raptor.

I like the way the 600n goes together and I think it is wel engineered. After breaking the torqur tube gears a few times consider fitting the blet drive tail from the sport, or even buying a sport rather than pro or super pro. The tail works just as good with belt drive and it is more robust. I can't really tell the difference between the autos on my sport and my pro.

[anth.payne]

Thanks for your advice, much appreciated

I started a new thread, as I thought it was more appropriate

I think ultimately my main concern is value for money, as opposed to total cost (if that makes sense?)

[Mark_T]

folks say the raptor is mechanically good but I found the clutchand drive bearing bit was not up to .50 power. The bits for this on the ElyQ are all the same as the raptor. The elyQ is a ccpm 3 servo swash and the head at least has more pitch range than the limited raptor.

Just a shade out of date there

How much more than +/- 15 degrees do you want?

The new Titan SE changed the few things you could point at on the old one as weak or limiting.

Take a good look at the changes and the flight videos then decide if there is anything much more to improve on the new Raptor.

I do understand why people like the eCCPM options but don't dismiss the new Raptor without actually checking what has changed.

[Tom Burgess]

Just a shade out of date there

How much more than +/- 15 degrees do you want?

The new Titan SE changed the few things you could point at on the old one as weak or limiting.

Take a good look at the changes and the flight videos then decide if there is anything much more to improve on the new Raptor.

I do understand why people like the eCCPM options but don't dismiss the new Raptor without actually checking what has changed.

This is the only way the raptor is keeping up, by adding 3 degrees of pitch and getting top pilots to fly it. give it to any klutz with that much pitch and they will bog the hell out of it, its masking a problem. for the same max pitch, a 600, velocity, vision, sdx or sceadu will out perfom it, simples

[Mark_T]

There are always going to be pros and cons for these things, but for someone starting out it is hard to beat the simplicity of set-up offered by the Raptor and the robust construction which will better survive the 'arrivals' and tail/ground contacts likely to occur with a beginner.

I also suspect your 'klutz' is going to bog the head on anything that gives him 15 degrees