poss trex 500 clone?

[stevek32]

hi all,

I am thinking of getting myself a 500 clone,

poss this;

Gootch Trex 500 ARF kit. Top Quality UK supplier! | eBay

unless anyone else has other ideas?

but basically i need to know what electrics to use, i already have the align 750 gyro + align 60A esc, but i need to know what;

1, motor or kv rating,
2, cyclic servos
3, tail servo
4, battery

also if there is something i can save a £ or two even better im not necessarily just wanting to kit it out with purely align gear but i know a decent gyro is a must which i've got and a decent esc again i've already got. but i need tried and tested gear that does what it says on the tin.


any help or advice on any of the above would be great.

[Rctintin]

PM on its way

[Si Goodchild]

Woah! That's the exact same one that Giant Cod Sell for £69. Cheaper postage too. I have had 2 and it can be made to fly well.

HK-500GT CCPM Alloy/Carbon Fibre 3D Electric

My thoughts on this model are reproduced below from a pm I sent out recently:

"The stock GC HK500GT is pretty good for £69 although I did have a little trouble fitting a genuine Align tail boom: the length and diameter are a tiny bit different, so I had to buy a new belt too.

Personally, I used Turnigy 930MG servos (about £8.46 each) from Hobby King, and a genuine GY401 gyro with Align 520 tail servo. The knock-off 401b gyro can be made to work okay but it does drift, the HK CA250 (or similar name) looks like a knock-off of the Spartan Quark gyro and at £6.05 seems pretty good. I junked the stock GF blades and went for Pro3D units from GC/HK and they work great - some good reviews on here. The 1800kv Turnigy Typhoon (or similar, from HK or GC) motor for about £20 is crazy-powerful and chews through a 6s 3000 40c batt in about 3:30. The more standard 1600kv unit will probably be just fine and much more efficient. That said, I love the way she screams into the sky from a standing start at 100% throttle!

I used a 80A HobbyWing ESC from GC for £45 becuase it had good reviews for the soft-start. Personally I think this soft start is okay, but not as good as the Align unit.

Finally, I junked the plastic paddles for Align CF ones and swapped out the tail grip assembly for genuine because (both) of the HK500 ones ran rough - not good for a tail rotor. I also changed over the skid assembly because the Align one looks so much better.

So building one is not super-cheap, but it can be made to work really well. The £69 headline cost is just the tip of the iceberg and I'd advise you to price everything up carefully, including postage, then compare with the new Align 500E (basic model combo) and decide which way to go. If the new align kit was available when I was buying I'd be sorely tempted - it'll be more trouble-free, hold it's value better and look better. The electricals will be better too. The HK makes sense if you already have a lot of the electronics to hand (which I did when I wrote off the first airframe!)."