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Draft version, I have not had a chance to proof read yet.
July 31st, maybe the best day of the year as not only was it my birthday but more importantly the weather forecast was 29% broken cloud and 3 MPH gusts, which is why I scheduled my heli test for this date. All 3 helis were in fit condition but when I got them out I realise the knight was equipped with TT blades while the other 2 had Radix, after a number of phone calls a quick trip down the road I had that issue sorted that out.
Off to the field and out with the 3 helis, the Knight was up first, with a spec of Hyper/MP5, 9255, RL20, Logictech 6100 and Radix 600/95 running around +/-10 with a gear ratio of 8.7.
First I checked the head speed which was around 2050, then I check the tail which had a slight left drift in head & hold mode, it was not enough to worry about as my tail don't stay still for long. I had a quick trash and she was felling great but I like things perfect so I landed and started playing with the gyro to get it spot on after a few adjustments I spooled up and then there was sound of transmission loss as the engine quickly accelerated without the blades accelerating. I slammed the throttle back to idle and on investigating found 2 teeth missing from the main gear (at this point I must admit I tend to flip into idle up a bit early sometimes and this could of been the cause). anyway after a call to RSPBlake a new gear was winging to me (in under 30min, now that is impressive).
Whilst I was waiting for the gear to turn up I took the Raptor to the sky’s, spec is
Hyper/MP2, 9252, Throttle Jockey Rev Max, GY401/9254 and Radix 600/95, running at +/-13.5 with a gear ratio of 8.73.
Now, this is no normal Raptor with a full Kasama Head and fully QUK from the boom backwards as well as some other little extras.
Now this honey was cooking on nitro, very hard for me to unintentional bog, loads of spare pitch in tic tocs, I think BobJ must of based his Phoenix model on this baby (although I think all the models on Phoenix are a little OTT power wise espically for someone like meself who has poor collective management). I could really throw this model around and like the Knight if felt comfortable and put a lot of confidence into my abilities.
I then decided to give the Trex 600N a go it has a spec of Hyper/MP5, 9541, RL20, Cyclock (as there is a round 5° phasing on mine), GY611/9256, Radix 600 & Align tail also running +/-13.5 with a gear ration of 8.5.
I do like this heli, the build quality, the looks, the PIRO RATE!!!!! but at 2100 on the head the sounds the engine makes is like a psychedelic heli ready for anything even the clutch engages so late that the pick up is half way to the Hypers 17,500 sweet spot. Unfortunately this is all bark and not as much bite, I found my heli to bog pretty easy in tic tocs and had to ease off have way through a tic to wait for the head speed to pick back up, as others have said it seems to be an head speed heli rather than a power/torque heli.
So at this point my mind was made up, that the my Raptor was better than my Trex, so now I had to battle it against the Knight.
After Rob turned up we fitted the main gear, now one of the things I like/dislike about the Knight is its thinking out side the box when working on it. I know with my other helis I need a 3.5mm hex driver and a 5.5mm nut driver, now the Knight has the same nut and bolt but you need different tools and other tools to do the work. We eventually got the work done and the Knight was ready for acton again.
So the Knight was up first and after sorting the previously mentioned tail issue I was skyward, The Knight sucks…………… you in
and makes you fell like some sort of 3D champion, with my confidence growing I got more and more daring with my how low can you go tumbles, well put it this way, yesterday (1/8/07) I was certain that I was going to hit the tail and then the main blades all in the same flip, I hit the T/H as the heli went past nose vertical downwards in a last part of a back flip, I slammed the pitch down and planted it on the deck level on the skids with little head speed remaining, I had got away with it scott free and I was so happy that I had to spool back up for some more action. This is the type of heli the Knight is and although when you start going OTT and it does bogs, the 8.7 ratio does an excellent job at holding the power unlike the Trex600 which once it is lost it is a lot harder to recover (normally on the Rex you to come to 0 pitch until it is back up.
Up with the Raptor (which I admit has an unfair advantage), not only is it non standard out the box but it is also my first proper heli and I have owned it a lot longer than the other 2, therfore I know it’s capability’s a lot better and had more time dialling it in. This heli always performs in my eyes but today I had a witness with me to give me some feedback and they also agreed that it sounded a sweeter in the air and when performing the manoeuvres. The pitch power on this heli is awesome as it does not have the standard 8:5 ratio but rather an optional 8:73 ratio which really converts the hyper power, when I fly other Raptor 50’s at our field they feel so under powered in the standard form.
Full cyclic Aileron and elevator tumbles and the head speed was floorless, I could do so much more tighter rapid tic tocs and head speed was like “what you want me to work” and then laughs at you. Although when I had it out yesterday I tried a set of V blades and they where easy to bog and limited by my abilities as they require excellent collective management IMO, but they are sure sharp through the air and very procise but do not suit my ablilitys therefore I am going to stick the Radix back on. I also put the TT blades back onto the Knight yesterday and it still performs just as well as when it had the Raidx.
So from my test I found for me my favourite is:
1st Nutz Spec Raptor
2nd Knight 3D
3rd Trex600N
I was contemplating on selling the Trex 600N but at costing £1200 to build and buying a sports kit for spares I think I will hang onto it and use it as a sports machine rather than hard 3Der, I must admit the Trex 600N is one of the best looking helis I have ever seen...........second to my Raptor.
In reflection to the gear ratios I think the Trex would work better on a different ratio as the standard Raptor 8:5 ratio was 10t pinion and 85T main gear were as Align has double this but stuck to the same 8:5 ratio by going 20T pinion and 180T. But it would seem 8:7 ratio is the way to go.
July 31st, maybe the best day of the year as not only was it my birthday but more importantly the weather forecast was 29% broken cloud and 3 MPH gusts, which is why I scheduled my heli test for this date. All 3 helis were in fit condition but when I got them out I realise the knight was equipped with TT blades while the other 2 had Radix, after a number of phone calls a quick trip down the road I had that issue sorted that out.
Off to the field and out with the 3 helis, the Knight was up first, with a spec of Hyper/MP5, 9255, RL20, Logictech 6100 and Radix 600/95 running around +/-10 with a gear ratio of 8.7.
First I checked the head speed which was around 2050, then I check the tail which had a slight left drift in head & hold mode, it was not enough to worry about as my tail don't stay still for long. I had a quick trash and she was felling great but I like things perfect so I landed and started playing with the gyro to get it spot on after a few adjustments I spooled up and then there was sound of transmission loss as the engine quickly accelerated without the blades accelerating. I slammed the throttle back to idle and on investigating found 2 teeth missing from the main gear (at this point I must admit I tend to flip into idle up a bit early sometimes and this could of been the cause). anyway after a call to RSPBlake a new gear was winging to me (in under 30min, now that is impressive).
Whilst I was waiting for the gear to turn up I took the Raptor to the sky’s, spec is
Hyper/MP2, 9252, Throttle Jockey Rev Max, GY401/9254 and Radix 600/95, running at +/-13.5 with a gear ratio of 8.73.
Now, this is no normal Raptor with a full Kasama Head and fully QUK from the boom backwards as well as some other little extras.
Now this honey was cooking on nitro, very hard for me to unintentional bog, loads of spare pitch in tic tocs, I think BobJ must of based his Phoenix model on this baby (although I think all the models on Phoenix are a little OTT power wise espically for someone like meself who has poor collective management). I could really throw this model around and like the Knight if felt comfortable and put a lot of confidence into my abilities.
I then decided to give the Trex 600N a go it has a spec of Hyper/MP5, 9541, RL20, Cyclock (as there is a round 5° phasing on mine), GY611/9256, Radix 600 & Align tail also running +/-13.5 with a gear ration of 8.5.
I do like this heli, the build quality, the looks, the PIRO RATE!!!!! but at 2100 on the head the sounds the engine makes is like a psychedelic heli ready for anything even the clutch engages so late that the pick up is half way to the Hypers 17,500 sweet spot. Unfortunately this is all bark and not as much bite, I found my heli to bog pretty easy in tic tocs and had to ease off have way through a tic to wait for the head speed to pick back up, as others have said it seems to be an head speed heli rather than a power/torque heli.
So at this point my mind was made up, that the my Raptor was better than my Trex, so now I had to battle it against the Knight.
After Rob turned up we fitted the main gear, now one of the things I like/dislike about the Knight is its thinking out side the box when working on it. I know with my other helis I need a 3.5mm hex driver and a 5.5mm nut driver, now the Knight has the same nut and bolt but you need different tools and other tools to do the work. We eventually got the work done and the Knight was ready for acton again.
So the Knight was up first and after sorting the previously mentioned tail issue I was skyward, The Knight sucks…………… you in
and makes you fell like some sort of 3D champion, with my confidence growing I got more and more daring with my how low can you go tumbles, well put it this way, yesterday (1/8/07) I was certain that I was going to hit the tail and then the main blades all in the same flip, I hit the T/H as the heli went past nose vertical downwards in a last part of a back flip, I slammed the pitch down and planted it on the deck level on the skids with little head speed remaining, I had got away with it scott free and I was so happy that I had to spool back up for some more action. This is the type of heli the Knight is and although when you start going OTT and it does bogs, the 8.7 ratio does an excellent job at holding the power unlike the Trex600 which once it is lost it is a lot harder to recover (normally on the Rex you to come to 0 pitch until it is back up. Up with the Raptor (which I admit has an unfair advantage), not only is it non standard out the box but it is also my first proper heli and I have owned it a lot longer than the other 2, therfore I know it’s capability’s a lot better and had more time dialling it in. This heli always performs in my eyes but today I had a witness with me to give me some feedback and they also agreed that it sounded a sweeter in the air and when performing the manoeuvres. The pitch power on this heli is awesome as it does not have the standard 8:5 ratio but rather an optional 8:73 ratio which really converts the hyper power, when I fly other Raptor 50’s at our field they feel so under powered in the standard form.
Full cyclic Aileron and elevator tumbles and the head speed was floorless, I could do so much more tighter rapid tic tocs and head speed was like “what you want me to work” and then laughs at you. Although when I had it out yesterday I tried a set of V blades and they where easy to bog and limited by my abilities as they require excellent collective management IMO, but they are sure sharp through the air and very procise but do not suit my ablilitys therefore I am going to stick the Radix back on. I also put the TT blades back onto the Knight yesterday and it still performs just as well as when it had the Raidx.
So from my test I found for me my favourite is:
1st Nutz Spec Raptor
2nd Knight 3D
3rd Trex600N
I was contemplating on selling the Trex 600N but at costing £1200 to build and buying a sports kit for spares I think I will hang onto it and use it as a sports machine rather than hard 3Der, I must admit the Trex 600N is one of the best looking helis I have ever seen...........second to my Raptor.
In reflection to the gear ratios I think the Trex would work better on a different ratio as the standard Raptor 8:5 ratio was 10t pinion and 85T main gear were as Align has double this but stuck to the same 8:5 ratio by going 20T pinion and 180T. But it would seem 8:7 ratio is the way to go.
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