Nitro pro first impressions

[garydraf]

Hi all, i've not long finished the initial build of my pro Rex and flight tested the little beast. I have to say despite a few minor problems with my govenor failing to come online and my carbsmart sensor going open circuit i was really impressed with the heli, it went together with no problems at all, my only critisism was the questionable +-14 collective pitch, i got +-13 after some adjusting and binding checks. The handling and power to weight ratio even before djusting have put my Knight 50 pro to shame.

The heli is now partially stripped down for some mod's and adjustments, carbon tail boom, metal mainshaft bearing holders, metal hex rods in the tail mounting to get rid of the self tapping screws, metal fan, header tank and metal fin clamp. I suspect i'll be back visiting the head to get rid of some plastic parts once they wear and develope play but in the mean time I may as well get some use of them whilst their nice and tight.

The heli is is quite well fitted out, 9255's on the cyclic, gy611 + 9256 on the tail, 3152 on the throttle, a quick micro servo on my needle valve, csm revloc 20, csm carbsmart, flightpower regulator (5.1v), 2500mah evolite lipo, OS hyper 50 / mp5, radix main and tail blades and finally stubz paddles (weights all the way out at paddles).

My overall plan is to get my Rex tunned up for some aggressive 3d, fast piroflips and sustained chaos. I gave it a bit on the test flight but it just got bogged down after 2 -3 flips, hopefully some more tunning + cabsmart, cyclic / collective pitch throw adjustments and repositioning of the flybar weights will get it to perform. I had considdered going for some v-blades once i've run out of options. By the way has anyone noticed a sizable difference between radix blades and v blades? I've seen alot of trex's with both types and they both have their pro's and cons.

Another thing i found during my test flights was that i needed quite alot of demand on my tailrotor to get it to a fast piro. That was with the Gy611 in both F3c and 3D modes, i'm used to having the tail whipping around at about half stick left and right. Would expo on my tail channel be the best way to speed it up or can this be done on the GY611 control amp?

I'll update this once i've made the modifications for anyone who's interested and try to explain what all i've changed on the heli and more importantly why!

I'm very much open to any suggestions and hopefully we can all benifit from eachothers experience.

[moonmanflyer]

Hi all, i've not long finished the initial build of my pro Rex and flight tested the little beast. I have to say despite a few minor problems with my govenor failing to come online and my carbsmart sensor going open circuit i was really impressed with the heli, it went together with no problems at all, my only critisism was the questionable +-14 collective pitch, i got +-13 after some adjusting and binding checks. The handling and power to weight ratio even before djusting have put my Knight 50 pro to shame.

The heli is now partially stripped down for some mod's and adjustments, carbon tail boom, metal mainshaft bearing holders, metal hex rods in the tail mounting to get rid of the self tapping screws, metal fan, header tank and metal fin clamp. I suspect i'll be back visiting the head to get rid of some plastic parts once they wear and develope play but in the mean time I may as well get some use of them whilst their nice and tight.

The heli is is quite well fitted out, 9255's on the cyclic, gy611 + 9256 on the tail, 3152 on the throttle, a quick micro servo on my needle valve, csm revloc 20, csm carbsmart, flightpower regulator (5.1v), 2500mah evolite lipo, OS hyper 50 / mp5, radix main and tail blades and finally stubz paddles (weights all the way out at paddles).

My overall plan is to get my Rex tunned up for some aggressive 3d, fast piroflips and sustained chaos. I gave it a bit on the test flight but it just got bogged down after 2 -3 flips, hopefully some more tunning + cabsmart, cyclic / collective pitch throw adjustments and repositioning of the flybar weights will get it to perform. I had considdered going for some v-blades once i've run out of options. By the way has anyone noticed a sizable difference between radix blades and v blades? I've seen alot of trex's with both types and they both have their pro's and cons.

Another thing i found during my test flights was that i needed quite alot of demand on my tailrotor to get it to a fast piro. That was with the Gy611 in both F3c and 3D modes, i'm used to having the tail whipping around at about half stick left and right. Would expo on my tail channel be the best way to speed it up or can this be done on the GY611 control amp?

I'll update this once i've made the modifications for anyone who's interested and try to explain what all i've changed on the heli and more importantly why!

I'm very much open to any suggestions and hopefully we can all benifit from eachothers experience.

Glad you like it, love mine.
As for blades, i did originally have radix blades but wanted something a bit snappier so got some tst vblades, initially i loved them but i think they had a negative effect on my flying, i found i was being to aggressive and causing more bogging of the motor.
When i got my super pro i desided to give the align blades a bash, and really get on with them, very similar to the radix blades but 20 quid less.
Maybe one day i will go back to the vblades but i think i need to get better collective management first to make use of the stiffer blades.
The only other downside is they are alot harder to auto than any other blade i have tried, probably ok on a 90, but i struggle to get a really clean landing on the v's

[shaun.e]

Mmmmm veryyyyy envious. My 600NSP is in build and I am really enjoying the engineering. Got any pics of the electrics?

[robgt]

You have to fly V blades quite accurately to avoid bogging your heli too much - most (if not all) other blades are more forgiving - they just don't have that same snappiness that only V Blades seem to have.

Cheers,
Rob

[moonmanflyer]

You have to fly V blades quite accurately to avoid bogging your heli too much - most (if not all) other blades are more forgiving - they just don't have that same snappiness that only V Blades seem to have.

Cheers,
Rob

I agree rob, and i think that was my problem, i haven't the skills to hold accurate manovers in tight, and so was over compensating on the pitch inputs, say on tick-tocks, so since going to a softer blade, i have come on alot in a short time, and with a bit of advice from adiesmith, as i tend to fly with him sometimes has helped no end.

[ChrisB]

I have owned my 600N and 600N Pro for about a year now and they have been fantastic models to own and fly,i simply would not part with them for any other model.My Raptors were always very relaible but apart from an initial prob with each model(plastic fan on the Pro) and one way locking on the normal one,these have been 100% trouble free,i recently tried a different brand and it wasnt a patch on these

I have seen the Super Pro and i must admit i was very impressed with the quality for the price

[garydraf]

Finally got my rex upgraded and back in the air and i'm pleased to say it's awesome!
The metal main mast bearing blocks do make a difference, the mast feels stiffer and much more firmly embedded in the airframe if that makes any sense. That may or may not show up in flight but it's nice to know there's no play in between the head and airframe. I've got the carbon tail boom on now and it looks much better, there should be next to no flex in the boom now but with a gy611 fitted i didn't notice any difference as the tail authority was already very good.
I moved the flybar weights as far in towards the main shaft as i could for the stubz paddles and it made a huge difference, the cyclic is now much more powerful and very responsive. The Heli can now roll around itself ridiculously fast but... this is the important bit... it still feels "locked in" in the hover and very accurately holds any attitude you put it in.
I really like how this Heli behaves, it just does exactly what its told and only what it's told. This is very much like my Knight 50 pro except every thing happens much faster with the Rex. Having sorted my govenor problem i started to throw the heli around to see how the gov and carb smart would cope with keeping the hyper on song and i have to say with +-12 collective and big cyclic inputs it didn't seem to bog down much even on tic toc's, i did get it to bog a bit with +14 degrees but i had expected that.
My fun came to an abrupt end when i decided to auto. I had planned to auto down to around 20 feet then spool up and go around again so as to get a feel for it's auto performance. The model seemed to float quite nicely and retained plenty of head speed throughout the decent, i got to about 20 feet and unselected throttle hold. The engine failed to spool up and remained at idle! Fortunately as the result of unselecting hold my pitch curves reverted to a max neg pitch of -10 which lost me around 15 feet and assisted me in bringing the chopper down as i might have decided to float around 20 feet waiting for the engine to come back online! The auto was completed successfully and i'd enough head speed to hover for a second or two and even do i pirotte for the fun of it. Closer inspection revealed that my carb was stuck at idle and the servo was stalling, i disconnected the servo and the problem was definately the carb. The carb barrel rotates in the carb assembly and is guided by a small screw which is seated inside a groove on the barrel. The barrel for some reason had jamed against the screw. I removed the barrel and cleaned it with fuel, there was no sign of the groove being deformed or any evidence of a cause. I refitted the barrel and so far have been unable to recreate the fault! Perhaps it only happens when the engine reaches a certain temperature causing the barrel to expand and jam in the carb. But it only happened within the first 5-10 degrees of rotation from fully shut. Has anyone else experienced a similar fault? I'm considdering replacing the carb on spec as have been unable to re-create the fault following removing and refitting the barrel and i just don't want to assume the fault has been rectified.
In all i love this Heli so far and i think i'll keep the setup as it is for a while then start changing one thing at a time to see if i can make it even better.