Rave 90 Nitro FBL

[rachel]

I loved my Rave thursday

tell us more !!!!

[bish]

I loved my Rave thursday

Friday mate !

[3DBish]

Well i've not been able to fly for about 3 weeks and i was really missing it. I knew i wouldnt be flying again the next two weeks so just wend for it really, not trying to pick it to bits just flying it. I did get some of the same problems occur but it seemed a little quicker on cyclics possibly its just wearing itsself in. on full deflection backwards flips it struggled to maintain a steady flip rate, was juddering but all in all was a very positive day for the Rave very stable and looked great in the air .

[mikeKendall]

Just keep bumping this thread to the top. Embarrassed Paul into finishing it. We have a Club full of Trexs and it'll be nice to see something different.

Can you believe he came to the field today without an heli.. It ought to be illegal.

[rachel]

Just keep bumping this thread to the top. Embarrassed Paul into finishing it. We have a Club full of Trexs and it'll be nice to see something different.

Can you believe he came to the field today without an heli.. It ought to be illegal.

Hi from your sig you must run the Align appreciation society !!!!!!!!



X Rachel

[mikeKendall]

Hi from your sig you must run the Align appreciation society !!!!!!!!



X Rachel

Yes Rachel, I've never had anything but align, but you can have enough of a good thing. They've served me well. Cheap to repair, parts available.
But now want something different, that's why my next heli is going to be a Logo 600se. I haven't been so excited about an heli for a long time. so i'm selling part of my fleet to finance it.

Looks like i'm hijacking this post............lol

[Britflyer]

To keep the 'AlignBoy' happy!

Servo's In and 95% Setup
Head Built and On
Most of the Tail End Complete

Tail mechanism is smooth but not that free atm. So will need to spend abit of time freeing it up I think.



Paul

[Britflyer]

Rave has Flown!! :-D

Full report later!!

[Fast_lad]

Paul the Heli looks great. I cant wait to here how it went :-)

Cheers

Chris
Fast Lad Performance

[Britflyer]

I thought I would wait to fly the model first before giving my thoughts.

Firstly, I’m not sponsored by CYE at all. I bought the kit from Fast-Lads and could quite easily have bought a Logo 600 in the ‘Boxing Day’ sale. It was pretty much a 50/50 decision at the time.

OK, for 2011 I was convinced I would be going ‘Big Electric’, having flown a club mates 700e and having wanted a Logo for years ……… clean, more power, cheaper Lipos, more reliable (due to less vibs etc) and the future of modelling.

So why the Rave ENV? Well as luck would have it I stumbled across a NIB YS 91 SRS on the BMFA in Nov’ 2010. I thought that was cheap, not having a flying model to even put it in, I bought it thinking I could get my money back if I didn’t use it!

With an engine in the bag the ‘nitro’ search was back on, which nitro machine to get:

Align 700, already had one, liked it, but quality wasn’t great and my old Synergy N9 flew better.

Outrage 90, seriously tempted, but had the 550 and Velocity 50, neither of which fulfilled expectations.

Synergy N9, sitting on the shelf as a bare airframe. Always liked it and will get it flying again one day. But I wanted something new and by the time I had put a few upgrades on it (CF frames, metal grips etc) I could have just bought a new kit!

Avant, another nice looking model, and with new pricing was tempted. But I wanted Flybarless out the box.

Rave ENV, new machine to the market, keenly priced, FBL out the box and long term I can go ‘electric’ with it. Spares looked a little bit more than the 700/Outrage, but I don’t fly as much as a used too, therefore less crashing!

A Big thanks to Chris and Jamie at Fast-Lads. The boxing day sale, meant I made my purchase a few months earlier than I had intended.

The build was go. I’ve built helicopters from all the major players over the last 11 years so it was going to be interesting to see what the ‘King of 3D’ had come up with! Overall I am very impressed with the quality of parts and the fit of parts is Robbe’ish (if you have built a Robbe heli you will know what I mean). It has been well thought out, with some nice design features that I haven’t seen before. Summary below:

Likes:

Manual is impressively detailed. The best manual I have ever seen. Abit OTT for the experienced builder, but none the less a very useful manual.

Ball Links – Perfect Fit, all of them. No sizing required at all and really smooth. Hopefully they will hold up to lots of flying without developing play.

Clutch Stack Design/Access – The clutch stack uses the same amount of bearings as most modern machines but the config is perfect for pinion support. It can also be removed without removing the engine!

Start Shaft – Nice little feature that it is threaded in the top, so if your start cup comes loose you can put a bolt in the shaft and pull it up and push the cup down and retighten the bolt. Most machines you need to remove the muffler/engine then the clutch stack to do this little job!

120/140deg CCPM – The kit comes with both options, no paying for extra bits if you want to go 140deg.

Fan Shroud Baffle – The last machine I had that had one of these was my Robbe Millennium. So nothing new, but a nice touch which will mean I get the best cooling for my YS, which has a small head.

Fan Shroud Mounting – Again really simple. You only need to undo 2 bolts to remove the complete fan shroud assembly. No need to remove muffler/engine!

Fuel Tank – Has a proper bung, which should never leak. And getting the tank in/out the frames is a breeze.

CCPM Bellcrank Levellers – the bellcranks have holes in them that line up with a hole in the frame at 90deg, that you can but a 3mm wrench thru’ making setup at 90deg really easy!

Dislikes:

Rear Mounted Servo – Not a great fan of this, not so much the increased exposure to fuel, but it is abit fiddly to get the links on/off and setup the servo horn etc. But I guess once it's done it is done!

Govenor Sensor Mounting – Is poor requiring what felt like abit of a bodge job to fit to the clutch stack, but I do know that a proper bracket is in the works.

Anti-rotation Guide – Known issue that it is abit tight, no problem to file abit away but you shouldn’t need to.

Bad Bolts – I had about 4-5 bolts with mis-cut threads, not a big deal as you get spares in the kit but I’ve never thrown away so many bolts from new kit.

So definitely more good than bad, and the bad are minor gripes imo!

First Flight:

Today was the first flights. The YS91 SRS was quick to fire, fuelled by Opti 30%. The first lift off was uneventful. The machine was very smooth, despite a very rich running engine. The first flight over, I quickly checked the machine over and nothing was amiss so I fuelled for the 2nd flight. This time with the canopy on, some mild 3D and all was good. It sounds awesome on the Hatori pipe.

I called it a day, having had a few good first flights.

Conclusion so far:

So abit more fuel thru it required, then lean it out, fit a Gov and remote glow and get 3D flying! It is also abit tail heavy with no fuel, so need to fit a bigger Lipo.

A few years ago this kit could have sold for £800-1000 and frankly I think it would have been worth it. But thanks to Align, all new kits to the market have to compete on price also, so it only cost £600!

I’ll keep the thread updated with progress, but so far I am well impressed with it!

Cheers

Paul

[rachel]

Paul the Heli looks great. I cant wait to here how it went :-)

Cheers

Chris
Fast Lad Performance

very nice welcome to the Rave ENV club 's

however yours isn't very pink is it !

lol x Birthday girl

[NEAGRON]

Come on Paul,dont keep us in suspence full report warts and all.
Yours,
Marty.

[Britflyer]

very nice welcome to the Rave ENV club 's

however yours isn't very pink is it !

lol x Birthday girl

Thanks, and Happy Birthday.

I have to admit that Pink would probably be a better colour to see in the air. The stock red just went dark for me in the air.

Not that big an issue as the bottom of the canopy has alot of white to contrast, but I would have preferred the stock scheme but in yellow in the kit. But that's just my opinion.

The stock canopy is well painted though quality wise.


Paul

[Britflyer]

Come on Paul,dont keep us in suspence full report warts and all.
Yours,
Marty.

Errr ... See above! ;-D


Cheers

Paul

[Bart101]

Very nice!! You just need some of those nice Fast-lad decals for the canopy now!