The kit is the Align T Rex 500 ESP kit #KX017011 which includes the new 500M motor, the Align ESC, 3 Align DS510 cyclic servos, an Align DS520 servo for the tail and the Align GP780 gyro. I won’t be using the gyro, and will be installing a Spartan DS760 instead. I just trust it more. In fact, the Align gyro has already been sold.

I am building this heli out of the gate as a flybarless model, and to that end, have chosen to build the head with the Mikado T Rex 500 flybarless head conversion kit. The control will be done by a Skookum Robotics SK360 module, donated by my 600E. (The 600E is slated for upgrade to the SK720 unit in the near future). RX will be a Spektrum AR6200. Power is being supplied by the new Hyperion G3 2600 mAh 6s 35C Li-Poly pack, which will also be reviewed separately.

Check back for more details. I’m planning on having this build done soon, since I’m hogging up the kitchen table with it and the wife is not going to let that continue for too much longer!

To that end, we will be posting a build log / review of the Align T-rex 500 ESP in a flybarless configuration. The kit is on its way, and a pair of shiny new Hyperion 2600 Mah 5C lipos are sitting on the bench waiting to be used. Knowing what I’ve got coming up next month (I’m getting married), I won’t over -promise, but I want to get this puppy up in the air and get flying, so the review should be up relatively soon. As always, stay tuned!

If you’re looking to get into a great performing battery without blowing the month’s helcopter budget, check out this review of the PowerEdge RC 3s 2200 mAh LiPo pack. You’d be hard pressed to get this kind of performance out of a Zippy, and although it’s not as inexpensive, you get what you pay for. To top it off, their warranty is outstanding! Click HERE or find it on the REVIEWS page at right or up top.

The HeliGeek’s Blog now has a Facebook Group! Anyone with a Facebook account who cares to can join up and post question or comments, and read those of others. Just log into your Facebook account and search for ‘The HeliGeek’s Blog”. We can’t wait to see you there!

You know you want one of these mugs...

We’ll be the first to admit that it seems a bit odd to do a review of coffee here on HeliGeek. Nevertheless, the staff here (pretty much me) consumes its fair share of java on a daily basis, and when a coffee came on the scene with a connection to the RC Helicopter hobby, we jumped at the chance to try some out. We were very surprised by what we found. In a good way.

Checkout the review HERE or click the link at right or from the Reviews page at top.

Yep... It's on the rear window of my car.

Hey folks, we’ve designed a new logo for HeliGeek.com and we’re kicking it off in style! What better way to show your support than by decking out your ride, your laptop, or your flight box with a cool HeliGeek decal? This is the first design available, and there will be another coming soon, so be sure to check back. All proceeds (if there are any) will go towards supporting the HeliGeek’s Blog. Click the link in the sentence above, or click on “Goodies” at the top of the page.

I’ve also got a few more ideas brewing for more cool schwag, so again, stay tuned.

Also, for any of you that wish to donate to help support The HeliGeek’s Blog, we’ve set up a Donations page as well. Click HERE or on “DONATE” at the top of the page. We leave the amount up to you and we thank you wholeheartedly for your support.

In any case, here’s a short video (NOT….ten minutes, sorry) of me casually tossing my 600 NSP around this past Sunday. I’m not very happy with the flight as it’s pretty sloppy. It was my first flight in a couple of weeks outside of the sim, it was a bit gusty, and something just felt not quite right with the helicopter. It was falling out of tailslides where it never did before, and I had to keep fighting it to get maneuvers to be recognizable. After the flight, I went over the heli and found out that my flybar was not centered as it should have been.

As I thought back, I remembered the last time I’d had this particular helicopter out. I did a dum-thumb on startup and had a hot start. Nothing was broken and I checked everything out, but the flybar apparently slid over about 3mm. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it seems to have been enough to make the heli misbehave. I re-centered it and took another flight on the heli, and it was a night and day difference. Unfortunately, I didin’t get any video of that flight. It would have been a better one for sure.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my first foray into heli videos… I spent a little too much time on the start and end credits I think, but it was fun nonetheless. I promise there will be more.

The third time (and second unit) were indeed the charm! Yesterday the flybarless T-Rex 600e took to the air without incident and flew beautifully! With James Kovach (sparx) at the controls, she lifted off and was summarily wrung out to make sure everything was working as designed. The previous two crashes had me a bit frazzled, admittedly and I wanted someone more experienced to take the helm on the latest attempt, just in case I was doing something wrong. The flight proved to be an uneventful one, which is a good thing. All evidence from the two previous, unsuccessful flights point to my original SK360 being faulty. I’m still waiting to hear back from Art at Skookum Robotics to verify this, as he is checking out my original controller. I can’t really fault Skookum for this, since it’s an electronic device. Anyone in the industry will tell you that there will always be the faulty device that slips though. It’s my luck that I seem to attract them quite a bit. Besides, Art has bent over backwards to ensure that I was not only back in the air quickly, but safely as well. Back on topic…

The heli performed very well and reacted just as it should have. James got approximately 3 minutes on the first and we did a second flight after some tweaks, which improved the handling characteristics. Unfortunately, on the second flight, we got less than 2 minutes before the pack gave up on us. I know the pack had been charged, because I charged it that morning. Looks like one of my two 6s 5000 mAh Air Thunder packs has given up the ghost. Since I can’t afford to buy another pack at 300 bucks right now, and the Zippys at 85 bucks are all out of stock (as is usual) I’m stuck with 7-minute flights an hour apart on this heli. That said, after I got home and ate some dinner, I recharged the good pack twice more and got two more flights in before dark, though due to space limitations they were just hovering and slow circuits on the street out in front of the house.

The full-on review of the Skookum SK360 and Mikado flybarless conversion kit are still in the works, but I will say that like pretty much everyone else, I’m now hooked on flybarless, and I’m scheming to come up with ways to convert all of my other helicopters over to the new technology! With my current settings, the helicopter does exactly what I tell it to do and nothing else. It holds attitude beautifully and I’ve got a learning curve ahead of me to re-train myself to stop automatically correcting for misbehaviors that are no longer present! As I mentioned, the full review is forthcoming, but as a teaser, here are a couple of pics of the head setup on the helicopter as she sits:

Mikado's T-Rex 600 flybarless head conversion kit installed

Clean and simple

Its been a while in the making, but I finally managed to browbeat the hosts of the InsideHeli Podcast, Chris Boultinghouse and James Kovach, into answering some questions for the HeliGeek’s Blog. These questions were some that I thought would be of interest to all my readers. Something that you might ask them yourselves, if given the chance. (Actually, you do have the chance, all you have to do is drop them an email….but I digress).

Along with a mini-review of the InsideHeli Podcast, you’ll find the “interview” with the hosts that I conducted via email (ain’t the ‘tubes great?) by clicking the link at right, by clicking through to the review on the “Reviews” page, or by Clicking HERE (See all the options we give you???).

Just a little something to tide you over while you’re waiting for the Knight 3D build log, I hope you enjoy!

Many of my readers have asked what helis my “Fleet” consists of, and others of you have suggested that I put a page up to keep track of them and what components are installed. I believe that’s a pretty good idea, so I tossed a quick oage together to do just that. Check out the link to “My Fleet” at right, or CLICK HERE if you’re the least bit interested in what’s flying around here at HeliGeek World HQ.

As always, feel free to comment and tell me just how sick YOU think I am.