Well I have my new 500D Tow pretty much dialed in now. I just finished weathering it. I have a 5 blade head and scale blades coming so I already have the AP2000i and gyros installed and setup to go flybarless. I do have a bit more vibration showing in the fuselage than I like. It showed up after I attached the rear frame mount to the floor of the fuselage. It is really hard to get to so I was just using the front mount and letting the tail support the rear. The vibration is probably coming from the cheap blades and isn't enough to effect the gyros/flight performance. I will probably leave it as is until I get the nead head and blades.

I am using the HK500GT, Turnigy ESC, HK Typhoon motor and Hyperion and Align (tail) servos. I also have a DeLight led sequencer for the nav lights and plan on installing a search light as well. I use 3000mah and 4200mah 6s and get 5.5 min flights with the 3300 and 8 min with the 4200. It it really stable and smooth. I will get some ff video soon.

BTW the red tubing is to protect the skids while flying from the concrete.

500d TOW w/HK500GT gear (6 min 5 sec)

Great looking heli. The eggshell body creates a hollow sound. I put windows all around on mine for noise reduction.

Thanks. Updated the video to the first real pen flight. Yeah it does make a lot of reverberation. I have all my windows in as well now. Wonder if the esc/motor/battery will get too hot in the summer?

Where did you buy the fuselage? Did it come painted?

Thanks - Boyd

rchover.com Yep, came painted but I added the KFOR and weathered it.

Originally Posted by techspy

rchover.com Yep, came painted but I added the KFOR and weathered it.

Thanks techspy.

Very nice.

I have 4 MD500's and every time I had a vibration problem it was down to headspeed. I use 1850 on the Dragonus 450 and 1500 on the Trex 600. Hope this helps.

Thanks. yeah I turned it up a bit and it helped. These are the stock blades and are rubbish. Tracking goes out with small rpm changes. Flies ok for now. I will see what happens when I get the 5 blade head on.

By the way, did any of you guys have to add any dead weight to get the correct cog? I was having it pitch up and climb pretty bad during ff and checked my cg. It was way tail heavy. Guess i didn't notice because it hovered fine. I was able to move the battery forward and get it close. it is right on with some of my batteries but a little back still with some of my other batteries.

So I wanted to buy the HeliArtist 500 size 5 blade head and could not find it in stock. I emailed HeliArtist and asked who had it. They said that they just sent a shipment to Flying-hobby.com. So I placed an order from them even though it was out of stock. I spoke to flying-hobby and they said it should ship the following week. Well that week came and went so I spoke to them again and they said it still isn't available and to wait another week. I then contacted HeliArtist again and they (Kenneth) said that their shipment had already been received the day before. I sent this info to Flying-hobby and said someone isn't telling me the truth and to either ship the item or refund my money. Flying-hobby refunded my money via paypal within a couple hours so kudos to them.

I am still perplexed on what was going on. I know there is a bit of a language barrier there but it is strange that I never got any kind of explanation of what the issue was.

Oh well, I found the head in stock in the UK and have it on order. I wish Smartmodel carried that head as I had good service from then when I ordered the blades.

Why the Heliartist head? The 500 size 5 blade head from ligthing heli works well on mine.

G.

Really? I looked at it but everything I have found said it was a bad design and had problems. Hmm, I would have considered it if I had known there was some good experiences out there with them.

Originally Posted by techspy

Really? I looked at it but everything I have found said it was a bad design and had problems. Hmm, I would have considered it if I had known there was some good experiences out there with them.

Well, truth is that the LH 450 v1 is not good at all so it is a valid assumption to think that the 500 is not good either. This is the 500 size head tho, and since the one I've seen around was a v2 and I know for a fact that they do fix the v1 problems on the v2s, or at least most of the problems then I got one and I can't complain. Definitively better than teh 450 v1 for sure... things actually thread in!

Cheers.

G.

Ah ok. I had heard the V2 was better but also heard that scaleflying.com dropped them because they wouldn't fix some serious flaws and that they are now sourcing some heads built to their own specs. Oh well. I should have this one in a week or so.

By the way, I have heard that adding weight to the tips of the blades really helps in multi blade setups. Did you do that? i have the plastic scale blades from smartmodel coming and am not sure if it is even possible to add weight to those. Oh, and does your heli balance out perfectly or is it tail/nose heavy a bit?

thanks

Originally Posted by techspy

Ah ok. I had heard the V2 was better but also heard that scaleflying.com dropped them because they wouldn't fix some serious flaws and that they are now sourcing some heads built to their own specs. Oh well. I should have this one in a week or so.

By the way, I have heard that adding weight to the tips of the blades really helps in multi blade setups. Did you do that? i have the plastic scale blades from smartmodel coming and am not sure if it is even possible to add weight to those. Oh, and does your heli balance out perfectly or is it tail/nose heavy a bit?

thanks

You've heard correct. My heli uses Kin's scale blades and those have the weights already inside the tips. Since you're using e-stabilization, however, you are good to go either way.

Mine was tail heavy as well but nothing that couldn't be fixed

G.