A new contender to 500 size helis (425mm blades) is the ARK X-500 helicopter. Package finally arrived this morning (3 days delivery from Taiwan to Melbourne, Australia) comes 85% assembled. Base kit includes rigid 1.5mm thick lightweight aluminium frame, CCPM control system, 80% metal rotor head with thrust bearings, full ball bearing, 16T pinion (4mm shaft), 3D efficiency wooden blades included.

Specifications:
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Length : 820 mm
Weight : 770g
Height : 285 mm
Flying Weight : 1245 - 1300g
Main Rotor : 945mm
Motor gear: 16T
Tail Rotor : 180 mm
Main gear: 105T
Hold rotation gear: 95T
Tail gear Drive: 19T
Gear Drive Ratio : 1:6.56:5

Planning to use the following components:
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Swash servos: Inolabs HD-D250MG x 3
Gyro: Futaba Gy401
Tail servo: Futaba S9257
Brushless motor: BM5160 Brushless motor (for X500)
ESC: SCORPION COMMANDER 26v 90A ESC SBEC
BEC: n/a
Receiver: AR7000
Power: 3S or 4S lipo (2500 mAh)

First impressions are very good. Solid black aluminium chassis. 85% Blue anodised metal head. Tail case not as impressive as the head, with only the tail pitch control slider/bushing being metal. Main blades are very good quality. Tail blades are plastic. Canopy is made of firm plastic, and will not break/crack easily. Landing gear is blue anodised aluminium with white plastic supports.

First step is to re-build the metal head / body to make sure threadlock has been applied correctly. Will update this as I progress thru the build.

Hi Frank,

Looks good, keep us updated as she comes together and have a good build.

//Dennis.

Originally Posted by Thunder Fighter

Hi Frank,

Looks good, keep us updated as she comes together and have a good build.

//Dennis.

Thanks Dennis..just fitted the swash servos into the frame. Will have more photos tomorrow.

been looking forward to some end user reports on this heli, but it has a lot to live up to in the protos!

phil

Originally Posted by Happy|Harry

been looking forward to some end user reports on this heli, but it has a lot to live up to in the protos!

phil

Phil, I would not expect this heli to perform like a Protos. If anything, this heli would be good for a beginner/intermediate flyer. Although stock setup can do basic 3d manouvers, I would bling her out b4 attempting any extreme 3d flying. Can't wait to see how she performs on 3S lipo though.

hmm...looking at the pics..and this is just my guess...it looks to be the same frame size as the 400 but with a thicker and longer boom??

Originally Posted by Orion_V

hmm...looking at the pics..and this is just my guess...it looks to be the same frame size as the 400 but with a thicker and longer boom??

hi..r u referring to the blade400 when u say 400?

Here r more photos taken as I was completing the build. I have found the manual very good and composed in perfect English. All components in each part of the assembly was extruded out and clearly labelled. There was hardly any surprises with the build. Once the swash servos were connected, I trimmed the head, and got +- 12 degrees. Most link length had to be massaged and did not match up with the manual.
Total weight (with Scorpion 90A ESC and Scorpion SCHK3026-1000Kv Motor) 1.150 kgs. (excluding lipo)

Here are some comparison shots between the X500 and the Dragonus 450 and Extreme 450 heli. The X500 is clearly bigger in size. However, a comparison with the Protos, show the main fuselage a tad smaller than the Protos.

Cool Frank, looking good, pity you don't have the Protos to compare size too as well.

When are you going to maiden it? I am at home over the next couple of days so let me know, I might come and join you for a fly.

//Dennis.

Originally Posted by Thunder Fighter

Cool Frank, looking good, pity you don't have the Protos to compare size too as well.

When are you going to maiden it? I am at home over the next couple of days so let me know, I might come and join you for a fly.

//Dennis.

Cool Dennis, one major stepping block is the 4mm pinion. I need to convert the scorpion motor 5mm shaft to 4mm. Will let u know when I'm ready to go fly.

OK, stock motor is on the way for testing with Scorpion 90A ESC. Will be running it with built in BEC. Will post more pics when motor arrives & installed.
http://www.lichann.com.tw/product_in...roducts_id=327

Received a pm from RussD regarding the design issue with the main blade grips. Here is his comments...
"I was sent one of these to test when they were released. I thought it was a great heli apart from one major design flaw of a single radial / one thrust bearing in each blade grip. This caused a lot of probs with collective locking up. I did manage to re-jig things and tested with just 2 x Radials per grip and it worked great for general flight. Have Ark corrected this? It would be perfectly possible to install 2 x Radials and a thrust per grip, but I could not find suitable spacer washers when testing..."
Upon inspection of my setup, I have found some slop with the metal blade grips installation. I will now use the spare radial bearings into the current metal blade grip upgrade to see if this will resolve the slop issue. Thanks Russ for the heads up

ok..extra bearings installed and slop is now gone from the blade grip assembly. Final weight of complete kit is 1310grams with 2500mAh 3S lipos. First post has been updated to reflect final setup configuration. Will report back once I have trimmed and maidened it. Will try to get a video done as well. Cheerio!

Originally Posted by cfrank2005

ok..extra bearings installed and slop is now gone from the blade grip assembly. Final weight of complete kit is 1310grams with 2500mAh 3S lipos. First post has been updated to reflect final setup configuration. Will report back once I have trimmed and maidened it. Will try to get a video done as well. Cheerio!

So you have the motor now? Let me know when you are planning on going out with it.

Looks like you found a home for a lot of the gear from the Protos.

//Dennis.