It's hard to believe, but it's been four years since I reviewed the Skyartec Wasp X3V 250-class flybarless helicopter for RCGroups:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1661410

Since then, serial number WHV00005 (yes, it's only the fifth model off of the assembly line) has been flown only sporadically due to increased professional commitments and lots of other RCG reviews. I'd recently got to thinking about older review subjects and a blog I'd posted about revisiting them at some point, so I'll take up the slack right now.

That review has also garnered nearly 115,000 hits and 119 pages of comments. That's a heck of a nice feeling!

It was a beautiful morning, so after I charged a battery, I took it out of its case today for a flight up and down my street and I couldn't help but wonder how much has changed in that time.

My wife and I have been very blessed. We now have our own home instead of a rental. Both the laptop computer and point-and-shoot camera I used for that review have been replaced with a desktop computer and a DSLR, both necessary for what I do both here on this site and for other work.

Took me a moment or two to remember how to arm it, but once I did, I was rewarded with the same great flying characteristics I enjoyed in the summer of 2012. In fact, I've been flying a lot of multirotors since then which only helped to sharpen my helicopter skills.

Will Wasp Number Five be languishing in its case for months to come? Nope. It's just too much fun.

Another blast from the past will be posted just as soon as I can find a bit of time!

By the way, those photos are new and yup, I took them with the DSLR. Enjoy!

...and I finally made it to 4000 posts with this blog entry! Number 4000 feels darn good on this, the greatest hobby site on the internet!

Good stuff coming up soon on the electric flight page. I just received a brand new RocHobby Nemesis NXT for an official review.

Rated at more than 100 mph right out of the box after a claimed 45 minutes of final assembly.

This will be incredibly fun if my past experiences with FMS and RocHobby products from Diamond Hobby are any indication. So, feast thine eyes, friends:

http://www.diamondhobby.com/rochobby...sis-racing-pnp