I must say that this site has been steadily becoming a more respected site. Myself and fellow editors strive to bring the hobby the most up to date, drama-free information to date. I have been a long time fan of Curtis Youngblood and his products from the MP-5 exhaust to his Radix Blades, now avionics and airframes are now on his resume.

His new flagship helicopter, the Next-D Rave 450, is top notch with no exceptions. We received a complimentary machine to do an unbiased review. In the following review we will outline instructions, build, parts quality/fit, durability, tun-ability, overall performance and value. We will also give our opinion of the Mini-G Gyro.

We are now going to be doing reviews regularly and keeping them in this same style of format. The even though some of us have done reviews before they have been very casual and unstructured. This new style of reviews will allow comparisons over time. We have received several other products that we will be reviewing over the coming weeks. Like products you will be able to compare based on scores and review detail.

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I have recently purchased everything to setup a Knight 600e chopper. Among other items, my setup will include the Lightning Power 3g 8s 3700 pack and the new Cyclone gyro. Check back soon for updates to see how these hot ticket items will perform.

Check out this insane flight by Bert Kammerer flying his Align Trex 500! He has some mad skills!

Enjoy!

Video courtesy of HeliFreak.com

Small packaging, big performance. That just about sums it up!

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Quick video from Tim Jones testing the Cyclone Gyro:

We happened to just be coming back from Palomar Mini Fun-Fly and had alot of production euqipment in the car so we thought we would take a few pictures while we were at it that day. Most of it is of Tim Jones, Bryan Regular and Reggie Rodgers testing the new Cyclone Gyro.

We got a chance over the last few weeks to be a part of the development process for a new product coming to the market called the Cyclone Gyro (www.cyclonerc.com).  To be demoed at this weekends AMA Show in Onatario, California, designer and distributor Bryan Regular of 3DHeliDepot.Com is excited that his new revolutionary concept will now attempt undercut the big market share now taken by Spartan and Futaba in the 3D Helicopter Gyro area.  A 3-Axis flybarless version is also being tested as well.

Quote from test pilot, Tim Jones of J1S Performance Parts.

Trying to put this into words is going to be a bit difficult so bear with me. I’d give out pros and cons, but I cant really come up with cons about the cyclone.  Its the smallest, most light weight gyro out there, its cheap, easy to program, pirouettes very consistent, doesn’t bounce back, doesn’t whip, doesn’t wag, and best of all, what I was most impressed with, is it doesn’t wash out no matter what you do! 14 degrees of collective going backwards inverted at 50+mph coming out of a loop with no tail correction what-so-ever….Just  Amazing. Then add a clockwise pirouette coming out of that maneuver, you’d think and almost hope the tail would get whippy and pirouette inconsistently, Wrong! 4 point tail slides, perfect. Never had a a gyro hold so well doing an aileron tail slide…let alone  in the wind. High Speed hurricanes, Tight! Very little, if any, correction needed. Very high speed tail down funnels, where most all gyros will wag a bit, nothing, flawless performance.  Fast Elevator tic-tocs were also what I was most impressed with, where other gyros would kick a bit during the collective transition. The cyclone keeps the tail right where I tell it to.  It just holds. Period. Spartan, Jr, and Futaba better look out, This gryo Performs on par, and I’d even venture to say outperforms all the Gyros currently on the market. I will be running this Gyro on all my machines. This all coming from a guy who absolutely swore by the Spartan…I’m impressed!

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Check out the new regulator on the block, the Perfect Regulator. Whats so perfect about it? Well it has features that many of the bigger, and pricier regulators have, dual regulator separating servos and the gyro, adjustable voltage range, failsafe switch, and 16 AWG wiring, with a deans soldered on, and 2 RX outputs!

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Almost a year ago, I started reading about this “reliable, cheap and high performance” regulator, the Dualsky VR-8L, including the scientific, but not so scientific measurement test done on archeli by ozace. So how is it possible that in today’s world, something can be cheap, new and yet good, I wondered. From my limited experience in life, things can only come in a combination of two out of the three above mentioned “options”. Reliable with good performance, cheap and reliable..etc…but never cheap, reliable and yet of high performance. And the verdict is out after a year of torture and abuse.

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The Align T-rex 250 is OFFICIALLY on sale. So how many different packages are there? what exactly will you be getting? What about the blue bling version seen in the pre-production?  Read to find out.

First off, some out of the box photos.

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Check it out, just released from Gaui, is their new 450 class flybarless conversion kit, for your Trex 450, Mini Titan E325, and many other models! This system includes a Gaui 2 Blade Rotor Head for 5mm Main shafts + Gaui’s new innovative GU-365 GYRO 3 Axis gyro system. The FES 3 Axis gyro is very easy to setup and eliminates the need for a tail gyro. [ click here to see videos, photos & rest of story ]

Found these interesting photos of some new JR products in the pipeline.  Check out this post.

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DX7SE:2048 Resolution, 11MS latency

JR 8717HV Servos: New all aluminum case, new geartrain, 8V designed

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A flying buddy of mine recently converted his RJX X-treme 50 to flybarless with the Skookum Robotics SK-360 “Digital Flybar”. After seeing the maiden of his X-50, I got interested and started reading up…Along the way, I found this article of converting a Align 700N head to flybarless. What got my attention was that this method of conversion allows the user to switch back to a mechanical flybar quick, without costing anything.

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For those that have not stumbled upon this governor, its being found in more and more helis around the world, as its popularity is skyrocketing. With an integrated Carb Smart management system, gives a good explanation as to why these are hardly staying on retailers shelves.

Thanks Tony Chaveiro for the effort of putting the review together.

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