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| Helidirect HDX450se V2 |
Average Rating: 8.5 |
Dec 30, 2006
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Reviewed By: vapochilled
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Join Date: Oct 19, 2006
Location: Allentown, PA
Total Reviews: 1
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Rating: 7 out of 10
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This is the "new" V2(now on V4) HDX from Helidirect, they advertise on Ebay as well as having their own store. I was fortunate enough to pick up this heli for a shade over $180 with shipping, which even with it's few "features" is a steal.
So, what's in the box?
Well, you get a pre assembled head and tail drive, body components blue annodized Ali tail and other bits. Carbon main blades, white plastic tail blades and a plastic canopy.
Assembly still relies on the Finless vidios, which in my kit were not included, I simply downloaded them, but anyone without a fast connection would be upset at the download times!
The body goes together without much of an issue except for a couple of the threaded holes are a little large, resulting in a easily striped threads. I am lucky in that I have the tools to redo the threads and use a slightly larger bolt, but it is a pain on a new kit to resort to this.
Once everything was thread locked, the resulting frame proved to be very stiff and flex free, it appears to be well designed and thought out.
The only change I made was on the tail drive section, which uses locating pins machined onto the blocks, if left "as is" it resulted in the tail drive being excesively tight. I simply removed the upper locator and aligned the block once the tail drive was installed, allowing for a more precise and smooth setup.
Head/tail and undercarriage assembly was easy and without any issue.
Now, the canopy is a terrible piece of plastic! It is a vac molded item that is very uneven in it's thickness(poor heat application during molding) and is very thin at the edges where most strength is needed.
I reinforced the area around the mountings with a small piece of plastic CAd on the inside. Once I'd used filler to mask the mold line, and sanded, I primed and painted using standard enamel paints.
I intend to use this canopy until I no longer have firm landings!
The heli also comes with a brushless motor, which by most accounts is adequate but not wonderfull, an area for possible future upgrade.
I will be using an Align 35A ESC, 3 Hitec HS65mg servos for the swash with a JR DS3400G tail servo via the infamous Futaba 401 gyro. All running off a Spektrum DX7 radio.
K, so after the servo were installed, I setup a model in the Tx and centered the servos, as per the finless videos. This is where things went a little off!
Using the HS-65s if the arms are put on dead center as instructed, you will not get full collective movment. My solution was to cut out the frame member below the servo's.
This allowed full movment in both pos and neg swash movment.
Having gone over everything and setup the head and blade tracking, and thoroughly checked everything was secure. I charged the TP2100 Lipo and prepared for a maiden hover in the garage.
First to notice with a 450 size bird if your moving up from say a Blade CP, is that the head speed is very much higher. I could not get as far away as I would have liked from the spinning heli!
However I should not have been so worried, at about half throttle she got light, so with a little blip she was up and sitting at about 30". Once the gyro gain was adjusted, it required almost no input from me to sit there, what a difference in stability to my micro heli!
Well I've now flown and crashed this heli a few times :) And I have to say, I'm still impressed! Easy to fly and easy to repair when things get ugly!
I don't think I'll be getting rid of this bird for quite a while.
Just an update, we are now many moons into flying this bird and I still love it. The frame is indestructable, I have tried!
The supplied motor, shit the bed after only a few hours, I now have an Align 430L in it's place and the difference is remarkable! It has real punch now. Only weak area is the feathering shaft, but all things considered, I'd rather replace that each time I dumb thumb than anything else!
I still give this heli a great big thumbs up! :) |
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• price, even at the full retail, this heli seems good value
• ease of build, should pose no issues to anyone
• all the good bits included
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• threaded holes a little lose
• canopy quality
• no instructions and videos are a little out of date
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