The Caliber 700 sports the same great features as the Caliber 6, but has been converted to an electric helicopter using the Caliber 4 frame design and tail boom. The kit includes several different parts from the Caliber 4, like the battery mounts and motor mount. For the most part, everything else is the same. The Caliber 700 features a full push-pull system, including the tail control. The helicopter uses two 4000mah 3S packs wired in series on each side of the helicopter. Let's take a closer look at the Caliber 700 and how it performed.

MAIN FRAME
COMPONENT LAYOUT: All the cyclic servos are conveniently located together up front on a separate radio gear frame that is screwed into the main frames using six self-tapping screws. The receiver, ESC, and gyro are also located on this separate radio tray. The tail servo is mounted on two plastic mounts that clamp to the boom. The batteries are located on each side of the frame just behind the main shaft. The motor mounts to an aluminum mount that is attached to two G-10 adapters that are attached to the plastic frames.
DESIGN: The frames are designed using a single piece of plastic that incorporates molded-in bearing blocks. Like mentioned before, the frames have a separate radio tray that mounts up front.
SWASH CONTROL: The 120° swashplate is controlled by a series of bellcranks that have a push-pull linkage to the servos. The bellcranks are bearing supported and offer a smooth connection from the servos to the swashplate. The bellcranks are made from plastic.
CANOPY: The canopy is made from the usual bleach bottle plastic. The one thing that makes Kyosho stand out from the crowd is the way the canopy mounts. Four rivet-style mounts slide inside four standoffs, then a button is pressed in and the mounts spread open, locking into the standoffs. This design allows for fast removal and installation.
LANDING GEAR: The black plastic landing gear is a single piece that attaches to the frames using four self-tapping screws.

DRIVE TRAIN
MOTOR MOUNT: The motor mounts to an aluminum block that's sandwiched between two pieces of G-10. The G0 has elongated holes where the aluminum block mounts, which allows for adjustment of the drive belt tension.
PINION: The aluminum pinion is more of a pulley than a pinion. A drive belt rides around the pinion, which has two beveled sections to keep the belt riding in the middle. The pinion attaches to the motor using two grub screws.

MAIN GEAR: A secondary gear drives both the main gear and the tail rotor belt. The pulley on the secondary gear is driven by the motor drive belt.
AUTOROTATION DRIVE: The one-way bearing is located in the secondary gear attached to the main pulley. The one-way allows for the tail to be driven during an autorotation.
TAIL DRIVE: The tail rotor is driven by a belt that attaches to a pulley off the secondary gear.

ROTOR HEAD
WASHOUT ARMS: The plastic washout arms are attached to the plastic base using machine screws. The arms are dual ball bearing supported and have plastic linkages that are pinned to the arms.
BELL/HILLER ARMS: The plastic Bell/Hiller arms are attached to the flybar and are dual ball bearing supported. The arms have two output options.
MAIN BLADE GRIPS: The plastic main blade grips are reinforced with metal spacers that run around the inside of the grip. The blade grips do not have input options. The blade grips have thrust bearings that are sandwiched between two radial bearings.
HEADBLOCK: The headblock is constructed using lightweight aluminum. The one-piece headblock uses a single Jesus bolt and screw to attach it to the main shaft. The spindle is slid through two rubber dampers. The blade grips attach to the spindle using two machine screws that thread into the end of the spindle.
PHASING: The phasing is accomplished with a separate plastic phasing ring, which has two channels for the phasing pins to slide through. The phasing pins are pressed into the washout base. Some slop is noticed, but it should not adversely affect the flight performance.
SWASHPLATE: The all aluminum swashplate has several different options for CCPM operation. The swash can utilize both 120° CCPM and 90° CCPM. Anti-rotation is performed by a single pin towards the rear of the swashplate that rides in a plastic anti-rotation bracket. The bracket is attached to the frames using two self-tapping screws.


TAIL
BOOM: The black anodized aluminum boom is 20mm in diameter and about 24" in length.

TAIL CASE: The black rubber belt is fed through the boom and wrapped around a plastic pulley. The tail case is made from plastic and has molded-in bearing blocks for both the tail shaft and control arm shaft.

TAIL BLADE GRIPS: The plastic tail blade grips are made from two separate molds that are sandwiched together. The grips are supported by two radial bearings that slide on the tail hub and are locked down using a washer and machine screws. The tail blades are attached to the grips using a bolt and nut that recesses into the backside of the blade grip.

PITCH ACTUATOR SYSTEM: The tail rotor pitch is controlled by a push-pull system that connects to a dual bearing supported bellcrank. The dual pitch arms connect to the slider from both the top and bottom of the tail case. The big links that run to the slider are bearing supported as well. The plastic slider attaches to the blade grips using a ball link that is pinned to the pitchfork.

Testing
We tested the Caliber 700 with all the equipment a beginner might select for his first large helicopter. The new Hacker A40-10L Turbine brushless motor provides adequate power for mild 3D with the included pinion. We selected the Futaba GY401 to tame the tail, but a higher performance gyro could have been used to increase the tail performance.

Hovering • Hovering with this Caliber 700 proved to be very stable and predictable. The bigger helicopters excel in this test. The extra weight of an electric setup and the way the Caliber 700 locates the batteries creates a nice, stable platform. The lower CG and the equal weight distributed on each side of the airframe makes this one of the easiest 30-sized helicopters to hover.
Rating: # 5

Forward Flight • Moving forward, the Caliber was smooth and graceful as it tracked through the sky without any hints of drifting or ballooning. This helicopter is not fast by any means with this power system, but is adequate for a beginner learning his basic flight routines.
Rating: 3.5

Cyclic Pitch Response • I set the Caliber 700 up with high rates and low rates to better understand how well the Caliber would be suited for a beginner that will transfer into mild 3D. The low rates provided a very forgiving cyclic response, allowing me to notice what corrections were needed and apply them to keep a rock stable hover. When flipping to high rates, the Caliber woke up and the cyclic was very responsive and allowed enough throw to move the helicopter around and perform mild 3D maneuvers with the throttle pegged at 100% for Idle-Up 2.
Rating: 4

Collective Pitch Response • The collective on the Caliber has a very broad range, allowing you to select anywhere from an aggressive 22 degrees of total travel down to a mild setting that would enhance a beginner's feel for a helicopter. We set up our Caliber right in the middle of the road using 20 degrees of total travel. The Caliber reacted very well to collective inputs. It was really easy to lock the helicopter at a given altitude. The Hacker A40-10L lacked a bit on power to really feel an aggressive collective response, but with this setup it was geared for the beginner in mind.
Rating: 3.5

Tail Rotor Response• The tail control was very crisp at the higher head speeds and actually held very well for a GY401 in backwards flight. At lower headspeeds the tail would kick around a bit and did not provide as much authority over the torque effect as I would like to see. I raised the head speed up in Normal mode and the tail felt much better. The tail felt very precise and stopped perfectly every time. The time that Kyosho has spent on the tail using a push-pull system really paid off, as the tail response does not lag at all in either piro direction.
Rating: 4

Autorotation Capabilities• The Caliber 700 has a smooth gear train which allows this helicopter to perform decent autos. The tail is driven during an autorotation and allows you to make corrections as you float down to terra firma.
Rating: 3

Post Flight Inspection • After flying around for hours of flight testing, the Caliber 700 has proven to be very durable. The parts still feel very new and nothing seems to be worn out or loose. Kyosho has selected the right materials to get the job done with as little maintenance as possible.
Rating: 4

Conclusion
After flying the Caliber 700 with the Hacker 10L motor I was curious to find out how well this helicopter would perform with a high-performance setup. One of my flying buddies actually allowed me to fly his Caliber with a Hacker A40-8L. With this setup, the helicopter performed very well and allowed me to really put some high strain maneuvers in action. The Caliber 700 was not the best at performing hard core 3D, but overall it was smooth and suited an intermediate or beginner looking for something a little more then the average 30-sized nitro helicopter.

When You Open the Box
The Caliber 700 comes in a beautifully printed box with some of the key features on the box like you would see on a new TV. Opening the box you will find the manual and clean printed graphic decals. The parts are separated in numbered bags to help you along during the build.

Manual and Build
The manual is printed in both English and Japanese. The pages are filled with highly detailed drawings and it gives the size of every bolt, nut, and washer as you build this kit. The manual also explains certain details that require extra attention. The build went as smoothly as any other build I have done. Building several Caliber helicopters in the past led me to change one thing in the manual from what was described. The manual suggests using self-tapping screws to hold the boom clamp closed. Although this may work, I have found that the screws tend to break over time, making it almost impossible to remove. I suggest drilling the screw holes out to 3mm and inserting a 3mm Allen head bolt and nut. This will insure a stronger clamp, which will also be easier to remove.