This is JR's second electric helicopter, and from the looks of it they have done their research. The Vibe 500e features a robust frame design and a full aluminum head and tail. This helicopter is designed for a 6S LiPo battery pack and a 1000kv motor. JR chose to use a belt-driven tail on this helicopter and the standard 120° CCPM system. Let's open the box and check out the detailed components one by one.

MAIN FRAME
COMPONENT LAYOUT: The component locations are designed to give the Vibe 500e a balanced center of gravity. The motor sits below and in front of the main gear, and the battery pack sits above the main gear toward the front. Below the battery, the speed controller and receiver strap to opposite sides of the frame. The servos are located around the swashplate, with two servos in back of the main shaft and one in the front. The gyro mounts to a plastic gyro mount that sits above the tail boom.
DESIGN: The frames are designed with two G10 fiberglass frame halves that are sandwiched together using a mix of metal bearing blocks. The JR Vibe 500e also incorporates adapters to use either a standard-size servo or mini.
SWASH CONTROL: The 120° CCPM system is controlled directly by the three flight servos. The links differ in length, but all line up 90° from the swash to the servo arm.
CANOPY: JR is no stranger to fiberglass, and it is nice to see that hasn't changed. The Vibe 500e comes with a gel-coated white fiberglass canopy that is ready to either sticker up or paint. The windscreen is prepainted with a nice glossy black finish. The kit also includes a decal sheet that resembles the Vibe 50. The canopy mounts a bit differently on this helicopter. Two posts are located on the back half of the frames, and a single mounting post is located on the bottom front to keep the canopy from pivoting up.
LANDING GEAR: The landing gear is a one-piece design that screws into metal spacers on the frame. The gear has a low stance and makes the Vibe 500e look aggressive.

DRIVETRAIN
MOTOR MOUNT: The motor mount is made from a red anodized aluminum that has been machined with lightening and cooling holes. The mount provides a solid connection to the motor using two machined screws that do not allow the motor to slide around. The mesh is adjusted by sliding the whole motor and mount along the elongated holes on the frame.
PINION: The brass pinion mounts to the motor using a single setscrew.
MAIN GEAR: The main gear is constructed with lightening holes and is made from a durable nylon plastic. The gear is mounted to an anodized aluminum hub that also houses a one-way bearing.
AUTOROTATION DRIVE: As mentioned before, the autorotation drive is accomplished using a one-way bearing that is press fit into the main gear's hub. An autorotation sleeve is also installed to help grip the main shaft during powered flight. The tail is driven during an auto.
TAIL DRIVE: The aluminum tail drive pulley is located above the main gear and is attached to the main shaft using a single machine screw that threads into a nylon locknut. The tail belt is wrapped around the pulley, so no secondary gear is needed.

ROTOR HEAD
WASHOUT ARMS: The washout arms are dual ball bearing supported and are made from anodized black aluminum. The arms have two different output options. The gray plastic links are pinned to the arms using a steel pin and two "E" clips.
BELL/HILLER ARMS: The Bell/Hiller arms are mounted to the seesaw hub using a machine screw and a spacer to extend the arm out past the headblock. The arms are made from aluminum and are anodized to match the rest of the head. Two output and input options are available.
MAIN BLADE GRIPS: The main blade grips are made from aluminum and are actually quite thin. The grips are dual ball bearing supported and have a thrust bearing in each grip. The grip is mounted to the spindle using a single machine screw that threads into the spindle.
HEADBLOCK: The aluminum headblock is a one-piece design that clamps to the main shaft using a single Jesus bolt and nut. Dampening is performed by two O-rings that slide into each side of the headblock. The seesaw hub is bearing supported and provides adequate movement, and the head is designed so the flybar cannot hit the tail boom.
PHASING: The phasing on the Vibe 500e is not adjustable and has two steel pins that are press fit into the headblock. The washout base can slide below the pins, so you must be careful that the base is aligned with the pins before spooling up your helicopter.
SWASHPLATE: This time JR has decided to stick with just the 120° CCPM swashplate. The JR Vibe 50 had both 120° and 140° setups, but with this small of machine, it would be nearly impossible to engineer. The swashplate is made completely out of aluminum and has an additional post for anti-rotation purposes. The anti-rotation pin is channeled through a plastic bracket.

TAIL
BOOM: The black anodized tail boom is 22 millimeters in diameter and extends 460 millimeters long. Two carbon rods that have aluminum ends support the boom. The ends attach to the frame using a metal spacer and two Allen-head screws. The supports are connected to the boom using a plastic tail support clamp and a single bolt and nut.
TAIL CASE: The tail case is made from a solid piece of aluminum and incorporates a clamp, mounting post for the vertical stabilizer, and a standoff for the pitch actuator arm. The case is open and allows for easy access to the tail shaft pulley.
TAIL BLADE GRIPS: The aluminum tail blade grips are anodized black to match the rest of the helicopter. The grips are dual ball bearing supported and have a rubber O-ring to keep them extended away from the hub. The grips attach to the center hub using a machine screw that threads into the hub. The tail blades are held in place using a single screw that threads into a locknut on the backside of the grips.
PITCH ACTUATOR SYSTEM: The pitch actuator system attaches to the tail case standoff and is dual ball bearing supported. The fork that connects to the tail pitch slider is made from anodized black aluminum and has two special screws that guide the slider. A G10 arm extends off the pitch actuator and has a ball link attachment to connect to the tail push rod. The tail pitch slider is made from aluminum and is dual ball link supported. A brass slide ring is also installed so the pitch slider can slide smoothly across the tail shaft. The tail pitch links are pinned to the tail pitch control plate using a steel pin and two C-clips.

Testing
We tested the JR Vibe 500e with the greatest Horizon Hobby has to offer. The helicopter was set up using the JR DS3517MG servos, which are clamed to be the "crack pack" for 500-size helis. To pair the cyclic servos, we used the JR 7703D gyro with the DS3500G tail servo for rock-solid tail performance. The new E-flite Power 25 brushless outrunner paired with the E-flite 60-amp speed control and a 6S 2700mah 30C Thunder Power Extreme V2 Li-Po powered the Vibe. Let's see how the Vibe 500e performed with this impressive setup.

Hovering • The JR Vibe 500e is nothing less then rock stable in a hover. The cyclic felt locked in and the helicopter did not feel like I was chasing it around with cyclic inputs. The collective did get a bit sensitive during a real windy day, but nothing out of the ordinary. Keep in mind that this is with the most aggressive settings selected on the head. For a beginner, switching to the more docile settings would even improve in this test.
Rating: 4.5

Forward Flight • Pitching the helicopter forward and applying full collective, the Vibe accelerated into a very fast forward speed. The helicopter tracked very well through the sky and I did not notice any pitch-up tendencies, even at top speed. As the speed increased, the cyclic became more and more sensitive. This works out well for high-speed rolls and quick-stopping wall maneuvers. Banking the helicopter around turns felt natural and locked in—once you set your sticks for a turn, the helicopter just follows through without any corrections.
Rating: 5

Cyclic Pitch Response • I set up the Vibe using the most aggressive settings, but limited the travel a bit using my radio. With the settings I used the cyclic was plenty fast enough, but had room even to increase the roll and flip rate if I wanted. The Vibe 500e responded without any hesitations and stopped quickly without any noticeable bobble. Increasing the swash travel only made the Vibe become that much more responsive and increased the roll rate that any pro pilot would love to have.
Rating: 5

Collective Pitch Response • A bit skeptical at first when it came to testing the power plant of this helicopter using the E-flite motor with 26 degrees of total pitch travel, but I soon found that this brushless outrunner exceeded my expectations. The collective is very aggressive on the Vibe and felt locked in throughout a flight. Precise and smack-style flying were easily accomplished and looked very crisp. As I mentioned before, on a windy day the collective did balloon the helicopter a bit, but this was expected as most helicopters react this way. Overall, JR did a fine job selecting the appropriate combination of dampening and Bell/Hiller ratios.
Rating: 5

Tail Rotor Response • The tail rotor on the Vibe 500e performed well with the JR 7703D and the small tail servo. The tail offers plenty of pitch to overcome any aggressive maneuver. The grips need to be installed very carefully, because the bearings can be damaged quite easily. Overall, the tail held through any maneuver I could throw at it, including terminal-velocity tail slides. The response is crisp and stops were on key every time.
Rating: 4.5

Autorotation Capabilities • Using the Curtis Youngblood 430-millimeter blades, the Vibe 500 performed very good autorotations for a 500-size helicopter. The smooth drive gears and extra disk area gave the Vibe plenty of energy for a nice float at the bottom of an auto.
Rating: 4

Post-Flight Inspection • After the first few flights I noticed that the tail started to develop a wag, and I narrowed it down to the bearings inside the grips. Although the bearings seemed to rotate smoothly with the helicopter off, inspecting them closely showed that the ball race broke and the balls were gathering up, causing binding issues in flight. I replaced the bearings and made sure that the grips were secured just enough to eliminate any slop and took it back out for some more tests. After repairing the tail I did not have any problems, and every component felt like new even after a countless numbers of flights.
Rating: 4

Conclusion
Overall, the JR Vibe 500e exceeded my expectations in this class machine. After reviewing the Vibe 50 and noticing that the helicopter was heavier than some of the other 3D-claimed helicopters, I was expecting to see the Vibe 500e follow suit. Astonishingly, the Vibe 500e is roughly in the same ballpark as other 500-size helicopters in its class. This helicopter actually weighs less than the very popular TREX 500. Although this helicopter may be expensive, you can really tell in the flight performance that JR has made a precise machine that is capable of doing any 3D maneuver.

When You Open the Box
Opening the colorful and detailed box for the Vibe 500e, you will find every section in the manual labeled in its own bag. For example, steps 1-1 through 1-6 are in a bag labeled Bag 1. This bag also contains individual bags that are labeled for each section of the step. The kit includes a canopy that is gel-coated white with a black windscreen. The kit also includes a nice decal sheet if you want to apply some graphics.

Manual and Build
Building the JR Vibe 500e is much like building other Vibe helicopters. The manual does a great job of walking you through the steps. Even though this helicopter requires you to build every section, the build went quickly and flawlessly. Most people will find building the entire kit from just parts to be more enjoyable, and it also gives you that additional confidence that every screw has thread lock without having to disassemble an ARF.