After a long hiatus since (2006), I decided three years ago to get back into my love of R/C Helicopters. It's now my only passion and muse. I tend to stick to one discipline and dedicate myself to it. So three years ago I bought a much wanted,(back in the day) Blade 450. Actually I bought 4 of them. Fly one, the rest for parts. I also over bought parts. I love the design of the Blade 450 and it's flying characteristics so much I decided to fully upgrade it. Have had excellent success flying like I never flew before and my skills have very much greatly improved. I can fly with great
confidence now with no pucker factor or jittery nerves. I have come to realize I should have been into Heli's long time ago as I found them not that difficult to fly once you fly enough and dedicate yourself to them. I am only a sport flyer and would never dream or attempt anything 3D. That said, enter the Trex 500. I bought one recently off Kijiji and, "WoW"!, what a machine. What a jump from the Blade 450. Incredible handling and stability. Bigger is really better. I also have a converted Raptor to electric and its even more stable. But enough about that. So off to the
forums (read all 108 pages for the Trex 500 thread). "Yikes", many issues and fixes for this birds quirks and quarks. So with some eager intrepidation I did some mods and upgrades and spent $$ to get it where it is right now. It paid off. My flight testing and actual flying it around was well worth the $$ spent to have it dialed in the way I have it now. My
last upgrade is a Scorpian 3326-1600kv motor I got from a RR member here just recently. I can't say enough about this machine and how it flys and feels. BTW, it's a Trex 500 CF.

MY UPGRADES:

HS 5245 MG's with metal arms installed
AR7000 Rx with SAT Rx
Metal Seesaw
Metal Main Shaft Bearing Blocks
Metal Tail Case
Metal Pitch Slider (metal fork going to tail blade grips.)
Align flybarless Main blades (really stabalizes the rotor head due to CG futher out on the blades) *Online tip*
Align 70mm CF tail blades

The only mod I have done was to solve the ESD issue. You can see in the pics how I did it as per *Online tips*. I also had to replace the main gear as the stock one lost two teeth somehow in the flight testing process.

It came with a GY401 Gyro and FUT9257 servo for the tail and it seems to be holding pretty good thus far. I might upgrade that to a FUT9254. I'm using Turnigy 3000mah 6s 40c batterys with no balance issues or problems fitting them under the canopy. It came with the yellow Trex 500 canopy and the really nice looking Turnigy canopy that I prefer to use. I will say with conviction, I won't buy another 450 size Heli again after flying bigger Heli's. So much more stable and enjoyable to fly, not to mention sound as well. I will keep my Blade 450 for my craps and giggles flyer in smaller fields. But I can see my trex 500 getting alot of air time this summer. Forgot to mention I still get a slight tail twitch but nowhere near what it used to when I first flew it. Its not enough to cause any orientation issue and be uncontrolable but just enough to say its there. Any ideas...? The belt is tight as it should be and the gyro gain is holding the tail solid. I'm thinking its just the inherent nature of the machine. But then again maybe I'm wrong who knows.

Welcome back and great write up! The Trex 500 was my favorite heli and probably still is although I no longer have one but I keep thinking about getting the new 500X which swings 470mm blades.

If you haven't already you can use a 12T pinion and gain longer flight times or you can run larger 5s packs with the stock gearing and gain even longer flight times!

60% of the time, it works every time!

yes a 5s pack goes real well with the 500 for sports and inverted flying. i loved my old 500 but the goby 500 stole my heart.

Rush 750, cc160hv, vbar silverline
Agile 550, HW120hv, vbar silverline
goblin 500, cc100, ikon
Devil380, cc75lite, minivbar

As for the “twitch” , disconnect the tail push rod at the servo end and make sure that the rod moves silky smooth throughout its travel. If not , find the cause for the binding and correct it ....

Been there, done that and old enough to know better.....

Richardmid1

If you haven't already you can use a 12T pinion and gain longer flight times or you can run larger 5s packs with the stock gearing and gain even longer flight times!

Ya I'm using the 12T pin gear and my timer is set for 6mins. But the battery readings are 3.87 to 3.88 per cell after 6mins, so I know I can get another minute out of the battery. I fly in normal mode only.

My TC 0,85,85,85,85 Normal
My PC 45,55,75,85,95 Normal

JuanRodriguez

As for the “twitch” , disconnect the tail push rod at the servo end and make sure that the rod moves silky smooth throughout its travel. If not , find the cause for the binding and correct it ....

Ya re-centered the pitch slider as per the manual and turned out the control rod two turns...(no binding) of the guides and Gyro set at 72.5%, Oiled all the bearings, Oiled the motor bearings, cleaned the oneway bearing, tightened the belt...rock solid.

I'm still flying mine from time to time. Went FBL and torque tube long ago. I tried the spektrum and when I switched back to the futaba / vbar. My esc got reset to fast spoolup in the switchover. When I sorted the start speed out I think I must have reset the timing as they claim fast, med, low throttle response choices. In this reset it somehow solved my tail twitch on tic tocs and also seemed to give me more time and for sure a cooler motor.

Im flying 2600's if your doing 3k you might get 9 or 10 minutes at the right head speed. That will help you get your skills where you want sooner than later.

RPM is your friend..................................until you crash

smittylube

Im flying 2600's if your doing 3k you might get 9 or 10 minutes at the right head speed. That will help you get your skills where you want sooner than later.

3K...? Not sure what that term is first time I here it. 9-10 mins...? After 6 mins I'm ready to land. But 7 for me is doable. My flying skills are old man flying. Figure 8's, circuits, all left and right. I do the bent "U" shape ciruit...turn come back down...fly across the field in FFF and up and do the other end of the "U". Left right circles. Sideways flying transittioning into FF. Thats about it. No nose in hovering or backward flying..out of my comfort zone. I only fly as high as the soccer field light standards. But to me it never gets boring or old. But me thinks a scale project with blinky lights is coming on. *wink*

3k is head speed. im sorry battery size not head speed 3k is 3 thousand.

Rush 750, cc160hv, vbar silverline
Agile 550, HW120hv, vbar silverline
goblin 500, cc100, ikon
Devil380, cc75lite, minivbar

"Turnigy 3000mah"

RPM is your friend..................................until you crash

Thats what I'm using, Turnigy 3000mah 6s 40c batterys. So far so good. I balance charge everytime and all (4) of em say 4.20 fully charged. I got all my batterys from HKing. The price was right too.

On a side note. It may not be relevant to this topic but I have a question for you guys. I have a Talon 90 ESC in my Raptor nitro to electric conversion, which I might ad is the suggested ESC for this set up I read about here in the conversions thread (all 17 pages), an online elsewhere. That said, funny thing happened yesterday. I up'd the TC to 95% flat. I like a flat curve and only fly using pitch in normal mode. I got halfway thru the first battery and had a power loss and almost had to flip the throttle hold. Gave me one heck of a scare. Then as I was decending it came back to life and I was able to fly the rest of my battery till the end and land. Now get this.....I let things sit and brought my TC back to 90% flat like I always use..no power loss at 90% Flat curve thru the next three battery runs. Today, I ran all four batterys at 90% curve and no power loss...? What gives....? Any ideas as to what might have caused this.....? It seems it doesn't like the 95% curve...? I run 5000mah 6s 40c's in it. I have my BEC voltage set to 5.5 (default). My timer is set to 6 mins. No gonvenor mode.

maxell44

I have a Talon 90 ESC in my Raptor nitro to electric conversion

I'm guessing its a Raptor 30 with 550mm blades?

Could you tell me the gear ratio and motor kv?

60% of the time, it works every time!

8:5 ratio.....10 Pin gear....85 main gear.....Hyperion (a.k.a Scorpion) 890Kv motor. 620mm thin cord blades. Raptor Titan 50. Since the last post above I have flown several times with no drop in power @ 90% flat TC. It seems 90% is the sweet spot. Weighs in at 8.26lbs. Pretty agile flyer but I think a 1100kv could wake it up some more. There is no bogging either from pitch changes. My first nitro to electric conversion and it turned out really good if I must say so myself. Its upgraded all with Quick UK stuff. Futaba GY401/9254 combo for the tail...rock solid.

Nice work! The Talon 90 will definitely struggle with that setup though! With a 90 flat throttle curve your head speed will be around 2200 at the beginning and around 2000 at the end. Be careful because those plastic grips weren't really designed for such head speeds with 620 blades, I remember being told 1950 was the max.

There are two things you can do to make it a safer setup, get a 120A ESC and govern to 2000 rpm or switch to larger 5s packs (6000-7000mah) and run your throttle at 100% flat. The later will add around 30% onto your flight time!

60% of the time, it works every time!

Richardmid1

Nice work! The Talon 90 will definitely struggle with that setup though! With a 90 flat throttle curve your head speed will be around 2200 at the beginning and around 2000 at the end. Be careful because those plastic grips weren't really designed for such head speeds with 620 blades, I remember being told 1950 was the max.

There are two things you can do to make it a safer setup, get a 120A ESC and govern to 2000 rpm or switch to larger 5s packs (6000-7000mah) and run your throttle at 100% flat. The later will add around 30% onto your flight time!

Thank You ! , I didn't realize this about the Blade grips. Hm...? What if I use 550mm instead...? or I buy the Quick UK metal grips...?

http://www.quickuk.eu/products/11/t...ps_rh-08v2.html

What about bring down the TC to 80% flat...? I heard tell the Talon 90 doesn't like anything 80% or below...? I kinda figured a higher amp ESC was needed, but that combo motor/ESC was what was suggested by Quick UK and here:

https://rc.runryder.com/t591620p1/

Well if I don't want to be picking up the pieces anytime soon I will have to invest in a 120amp ESC...but which brand to buy...?

UPDATE: Quick UK CNC Grips Ordered ! Also measured the blades...correction they are 600mm...23.62" from the mounting hole to the tip, I never measured blades before. Gonna look for an 120amp ESC too.