JONW
Heliman
Location: Fontana, Ca
| finless
Status: Veteran
Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Orange County, Ca OK flew a Knight 50 Saturday morning before the AMA show.
I had built one for Steve at Dream Hobbies but since he is too busy we did not get a chance to fly the one I built.
So I was walking into the AMA show to go to work and stopped by the MTA booth. Jon was there and we talked a bit and I told him I had not flown one yet. Nadir said "Jon go take him out and fly yours"... I himed and hawed a bit but they talked me into it
So we got out to a local field there and Jon took the bird out. Now Jon I aint picking on ya only giving a real report!
As he was fueling it up I pointed out issues I had with the build. The main thing was the fly bar elbow control arms. I told Jon I had a hard time keeping those in line and screwing on the paddles and keeping them in line, and keeping them in line, and keeping them in line.... well you get the idea. I told him the fly bar needs flat spots there for the grub screws so they don’t slip on the fly bar!
I looked at Jons bird and they were NOT IN LINE. He agreed but said "no worries it still fly’s good!".....
So he took the bird up first and flew it around. Looked good!
He flys the tail so rudder was reversed. Time to give it to me and he had to reverse the rudder and re-initialize the gyro.
OK my turn..... Now he had it set up pretty quick on cyclic and it took me a bit to get use to it. You know every heli can fly different depending how it is set up. After a few rounds I was starting to get use to the setup.
Needless to say this thing fly’s great! I was impressed! Again no offense Jon but the bird could use some more tweaking from your set up like getting the fly bar arms right
However even with me being picky about that, it flew really nice. It tracked well and showed no signs of control slop. Power to weight ratio was GREAT. Power loops and powering up to a 540 stall turn was EASY!
I rolled the bird inverted and again it tracked really well with no bad tendencies (except me getting use to his FAST cyclic setup).
Clearly this bird is a HOT 50 sized heli!
Flips both tail in and nose in were fast and collective was quick. The CCPM set up here shows its power!
So to sum it up.
I have seen many say it fly’s better than an Evo 50. My Evo 50 is CCPM so I have something to compare to. I would NOT say it fly’s better than an EVO 50 BUT I WOULD SAY they are pretty much the same! Both birds fly equally well. The argument about which fly’s better should stop here! They fly so darn close just forget it and go fly!
So would I recommend this bird? Absolutely! In fact if I did not have an Evo 50 I would probably get the Knight 50 instead of the Evo 50. WHY? Well for one it doesn’t need UPGRADES to metal parts! On the Evo 50 I HAD TO BUY the metal washout and metal phasing block to make sure I did not have plastic failures and this is a highly recommended upgrade for the EVO at $70+ bucks.
Two, PARTS ARE DIRT CHEAP compared to the Evo 50. I aint kidding here! I think Hirobo will need to lower prices as this thing is going to compete directly with the Evo 50. If they don’t I think the knight 50 is going to take off and cut into their sales big time. In fact if many hobby shops start carrying these and parts become available like Raptor parts then this thing is going to be the heli to get! It’s still a heli to get even if you have to mail order parts……
Final words:
In order to get this bird main stream and moving they will need a good manual PERIOD! I have already been PM'ed by 7 people on RR asking for help and a local guy also asking for a bit of help. In order for this bird to be able to be sold to new heli pilots as a "first bird", the manual is going to have to be better or the knight 50 will start to get a bad rap.
Compass should start putting flat spots in the fly bar for the control arms! Sorry I am picky about this. Jon's were off and I know this will be a problem area. If you build one do yourself a favor and file flat spots in the fly bar!
So there you have it. My opinion of the Knight 50. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
Bob
Too many hobbies not enough time ;-) |
