Moore
Senior Heliman
Location: California 93094-0940
| It's a kick a** .50 size heli for the buck(Disclaimer - I am an independant VARIO Helicopter dealer)
The VARIO SkyDragon is a highly acrobatic .50 size helicopter that requires only two channel mixing in your radio (SWH2) eliminating the need for an expensive computerized radio. The SkyDragon is fitted with the same .60 size rotor head, side frames, and .60 size tail and other high quality components as the entire Skyfox series of pod and boom kits and will perform almost any manouver you ask it to. The right hand rotation belt driven mechanics in combination with the recommended Webra .50 engine set and tuned pipe runs great on CP 15% and an OS #8 plug and is very quiet compared to gear driven mechanics on 30%. I have four MX-890 (111 oz/ .08 sec) servos, a GY401 gyro and 9253 servo on the tail. Running this setup and a head speed around 1700, the SkyDragon really rocks for a .50 size heli.
The prebalanced woodies that come in the kit fly really good, but after about five gallons and my first sudden burst of gravity, they were replace with semitrical GRP 600mm fiberglass blades which I like much better. They track rock solid throught all 3D manouvers. If you plan on doing alot of auto's, you'll probably want to get a set of struts from the Skyfox series because they are stronger. I tend to come in a little on the hard side and have broken a few of the stock skid struts.
Todd Bennett flys at the same location I do, so about 10 days ago I asked him for an honest opinion of the VARIO SkyDragon. I handed him my radio and asked him to fly my heli. (I'm just getin down the easy stuff, and wanted to see what my heli would actually do.) After running my heli through it's paces: inverted, sideways, backwards, loops, rolls, autos ect..... Todd told me to add a little pitch to the top end and gave the SkyDragon a thumbs up. He did comment on the lack of top end power that the Webra .50 has as compared to a .60 size engine, but that was to be expected.
The Webra .50 running on 15% has no problem powering this heli, and is only slightly sluggish on FULL collective climbouts when the throttle is past 95% open. I am sure I could get a little more power by using 30%, but I'de rather stick with the 15% for several reasons. I am a long way from outgrowing the capabilities of this heli and I am sure it will be with me for a very long time.
The complete kit with engine, woodies and tuned pipe goes for under $850.00 and includes tons of upgrades. The only upgrades that you might ever consider adding to the SkyDragon are GRP fiberglass blades, stronger gear if you don't land soft every time or auto alot, and a washout centerpiece with ballraces on each side of the double guide pins. There are no other upgrades that you can move up to, as they all come in the kit.
The SkyDragon is an often overlooked helicopter in the VARIO product line because it is a .50 size heli and all of their other helis are .60 size. This is a very good example of that old popular phrase "Bigger isn't always better". This is one of the least expensive helicopters in the entire product line and its comes with almost all of the upgrades available only on the midrange .60 size kits that start at $1100.00.
To tell you the truth I had reservations about building a SkyDragon at first. I decided to build a SkyDragon simply because the sales are extremely minimal on this perticular kit. I wanted to know what was wrong with this helicopter and why nobody ever buys them. This helicopter kit definately offers one of the biggest bangs for the bucks. It suffers from extremely bad marketing (or lack thereof) and the fact that VARIO calls all of the pod and boom kits in their product line trainers. They even call their high end 3D and FAI machines trainers. So far after about 7 gallons of fuel, the only thing "wrong" if you will, with the SkyDragon is the power fall off problem above 95% throttle when using 15% fuel. I am willing to live with that for now, as my flying ability increases I am sure I will not mind this small compromise in power when comparing the overall bang for the buck. |
