HC500 SE Build & Review

Written by Ashley Davis Friday, 29 January 2010 22:25

 

The following article is a full build and review of the HC500 SE from Helidirect.

The model retails at $375 and is currently shipping with a free Fusuno airbrush canopy, although this was not available for this review.

 

Introduction

The 500 class market is one of the largest helicopter markets in the world. Once Align released the T-Rex 500 it quickly took over from the 450 class helicopter as the model of choice for new beginners into the hobby. The arguments being it's not that much more expensive to either build or run than a 450 and beginners really benefit from the extra stability and wind handling characteristics. Not only this but most consider 500 class as still being small enough to be a park flier.

It should be no surprise then that other manufacturers have joined this class with their own offerings.  The issue is that the T-Rex 500 is nothing short of superb and so any new offering has to step up a long way to be considered over and above the Align offering.

HeliDirect have long had an offering in the 500 class and originally it was called the HDX 500. We actually reviewed this model a long time back on trextuning and Rob's conclusion at the time was that it was indeed a super stable and excellent beginners model. However, it didn't have the capabilities to also do good 3D should you want it to and was not only a bit heavy but also lacked the necessary cyclic response for 3D flight. Roll on a year or so and suddenly the HC500 SE bursts onto the scene. Following quickly in the footsteps of Outrage (a brand created by HeliDirect) this new model boasts performance tweaks from Charlie Stevens (Outrage's chief designer) and also heavy input from world renowned 3D pilot Henry Caldwell (or HC and hence the name HC500).

The marketing of this model boasts significant changes to turn it from the old stable HDX 500 into a super 3D capable model. Let's check it out and see if the marketing stacks up.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•  

Build

We already published a full build video for the HC500 SE, below is just some thoughts on the build.

On opening the box and examining the various CNC and carbon parts included with the HC500 it's not long before you realise that this model contains a very low plastic parts count, unlike the T-Rex 500 which has considerable plastic parts. In fact the ONLY plastic parts on the HC500 are the undercarriage and the main and belt drive gears. Everything else is CNC aluminium or carbon fibre. Great if you like CNC & cabon heli's, although there are plenty of plastic fans out there as well, I tend to prefer the carbon and CNC but it's all a matter of personal preference, I've certainly examined some pretty shoddy carbon and CNC work in my time but certainly none of that in this particular kit. The HC500 represents itself very nicely with all the CNC parts being very nicely finished and having a very 'outrage' look and feel about them, the carbon is also of sufficient quality and thickness to do the job required of it.

The build of the HC500 was both straightforward and mostly uneventful. The things I would pick out as negatives would be the frame spacers and main shaft bearing blocks. The threaded holes in these items although threaded were not cleaned out properly and some swarf needed to be removed to thread bolts into them nicely. Aside from this one quality issue the rest of the heli built up very smoothly indeed with all the parts fitting together nicely. I did unfortunately have to build the model with no manual and HeliDirect were really quite slow in getting the manual available to it's customers. This is the main reason why the build video has been available on this site for some time, without the manual it's really very difficult to guess how the model goes together and I had to rely on some pictures of HC's heli on a forum to get it done. I believe now all kits come with a very nice manual so this is no longer an issue.

Later on in the build you have to install the servos and again here I hit an area I wasn't keen on, which is the servo horn carbon extensions, these really do have the feel of a bit of a bodge of the original HDX 500 in order to get some decent servo throws for 3D flight. They do of course work well enough just not my cup of tea.

It has to be said that overall I was impressed with the build quality and once built the frames are very solid and all parts move very freely. All the various mixers and head components are ball raced with thrust races in both the main head and tail grips. The main shaft is only supported by two bearing blocks but they are spaced quite widely giveing a very solid feel to the mainshaft within the frames. The head dampers are also very solid giving the indication that this heli is designed for something more than hovering.

The model features the same style paddles as an outrage helicopter, so I'm expecting fast cyclics, also in another nod towards outrage the tail pitch slider is the double supported style, which I tend to favour over the ball and cup design seen on many other helis.

Lastly I really have to mention the undercarriage....... horrible is probably the nicest I can be about it. Cheap, bendy and the model really isn't very stable on it, definitely not suitable for a beginner to try to take off and land on.

Radio Install

The model is designed to take mid sized servos, so I fitted it all round with Futaba 9650 servos and a full size DS620 Align servo for the tail. Rather nicely the model is designed to take a proper standard servo for the tail which of course provides for a much better tail response. There is a very nice gyro platform at the rear and also a nice platform in the lower back of the frames to mount the rx. Up front there is more than ample space to fit the ESC under the battery mount. Also the battery mount is fitted low in the canopy and there is masses of room for some large packs up front should you wish to use them. This also brings us on to another significant point which is with all equipment installed the HC500 is a lot lighter than a T-Rex 500 and we are talking over 150g here which is more than adequate for 3D flight capability, in fact I think the idea is to just fit a bigger pack and fly for longer.

The HC500 is geared very similarly to a T-Rex 500 so reuse of motors suitable for the T-Rex is possible. In fact I swapped all the radio, ESC out of my spare T-Rex 500 in order to build this model.

The kit comes supplied with an Outrage 1320kv outrunner. It looks of the right size to deliver decent power but the kit came with the wrong pinion, I believe new kits now have the correct pinion after I fed this back o HeliDirect.

Blades & Canopy

The kit comes with plastic tail blades and some black carbon main blades, they seemed stiff enough so they were fitted. The canopy is a fibre glass spray painted canopy with a holographic tribal style sticker on it that has been laquered over. The canopy looks ok and is certainly large enough to accomodate a hefty sized pack, the downside is the colour which is poor for orientation and it's not a partcularly pretty scheme. Fusuno do a much nicer canopy which not only looks great but is far better colours for orientation.

Setup

I set my cyclic pitch to the maximum I could get on the swashplate without binding. Collective was limited to +/-13 degrees the same as my T-Rex 500.

I fitted a CSM 720 for gyro and reset to defaults, this should be plug and play on a 500 sized model with a standard sized servo. I wasn't far wrong, I just had to reduce the piro stop rates slightly to get it perfect. The ESC was set to flat line at 100% in idle up.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•  

Flight Testing

Spooling up the undercarriage compresses and the whole model feels very unstable and likely to tip over. I changed my start up procedure to just flick into idle up at 0 degrees pitch and use the ESC soft start. This was just to avoid having negative pitch pushing the model all over the place during spool up as the undercarriage is just too wimpish and flexible for the model.

In the hover the it feels stable enough but not as stable as a T-Rex 500. This is most likely due to the weight difference but also in part due to the cyclic response of this model. Cyclics are FAST and I mean fast, so much so that I backed it off in the end as it was just too sensitive.

In fast forward flight it's not pitchy and it tracks very well, although due to the sensitive cyclics it's very easy to just push it off track yourself. Big loops and nice straight flips are easily achieved with no corrections due to phasing errors on the head. Overall it's a very axial heli and sport flies extremely well.

Moving on to 3D the fast cyclics are ever present and fast tic-tocs and quick flips are easily executed. Funnels are fairly stable but due to it's light weight it's easier to get pushed around by the wind in these moves. At this point I decided to try some pop and lock style flying to checkout the collective snap and crispness. This is definitely a weak point on the model, collective snap is lacking and initially I put this down to blades. I swapped to maniac blades and whilst things improved it's still no competition with my T-Rex 500 on the collective crispness. Whether this is softer dampers than the T-Rex 500 or some other reason I don't know. The blade grips have positive delta and theres's no lack of pitch available to the head, it just doesn't snap to a stop or accelerate away like my Align 500 can. Having said that the Align can't get anywhere near it for cyclic speed.

Moving onto more advanced stuff, piro tic-tocs and chaos are pretty easy with the model and the cyclic response makes pushing it around chaos loops and other such moves easier than other models I've flown. It settles fairly quickly in chaos type moves and isn't prone to wandering all over the sky. However, I found the cyclic a bit too sensitive in piro walls of death where a much finer stick stir is required and this made the moves a little untidy for my liking. Definitely some compromises to be had with this speed of cyclic.

At this point the lipo indicated that it was struggling so I landed (30 seconds before the timer was due to go off). The lipo was pretty warm and after some checks it was at around 15% capacity. Basically the outrage motor supplied with this kit is a bit of an inefficient amp hog and chewed through my pack in short order. It certainly delivers plenty of power for 3D but I'd rather have the same power and longer flight times from a more efficient motor.

Lastly I decided to do some aerobatic autos. Not usually the kind of thing you see with a 500 but the HC500 SE excels at them. I was doing inverted autos with low roll out and huge sliding landings which is usually 50 sized models only for me. I think the single stage belt proves very efficient in the auto, either that or it's just a very free running machine, bottom line it autos great.

Flight Video

To be uploaded at a later date. Hopefully soon.

Pros & Cons

Pros
Light Weight
Lots of space for packs
Comes with blades & motor
Good quality of parts
Fast cyclics
Excellent auto capability
Cons
Awful undercarriage
Collective response doesn't match cyclics
Servo horn extensions seem like an after thought
Motor is inefficent

Conclusion

Build quality on this heli is good and I certainly didn't hit any substantial problems in assembling the helicopter. It has also flown a lot of flights now without any required maintenance, another sign of decent quality.

With it's large pack capability and weight savings it makes a good case for addressing some of the failings of the T-Rex 500 which is very limited on what packs it can use.

Flightwise it's a mixed bag, whilst I liked the cyclics and auto capability the collective response was disappointing, I really wanted a much snappier response. The supplied blades were ok if lacking a little punch and the motor is powerful but inefficient.

Overall it's a good offering and certainly challenges the T-Rex in many areas, particularly weight and choice of packs. If some balance could be made between cyclic and collective (ie. reduce cyclic response and increase collective response) I'd be recommending it over the T-Rex 500. As it is I feel it's a good reliable heli and something different for those who may not wish to follow the Align crowd.

( 0 Votes )