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Heli News — March 2010 14Mar10

Rave ENV Motor Mount

March is turning out to be a busy month for heli news. First we have the new Curtis Youngblood Rave ENV and Total-G flybarless system set to release at the end of this month or early April. You can watch Curtis himself putting the Rave ENV electric through the wringer at the recent Rotor Live event in Germany

Logo 600 SE

Mikado made a big splash by announcing not only the Logo 600 SE but also a version 4.0 VStabi update to the V-Bar and, at last, a Logo 700. If that was not enough they also announced an upcoming carbon fiber chassis for the Logo 500/600. Interestingly the 600 SE will ship with the same composite chassis it has always had and the carbon version will be a separate upgrade option. The main change to the SE is a 6cm longer tailboom so it can run with 690mm blades and a few very minor updates. Mikado recommends a 10S 5000mAh setup for the 600 SE. It is otherwise mostly unchanged and still has a belt driven tail. Flying weight is 8.5 pounds. The 600 SE should ship in a couple months. No details have been provided for the Logo 700 but most folks agree it will have a torque tube and many think it will come with a carbon fiber chassis. The Logo 700 will ship late this year or maybe even early 2011.

Logo 500-600 CF Chassis

Align made some news when it finally announced the existence of the T-Rex 700 electric. This was actually a somewhat underwhelming announcement as photos of the prototype show it is not much different than many of the 700 electric conversion kits out there. The motor will probably be top mounted in front of the main shaft. But it will be nice to finally have this as a kit and the total cost will certainly be lower than with a conversion.

Perhaps the most surprising news was the T-Rex 550. Details are slim but the name suggests a new heli in between the T-Rex 500 and 600. This would seem to be a very odd thing to do unless Align planned on dropping the T-Rex 500 or 600 helis from production. It would make for a sweet spot of a heli and it along with the 700 would be a great pair to have. This will be interesting to watch.

All in all a good month for the heli faithful.