First Impressions Outrage 550

[edge]

I ordered the 550 CF Pro from RReModels on the 10th and had it in hand the morning of the 13th (yesterday). Yipee! I thought I would offer a few thoughts from the perspective of one with only a few years experience, mostly with Align equipment.

The kit comes well packaged and labeled. The quality appears to be very good. While the canopy provided is fairly simple in terms of graphics, it is well made and has a nice appearance. The instruction manuel consists primarily of exploded drawings. Some are a little "busy" with details, which might make the builld challenging in a few spots if one had never built a bird in the past. After a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, this bird is basically framed up and ready for the electronics. What I am impressed with is the design and engineering of this heli. All the parts fit very well, and the design and "tune ability" of the head is great. My overall impression at this point is that this should be a great heli. My only negative comment is minor and concerns the flybar paddles and tail blades provided. They appear to be made of cheap plastic and not up to the quality of the rest of the bird. I will be tossing these! It would have been better to provide these parts in CF and charge a little more, or leave them out (as the case with main blades) and charge a few dollars less.

At this point I am very impressed with the 550 and expect it to become my bird of choice for regular flying. Unfortunantly, with winter here, it might be some time!

Cheers!

[Big Fil]

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[Long Nguyen]

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+1

[LITHIUMSTATIC]

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[billyd]

Isn't it funny that heli makers can't sleep at night if they leave out the $4 tail blades or paddles, but have no problem ignoring the $90 main blades or $1000+++ in electronics.

I guess if they leave them out the kit would be "incomplete". lol. RC hobby's are a strange world. Almost ready to fly!! That tag line kills me. :YeaBaby:

Totally not a knock on Outrage, by the way. It's just how it is in our world.

[Foxden]

My only negative comment is minor and concerns the flybar paddles and tail blades provided. They appear to be made of cheap plastic and not up to the quality of the rest of the bird. I will be tossing these!
Cheers!

TRUST ME, you DON'T want to toss the stock paddles, put the decals on them and FLY them, Steven has tried just about every paddle out, including the T-rex 500 CY stubs and put the stock paddles back on, Charley has designed these paddles specifically for this heli and they are FAST, fly them first then you decide but don't toss them because they are plastic, run them in the front hole and if your brave enough, set the head up using the "ADVANCED SETTINGS" in the manual then decide if they aren't up to your liking, I caution you the cyclic will be SUPER FAST so hang on. :wow2:

Unfortunetly tail blades like main blades typically are a user preference item, I don't think that any heli in our fleet has the stock tail blades on them, Steven has his own prefrence when it comes to tail blades and it has mostly come from trial and error, for his flying style he chooses carbon blades so the plastic blades that come in any kit just get tossed into a spares box, the Manufacturers need to include something and the stock blades will perform well for the majority and the minority will pick up there prefrence blades anyway, not to mention the guys that are sponsored will put there sponsors blades on.

Just somehting to think about.;)

[nate735]

Im about 80 % finished with my build. So far the quality is excellent. All the CNC parts are very nice, the CF frames are beautiful aswell. I also dig the canopy and the paint scheme. Very simple and very visible. I only had 4 issues with my build.

1. All ball links were to small and had to be reemed to allow the head to operate.( I hate doing this and hope i didnt remove too much material )

2. The hardware for the front pulley top plate (4 flat self tapping screws were ALL drill incorrectly for a philips screw. I had to dremel slots in them because they all stripped after a cpuple of turns

3. Manual images are sometime very cluttered with alot going on, and it is sometimes very hard to see what goes were. (page 7 comes to mind)

4. My front pulley is also very warped and i think i will have to get a replacement.

I am going to install the electronics tonight. Then the tail tomm. I will update this.

[edge]

Thanks for the comments Foxden. I will try the stock paddles, and reserve further judgement also till I see the experiences of others.

I also agree with some of the comments of Nate735. The overall quality of the bird is good. Although a few areas could be improved. I too had to slightly reem all links. Additionally, I had to work on the anti rotation bracket as the plastic guide slot would not smoothly accomodate the elevator ball. The tail belt is very robust. Having no other experience with a tail drive system using two side guide pulleys, right now the drive train seems to not move very freely, even when adjusted loose. Hopefully this will loosen up once the clutch assembly and belt are broken in a little. Lastly, it would be nice if the shim was included for mounting the Scorpion motor.

I do need a new gyro mount tray. The one with the kit is all bent. My dog helped herself to it off the bench! :-)

I'm looking to really enjoy this bird, the size and design seem just right!

[Big Fil]

Maybe it's just me but having to size ball links is not a problem with a kit it's part of the build. Same with having to having to lightly sand a shaft to fit. Again part of the build process of a good kit that will not have slop. The problem with trying to have certain items fit perfect out of the box is the manufacturing tolerances on certain items will undoubtedly lead to slop. I'd rather have to spend 5-10 extra minutes having to fit things properly.

[sondre fjereide]

Maybe it's just me but having to size ball links is not a problem with a kit it's part of the build. Same with having to having to lightly sand a shaft to fit. Again part of the build process of a good kit that will not have slop. The problem with trying to have certain items fit perfect out of the box is the manufacturing tolerances on certain items will undoubtedly lead to slop. I'd rather have to spend 5-10 extra minutes having to fit things properly.

I agree.
All the ball links will be tighter this way!! Tight is good;) We don't want any slop:thumbdown:

[ChuckL]

I recieved my kit today and everything looks very nice at this point. My biggest concern was I thought the stock canopy pictures looked terrible after seeing the prototype for the last few months however I was very pleasantly surprised as the stock canopy IMO looks very nice and will have awesome visibility in the air. It is a basic design but it works with the canopy shape and has a very nice finish to it.

[edge]

My earlier comments were offered primarily in the interest of giving my humble insights for the information of others. After getting my hands on the Outrage 550, I think it is a quality bird. That said, nothing is perfect. As to the plastic parts, some improvement could be made. I agree sizing links is not unusual on a build, thats why I have a sizing tool. The links in my kit were not snug, they were the tightest I've encountered. Not a problem, but worthy of note! As to the anit rotation bracket, mine required more than a little adjustment. Initially the ball unit would not even fit in the slot, as the sides were distorted inward. Something I've not even encountered with Align stuff. Again, no big deal, but worthy of note.

I've not even flown it yet, but would recommend it to others! I agree with ChuckL, canopy looks so much better in person than in the pictures!

[DominicD]

No new kit is perfect. Positive feedback from owners is how Outrage products improve.

[Foxden]

Just a note about sizing the Outrage links, I changed the links on Steven's 550 last weekend, I'd say he has a dozen flights on the new links and they are perfect, I DID NOT SIZE THEM, they were snug but I let him fly a few batteries in them and then re-checked them and they bed in nicely, keep an eye on them if you sized them during the build after you get a few flights on them to make sure they don't get too loose

[Foxden]

Edge,

Did you have the screws in the anti rotation guide secured to the frame, ours was tight on the pin but once I tightened it in place it gave it a very smooth slot for the pin to ride in, securing it in place pulls the material and loosens the slot

[LITHIUMSTATIC]

When I do a build, I check the links and if they aren't crazy tight I fly it..... about 5-10 flights or so, then check and resize as necessary.

[Foxden]

Jeremy,

Same here, both the G5 and the 550 had snug links but after a few flight they were perfect and seem to last a good long time.

[gcopas]

Hi Guys,

I was just wondering if the links are unidirectional or do they only go on one way like we are used to with the Align links?

Keep the build progress reports coming....those of us still without their 550 appreciate all of your observations.

Thanks, George

[sondre fjereide]

Hi Guys,

I was just wondering if the links are unidirectional or do they only go on one way like we are used to with the Align links?

Keep the build progress reports coming....those of us still without their 550 appreciate all of your observations.

Thanks, George

I miss something on my paddles: The hole for the set-screws, Lol. But no big deal. I'll find a way!!;)
For the rest: I can't say I don't like it, I love it. It seems GREAT!! Can't wait to fly it!!

[Phil.L]

My links were also very tight, and even though I carefully resized them to fit snug and smooth, they have now gone a bit sloppy. I suggest leaving them on the tighter side and only resize them slightly if they are very hard to move.

The stock paddles work very well, much better than the align plastic paddles that i tried.

cheers

[unklebuck]

i do a 5 minute run up with the blades off and the heli secure and work the srvos really good. maybe 2 batteries if they are still stiff. try it.:thumbup:

[DominicD]

Be careful running a motor unloaded.

[Duke600]

I flew my O550 for the first time today:clappp I got about 4 flights in. I noticed that correct CG is important, I had to do some extra trimming when I changed packs.

Apart for the tight links breaking in and the CG it flew great. It rolls and flips on a dime and it's still stable in a hover and FF. So far a good heli:thumbup:

[sondre fjereide]

I flew my O550 for the first time today:clappp I got about 4 flights in. I noticed that correct CG is important, I had to do some extra trimming when I changed packs.

Apart for the tight links breaking in and the CG it flew great. It rolls and flips on a dime and it's still stable in a hover and FF. So far a good heli:thumbup:

Nice!!:)

I did a short hover today just to test it, but it was dark and I didn't see anything. I'll try again tomorrow!!
I noticed it was very stable and solid in hover!

[Mecos]

I flew my O550 for the first time today:clappp I got about 4 flights in. I noticed that correct CG is important, I had to do some extra trimming when I changed packs.

Apart for the tight links breaking in and the CG it flew great. It rolls and flips on a dime and it's still stable in a hover and FF. So far a good heli:thumbup:

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