Hurricane 550 anyone?

[broke-again]

Any freaks flying the Hurricane 550?

Looks like an interesting heli and seems to be aimed at 450 size owners wanting a bigger heli without breaking the bank. Uses 2 common 11.1v lipos for power and comes with ESC, motor & blades. I have watched some videos of this heli and looks pretty nimble.

Just curious what other think about it? Im toying with the idea of getting one just to utilise all my HDX450 batteries, but wonder what parts availability would be etc.

Any views?

:D

[Finless]

I have been looking at them and thinking of actually doing a build vid on the thing. I like the push pull system and the general layout of components in the frame. It looks like a good heli from what I have seen!

Bob

[X30PILOT]

I just got my Hurricane last Saturday and so far I am very impressed with it.
Looking in the box it becomes very obvious that there is just not much to do putting this heli together. The quality of all the parts looks great and it all fits together quite well.
The head and tail assemblies are very tight with no slop at all.
Now that I have the thing built I hope to test fly it on Sunday.
So far I only have a few minor issues.
I really like the canopy style and design but it could be made to be a little more rugged,
although I would have to admit it does do what it was designed to.
The tail servo is in the frame and while this seems to be fine, the more modern approach is to mount the tail servo on the boom.
The instructions could be more detailed, but they are adequate to get you though the build and any subsequent repairs.
So far for the price of a Trex-450 SA I am quite impressed.
Hopefully I will still be impressed after I have had it for a while.

X30

[broke-again]

Boy im getting more & more tempted to get myself one of these. Iv'e done a bit of reading and so far owners really like it, seems it handles very well too. I see another build vid coming up Bob!


Now that I have the thing built I hope to test fly it on Sunday


Good luck & Please let us know your set up & how it goes. Im also curious about what flight times are like :)

So far for the price of a Trex-450 SA I am quite impressed

How much did your 550 set you back and where did you buy it X30?

Thanks for the feedback!

[ozace]

mine has not impressed me. The frame is soft (flexi) and the battery mount area is a real pain to work with.

[X30PILOT]

broke-again
I bought mine at www.backman-rc-expert.com for $345 with motor and speed control.
Putting this helicopter together was a pleasure. Parts fit is fantastic.
I have never seen head and tail assemblies with virtually no slop like this before.
The radio installation is well thought out and is a snap. On many of the other helis I have built, component placement appears to be an after thought.
Both the motor and speed control appears to be very high quality.
The canopy design provides for good airflow for the batteries, controller and motor.
When spooling this thing up with no blades it is smooooth.

[shauntot]

just wanted to share, saw the hurricane for the 1st time last tuesday, and i was blown away. uses 2 3s 2100mah packs so in essence its a 6S (can use existing trex batteries), has no slop in the head. check out the video

Gaui Hurricane 550 (pic)
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b273/shauntot/singapore/SP_A0244.jpg

Hurricane (video click to play)- http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b273/shauntot/singapore/th_SV_A0094.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b273/shauntot/singapore/?action=view&current=SV_A0094.flv)

[X30PILOT]

I now have 8 flights on the Hurricane and it is one fantastic flying machine! Very stable in hover, wonderfully powerful in both pitch and cyclic authority and it has a wild pirouette rate. With a good set of carbon blades it would be fantastic. The power system seems to be well matched to this heli. I have found the battery mounting very convenient to work with. I have lined the battery mounts with wing seating tape and use Velcro straps to hold the batteries in place. On one of my last flights I flew this thing pretty hard for 5 minutes. Not hard core 3D, but plenty of loops, rolls, 720 stall turns and inverted flight, I wasn’t level for very long. The charger only put 1470 mah back into my 2200 mah batteries.
It went together and was very easy to set up with no issues, except the speed control. The default settings include a battery management system designed to protect your LiPos and a setting of helicopter with governor. This battery management system has shut down power to my motor prematurely several times and I am fortunate to have not wrecked the heli as a result of this. I have reprogrammed the controller to not use this feature and have had some great flights but for some reason the controller goes back to the default settings.
If I can’t resolve this I will put in a different speed controller.

X-30

[Piranha]

Hi guys :) Finaly I've got mine!!! :)
here it is
http://b0.imgsrc.ru/p/piranha/2103895BQO.jpg

It looks well done machine! I still need to put gyro on it and it will be ready for fly :)
The only disappointed thing is that the servo mount holes on the frame is too big and i can't find good screws for servo installing

[Yuchan]

this thing sounds fanatastic ! any more comments on battery life? 1470 back for 5 mins sounds amazing.

[broke-again]

The only disappointed thing is that the servo mount holes on the frame is too big and i can't find good screws for servo installing


Where they not included in the kit Piranha?


This battery management system has shut down power to my motor prematurely several times and I am fortunate to have not wrecked the heli as a result of this


Seems from my research that your not alone on this. I think i read somewhere that the ESC comes from the same manufacturer as Align, but it appears to over-ride any programming when it reads the battery voltage when you first plug it in. There dosent appear to be any fix for this yet, i would play safe and swap it out. Did you contact the seller about this?

[3D52]

I bought mine at www.backman-rc-expert.com for $345 with motor and speed control.

X30PILOT, How are these guys to deal with, I noticed they have an office right outside Dallas. How long did it take to get yours?
Thanks
Steve

[X30PILOT]

Piranha/broke-again

The holes in the frame fit the JR DS-821 servos perfectly. These are the servos that are included in the 7202 and the DX7 radios.

3D52

I have had excellent service from backman-rc-expert.com. It took less than a week to get my Hurricane from them.

X30

[broke-again]

What other ESC would be suitable for this, would the Align 75a be ok. If i did get one, i wouldnt want to use the stock ESC. :)

[larryl]

After great deal of reading and struggling with choices the wallet won and I ordered my Hurricane 550 this morning. The price / apparent performance as seen in some of Tom Viper's posts on another forum finally pushed me over the brink after I read that ozace had solved his frame flex problem by correcting an error made in servo disc template, properly seating partially seated (and binding) bellcranks and adding a brace behind the motor. Has anyone found a US source for parts - I checked Backman's and he sells the heli but does not confess to stocking replacement parts.

Have never flown anything larger than my Dragonfly 52 and HeliMax RotoFly so any words of wisdom and advise on assembly, setup, testing and transition from flying the little guys to this big girl would be humbly received and greatly appreciated. :)

[Pinecone]

Get the Finless videos on CCPM and Pitch/throttle curves. They work for every heli. I use the same setup regime from my Gaui EP100 Pro (165mm rotor blades) to my Quick of Japan EP8 (400 mm rotor blades). Works GREAT.

X30PILOT, you might want to check reports on those serovs, I have seen several reports of sheared output shafts.

[X30PILOT]

broke-again

Any speed control that can handle 50 amps and 6s should work. Certainly the Align Trex 600 controller would work very well.

larryl

I built my Hurricane stock except for putting some washers under the bolts holding in the motor mounting plate. I used the servo wheels off of the DS 821s. They are not quite as big as what is shown on the instructions; however they have holes in them that match the suggested offset perfectly. I can tell you from flying this thing that any airframe modification is a waist of time.

Pinecone

I tested my servos as some people have suggested on the net. I held the servos and operated them putting a lot of resistance on the output with my hand. Those who have reported problems have had the shafts sheer right off in their hand doing this. I had no problems, so I hope mine are ok. I’ll let you know if I have any difficulties with them.

X-30

[broke-again]

Thanks for the feedback x-30

[Pinecone]

Just wanted to make sure you knew about the reports.

Sounds like it may have been a bad batch. I haven't followed it that closely. But if some are OK, that is a source for some cheap servos as people dump the ones from teh DX7 sets.

Hmm, may make the Hurricane move to the front of the pack for ordering. :)

[Boleia]

It looks like the Hurricane 550 is a pretty good heli. If I'm reading the post correctly for $350 you get the copter. brushless motor,and a esc. It looks like I would need servos.battery pack,and a setup to power the rcvr.. if I want to run the rcvr. on its own power source. Does the 550 come as a kit,or artf. Is there any other items or things to consider about the 550. Thanks Craig N

[X30PILOT]

Boleia

The Hurricane is a great heli but currently we are having some issues with the ESC.
I think you will see some kits sold less ESC for about $50 less. There are some good ESCs out now for a reasonable price. The supplied ESC seems to be of a good design and when it holds the desired programming works very well. Although I would like to take the guy that designed the firmware for it and drop kick him across a football field.

X30

[larryl]

Thanks for the input to pinecone & X-30. Got the videos - excellent information, Bob should be named Arch Bishop of Heli for his good works! Waiting anxiously for arrival of my hurricane.

Both - are your helis the newer version - with the steel pinon and 8mm one way and if not did you upgrade? If not upgraded have you seen issues such as wear and "tooth clipping"?

[X30PILOT]

I took four flights today on the Hurricane using my new bargain basement speed control.
On the first flight it was obvious that I did not have the timing set high enough.
The head speed was low in normal (checked at 1620) and in idle up (1810)
But I flew around for 6 minutes anyway and did some full throttle climbs and you could hear the head speed bog down pretty good. The battery and speed control were barely warm to the touch and the motor was warm but not at all hot. I only put 1505 mah back into my 2200s. So I could have flown for 8 minutes this way.
For the second flight I increased the timing from 15 degrees to 30 degrees.
This time the motor had much better power but not quite as good as the Gaui controller when it worked. I enjoyed a nice flight with all my usual maneuvers. I landed at 6 minutes into the flight with plenty of power to spare. At the end of the flight the batteries and controller were warm and the motor was very warm but not as hot as it had been with the Gaiu controller. While the throttle had much better punch than before you could still hear the head bog when using a lot of collective. I put 1.91 mah back into my TP 2100s.
For flight 3 I got more aggressive with the Hurricane, confident the new speed control was not going to let me down. At 5 minutes the head started to slow down and I landed 51/2 minutes into the flight and we but 1.92 mah back into a set of Mega Power 2100s
On the final flight today again I flew for 5 ½ minutes and landed with plenty of power remaining in the batteries. I then put 1.81 mah back into my 2200s
So far I cannot see any signs of ware on my Hurricane. I do believe that mine is the latest version. It does fly very well but it would certainly benefit from a good set of carbon blades. I have the timing set as high as it will go. I do have the option of increasing the PWM from 16 KHz to 32KHZ if anyone thinks that would give me more power without generateting to much heat. I do like this machine.

X30

[broke-again]

I found this review on the hurricane by Nigel Ker for http://www.trextuning.com/ep550.php

[Ah Clem]

From the magazine adds, it appears that the Hurricane and Hercules are the same machine (at least from the pictures).

Anyone else notice this?