Review: RC-TEK SkyShark

[Laurens]

Since a few weeks I'm sponsred by RC-TEK and Airthunder.

2 weeks ago I received my RCT450 Sky-shark. It had been in customs for a few days so I was getting worried if it would stay there for a few weeks. Luckily it came on the monday with a hefty customs declarance of about 50 euro.

It comes in ARF form, but there's no loctite on the screws yet. This is not a hard job to do. The CNC'd metal bits have a good finish on them, and the alufiberglass frames don't have any sharp edges.

This will be my setup:
RCT450 Sky-Shark
DX7/AR7000
Stock motor and ESC
SJM 402 and 401 servo's.
Stock Glassfiber blades
JR G770T
Airthunder 3s2200 batteries.

After opening the box I found some strange animals in the box. You can't just leave them alone for even one minute:
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/6056/rctek001mc6.jpg

And what was in the box:
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6046/rctek006uk3.jpg

The things that are in the pro package are:
Sky-Shark
microheli bladepitch meter
3 hexdrivers
1 pair of GF blades
Motor
40A ESC
Big aluminum travel case

I found these pro's to a Trex:
- Top mounted motor (higher cg)
- Better designed rotorhead (lower blades = cg closer to blades)
- Costs less then a Trex

So far I'm liking the servos. They're metal geared so they should (and did...) sustain a crash well.
SDG-402 MG

Operating Speed:0.16 sec (60°) 2.0Kg/cm @ 4.8V
0.13 sec (60°), 2.5Kg/cm @ 6V
Size:23.0mm x 11.4mm x 24.1mm
Weight: 9.77g

And the tail servo, SDG-401 MG:
Operating Speed:0.07 sec (60°) 0.9Kg/cm @ 4.8V
0.06 sec (60°), 1.1Kg/cm @ 6V
Size:23.0mm x 11.4mm x 24.1mm
Weight: 9.83g

Just a few more pictures:
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/9546/rctek011wy7.jpg

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5253/rctek013hx4.jpg

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/6540/rctek018ow2.jpg

And some lipo's:
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7696/airthunderxs0.jpg

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/5691/airthunder001jr3.jpg

The ready to fly weight with glassfiber canopy and AR7000 is 847 grams. This could be a little lighter but I ordered the wrong Rx... Anyway it flies and thats all that counts.

And it flies GREAT! I think this bird is better then the 2 Trexes I've owned. It tracks like its on rail in forward flight. I'm having a few issues setting up the gyro though. I got this JR G770T from Japan, and surprise surprise it came with a Japanese manual. Pirorate is very high with the endpoints at 100. I dialed it back tot 55. In the first few testhop I had the tail blow out during pitchpumps and tictocs. I switched the servo output to high instead of low so I hope the servo will hold better now.

On the second pack I seemed to have the ESC quitting on me. I don't know if I set it up wrong or the battery was empty, but I was doing a little bit of backwards inverted flight with it at one metre high when it quit. On the first look it looked really bad, but it turns out that the only things that bent were the mainshaft, flybar, spindle and unfortunatly the headblock on which the heli landed. Also blades were damaged at the tips. This is not as bad as I expected.

To sum it up I'm in love! This seems like a little fun heli that flies just like a bigger heli. Now if I just could get a camera I'll be uploading some flying vids soon.

[dezflyer]

nice laurens :) yea i really like how my diablo performs too. its different than my trex in a good way. ive heard that the new JR gyro is pretty sweet, and that it has some serious gain on it (a buddy of mine is flying his 600N/JR 770 with just 15% gain!) im not a fan boy of any particular brand (if it flies good , i like it!) but i think rc-tek has put themselves on the map with this one.

[JesusFreak]

The head looks pretty close to the TREX. Is it a copy?

I like the more accessible motor as well, and the frame looks nice.

Who sells them and what's the costs?

Regards,
lee

[bullaculla]

Similar, but the flybar is on top. it should be more stable in this configuration, but still would have more room for longer throws.

[blade strike]

pretty cool man... please report back once you get her in the air:wink:

[Laurens]

I added some information.

The head looks like a Trex head, but it has an overslung flybar. This should be less stabile in theory but Im not really noticing that.

You can click the link in my signature to find the Sky-Shark. There's a diablo too, thats just a red anodised version with carbon frames instead of these alu-fiberglass frames.

I'm getting -13 + 12 easily with this head. So far I think this is enough for me.

[istandalone]

free with every purchase, one pair of mischievous kittys!

[HeliSmith]

I love the cyclic servos I want some for my Trex now but I can't justify getting them since the HS65MG servos still work. The jury is still out on the tail SDG401 tail servo. When I ran it at 6v I was happy but mine fried. My replacement is running at 5.1v and I can't say that I am getting what I want out of it. The RC-TEK gyro is better than the 401 though!

I have had two crashes at 3200RPM and so far I have only bent a tail pitch fork that I straightened back out. No problems to report but trust me I will speak up if I find stuff. 12 flights on it this weekend alone 9 hard core 3D pitch pumping, inverted bf, ff and tons of purposeful bogging to test that tail. Yes it blows out on me with a moderate bog even with the tail mod. i.e. chinese weight mod also by RC-TEK. It only blows 180 though it doesn't do the big wag thing like when you are running too little gain if you guys know what I meant and have ever done that by accident.

About 2 times more stable then my Trex 450 which hasn't left the shelf but once or twice since I have got the Sky Shark.