Trex 500CF or Swift 16?

[Ollie West]

I'm planning on buying a new helicopter at the 3D Masters this year, but which one.

The Trex 500 is made by Align and are very well known and have lots of good things to say about them. It is alos cheap and very good looking.

But the Swift 16 is bigger and will perform better in wind, it is also around the same price and very cheap for spares.

Which one????

Ollie ;)

[centuryman]

I have 3 swifts from 6s to 12s you can't go wrong with the swifts,on6s they're a little rocket.i even have a swift 16 that i put a 1907 on 8s in it. it
s the fastest thing i've seen and i just got a 620 thta i've been flying on 10s but now that i have it dialed in i'll be putting the 12s packs in it and hang on, it's awesome on 10s so 12 should be a handefull.

[aramsdell]

Yeah, What-he-said!. I've got 2. Ones a heli-cam's ride. The other on 550's, 6S and 9T is a handful for me. Anything from over that and you are going to $h!^ your p^nts.

[centuryman]

Happyness is 5chargers and 3 power supplys ahumming in unison at the end of a perfect day of flying.Got 20 flights in today not a single problem with my swifts.:)
plug,fly,charge,repeat.

[Ollie West]

Thanks for your replies guys, as i'm only 15 I cant buy loads and loads of lipos and chargers.

At the moment I have 3 Aurrora Revolutions (11.1V 2100mah 18C) and 1 Kokam (11.1V 2000mah 15C)

They all go in to my 450 at the moment and I Parallel 2 of them up and put them in my plane.

I'm now considering the 550 over the 16, but if I can't afford enough lipos for it I will go for the 16. When I buy the 550 I will get 4 11.1V 2200mah 25C Aurrora lipos to keep the swift going.

And another cell pro.

Any more comments?

Ollie ;)

[centuryman]

Ive used 2 3s lipos in series in my first swift and it worked fine for tame flying for 3d ithey got hot,but a double series parrel should work good.the 550 is a sweet upgrade the driven tail is nice.but for 80 dollers more you can have the fully blinged 620.

[Ollie West]

Thanks for the info. i'm also going to use a lightening 600 motor (the best! :D ).

I did look at the 620, but i will need more lipo's to get it going. But is it worth it? Is the 620SE better than the 550?

Ollie ;)

[centuryman]

If running 600 motor stick with the 550 carbon it's half pound lighter then the 620 and besides that 600 would'nt pull 600 blades for very long unless geared slow and boring.my 620 actully seams tame compared to my swift 16's.I thin k it is because it weighs so much more and the stk paddles on the 620 are heavy.the most fun swift i have is a 16 with a neu 1907 1.5ymotor on 8s at 2250 headspeed and 6 pounds with fp 3200 batteries and i get 5 minutes run time and it out performes my 620 on 10s big time.

[GyroAl]

Ollie,

If you check the records of the UK 3D masters, you will find that a young Adam Turner won the Sportsman class with a Swift 16 a few years ago.

And now with the far better power system (like the 600+ motor, ESC80A and the new 25C cells) it is even a hotter machine today.

[centuryman]

thats the excact setup i use in one of my swifts and it rocks.It's not 1907 on 8s but it's light and flips and rolls fast and the batteries are cheaper and so is the heli.I have more flights on that swift then any of my other heli,s.

[westcoastal]

i bought bouth and found the trex 500 better it does not need upgrades and will fly strait out of box with 2 2200mah batterys.

[centuryman]

my swifts did'nt need any upgrades.my 6s swift has over 300 flights and it's stk .
However the trex 500 is a lot smaller so the batteries are only about 60% the cost.It works that way when you go bigger.the batteries for a 600 are double again of the swift batteries.and on a 700e you can pay $700.00 for a battery.

[Ollie West]

What lipos do you guys use? As im going to use 3 or 4 2200mah 25C 11.1V revolution (http://www.aurorra.co.uk/shop/product.php?productid=16237&cat=263&page=2)

I will probably get the 550 carbon. Any comments on the following setup?

Swift 500 carbon

3 x S3152 servos OR use servos with DX7
S9254/GY401
Lightening 600
80A Phoenix ESC
AR7000
SAB blades

Thanks guys. :)

Ollie ;)

[centuryman]

you'll need 4 of those batteries hooked in series ,parellel to give you 4400 mah and 22.2 volts. 2 in series works for sport flying but if you push it they will get 160 plus degrees and that won't last long plus on 2 the run times are 2.5 to 3.5 min depending on flying style.A pair of 2500's in serieswould work and you could use them in your 450.