Blown away by new Dragnous II

[Gary Morris]

I just finished building a new Dragnous II, this is one really sweet mini sized helicopter! Here's the specs;

Hitec Electron 6 receiver
Futaba GY-401 gyro
Hitec HS-65 MG servos
Poly Quest 2150 20C 3-Cell Lipoly
3700 Generic 450 Class Motor
Jeti Spin 33 Programmable Speed Controller
Basic Dragnous II Kit from Hobby Lobby

Results: PRICELESS

So far the weather has been horrible so only flown it inside but it has killer power. Can't wait til the weather improves so I can wring it out!

Gary Morris

[JayB]

I NEED PICTURES!!!

[Gary Morris]

So sorry I meant to include them but was so excited about posting I forgot!

Here's the pictures!

By the way the frame is constructed of aluminum, it has a very unique belt drive system which has very low drag so in the event you have to do and auto your head speed should hold up much better. Blades are made of wood covered with clear shrink wrap. The landing skids are all one piece and extremely tough!

Gary

[Planecrazy]

A good friend of mine has just finished one and flown it.
Quiet simply these are as good as the best out there on any market. Quality of the parts is exceptional, assembly is a breeze.

First flight the local guru 3D'd it to the limit. He's no mini electric heli fan but this one took him.

Not a single bad thing to say about them.
Priceless is a good description.

Plane crazy.

[CSpaced]

Looks good! Can we get some pics with the canopy removed?

[JayB]

who's the distributer?

[Nitrohuffer]

That looks like the Gohbee Phazer that is new to the market. Both heli look like like mini Henseleit 3dmp's.

[Gary Morris]

OK, here are some more pictures with the canopy off, I mounted the Spin on the side, I may end up moving it to the bottom like the Trex SE does it and move the battery to the top. The manufacturer is RCer, it's distributed by Hobby-Lobby Intl, of Brentwood, Tennessee. Price with motor is $159.00 plus shipping. One nice feature that I've never seen on anything in it's class is a programmable head. There are three settings you can change on the head to give more pitch and throw, I'd call it from mild to wild control throws, pretty kewl!


Gary

[Nitrohuffer]

Very impressive heli for the price. Are spares easily available?

[Edge 540]

One idea. You might want to move the gyro so it is safe from wayward paddles.

[Gary Morris]

Spares will be carried by Hobby-Lobby, the gyro unfortunately can't be moved to the bottom of the boom without modifying the servo layout for the rudder. Since I'm not and aggressive flier hopefully I won't have the flybar paddles eat my pretty new gyro.

P.S. These should start popping up on the Hobby-Lobby website by next week!

Gary Morris

[Flyinfool]

Aggressive flying is not what causes the paddles to eat the gyro.
Almost any crash can add a gyro to the repair list when the paddles cut it in half.

That is not the same as the Phazor 450 it looks similar but every part that I can see clearly is different.

[Gary Morris]

Well folks this isn't my first Rodeo, I'm very familiar with paddles striking the gyro in a crash since I also own a Trex SE V-2 and have crashed it before. There is a cage around the gyro to "protect it", however I doubt it would do much since it's mostly just eye candy. The rudder servo is in-between the frames and the servo push rod is in the way of moving the gyro to the bottom of the boom. It would require moving the servo back farther and attaching it to the boom like the Trex system. I wanted to keep it entirely stock since this one was more or less a test bed to see what productions changes were made since the first release of the Dragnous last summer. This new model has captive nuts to hold the frame together, before you had to hold the tiny nuts with big fat fingers and it was a real pain getting them attached while trying to hold them in place. I appreciate the warnings and you are correct, the gyro should be mounted on the bottom of the boom in order to save it from slicing and dicing.

Gary Morris

[CSpaced]

The placement of the gyro is purely subjective anyway. You can try to minimize the damage that may be caused to the gyro by putting it somewhere "safe", but in the end you can't predict how the heli is going to crash and therefore the safest place to put the gyro.

I've seen and heard of gyro's destroyed in just about every location you can think of to put it - including up front, down below, and on the back.

Just my 2 cents!

[austintyler]

Gary, hows the slop and head play on that Dragonus? THe price is right and I've heard good things