Two new Electric Heli's from JKA

We are going to compare the two side by side with the Sabre on the left and the Shogun on the right side of the page. 

Our test pilot - my son Ryan, who spent the holidays with us home from school - has been putting the Sabre to the test. Read about our trials, tips and tests on this little champ. 

Specs: 

Rotor Span: 20"

Length: 18.5"

Weight RTF: 10 ounces

Motor: 370 and micro tail motor

99% assembled out of the box

Integrated Receiver, Mixer, Gyro and ESC

Composite Molded Airframe

Includes Four channel 72Mhz Transmitter

After opening the box, Jim and I charged the battery, threw some double A's in the transmitter and took it outside to see if it really flies. After flopping it over on it's side several times, Jim put the peddle to the metal and the little chopper zipped into the air. With gyro stabilization, control was fairly easy. But alas we airplane pilots will need more practice before we can claim to be chopper jocks. But, I do think that the Sabre is a relatively inexpensive and easy way to get into Helicopters and with practice can be flown by anyone with a little persistence and a box of spare parts. 

and the more advanced 3D Shogun 400...... $199.95

Specs:

Main Rotor: 25"

Tail Rotor: 5"

Weight RTF: approx. 18 Ounces

90% factory assembled

Fiberglass composite mainframe

Aluminum Tail Boom

Ball bearing carbon-shaft tail rotor drive

Rotor Head/Collective Pitch control -- (Bell-Hiller System)

Drive Gear w/autorotation

Complete ball bearing set -- 17 of 'em

So that 's the rundown of what comes in the box. This is not Ready To Fly and will need a Heli compatible radio and micro flight pack and a gyro unit. All of which we have or can get. In time we should have a good selection of standard and high performance parts for the Shogun. 

Now, lets take a closer look at the Sabre and see what you get for your money.

Since the main rotors are fixed pitch, the throttle will be the main takeoff, hover and landing control. The chopper comes right out of the box just like you see it here, fully assembled with only a few quick setup adjustments to perform before putting the juice to it. 

The landing gear and tail boom are carbon fiber. the chassis and everything else are plastic. The fuselage is very light vacuum formed plastic. The main rotor is powered by a high performance 380 motor and the tail rotor is a gyro controlled micro motor. The power is more than adequate for a very quick vertical ascent and hovering. 

The Sabre comes with a 2hr charger for the flight battery but you may want one of our PF12 quick chargers to get you in the air in about 20 minutes, and you may want to purchase an extra battery pack so you can keep flying while another pack is charging.

The box includes a 4 channel transmitter with a charge jack for Nicads and a plug for a computer flight simulator. All electronics are installed and hooked up. The receiver, speed controls and gyro are in one little black box and the pitch and roll controls are actuated with two micro servos. The tail rotor is fixed pitch also and will control Yaw with a gyro controlled micro motor. 

Lets take a little walk around the Shogun.

The kit comes with a brightly detailed decal sheet to dress up the chopper or you can paint it as you wish. 

The mechanicals represent a high degree of precision and attention to detail. Every  control rod is in place and ready to hook to the recommended servo. The ultra light composite chassis uses a multitude of ball bearings and ball joint for accurate control. Check out the full collective rotorhead which employs the Bell-Hiller design for precise maneuverability and all the 3D stuff you can throw at it. 

The Rotor blades come pre balanced and include a tubular spar for stiffness. Shogun's power system features a combined main and tail rotor drive take-off for efficient weight savings. All mechanical and radio control parts are located for easy maintenance. 

4 channels allow the chopper to be controlled in all axis just like it's big brother on the other side of this page, but fixed pitch means you will have to leave 3D tricks like rolls and inverted flight for a more advanced unit like the Shogun.

The box doubles as a neat carrying case to keep your chopper in.

The packaging is well done and would make an excellent gift.

Having never flown a chopper before, I would have to say that with this craft  it won't be too difficult to learn. We are both seriously looking forward to mastering the art and the Sabre is the ticket.

It can be flown outdoors in very calm air and indoors in a gym or someplace similar. It could be flown in a room but I wouldn't recommend it until you become expert rated - even then you should be careful and not fly with other people around the room. it's a small chopper but those blades are moving very fast and could do some damage.

This is how the Shogun comes packaged

The box could be used as a storage and carrying case. Check out the picture of the guy flying the Shogun upside down --- we aren't there yet --- I will be lucky to make a landing that doesn't look like a controlled crash.

The Shogun is designed for a 3 cell Li-Poly pack and will need a micro gyro or micro heading hold gyro. You will also need a 20A ESC without motor cut-off. EVO has all these things available or you find your own, but a lot of time and thought went into the guts of this thing and it would be better to use the parts that have been designed for the Shogun.

A heli equipped radio is in order along with a micro RX. We would recommend the FMA M5 dual conversion micro Receiver. 

You will have to purchase a reliable charger that will handle LiPo cells. We should have all  the recommended parts in stock - call for availability. 

Tips on chopper flying

We have been learning to fly the Sabre RTF chopper. First this is a really cool little machine that will fly very well but don't expect to pull it out of the box and rescue attempts any little plastic soldiers in the front room as soon as the battery is charged. My brother Jim, my son Ryan, and myself are fairly good at flying really fast and highly maneuverable little airplanes so I figured - how hard can this be!?!? Well, in a word -- hard! Be prepared to repair things and buy a few replacement parts too. 

Having said that, there is nothing cooler than hovering this little baby for the first time for more than a couple seconds. This little discussion will be a continuing expose on how we are learning to fly a chopper and what we have found to make it a much more enjoyable and successful adventure for you. We will eventually have some pictures of modifications we made to make it fly better and simple ways to repair some things that you will most definitely break. 

First of all - read the directions -- OK I know, that may be asking too much of the guys out there but seriously, we ignored a couple things in the book and really suffered some damage because of it. I will get into that later.

First a note of caution in battery handling. The charger that comes with the kit is fairly powerful and can really heat up the pack. Do not leave the battery un-attended while charging and always charge it on a non-flammable surface such as a concrete or ceramic tile. you really only need to charge it for about an hour.

Our first flights were really rough. Our first bit of advice is to find a large indoor area such as a gym or auditorium stage or even a medium large room at least 20 by 20 feet. You don't need a large yard because you will spend the first several hours just taking off and landing.

In order to fly this bird, it is very important to get things set up and balanced. The manual explains most of the details but we found a couple things that really helped. 

First the fly bar needs to be balanced. We also had trouble with fly bar paddles coming off in a crash so first loosen the set screws on the collars and paddles and slide the paddles as far on the shaft as possible. Snug the paddles but leave the collars loose. To balance the fly bar first take the main blades off and run the motor up with the chopper sitting on the bench. You will be able to tell immediately if the fly bar is in balance by vibration or the lack of it. If it runs smoothly through the speed range then tighten everything down making sure to align the paddles according to the instructions. If the Sabre shakes and vibrates, loosen one paddle and move it outward a little bit, tighten and retry the vibration test. If it gets better, you are on the right track. if it gets worse, stop and move it back and do the same thing with the other paddle. Take measurements so you know which paddle you moved. Keep trying it until you get a smooth transition from idle to full RPM. When you are satisfied, lock everything down and reinstall the main blades. 

The next major event is dealing with the main blades and getting them set. We tried leaving them loose thinking they would self balance as the rotor spooled up - the Sabre would gyrate out of control --  and we tried snugging them a little bit and then a lot. What we found was that we had to tighten them down as tight as we can with a little screw driver. Then to dynamically balance the rotor we found a sweet spot where when the blades are there, the Sabre flies super smoothly. If you look down at the rotor assembly you would logically line up the blades with the center bar on the hub but we found the sweet spot was when the leading edge of each blade was pushed a couple degrees forward of the center bar. You will be able to tell when it is right because there will be no shaking on the ground and the Sabre will lift smoothly into the air. Avoid jamming the throttle on as this will upset the blades. Once you are up to speed and flying the blades will automatically stay in the correct position. We just found it to be easier to start out with the blades set correctly.

Do not try to fly off grass or gravel. We tried it thinking that if we crashed - I mean when we crashed it would be easier on the copter. That was wrong. We did more damage trying to fly it outdoors on grass then indoors in a confined space.

The best way to learn flying the little beast is to practice hop it. Do it in a large room and use the throttle to lift off a few inches at a time until you can hover a foot or two at time. Try letting off the throttle easily so it settles in softly. It just takes practice practice practice. after about 5 battery recharges, son Ryan was getting the hang of it, but then we broke a tail rotor and had to wait for a new one.

We broke the landing gear right off the bat because we thought we could head for the sky first thing. Instead we crashed hard several times and damaged the skids. So rather than getting  new ones, which would also get broken, we used a couple pieces of carbon fiber tubes cut from a scrap kite stick, drilled holes in them to receive the landing gear pegs and epoxied them on. The epoxy came loose so we eventually used packing tape and rubber bands to hold things together. 

We also found that the tail skid became too short after many crash landings. So we taped an extra piece of carbon fiber rod to lengthen it about 3/4". That kept the tail rotor from hitting the ground and helped save the tail motor, rotor, and gear. 

You will need a stock of tail rotors, and main rotors. We also replaced the tail sprocket but had we had the above tips before we started the destruction derby, I think we could have saved a couple tail sets. The main thing is to expect to break a couple parts during the learning process. 

Flying is very interesting. Ryan had the most experience with the chopper and was able to hover it in a more or less controlled manner. He said that if it starts to go one way or the other and you haven't corrected it before that point - you are committed. It's like trying to balance a marble on the bottom of an upside down bowl. If you tip the chopper for forward flight, you will have to feed in more throttle to maintain elevation. When you want to gently land, you will have to feed in slightly more throttle as she comes closer to the ground. This is probably the most intense flying you will do as it involves all four simultaneous inputs to fly smoothly. Good luck and remember, all it takes is practice and patience. We will keep you posted on the progress.