Finished the build, agile 5.5

[taosgraveyard]

Went together real nice...

There is a lot of great things about this Heli, and a very few that are just plain baffling me

All the parts were there, and none were questionable ( unlike any goblin I have built, and I've built all 4).

Ok one small thing... As shipped to me by helidirect, one of the landing gear aluminum frame mounts had a fastener broken off the hole ... It had been screwed in cross threaded and snapped off... At the factory? Not a problem, ordered a replacement, I could not get the broken fastener out, is snapped right at the aluminum, nothing to grab, so I will fly It as is for now.

Observations

The manual PDF, you can't search any of the text in it... That's a pain... Come on, KDS join the future with the rest of us,,, if its text , make it real text, and allow search to work.

the PDF manual looks like just photocopies of paper printout... Poor resolution, pretty lame...

And I wish the parts were in numbered bags that go along with the assembly. I didn't think i am exaggerating when i say that I spent as much time hunting fasteners and parts as I did building. I haven't had to this on other helis I have built, and I have built a few.

The most baffling thing:

The manual recommends 20 mm cyclic servo arm holes???? And even then the elevator servo to swash link leans in toward the main shaft at a pretty good angle... So I used thick dubro airplane arms and got the pitch and aileron links leaning in at the same angle

But its ugly

The links line up ok with the main shaft, but are not parallel to main shaft I checked swash for level at top and bottom, and that came out ok, but I prefer I have swash to servo links parallel to the main shaft at zero pitch, and 20mm servo arm holes is pushing things for today's flybar units, and gives away a fair amount of resolution.

I think the geometry could have been improved by Simply getting the servos closer to being under the swash, there is plenty of room, and that would permit links to run parallel to the main shaft , and then you'd end up with 17 mm on the arm holes for better resolution.

Its a lot like what up happened when I converted an old FB Heli to FBL... Big long arms like that were sometimes used

But:

But, most of these are small nits... Kudos to KdS on what looks to be a good helicopter. Overall the finished product is impressive, it seems very stout, and I can't wait to maiden it ( hopefully tomorrow)

Scorpion HkIII 2025-1100
Futaba 252 BLS, Futaba 252
Helicommand HC3-SX

[radu7]

Good show on getting the build finished. I only just started taking mine out of the box since getting it on a Black Friday sale. I got the PNP combo from Heli Direct as I wanted to try the EBar and figured I'd give the motor and servos a go too since I read good things about them.

I haven't inspected every part yet, but I did notice an oddball thing similar to your landing gear frame mount issue. It's no big deal, but I found that one of my boom supports had epoxy on both ends showing where it had previously had the metal ends attached and glued on and seemingly yanked/twisted off. It was actually sealed in the plastic bag like that. I cut the bag open to get a better look and sure enough that is what the deal was. It still looks OK, just have to knock/file/sand the dried-up epoxy off so it will fit in the metal ends (those were 'unused'). Almost like some part from an assembled kit laying around got accidentally mixed in with new parts. Very weird. I too was a little taken aback at the manual quality and was surprised that a manual was not included in the box. This is the first name-brand heli I've bought that didn't come with a manual of some sort. The motor, FBL and Servos did have documentation though. I found the one PDF you mentioned at another vendor's site and did also, however, find an older version out there that had clearer text and graphics that was a little less photocopied/scanned looking, but not by much. It was also not searchable.

I agree that so far the quality looks fantastic. As good as any and better than most kits I've had or seen in person. With all the small, non-issue, things aside I am looking forward to getting it built and in the air too. If these things are the only issues we have with a first-batch kit then it seems they have a winner on their hands with the Agile line of helis.

[TheKingPhisher]

Hey congrats Radu7 on getting one of these! Would love to hear your impressions after it's built.

[radu7]

Originally Posted by TheKingPhisher

Hey congrats Radu7 on getting one of these! Would love to hear your impressions after it's built.

Hey KingPhisher, thanks. I'll be sure and let you know my impressions on the kit once I get it built. Hopefully very soon! Then I need to finally get that little D700 back up in the air...

[cmsilvoy]

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Ok one small thing... As shipped to me by helidirect, one of the landing gear aluminum frame mounts had a fastener broken off the hole ... It had been screwed in cross threaded and snapped off... At the factory? Not a problem, ordered a replacement, I could not get the broken fastener out, is snapped right at the aluminum, nothing to grab, so I will fly It as is for now.
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I bet the tap broke off during the last cycle of the machining program and the part got dropped into the bucket before the spindle went back to the laser and signaled a tool break.
It happens.
Contact the warehouse (www.kdsmodelsusa.com) and let them know and I am sure that with the great customer service they have shown so far, that they can send you a new part.

Chris

[cmsilvoy]

Sorry, duplicate post........
Chris

[taosgraveyard]

I bet you re right, its a tap

I am in Argentina... I'm using the part as is for now...

Te local shop is a KDS vendor, but only has the kits, no spares yet.

[gobblin]

Originally Posted by taosgraveyard

I bet you re right, its a tap

I am in Argentina... I'm using the part as is for now...

Te local shop is a KDS vendor, but only has the kits, no spares yet.

I would contact Allen at KDSmodelusa and see what he can do for you. I'm sure he can get you pointed towards the right person

[taosgraveyard]

I am using the part as is for now. Well, I was... I crashed it a week ago

I didn't buy from kdsmodelsUSA

I bought from Helidirect.

I replaced that broken part in my crash repair order. I'll pick up the parts when I go to the USA in ten days

We are talking about a cheap part ... Its not even worth taking about,

My point was that the part got included in the kit ... The rest of the quality control seemed great... But not that part