Higher head speeds?

[Cheetah62]

I've been flying my G5 at the 2400 RPM "design point" for a while now, and thought I might try going a little higher, maybe 25-2600. Even after nearly 200 flights I'm still not quite getting the feel for the linear collective and a friend suggested that a higher head speed might give a little more mid-stick pop, like what I'm used to with a Trex.
I've tried an "s-curve" on pitch (0-20-50-80-100), but didn't really like it much as it made hovering a bit too twitchy. The Outrage manual warns against tail rotor speeds in excess of 12,500, but with the stock 11t tail pulley it looks like I should be safe up to 2600 on the head (12,100 on the tail).
My questions are:
What have you all found with higher head speeds? Is it really any better?
Have you had any tail failures? (I lost a plastic tail blade a few weeks ago - should I use carbons?)
Should I just man up and get used to the "soft" feel of a linear collective?

Any feedback appreciated, thanks.

[Scallybert]

I had a spate of G5 tail bearings pulling apart. I'm not sure what RPM that was at, but I now run at 2450. Whether this has addressed the problem, or if these bearings are just better, I don't know.

WRT the pitch curve, depending on your Tx, you could use a 7 point curve to make it steeper around 0 deg, without making it too silly where you're trying to hover.

You can do this on a DX8, but it means editing the pitch curve on a PC. You can also move the points around on the X-axis. It's fiddly, but versatile if you don't mind that sort of thing