Post your Atom 500 pic.'s here...

[cyclo]

Originally Posted by krismolleke

Starting my flying season here in the Belgian Ardens with very nice weather and my very first good flight with my Atom 500.
A few months ago I bought a second hand Atom FB, old version, no carbon frame. Very cheap (a 180€ or so...). I had to replace a few parts because the former owner crashed with his first flight and he didn't want to rebuilt it again.
So, turned it FBL with 3gx (nice budget unit!), swapped the Hobbywing 60A Esc by the mighty Talon 90. And putted a MKS 8910 on the tail.
This thing flies so great! I can't believe it. I even had to tame down the 3Gx a bit, because I'm only sport flying for the moment. I will put some wiring pics later on.


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I like the retro look of the original canopy. What is old is new again.

[GimpyGolden]

Ya that's kickin' it old school.
I am building up a bud's Atom right now with same lid.

[SamCassidy]

Wait until y'all see what I did on my new 550. Can you say no visible wires? here is my just a shot of my big 5.5 with the new motor and other random shots on my phone.





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[GimpyGolden]

No servo's = no wires.

[SamCassidy]

Originally Posted by GimpyGolden

No servo's = no wires.

Oh it's got servos now I have literally one wire to hide and that's tail servo wire, just put the tail servo on. I'll take some updated pics of it tomorrow to share with y'all.

More random pics...



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[cyclo]

You're Atoms are looking good Sam. IMHO Jeff's skids definitely improves the look. I have to be honest here and say the Compass skids look crap and dated compared to these CF skids.

Compass should ask Jeff to make them for the 6HVU and 550U. I bet it will result in an increase in sales. Let's be honest, many are also after good looks and not just reliability and flight performance as evidenced by Goblin sales. Even Alees' sales appeared to have benefited from those aftermarket CF skids produced by Tony.

EDIT: I decided to order 2 x Atom CF skids from RCHeliCanada... they have a "vacation sale" going on right now. I will be posting pics when the skids get them installed on my Atoms.

[krismolleke]

Here a few pics of the wiring. A use 6HV skids after breaking the original ones. They are more robust and look better IMO.


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[cyclo]

Took some pics of my stock Atom 500 with RCHeliCanada CF skids.

















I did very minor mods to make the skids almost as wide as the stock ones. I added spacers in between the aluminum mounts and the CF skids. I had to use longer screws to do this.

[Jeff_Barrett]

Looks great, Jay!!!

What specifically did you use for spacers? Washers?

We were going to make the skids wider, but we were concerned about the angle at which we'd have to position the skids, they would not have been as strong if we adjusted the angle.

The skids should be strong since you only adjusted the width. Looks great!

PS: If you use the IMG640 instead of IMG tags around your photo links, they will fit the screen.

[cyclo]

Originally Posted by Jeff_Barrett

Looks great, Jay!!!

What specifically did you use for spacers? Washers?

We were going to make the skids wider, but we were concerned about the angle at which we'd have to position the skids, they would not have been as strong if we adjusted the angle.

The skids should be strong since you only adjusted the width. Looks great!

PS: If you use the IMG640 instead of IMG tags around your photo links, they will fit the screen.

Yes, just washers... The resulting width increase was not that much. Maybe 1/3 of an inch. The CF skids had the added benefit of lifting the tail a bit more from the ground which means less chances of striking rocks, etc., when landing.

[Jeff_Barrett]

Awesome. Yes, we added that bit of additional rake b/c I noticed guys were putting on 6HV skids to raise the tail a bit.

[sven75]

Finally my Atom is done,
2 weeks ago i've made the Maiden flight with thanks to Gevaho for helping me with the build.

I'm still waiting for a new canopy, a Fusuno canopy is coming within 2 months.

[sharkfin]

Compass Atom 500 vs Tarot Trex 480 with align 360mm blades


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[mrultralite]

'swiss army' version

[mrultralite]

updated version, a little rounder and thinner up front

[krismolleke]

This is what you can do with a 8€ hobbyking canopy on the Atom:


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[cyclo]

Some pics of my Atom 5.5 from last weekend...

[Tailbender]

A thing of beauty..... Great pics! Thanks for sharing...

[Jmann841]

I have become fond of the looks of the Atom, its my Retro heli! I think I like it more than the looks of my 6HVU.

[cyclo]

Originally Posted by Jmann841

I have become fond of the looks of the Atom, its my Retro heli! I think I like it more than the looks of my 6HVU.

The Atom definitely has the retro look but the way it flies is anything but

One thing to keep in mind in case you plan to stretch the Atom... The Fusuno 5.5. canopy (or the stock original 6HV canopy) is an excellent option to have. In addition to added visibility, it allows you to fit the 3300 mah lipo easily (unlike the stock canopy which is a tight fit) plus it also allows you to move the lipo further forward for perfect CoG. You can also fit a bigger lipo... perhaps as big as 4100 mah with the Fusuno 5.5 canopy.

At 100% ungoverned on the stock motor and 9T pinion I get 5 minute flight times on the stretched compared to 6 minute flight times on my stock Atom 500 using the same 3300 mah lipo.

I like the Atom 500 and 5.5 about equally... The 500 is my goto heli on windy to extremely windy conditions. The last time I flew it winds were a constant 30-40kph gusting to 50-60 kph and it was still stable. On the other hand with calm to little winds (up to 15 kph), I prefer the stretch for the added hang time, floatiness, and even more speed. It will be tough for Compass to evolve this heli on flight characteristics alone in my opinion.