Reliability

[GJacksonF3N]

I'm thinking about selling my Mini Protos. The guys on the protos forum swear up and down about the mini p but the Heli was released a couple of years ago and I believe that since then newer technology has surfaced. I've had a headache getting it set up, and even the guys said there are some tricks. But the biggest thing is that someone else said his mini requires a lot of attention, and I'd rather spend that time flying.
So, now that the warp has gone through its growing pains, is it reliable? By that, I'm asking if you have to re-adjust something every 10-20 flights. I think you do with the mini p and I'm not willing to spare hours a week for maintenance. My E5 is as low maintenance as it gets, and I want my other helis to be the same.
I also heard that smaller helis like this will all require a lot of tinkering because of the high rpms. Any issues with the warp?

[kalleh]

My Warp has been maintenance free. Some people have had their tail shaft bearings go south so it might be a maintenance item (or just install known-high-quality ones from the beginning). Not only that, I've done many sloppy mini-autos, tipovers, half-crashes, and it just won't break.

Well, until my ESC started a fire in flight, but that is not the fault of my warp.

[A VIKING]

Perfect timing on your post, I just put up 10 flights on my Warp today and it was just perfect. Honestly I can say I have had very good reliability with it. I have over two hundred flights and it's still an original version 1. Normally I put at least 2 to 4 flights on it daily but today was just a good day.
I do not fly it crazy hard, my abilities won't allow that yet, but it's a perfect tool for me to get there as it's very stabile, predictable and up to this point no crashes...I probably just jinxed myself.
Given I do not fly any smack, I run RPM's lower as I do not need the turbine engine RPMs. That has saved my bearings as they are still tight but I do lube them and the belts very often. The bearings get oil every 4 flights and the belts when ever they make noise, get Dupont Silicon with Teflon lubricant, it's safe on rubber (so says the label). I also do regular inspections along with the lube. Only thing to come out of all my inspections were electrical wires that had worn on the carbon fiber body panels, that was an easy find and fix.
As far as a maintenance free helicopter, they don't make one, but my Warp has treated me very well indeed.

[Chris Nifty]

Don't know what trouble you're having with the Mini, but that bird can be flown hundreds of flights with no maintenance. The one part that can go quickly is the motor counter bearing which can be changed in minutes. The Warp's not as easy to set up or maintain, but after you've done it a few times and work out the tricks, it's easy as well.

[GJacksonF3N]

To me that sort of maintenance is not much of anything. I would just need to find the belt spray you mentioned.

Yeah, I don't know why I'm having bad luck with the mini. Probably time to get it in the hands of someone who is great with them and go back to the drawing board, possibly with a warp!

[GJacksonF3N]

How is the tail holding? I feel that is one reason why I'm having issues.

[Chris Nifty]

Holds fine, but I'm no hard 3d pilot. Is it blowing out, or something else? Vibes? Don't use the stock grips bearings - get something better. Tail shaft bearings good? Other than that, make sure you balance the tail rotor with blades on properly with a magnetic balancer - definitely needs that.
The Warp's stock tail is a beast for holding power - like nothing else. Don't use the stock blades though - bin those and chuck on some carbons, though a lot of guys seem to like KBDD's.

[uiron]

tail is much better than my previous Trex 450 Sport V2 (with Edge's, not stock blades). I knew that before even flying the thing - when you take parts out of the box they just seem like they're from 500 size heli, everything's so much beefier, and when it's assembled, it's slop free. Even the way blades go into grips with those spacers, they're fit enough not to play up/down, yet smooth enough to rotate in the grip. I love it.

The only kind-of downside for me in the warp is the amount of small parts. While getting servos into the Trex was just crewing them to plastic parts of the frame, in Warp you have to fiddle tiny spacers and nylon nuts, which was kind-of tricky to assemble. Same goes for myriads of different spacers I'll have to make sure not to lose any during maintenance.

I have not seen many flights with this bird yet, crashed it during in one of the first hovers (assembly failure, part got loose). It's now back in the air, saw a bit of tip-overs during takeoffs, but I can see I'll love this bird a lot!

[chrismechanic]

i have never owned a protos but i would say its not too dissimillar from the warp.
personally i have come from a 450 pro and i find the warp a bit fiddley around the maingear and belt setup. apart from that its great.

it is the same as any other 450 sized machine, easy to hit the tail blades on landing is about my only grumble, the tail fin could do with being a bit longer. but at least with the warp it dont take out the tt gears.
i also did not like the idea of mounting the tail shaft bearings in carbon plates so i use alloy side plates for my tail (see my thinking of a warp thread)

setup was fine, i just followed the link lengths in the manual and they are pretty much bang on. got a blue light in beastx so its great out of the box.
so far i have 17 flight on this heli and no problems apart from the fore mentioned tail blade strike.
i run a 2500 headspeed at the moment and its fine like that, my pro would fly like a log at that headspeed...
love the power and flight times of a 6s setup more than a 3s setup... i think you will like this heli...
chris

[dannylightning]

i have about 40 flights on mine. had a few issues with pulleys rubbing the frame, that was my fault.. once i got it all set up right its been flying great..

my only real issues is the tail, i think i had to much pitch and was stalling the tail blades, if i banged the rudder all the way over to the right i could get the tail to stop spinning, i changed the end poits and was not able to get it to do that again, as of so far.

and in full collective hurricanes i either get some nasty tail wag or if i lower the gain the wag is gone but the tail will blow out. i may need to set the heading lock gain in the beast x to Very high instead of high and lower my gyro gain. that is how my friends is set up and he said the tail is perfect in full collective hurricanes. so i am sure this is just something that needs adjusted.

when your in a full collective inverted backwards hurricane this little thing is hauling.. the warp is surprisingly fast so i can see how these little tail blades would have a hard time keeping up, but ill try to change some settings and get it fixed up, if not i just wont go to full collective in a hurricane..

[dl5973]

I came from a trex 450 and now own two mini P's one non stretched and one stretched. Both these helis are running 6s

The mini P is not high maintenance at all. It's tail holding is fantastic compared to the Trex 450I can fly the mini as hard as my skills allow and the tail will not let go. I could make the tail on the 450 blow out much easier.

The only thing I hate is changing the belt on the mini P. Its harder than the trex 450 because you have to make sure it fits right against the pulleys when you try to attach it to the motor pinion up front and then fit it around the main gear. I always get the belt stuck between a pulley or two when I get the belt around main gear and then when I try to fix it the belt falls down the motor pinion onto the motor shaft. This drives me nuts!!!!. Maybe there is an easy way of doing it but I have not worked it out yet.

The stock 3s motor is not as powerful as some of the upgrade 3s motors for the Trex 450. Another downside is the choices of 3s and 6s motors available for the mini P. There is only one 3s motor you can use on the mini P (2580kv ) and a few 6s motors available now that the warp 360 is around. (stock 1300kv 6s, scorpion 1630kv 6s motor and 2520- 1360 kv warp upgrade motor)

I was going to get a warp as I loved the power it has stock compared to the stock mini Protos 6s motor. The scorpion 2520 motor changed all that. I decided to get another mini P stretched with the scorpion 2520 motor upgrade. Its awesome.

I will probably sell the non stretched mini P one day to try the warp 360. The warp definitely looks like an awesome flying machine.

[BaconRaygun]

I've got 63 flights over the past month and the only maintenance I had to do was as follows:

-Re-adjust the belt tension when I swapped to the 17T pinion, I did it once at the field after I realized my belt was too tight. Took three minutes.
-Lube and clean the main shaft after I took the heli to the beach. The main shaft is not stainless (its blued) so be careful in damp environments. In those regions, be sure to leave a very thin coating of light machine oil on any non stainless part to prevent oxidation.

This thing is SOLID! I'm coming from a 450 Pro and an thoroughly impressed with the solidity of this heli. It is not my favorite heli in my small fleet.

EDIT: Forgot to mention... you guys who need a little more tail fin, the Lynx 'high flow' fin is pretty good. It is longer than stock so it provides a little extra security, however, I haven't had an issue landing as the tail stops almost immediately after hitting TH.

[GJacksonF3N]

Just read a very enlightening article/review. For me, I get my high off of flying, not having a challenging build. There are some problem areas that you will pretty much need to be an expert builder with the warp. I have only built 4 helis. But repaired the 130x a million times so that was an experience! I think it is similar to the protos in the fact that many think it is super awesome until they fly a high grade Heli. I've never flown a hensleitt(sp?) but have heard it makes even the best helis here seem mediocre. I think because I assembled an excellent kit earlier this year and it flies like a dream, I might have a different viewpoint than others. Thanks for all the help though.

[BaconRaygun]

Originally Posted by inner3

....There are some problem areas that you will pretty much need to be an expert builder with the warp....

Huh?

As far as I'm concerned, the Warp and Protos are the top of the spectrum when it comes to 450 sized helis.

[GJacksonF3N]

Dont get me wrong I think they are good, but it still doesn't compete with some of the quality found on bigger machines, but that is the nature of 450s. But from what I've heard about the Forza, it comes together even easier. There is a review about the warp and it comes from an advanced builder's experience with the kit and others. I'm just saying that it seems fairly common that there are some things about this kit that don't always line up perfectly and that people had to do some mods for it to work. Not saying you are wrong, just going off a lot of threads in this section. As for the mini, it is very nice on some things, but I was expecting it to be comparable to my E5 and it is far from it.

[BaconRaygun]

You read that thread on RCG by ScotY, didn't you.

[uiron]

what got me into Warp-land is that it's totally non-conventional 450. I was even able to explain it to my wife "motor bottom left on Trex, top right on Warp. Trex - gear, Warp - belt. battery upstairs, battery downstairs. Boom thin, boomthick. Grips small, grips big.". It's awesome just to hold in your hands. It's awesome to feel the lack of slop.

Maybe it's just me, coming from an Align-land, but I love this heli. It's my second heli build and I'd evaluate the complexity of the build as "went event smoother than expected".

[Raz0rSh4rp]

I have only been flying a little bit more than a year. CP less than that. The Warp, though not my first heli, was my first build. I had no problems with mine going together. Did not need to be an expert. Just pay attention to the manual and ask questions on HF if you need. It actually goes together very quickly. Less than 6 hours for me to build all told (over 3 days).

[Ah Clem]

My Warp went right together with no issues.

It has about 50 flights on it now, and is being used for a blade test vehicle (and for fun flying).

No issues, so far.

[Danny Dugger]

inner3, I think the Warp is the best flying 450 sized heli you're going to find right now. Once built it should be virtually maintenance free, just grab it and fly. Its a tank, and the tail is truly incredible for a 450. If you want something to fly better than your 500, I'm afraid you're gonna have to spring for a 600 - 800 size heli. (Or any of the Goblins! ) Sorry. I had to.