dkshema
rrProfessor
Location: Cedar Rapids, IA
| I've got a Venture and a Caliber 30. The Venture is a bit heavy, a lot tail heavy, and the parts quality sucks for the most part. Actually had two Ventures. I had so many problems with the original that Horizon, to their credit, swapped it out after its fourth flight.
The second one has about 5 flights on it now, it is still heavy and still tail heavy. I'm running an OS 32SXH and a KSJ399 muffler. JR 662 radio/537 servos and a Futaba GY240 gyro. Lots of head speed (1800 or so), VERY aerobatic. Plastic covering on the stock wood rotor blades shredded in flight, at the rotor tips. This seems to be a common problem. Horizon sent me another set, different brand. One flight, and so far, so good. Look out for almost NO clearance between the main drive gear and the heli frame. JR has a new hub available that increases this distance a few thousandths of an inch, the machining wasn't all that great -- hole for the bolt not drilled on-center. Tail rotor authority is a bit weak.
Caliber 30. Light, agile, QUIET. OS 32 SXH, stock muffler is great. JR 662 radio/537 servos/Futaba 401 gyro. Exceptional quality and machining throughout. Cluch bell is plastic, but works great. CCPM setup is excellent. Tail rotor has great authority -- fast pirouette rate, stops on dime.
For the money -- go for the Caliber 30. Much higher quality heli, flies great. Parts availability through HeliProz is great. (Yeah, they do crash just like every other brand!) |
