Align Helicopters

[F106DeltaDart]

Would love to see Motion carry some align helis besides the blade versions. They are excellent quality machines with parts that are interchangeable with most cheaper helis as well. Some scale fuselages would also be great to see.

[Alpha]

RE: Align Helicopters

Thanks for the suggestion!

[USAJetLover.DJ]

RE: Align Helicopters

I agree!!! I'd love to see Aligns here!

[JFandL]

Align has some nice airframes from the 500 to 700 size all good.

[JFandL]

Will add the New 800 Kits are also very well done.

[deepdiver8055]

Can someone tell me what are the latest versions of the align helicopters as in which are the newer models? I see combos and kits like say the 550E or the 550L and the 550X and the same for the 700 series.... can you tell me what are the newest ones based on from today's date back through the years?? which would be good for an Scale project in the 550 and 700 class? I mean i have a few scale heli's I'm looking at building in either of these classes but I want to make sure to try and get the latest equipment in these two classes (550 and 700). Thanks.
On a couple of other sites i asked this same thing and they had NO IDEA! You have got to be fricking kidding me!!!... these were dealers who sell Align products and their heli's!

[F106DeltaDart]

Welcome to the forum deepdiver! So, funny thing with scale helis is that you generally don’t want the latest version of the mechanics. Most of the scale heli fuselages were designed to fit older models. Also, a lot of the newer Align models are designed around high headspeeds for 3D, and have low tail ratios. This creates a huge problem for a scale heli running multi blade heads at low headspeeds. Here are the ones I know fit different size ranges.

500 Size - Trex 500ESP and clones. I would recommend keeping an eye on the Rcgroups classifieds for one, I've seen quite a few good deals pop up there. Alternatively, you can purchase an HK-500TT (Clone of the Trex 500): https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hk-500tt...-w-blades.html. I would personally replace the gears, mainshaft, and torque tube with align parts though. The Gartt 500 is also the same as the HobbyKing version: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F254153735032

Note: both the 550 and 600 sizes can be stretched to 700 by swapping out the tail booms, tail pushrod, and torque tubes.

550 Size - Trex 550E and clones. These are near impossible to find now. Chaos made an excellent clone, but it too has disappeared. RCgroups classifieds and eBay are probably your best bet.

600 Size - Trex 600ESP, EFL, and 600E. Good clones are the Chaos 600: https://www.scaleflying.com/Chaos-600-CF-Pro-Flybarless-Kit-NO-Canopy-Torque-Tube-_p_4740.html. Good deal in the RCG classifieds as well: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...-Airframe-Only

700 size - Trex 700E - Good clone is the Chaos 700: https://www.scaleflying.com/Chaos-70...it_p_2225.html

The main thing to keep you up to date is electronics. The mechanics of these helis are still quite good, despite being older than the latest models.

[deepdiver8055]

OK Thanks F105! I started in the RC stuff back in 1981, I'm 54y/o now. Back in around 2010, 2011, 12, 13 I had a few heli's but all were flown with the flybars, 7 series gyro's and 5000mA batts. I had a really nice 550E I remember and I added the 600 boom to it (i think) and installed that into an SuperTiger MD530... it was the one offered in the military version but I repainted it as an civilian version. I think I had the old 600M motor at around 1100kV or something like that and that thing flew so damn nice. I remember getting around 15 minutes of flight time on it but that was just easy scale flying and not a whole lot of forward flight either. Had nice ESC (i think an 120) and nice core-less servos. Had some Nitro helis as well and also an electric 700 kit but don't rmember the exact one.

Anyway,.... I've been looking at the trex 550X model.... It comes with the 600 boom and all the hardware (servos, 100ESC, MicroBeast, High Torque/voltage servos and an 750 - 960kV motor i think. Well I want to purchase the Align 3 bladed head (550/600) size and do an nice semi-scaled AS350 fuse from Funkey (good price on an unpainted version) I was wondering what blade lengths would work on that head? (550'S or 600'S)?? keeping in mind though, lower head speeds and having to change out some gears if i needed no problem.

Here's an video of what I'm shooting for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMltYHeMha8&t=508s

Oh and I don't want belt drive tail drives either... gotta have constant drive torque tube for auto-rotations lol Hang on I'll upload an pic of my old 550 in that 530 fuse.

[deepdiver8055]

Old heli's in my past. The civilian magnum paint scheme in green and blue was the 550E

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9Kke3GhTHceXQhaj7

[F106DeltaDart]

Old heli's in my past. The civilian magnum paint scheme in green and blue was the 550E
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9Kke3GhTHceXQhaj7

Very cool! That old Thunder Tiger fuselage looks awesome.

For your plan, that sounds good except you may consider switching to a lower KV motor and looking at options for speeding up the tail. I’m not familiar with that models tail ratio off the top of my head. 600mm blades will work on that head with no issues. This thread should have a lot of good material to help with your build: https://www.helifreak.com/showthread...769300&page=10

[deepdiver8055]

Thanks F106... Yeah i'm still looking around at other options too. I might just go with an 700 size and order an Roban fuse. Just don't know yet, Kickin the bucket around.

[Tman49]

Thanks F106... Yeah i'm still looking around at other options too. I might just go with an 700 size and order an Roban fuse. Just don't know yet, Kickin the bucket around.

Did you make a choice for a project?

[Beta_Grumm]

Just wanted to +1 the idea of MotionRC carrying Align Helicopter kits.
So far I really like motionrc, and I want to jump into the larger helicopter realm with align kits soon, and if Motionrc doesn't carry them, I'll have to order them somewhere else. 😥