Report on the Raptor 30 V2 by Bob Johnston

The Raptor has been around for a few years now, I wonder if Thunder Tiger or Shigetada Taya (the designer of the Raptor 30 and 60) could of really even hoped it would be as hugely successful as it proved to be!

Incidentally Mr Taya was the designer behind a lot of the earlier Kalt helicopters, plus the Space Baron, I believe some of TSK's early stuff and the original Concept 30 and 60, the Concept's were almost certainly the biggest selling models in the 1990's, the Space Baron also sold very well, which just goes to prove Mr Taya knows his stuff!

As the original Raptor 30 was already so good what could or should TT have done to improve it, well the best way would be to do what TT did and look at the weaknesses of the machine, first off it was butt ugly, no problem they made a nicer canopy for the V2, the tail hub assembly  like many other 30 models was a little weak which could result in a tail blade grip flying off after a bit of use, TT just put the R60 tail hub assembly straight on to the R30 V2, problem solved!

The fuel tank was a little narrow which results in the clunk not been able to pick up fuel that well once it was down to less than about a third of a tank of fuel left, TT made the frames wider so they could fit a wider shorter tank in, I am impressed with the way the V2 Raptor picks up the fuel, I can 3D the model until there is less than 5mm of fuel across the bottom of the tank.

The rotor head on the old model was a little weak, not that is was a big problem but the feathering spindle was always a concern as it is quite small (basically the same as a lot of other 30 sized model) and is certainly highly stressed when used in the 50 version of the model, there have been reports of these bending in flight but I am not sure if this can happen with out other factors coming in to play (too low a rotor speed, poor blades, etc) in any cases the new spindle is a little thicker and now has 4mm cap head screws used at each end to retain the bearings in place of the 4mm thread cut on to the old spindle, I can't give a technical answer why this way of doing things is stronger but it just is!

The head bearings have been increased in size and the blade grips have been redesigned (there had been a few cases of the old grips breaking in flight)

The clutch, clutch bell and starter shaft have all been improved.

I won't go in to details on the construction of the model as this I am sure will be covered fully by Model Heli World and other mags soon.   The model is very straight forward to build and goes together in a few hours, one minor complaint is why don't TT put the circlips on the auto unit for you as it is a pain to do yourself if you don't have the right tools, not impossible to do but just a pain which could so easily be avoided!

One thing that does surprise and annoy me is that as the first Raptor was such a huge success and TT know that this is going to be a first model for a lot of new pilots, why couldn't they have improved the instructions, it isn't as if they don't think sales would justify the cost of better illustrations, some one at TT has been either lazy or just dam mean not to give the model the instructions it needs and deserves!  The instructions are not the worst  I have seen and are ok (just) if you study them carefully!

I fitted the PV0091 bearing upgrade kit to the model as this is a cheap upgrade and always worth doing when building the model as it saves work having to disassemble it to fit these later. This upgrade replaces a number of bushes in the control system with ball races and so makes the control system smooth and more accurate. If you are a beginner you won't notice the difference to start with but you will as your flying improves.

I'm writing this after just coming back from flying the model on a very cold frosty day and although it has only been a couple of days since I built the model I can't remember much about putting it together at all, which just goes to show what a none event it was, a very easy build other than the instructions!

I used a Webra 35H Comp engine coupled with a Hatori #350 tuned pipe and matching manifold, I had planned to try the new TT 39H engine as this is one engine I have limited experience with but these were unavailable at the time.   The flight pack is mainly JR with DS811 servo's on the cyclic and collective, a PCM 649S receiver, I used a CSM ICG400 gyro coupled with a Hi-Tec HS-925MG servo, this is the first time in a while that I have tried a Hi-Tec servo but the reason behind this is since MacGregors (JR distributors) stopped recommending the DS8417 as a tail servo there has been a big need for a reasonably priced tail servo.    The specs on this Hi-Tec servo are really good (0.11 sec over 60 degrees, 6kg torque) so I thought I would give it a try and I am happy to say it works very well with the ICG400 gyro, as it is not a digital servo it may not work as well with the 540 or new 560 gyro without these gyro's been reprogrammed via their PC interfaces.

So far I have tried to keep the model totally standard with the exception of the main rotor blades which I switched for NHP Razor's, not that there is anything wrong with the standard main blades for sports flying but I planned to give the model plenty of abuse and for this the NHP's are the better option.  I do have a tasty new product for the Raptor which I will try out very shortly but more on that when I have tested it!

Anyway on to how the model flies, the simple answer is great, but to go into a little more detail it's unsurprisingly not dissimilar to the original Raptor which was always a star performer, the cyclic response seems a little crisper which must be down to the new head, the model tracks well in forward flight and has a good turn of speed, the stability is very good and there wasn't very much at all that the model wouldn't do which considering it only has a sports type gyro in (the ICG400) is very good news, the tail even held a fairly constant rate of rotation through pirouetting loops and chaos.   One thing I think I can now say with confidence is the Webra 35 does not have quite the same power as the Irvine 39H which I have used in the the Sceadu 30, the Webra certainly runs sweetly and has very good power (a fair bit more than the OS 32) but not as much as the Irvine which wins out on both torque and brute power, to be fair to the Webra it probably isn't fully run in yet so probably has a little more power to offer when it is.

The model auto's nicely with a reasonable reserve left at the end but this probably has as much to do with the blades as the model, I have auto'd Raptors with the standard kit blades in the past so can say with confidence that these are fine but not unexpectedly as good as the NHP's.  One thing that would improve the overall auto performance would be a slipper clutch for the tail rotor drive to give some tail control on the auto both for conventional auto's and especially for aerobatic autos.  TT actually make a cheap conversion set which quickly converts the model to a constantly driven tail and although I love constantly driven tails I am not sure if this will be practical on a 30 model as it may rob too much energy from the rotor system but I plan to test one out just as soon as they become available.

As I said earlier I am impressed with the way the new fuel tank works, as it does a great job of finding the fuel until the tank is quite low so the model can be safely flown around until the fuel is below a quarter of a tank, the original Raptor V1 tank could not reliably reach the fuel (other than in the hover) down this low so really needed a header tank.   I haven't fitted a header tank to the model and so far the only time the engine has cut has been when doing 3D stuff with a very low fuel level.

So a really impressive model with a number of slight but noticeable improvements over the original model.

So what is the best 30 model out there, it has to come down to the Raptor V2 or the Sceadu and I would have to say it would be hard to chose between the R30 V2 and the Sceadu 30 as they are both very capable models, the Sceadu 30 is "probably" the better model, mainly because of it's better tail system but there are a lot of good models out there now and you should no longer judge a model purely on it's construction and performance but what's just as important is it's spares back up and spares cost and it's got to be on these factors that the R30 V2 jumps ahead of the Sceadu.

Some ones really got their work cut out if there want to knock the Raptor of it's top spot, it will take some beating!

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