I have recently built up a new Raptor 50 kit as a shop model, we have all been fans of the Raptors for a long time and with the release of the new 50 kit it seemed a good opportunity to build and fly a Raptor (Danny and Justin already have the 30 and 60 sized themselves) I won't go in to big details of how it builds up as this is very much like the 30 kit, in fact it is in the same box with the same instructions but with a amendment sheet, overall the instructions are ok but I have to agree with what others have said, that the instructions are a little on the basic side and might cause a beginner a little head scratching.

I should say at this stage to any one who is not familiar with the Raptor kits that they are all very good quality kits and any negative comments I make are very minor ones and that the base kit is a very sound and proven design, since it's introduction about two & a half years ago the Raptor 30 has almost completely taken over the 30 market and you don't get to sell that many models without it been a very good model no matter how good your marketing may be!

There was and is nothing revolutionary about the Raptor design, just a well designed & made model with a decent tail design and higher than normal rotor head mixing ratio's which results in a precise, smooth, stable model that still has a fast enough cyclic rate to keep any 3D guys happy.

You would have thought though that with the number of kits they must have now sold they could have written some more in-depth instructions!

Anyway the 50 kit is as I said based on the 30 kit but with the following changes and additions, Longer main blades, tail boom, belt and tail pitch wire, new longer boom supports with more durable plastic ends, the main gear ratio has been changed to suit a 50 sized engine, bigger fuel tank, metal swashplate, carbon base plate, tail hub assembly from the Raptor 60, a good quality and reasonably quite muffler, the Raptor 50 is fully ball raced as standard and the standard decals are replaced with a new pink set that you will either love or hate.

The model is straight forward to build, just make sure to keep referencing the additional R50 instruction sheet, I used a Webra 50 "Kyosho" engine, the "Kyosho" pre-fix just means the engine has the correct mounting holes and crankshaft type to drop straight in to the Raptor or other eastern models.

Other options would obviously be Thunder Tigers own 50 engine, the OS 50 SX H or the Webra 52 AAR, I only went for the Webra 50 as it was looking a little lonely in our display cabinet, the engine was a drop in fit but the exhaust bolt hole spacing is a couple of mm's different from the standard OS spacing but 30 seconds work on the Hatori manifold with a Dremel soon had this sorted. I chose not to use the supplied muffler nice as it is but to use one of the relatively new Hatori 540 tuned pipes.

I used JR DS811 servo's on the cyclic and collective, these are a nice choice for this size model as they are just a little more powerful than standard ball raced servo's and as they are digital are a fair bit more precise but still a lot cheaper than full coreless motor jobs.  One of the new JR DS810G servo's coupled with a CSM ICG400 gyro took care of the tail, I would personally have chosen to go with maybe the ICG540 gyro matched with a DS8417 servo but I wanted to build the model up with a average set up.

I have to be honest and say that the first attempts to fly the model one evening in the gathering gloom where met with frustration with the engine totally refusing to start, this was traced to the carb spraybar been completely blocked solid with machining swath, not really a very good job by Webra on this count but having said that the engine has been really sweet running ever since so it didn't do any real harm to the engine.

I did not try the standard kit blades although I would not expect them to be too bad for wood blades, I initially used a set of  MS 60cm 135gram carbon blades as these seem about the right weight for the 50.  I have recently been flying the model with some Prototype BBT carbon blades but more on these later!

So on to the flying, first flights were in about a 35 gusting to 50 MPH wind so I could not really do much more in this wind other than set up the pitch range and run in the engine for a couple of flights.

I would have been able to publish this report a few weeks ago but had been plagued by a problem with the tail constantly wagging, I always felt that the problem was not with the model but could not track it down for a while and didn't want to say how wonderful the model is until I was really happy with it and this meant sorting the tail problem out, I'm happy to say I finally found the tail "problem" and it wasn't to do with any of the equipment but a really stupid screw up by me, which I won't go into to much details about :-)

The model was flown for a while with the standard plastic tail blades but I found these a little too small for hard 3D at the head speed I have been using, I changed to NHP 85mm tails but although these are better they are still a little small so I will try some just a little longer next time out.

As would be expected with a model that really doesn't weight more than most 30 sized models but with a pipe equipped 50 motor, it has a very good power to weight ratio.  The model absolutely stonks along and I can pull huge loops with it that would not put a good 60 model to shame.  The model has a nice sound to it with the lower gearing and the Hatori pipe and is reasonably quite, I have not actually checked the head speed but it is not that high so that also helps to keep the noise down, overall the model is very quite with a nice relaxed sound to it.

The only slight problem that this lower head speed brings up it a slight pitchiness is fast forward flight, this is only really apparent in very fast flight which is only possible anyway as the model has such a good power to weight ratio, I would personally choose this problem over a slow but pitch stable over weight slug anyday!  The stability of the model is good and getting better with every flight as the initial stiffness in the control system decreases as the model wears in.

I found the model was a little more pitchy in forward flight with the MS blades, the prototype BBT blades are just a little heavier and I suspect the chord wise C of G is a little more forward as they are certainly smoother, I found the cyclic rate is still fast enough with the standard paddles and either set of blades.

The model auto's nicely with both the MS blades or the BBT ones, the amount of energy is not that great but I am more used to 60 model with big blades so I am probably being a little picky, it certainly has more than your average 30 sized model.

The only thing I would consider doing to improve it in this area would be to fit a "slipper clutch" to the auto unit as I found the model has a habit of yawing around at the end of a auto.  This would almost be a essential before considering trying much in the way of aerobatic auto's as the tail is all over the place through rolls etc with out the tail turning, really this is common to most models without a driven tail so is not really a criticism of the Raptor.  The other option would be to set the throttle position when in throttle hold a little higher so as to maintain just a little tail drive but I don't personally find this option so appealing.

I now have about 20 flights on the model and it is still as standard, I don't think it really needs much in the way of upgrades at all as it is great as it is, I might consider fitting a metal fin clamp and carbon fins at some stage but I'm in no hurry to do this.  I should add that I have fitted a header tank to the model as like a lot of other models it has a fairly long narrow tank and this can cause the fuel and clunk to be in different locations once the tank is below one third full which can result in the engine cutting out in some interesting places, the header tank tends to make this a none issue.

I like the model so much that I have started to fly it a fair bit recently just for the fun of it, I will probably use it as one of my School models and see how it stands up to the rigors of this, I am sure it will hold up well.