ORIGINAL: Geoff White
If I was to use another make, I would use ACT with no concerns as they are extensively used in Europe and I have heard no bad reports. On the contrary, I actually bought a top of the range ACT gyro([link=http://www.acteurope.de/html/flachenkreisel_airplane_gyros.html]ACT Gyro[/link]) 2-3 years ago, never got round to trying it, sold it onto a mate who is using it in his Typhoon and he reports it works brillliantly.
That was me and yes I am extremely pleased with it.
Something to consider is fade out, the ACT gyro has it and is adjustable, maybe it is so standard that some gyros don’t mention it but I can’t see anything about it on the description of the Futaba 351 on Ripmax’s website. Fade out means the gyro response is reduced as you move the control stick. If the gyro does not fade out, it fights your controls. If it does not fade out, then your travel is reduced by the amount of travel the gyro gain allows. For example, if travel is 15mm, and the gyro gain allows 4mm of travel, you apply full aileron but the gyro fights against it by applying 4mm opposite travel so all you get is 11mm of travel instead of 15mm. I found that with fade out turned off, roll rate is much slower. The only way around this, without fade-out, is to mechanically increase the travel by for example moving the pushrod further out the servo arm, which means getting less pushrod force from the servo’s torque, and more linear slop from the servo gear lash. In the above example, you would have to increase travel on the ground to 19mm, in order to get 15mm travel in the air. With fade-out you don’t have to do that, therefore fade-out can be a very good thing. I use full rate fade-out on the ACT gyro on my Typhoon, and am programming a very steep fade-out for the gyros in my Weatronic Rx.
Harry