New here and to flight , been on the sim. for a year and im looking to buy my first heli. Looking at century's raven 50 heard its a good heli, any one have any info on them .How does it rate with the raptor or t- rex . whats a good engine and gyro to buy?

raptor make the best helis personaly i would go out of my wat to get a raptor out of anythig else
but the raven 50 is also a very nice heli as well
simmo

It really depends on how much you want to spend. The Thunder Tigers are nice (very durable) as well as the Align (light and quick) but from what I hear the JR Vibe 50 is one of the best out now. As for motor, the OS 50 Hyper is what most use.

whats better the o.s. or the redline?

Depends on who you ask.

You need to realize that most of the kits on the market that are well supported (Raptor, EVO, Vibe, 600n, Raven etc) have some things some people like and others dont etc.

You also need to realize that they all fly better than most of us are capable of flying them.

The Vibe 50 is an outstanding kit. The Raptor and Trex are also good stuff. The EVO is nice, smooth, and solid.

Just like picking a car, define what you want it to do. If the answer is teach you how to fly, any of them can do it.

the thunder tiger redline is fairly new so I haven't heard much about it. The OS is known for it's reliability. The YS engines are considered good as well.

As to gyros, there are quite a few. The GY401, GY611, JR 770 3D, Spartan DS760, Logictec 6100t.

I'm looking for a heli that's good for 3d, not learning to fly. Ive been told the raptor 90 on realflight flies like the real thing if it does i don't like it for 3d at all

I recently (July 07 through Dec07) went through a .50 class 600mm size heli comparison, looking to replace an aged Hirobo Shuttle Z.

Two more I've looked at not yet mentioned; Compass Knight and Audacity Pantera. oh, and theres that Kinetic....

Think about what you want out of the kit, where you're going to go with it, then you can do a comparison. Some things I liked:

[ul][*] composite frame to keep kit costs down[*] I wanted to try and stay under $400 for the kit in general, so that took out some of the higher-end machines right away.[*] I wanted something that was smooth, stable, but could take me a long way for skill development. This get's pretty subjective, but reading posts about various kits ruled a few more out for me.[*] I decided I liked belt drive tail over shaft drive because I knew I didn't want to spend the money on a new shaft every time there was a problem
[/ul]

For me, I was really looking at the Raptor vs the Pantera vs the kinetic. A little more reading and it was the engineering details and the fact I could put a .70 in it with just an optional BBC hub/mount that made me pick the Pantera.

Really, I can't say you'd go wrong with any kit listed thus far, although I can think of a few I would recommend against that are more popular in Asia.

What I've really learned in the past year is the electronic matter a LOT more than the kit. Pick a good radio, pick good servos, pick a good gyro/tail servo combo. You'll end up with more cash invested there than in your kit.

As for the engine, OS wins hands own over TT from my experiance, although the new red line does look good on paper.