is this new 500 the way to go

If you can afford it! It uses twice the batteries as the 450 but it is awesome.

AH-HA !! [>:]
There's always a fly in the onintment somewhere. (Batteries[])
Red Baron Gary

The Superior Combo looks like a very nice kit. Get it if you want all the aluminum bling right away along with the torque tube tail. I built my 500 in January of this year, there was no superior kit available at that time, and eventually upgraded to all the nice aluminum parts. I still run a belted tail but I have the nice aluminum tail box. All of these upgrades ended up costing more than the Superior kit costs right now.[:'(] Remember that the torque tube tails are know to be fragile and any tail touch with the ground will leave you with stripped gears. If you are a beginner I would recommend the normal CF kit with the belt driven tail. If you are an experianced pilot that rarely crashes and needs to have a fully blinged out heli, I would get the superior combo to start with.

Just remember the superior kit will not fly any better than the normal CF kit. However, it will look nicer sitting on the bench.

As for the batteries, I am currently using Outrage 25C 6S 2500 packs from RCSupersales.net. Kyle sells them for $128 each and they are working great for me right now. I tried doubling up the packs from my 450 but they did not seem to have the punch that the dedicated 6S packs have and then I could not fly my 450. [&:]

Here is a pic of my T-Rex helis on the bench. (I am currently upgrading my 600 to an 8S 29.6V combo and it is in parts right now)

I just ordered a 500 GF combo from Infinity Hobby. Heli, motor, esc and GF blades for $299.99 plus $32 dollars shipping from Taiwan! It's a Christmas special! The 500 was designed with 450 owners in mind as you can use 2 of our 3s1p lipos hooked in series to get a 6 cell power system. ReadyHeli sells a "Y" connector to do this. They might weigh a little more than a 6s lipo but probably have just as much power. I like the fact that I don't have to buy $140 to $180 dollar packs right away to get her in the air. Alan

thanks guys for all your help iam looking around and i can see the superior combo is a deal all the extras would cost a lot more . what gyro are you guys flying i want to fly the solid G just dont know the best servo is to fly with it.

I'm going to run a gy401 with a JR3500g servo. Others are running the 401 with either a Futaba 9650 or 9257. I think the 9650 is only rated for 5 volts where the 9257 and the 3500g can run 6volts for more speed and torque. I've heard of the Solid G but never used one. I would think any of those servos would work. edit: I was wrong about the voltage on the servos. The 3500g and the s9257 are 4.8 volts only. You would need a 5.1 volt stepdown to run them if you want to run 6 volts to your cyclic servos. The 9650 will support 6 volts however. Alan