After two days of assembling and setup, I was finally ready for the first test flight with my brand new T-Rex 600. With fully charged transmitter and helicopter LiPo batteries, my friend Brett and myself set of to the Rugby field. A final check was made to ensure that the swash and rudder servos move in the correct direction. The 5200mAh LiPo was connected, and the canopy secured into position over the canopy mounting bolts.

With a little bit of applied throttle, the Align brushless motor came alive with a gentle soft start. At 50% throttle, my T-Rex 600 slowly lifted of the ground. As soon as it was airborne, the tail was oscillating violently left and right. I immediately closed the throttle and land. It was obvious that the gyro was over correcting for some reason in the heading lock mode. With the linkage ball in the third hole from the center of the rudder servo arm, it was found that there was too much rudder movement.

The linkage ball was moved to the first hole from the center of the rudder servo arm, and servo travel was set again on the GP705 gyro. The 5200mAh LiPo was connected for the second test flight. My T-Rex 600 lifted into the air, and the tail was as steady as can be. With minor aileron and elevator trims, she was hovering steady in one place. No rudder trims was needed. The rudder response was checked, and I was really impressed with the pirouette speed and the sudden stop of the tail.

With an eye level hover, I noticed the blade tracking was a bit off. I landed and adjusted the linkage of the main blade holder. I lifted into an eye level hover again, and found the blade tracking to be spot on. Up till then, I was already testing my T-Rex 600 for five minutes according to my Spektrum DX7 stop watch. That left me with one minute of flight time for some forward flight-testing. It is always good practice not to discharge new LiPo batteries too much for at least the first five cycles, otherwise you will shorten their life span. After five cycles, the 5200mAh LiPo can be pushed to eight minutes and more, depending on the type of flying done.

Transition into forward flight was very good. Cyclic and rudder responses were also very good with no unexpected surprises during forward flight. Two lazy eight’s was flown with ease, and with a gentle flare my T-Rex 600 landed softly a couple of feet away. My first flight was successful, and I left the rugby field a happy chap with a large grin on my face. The T-Rex 600 is truly an amazing helicopter.