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Miniature Aircraft Furion 450
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When I heard that Miniature Aircraft was coming out with a 450 I knew that the bar would be raised for 450 size helicopters. When I opened the small box, I found all the parts neatly bagged, a plastic canopy with decal, and a manual on CD. The CD manual is actually quite handy, I usually print out the manual, and build from my print out, but if I need to review the manual at a later date for maintenance or repair it's easy to just load the cd and go right the page I need to see.
I decided to build the Furion with what I felt were the best electronics I could find. A quick call to Tim Schoonard at Miniature Aircraft USA helped me decide that I wanted to try the Scorpion 2221-6 motor. Tim suggested an 11 tooth pinion and a 45 amp Castle Creations Phoenix ESC. I chose a Flight Power Evo 25 3cell 2170 Mah Li-Po, as I have had good luck with them in the past. For servos, I wanted to give the new JR DS287MG servos a try, along with JR's new DS3500G rudder servo. The gyro I went with is the JR 770 3d gyro. I have this gyro on my 90 size Fury Extreme and have had great luck with it.
The build of the Furion is a bit different that some of the other popular 450 size helicopters, in that the Furion is a true "kit" What I mean by that is that you will have to build every part of this little machine, whereas other brands come partially built or even in ARF form. I actually enjoy building each part of the model, as it really allows you to see how each part works, and it gives you piece of mind knowing that you assembled that part correctly.
I spent 3 evenings building the Furion after work. I Found the quality, fit and finish excellent! Better than any other 450 size model I've seen. The build goes easy enough, the manual is pretty long, but every assembly is well documented. Building skill and ability to follow the instruction manual really come into play with this model. I have no doubt that anyone could build the Furion 450, as long as they take their time. Rushing a build has NEVER resulted in a good flying model. The Furion 450 is the most slop free heli I have ever seen of any size. The ball links were all a bit tight, but a quick twist of a Mavrikk sizing tool took care of that.
Flying the Furion 450 was where I was most impressed. I currently fly a Fury Extreme, which I really like, so I had some high expectations of the Furion 450. I was not disappointed! The Furion is easily the smoothest micro electric I've flown. Flips and rolls are quick yet controlled, tail response is excellent as well. It flew like I expected a Miniature Aircraft Helicopter would. The Scorpion motor provided tons of power, with the 11 tooth pinion I estimate about 3200 rpm headspeed which makes for a nice snappy response from the heli while only getting mildly warm after a 4 minute 3d flight. Obviously Miniature Aircraft has done their homework with this heli, they have been doing the R/C helicopter thing for a LONG time and they know what it takes to have a great flying R/C model Helicopter.
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