Moving On (what 1.5 years back into the hobby has taught me)
NOTE: This is just my $.02.
I've been back in the RC heli hobby for about 1.5 years now. When I first started researching what to get last year, I landed on SAB. I thought they were worth the premium and I didn't have enough experience to know how the other brands compared.
After building 6 SAB kits, I am now down to one in my fleet (IL 420). I retired the 520s (two of them) and the Kraken. My issues with the 520 and Kraken are documented in other threads. The 520 in particular burned me really badly.
I had to replace these with something different, which was a little scary and a little exciting. I had always read about how other heli brands made great helis, but they had little quirks or compromises. It was time to decide about that for myself.
I first got a Goosky RS5 about a month ago. I got it built and it only took me about 5 flights to get everything trimmed out. All of the SAB helis I had built used belts from the pinion to the "main gear", so setting up the more traditional pinion\main gear mesh took just a little fidgeting. I got it figured out and after those few setup flights, the RS5 legitimately flew WAY better than any of the SAB helis I built. After fighting with the 520 for months, I was pretty shocked that the RS5 got trimmed and locked-in after just a few batteries.
I really hoped the Kraken experiment with 600mm blades had worked out, but that did not go well (as explained in another thread). I decided to keep trying to find a 600 that would run (WELL) on 6S. After a LONG and shockingly detailed conversation with ChatGPT, I decided to get an OMP M6. My experience with building and setting it up was very similar to the RS5. A little jank, and one major failure, but overall it was a good build (though the manual was also poor). Setup was a little quicker since I already knew how to set the gear mesh, but it took me a few extra flights to dial in the tail gains. After about 6 flights the M6 is all set up and it also flies incredibly well.
So now I have a 560 and a 600 (from two different brands) that are both just incredible. I genuinely look forward to flying both of them, and I know my skills will probably begin to progress since I have confidence in my helis in a way that I never really had with the SABs.
I also want to say that after the debacle with the 520s, I was a little suspicious regarding my heli building skills. I had built two helis and both failed in the same way, and nobody else seemed to have any of the same issues. I worried that I might have borked something somehow. Now that I have recently built two different helis from two different brands, and they both are perfect, I know I am able to build helis just fine. That's a good confidence booster.
Anyway, I just thought I would share my experiences. If you're just coming into the hobby (or are coming back), don't hesitate to buy whatever it is that you like. All of the brands have their quirks, but now I know I made a mistake when I disregarded certain brands because I thought they were not "premium".
