Background
The Superio was introduced in 1996 together with the Ergo 30 as the first entries of JR into the helicopter market. The Superio had been JR's top of the line F3C contest grade machine since its introduction. Previous World Champion, Mr. Katsuyuki Sensui, helped designed the Superio, and had use it exclusively to win 5 consecutive Japanese Championships up to the date of writing this report. After its introduction, almost every year JR would release a limited edition Superio package, called Superio Katsuyuki Special. All Superio Katsuyuki Special packages comes standard with most upgrade parts available for the Superio from JR. The main difference between a regular Superio and the Katsuyuki Special were as follows:
Belt driven tail instead of stock pipe driven tail (JR88041)
Include a full fuselage instead of stock pod and boom
Only NHR01 seesaw head available, while original Superio had the choice of either the NHR01 head or the NHR02 flapping head
Harden steel main shaft (JR60413)
Machined aluminum elevator brackets
Hi-modulus graphite tail boom L=783 (JR83039)
Hi-modulus graphite tail support (JR83025)
Metal tail boom mount instead of plastic (JR60372)
One piece machined landing gear brackets instead of pressed metal
Low profile landing gear struts (JR60338)
FAI flybar paddles (50g) with adjustable flybar weights (7g) (JR60512)
Metal tail pitch links (JR70135)
Metal tail belt gears (JR60322&60323)
84T machined Delrin main gear (JR60399)
10T pinion (JR60321)
HG one way autorotation assembly (JR60243)
As of the date of this writing, the Katsuyuki package had been through the following packages:
Superio Katsuyuki Special - Regular mixing, comes with most upgrade parts, belt tail drive conversion, Scorpion fuselage
Superio Katsuyuki Special CCPM - CCPM control
Superio Katsuyuki Special 2000 - Galaxy fuselage
Superio Katsuyuki Special 2001 - for 90 engines.
Actually after the introduction of the Katsuyuki Special, stock Superio became to be no selling point due to the upgrades included. The list price of Katsuyuki Specials were around US$2,600- all the time, which makes it the most expensive helicopter in JR line.
Assembly
I had two Superio Katsuyuki Specials at one time. The first one was the first edition was with regular mixing, and the second one CCPM. Both of them shared the same basic mechanics, and I had them for over three years already. Since it was long time ago when I assembled them, so I would not go over the details of each assembly steps, but to tell their assembly in general.
In general, I felt that Katsuyuki Special was a "bug fix" of the stock Superio. Some components like the metal tail boom mount and the hardened main shaft were "must have" items that I think should have been included in the first Superio. Also the belt driven tail fixed a lot of problems the Superio had with it pipe drive. However, to my astonishment, maybe due to the extensive use of upgrade parts, fitting in between parts sometimes were not good, and many times I need to use a file to make things right. Now we are talking about the top JR helicopter, and parts didn't fit together?! JR must be kidding me! I was quite surprised to find that even the Ergo fit together much better than the Superio, which was ironic....
In addition to the frustration with assembly, I found that even with the Katsuyuki Special version, it did not mean that all upgrade parts were included in the package, and in fact some "must have" parts were not included in the original package and must be purchased separately either from JR or from K&S. Especially the tail pitch change arm, the stock tail pitch change arm of the Katsuyuki Special was in plastic, the same item as the JR Ergo 30 -- soft and flimsy which was unacceptable for a helicopter at this price, to say the least. Man! I am talking about the most expensive JR helicopter, and it came with a plastic flimsy tail pitch change arm, which was unusable to my standards! K&S had a metal upgrade for exchange, but that part itself cost about US$150-, if you want precision tail control, then you must spent extra.
Aside from this tail pitch change arm, JR also introduced a set of main frame spacers that greatly strengthen the main frame, but at US$350- a pop! Yeah you did not have to buy the set, but for a helicopter that should be "the best JR helicopter money could buy", I didn't think any owner would not spare the expense and retain the flimsy aluminum spacers that came stock, which were inaccurate to say the least! JR and K&S did a very good job to make sure that even though you've got the Katsuyuki Special, you would still open your wallet for more upgrades. Both of my Superios were upgraded to the max, and I once calculated and found that only the upgrade parts alone would cost another Superio, so I spent the cost of four Superios for two! I would not use the word "extortion" since JR and K&S did not pull a gun on my head wanting me to buy these parts, but without these parts the Superios were just not the "top of the line" helicopter that it should be.
In addition, another thing that JR and K&S did, which led me to a lot of frustration, was that their "upgrade" parts design. e.g. the golden main frame reinforcement set could be used on regular mixing configuration, but with CCPM I need to use a saw and file to modify it to fit, what kind of design was that!
Also, of most frustration was that no matter how much money that I poured into my Superios for upgrade, every time I checked out Mr. Sensui's machine in R/C Technique magazine I would see something in his helicopters which fix a problem that I had with my Superios, but that part was not available for sale! Take the CCPM setup as an example. The CCPM Superio came with a conversion kit to convert the existing regular mixing main frame to CCPM, so it makes like a "patch" approach instead of a main frame design from the ground up for CCPM. In this configuration, servo placement had to be switched around, that's not a problem, the elevator support became two pieces of carbon plate that "patched" onto the upper main frame, that's not a problem too, but the rudder servo then had to be suspended in the front left side, and had to drive a very very long pushrod from the left to the right side of the tail for tail control, which in its original configuration would NEVER achieve tail control precision due to the very long tail pushrod, and its routing. However, Mr. Sensui's Superio had a completely different upper main frame that obviously was designed from the ground up for CCPM because all servos were right at they should be, and there was no patch! Why didn't JR include this CCPM upper main frame in the CCPM kit, and instead sold me the "CCPM patch"? We are talking about the CCPM version had been in the market for some years already! I just hate manufacturers that sell one thing that was flawed and flew a completely different thing that was perfect!
I compared the flying of my "upgrade to the max" version Superio CCPM, with my regular mixing Superio that I deliberately held out the installation of upgrade part to compare their flight characteristics, and found that the upgraded one did exhibit a big difference in flying than the stock version. In simple, the Superio Katsuyuki Special was a money pit, and you would need to spend an arm and a leg to upgrade it to reveal the true color of it.
Both my Superios had these upgrade parts installed:
Dual bearing main bearing block (JR60466)
Bearing equipped seesaw yoke (JR60291)
High capacity fuel tank 540cc (JR60460)
Vibration dampened engine mount and clutch set (JR60616)
Hex flapping damper (KS794)
Double hold metal tail pitch arm (KS689)
UG tail center hub (KS796)
UG Superio main gear
Flying
Aside from the frustration in assembly and spending for upgrade parts, flying the Superios were one of the best experience that I ever had. Of all the helicopters that I had, I would say for F3C hovering, the Superio is king, period! The true colors of the Superio shines in hovering, which was very solid and stable. Controls were precise, and minute corrections were easy. Hovering the Superios were quite some pleasant experience.
