Having owned an aluminum framed Century Predator Max 90 for almost two years now, and with my son Aeryk's flying skills improving dramatically, we have been looking for ways to improve the performance of the Predator for 3D.  The Freestyle was made available as a conversion kit, with carbon frames, new canopy, redesigned fuel tank and all the bits and pieces to put it all together. Recently Century placed some preview photos on their website to tantalize the readers with their latest offering. I snatched the photo below from those preview pics. 

For $379.95 you can give your Predator a sleek new look and a nice performance improvement!

  This update seems to be just what we're looking for, with a slimmer more aerodynamic profile and lighter weight, due in part to the carbon frames and also to the shorter more compact design, The Freestyle should give a nice performance boost to an already very capable family of 60 - 90 sized helicopters.  

Click the "Read More" link to follow along and see
 if this conversion is in the future for your Predator.

After seeing the Freestyles fly in online videos and and reading the various posts from other modelers that had already converted their Predators, I was convinced that it would soon be time to update our trusty Predator Max 90 to a Freestyle. The much shorter canopy with a sleek new design looked like it would probably improve the top speed and 3D response of the heli due to lighter weight and a smaller cross section, especially when flying backwards. The original Predator canopy is quite large and has a big open area that acts like a parachute in backward flight. The newer canopy design looks to address this and hopefully the speed will demonstrate the improvement. 

Well the time came sooner than I anticipated as we had a radio failure during some low manouvers that led to a nasty close encounter with the asphalt   Trying to stay positive about the whole thing, I tried to look at this not as a disaster, but as an opportunity to upgrade!!  Sadly, my normally understanding and supportive wife doesnt see it in quite as much of a positive a light as I do.  I think she still wonders if the crash was intentional or not, but I have assured her the sound of a 90 sized heli hitting the pavement is something we do try to avoid at all costs!

  Century Freestyle conversion  preview (courtesy Century Helicopters Inc)