Recently, I was given the opportunity to build a Goblin 380 helicopter for a friend who wants to surprise his wife with it over the Labor Day weekend. Since he could not keep it a secret by building it himself, he asked me to take the kit, and all the necessary components home and build it for him.

I have to say that it was a fun little build, and though I have not test flown it yet, it looks like its going to be a great little machine. The build went very well, and there were no issues with parts quality or fit. The machining on the metal parts is fantastic, and there were no sharp edges or burs on anything.

Since I had a could of weeks to get it ready for the big surprise, I really took my time and made it as clean of a build as I could possibly make it. I sanded all edges of the carbon fiber frames,  ( not just the areas the manual specified, but ALL edges) cleaned them up with alcohol to remove the sanding dust.

Then the fun began. I laid everything out on my table according to the order in which they would be needed, and started my build. I have to say, that for such a small helicopter, there are a lot of parts bags in this kit as you can see in the below photo.

The second night saw a little more progress, with the tail assembly, and most of the electronics being installed. I was still waiting for the Bavarian Demon 3SX, and the tail servo to be delivered, so I could not go much further until they arrived. The next day, I received the the Demon and tail servo, and finished the build.

Its all set up now, and ready for its maiden hover and setup flights now and I will get to do that this weekend. I can`t wait to get this little beast to the field to do the tuning flights.

The electronics which went into this little powerhouse are as follows:

Motor: KDE 500XF-925-G3

ESC: Castle Creations Talon 90

BK DS3001HV x3 cyclic servos

BK DS5005HV x1 tail servo

Bavarian Demon 3SX FBL controller with captain rescue.

Charity RC TATA packs 2200mAh 50C 6S batteries