Flying on a Budget, X-Cell?

[mookiiee]

Over the winter months i thought about buying a TREX700, pricing it all up.. It all seemed over my budget.

Then while searching through ebay i came across an X-Cell Fury 90 Extreme for very resonable money. The gyro alone was worth over £200, YS-91, Really expensive servo's, i think i gave around £350-400, for it, now it needed a little work to put it completley straight. but its done now.

Was so impressed with the quality of the parts and general look of the machine, i thought i'd look for another.

So was off to ebay again....

Found a Fury 60 extreme.... again after speaking to the chap, i managed to get a resonable price and bought the whole thing for around £375. All in. Fast servo's, older csm gyro but worked fine, Governor, 61 O.S., all the usual high end bits that you would expect on an aircraft like this.

I think maybe all the people buying Trex's have done me a favour. They are sooo expensive but they seem to be the trend at the moment. I don't have a lot of spare cash. I have heard that spares are not cheap but i have been down to motors and rotors, The guy is really friendly, even spent time looking over my 90, i parted with a few £'s but it didnt break the bank.

Whatever your thoughts on MA, They dont make a bad heli and a couple of years ago these machines were winning 3D titles.

Now i'm not a Top 3D pilot maybe if i was i'd be buying top end machines,
My Fury's will out fly me anyday.

All i'm saying is if your money is tight then maybe look for an X-cell, you might bag yourself a bargain.

This is in no way meant to slate Align TREX's, i know they make a great machine, this is just for people that may think that flying high end nitro machines is out of their league.

What do you think?

[EtheAv8r]

I am intrigued to know what kind of gyro alone was worth over £200??

MA look to be good machines, but not sure Align can be classed as the expensive end of the market. Support, easy and ready spares availability and spares cost and quality are central to many peoples buying decisions.

[raptorheli2]

MA machines are in a diff class to align, infact, just about everyone.

your right though on the used prices, align have killed the price of other brand helis used.

the bit i differ from your opinion is i would bet owning and using (crashing/maintaining) a trex 700 will cost less than a fury, even factoring in it cost 50% less at initial outlay.

a good example of this is a boom for a rex is 2 for 11 quid and a TT is 10 quid. a fury boom (altough much better quality) used to be about 30 quid from memory and a TT was similar. or put another way your about 16-18 quid quid for a 700 boom/TT and about 50-60 say for fury???

4/5 crashes will soon pay for the 700 with booms/TT's alone i'd wager.

value for money though, i can't argue, often thought i'll buy one of them aswell for a couple of hundred and use it till it gets a serious prang.....bin it....bargain.

cheers

[mookiiee]

Sorry i apologise for the gyro, should have said gyro and servo combo, i believe it is a gy611 and the servo that comes with that.

Like i said before this isnt a rant, its just maybe a way of flying a Good Helicopter, i didnt think i would ever get an MA Aircraft and i have 2 for less than the price of a new 90 size machine.

When i crash it maybe then i'll be kicking myself then. i'll keep you posted when not if it happens

I dont know about anyone else but i thought we were in a recession

[Janek]

MA parts are very, very, very expensive. . . . .which is OK if you never crash, but one crash on those machines and you'll find out why they are cheap secondhand. Mind you, you could carry on buying up all the secondhand machines, just for spares.

You will also find out all about careful, PITA, set-up on those machines as well, you are good at dialing in engine/clutch stacks aren't you ?

[mookiiee]

You will also find out all about careful, PITA, set-up on those machines as well, you are good at dialing in engine/clutch stacks aren't you ?

I'm a valve/controls engineer by trade, but we'll see... if i'm anygood when it happens.

[moyesboy]

The true bargain you have there is the electrics. The 611/9256 is a good gyro - but not worth the £200 price tag.
The cheapest way forward, expecting you are going to fly a fair bt (and crash a fair bit) would be to seek out a cheap trex700 airframe, or if you are really on a budget, one of the .50 airframes that are popular and put all the gear in that. There would be plenty of buyers for the .90 motor - but the .60s are less popular.
The extra fuel cost of a .90 size machine, coupled wirth the cost of the blades, means no .90 can really be a budget machine - a .50 is far far cheaper to run.

[mookiiee]

The cheapest way forward, expecting you are going to fly a fair bt (and crash a fair bit) would be to seek out a cheap trex700 airframe.

Bit lost at this, i already have a 2 perfectly good X-cell airframes. Dont want to spend anymore.....and they fly really well

Maybe i misunderstood.

the grey matter is not what it was

[Boggy]

i may be wrong but i think what every one is telling you is that whilst your learning you will crash.the cost of crashing a 700 is far cheaper than crashing an x-cell.and will probably be cheaper in the long term!

maybe i misunderstood

my grey matter is not what it was also

[express]

give BISH a pm hes got a 90 fury for sale at the right money

[mookiiee]

i may be wrong but i think what every one is telling you is that whilst your learning you will crash.

ahhh i see, well i'm no 3d pilot, but..... i think i'm past the learning basic's, i now only crash twice a day....

The whole point was in a time when money is maybe a little tight for some of us then there are a few bargains out there.... people may have overlooked such machines as X-cell... next time i'll change my line of thought and find a Trex700 second hand...

At least my first post on the site got a discussion going. This is what happens when you have a quiet day at work....

[del19_82]

I think what the guys are saying is that although you have picked up a couple of cheap airframes, when you crash it will cost you more to repair than a 700 will for the same crash so it will work out cheaper for a 700 in the long run due to spares prices.

[electricsceadu]

i'd have an xcell over a 700 anyday

but be aware an xcell needs to be built correctly, so go through them with a fine tooth comb

and if you don't crash you won't need spares

[mookiiee]

i'd have an xcell over a 700 anyday

I'd love to have bought a trex700 but funds just were not there at the time....

This was never meant to be a "who's heli is better"
Just might have got a few guys looking at different manufacturers rather than the same ones that always come to mind.

[nookybear]

I am an xcell fan and have some of their helis 2 stratus 1 furion 450 and now the fury 55 .All top class helis that fly like you would expect for what you pay for them.
They are not cheap as stated but they do fly extremely well and do exactly what you tell them.
If you follow the instructions and set them up as they say in the manual you will have a heli that will last extremely well and do exactlly what you tell it.
Fast lads now stock the furion and the fury 55 so spares wont be a problem anymore and when the new 90 version comes out it will be another top class flying heli.
MA are currently working on a flybarless head setup for the fury 55 that should be available this year i believe