Shopping list... any advice / confirmation ?

[mysticmead]

I know that the early plastic elevator arm was weak and on a hard landing (crash) it could break.. never heard of one breaking in flight though..

[worldofmaya]

That wasn't the only thing that broke in flight. You wouldn't think with what kind of broken parts one can land a heli :)
-klaus

[mysticmead]

well...on heli-x I can auto in with the tail broken :D
and I safely landed my 450 when the elevator servo died ... it died while giving it a little forward on the stick... never thought my heli would slide in for a landing like a plank

[xodarap1]

I had one of the L-30 links snap (the flapping blade made a heck of a noise and the heli was very hard to control) in flight when I was doing 3-D at about 50' up and managed to land the heli without any damage.

Regardless of price, I would never fly my hurricanes with the plastic elevator arms or the too short stock length screws that are in the DS821 servo output shafts.

I don't know if flying hobby is the best place for you to shop or not based on where you live. I think that over $100 Ready Heli or Heli Direct offers free shipping. Make sure you shop around for the best shipped price for all your items. ;)

[worldofmaya]

I replaced most screws and nearly all links... of course building it from ground up should be done with every heli. Loose screws in the gaui motor is an issue too...
Support at readyheli is great! I would keep this in mind!
-klaus

[mysticmead]

believe me... I've checked just about every where... the combo that flying hobby has well... can't be beat on price.. even with $50 in shipping added in.. I do plan on upgrading mine to the CNC arms when I order it as well as the Z20A-980 (or maybe Z30 not sure yet).. if readyheli could even come close to the combo I'd order from them in a heartbeat.. but fact is... they can't.. this is what I'll be ordering in a few more weeks... http://flying-hobby.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3_30_36&products_id=2171 $859 is a great price including the DX7.. the gyro isn't the best.. but it might not be crap either.. the gyro on my 450... now that's a crap gyro.. if the Gaui one at least hold the tail while hovering and in FF/FFF then that works for me.. IF I ever decide that backward flight and stunts are for me, then I'll upgrade the gyro to one that I know will hold.. if the Gaui one won't hold in hover or FFF, then a LT2100 will be ordered..

[kkwait]

I don't know if flying hobby is the best place for you to shop or not based on where you live. I think that over $100 Ready Heli or Heli Direct offers free shipping. Make sure you shop around for the best shipped price for all your items. ;)

That's what I did !!...
Flying-hobby is the only one who provides every part and offers this kind of discount on a combo !
ready-heli has NO combo and helidirect has NO CF frame (and 5% discount for a more than $800 order ?! :thumbdown:)
Rc-expert does have interesting combos with prices similar to flying-hobby... but everyone I know who ordered something to rc-expert had to pay custom taxes.

[mysticmead]

yeah... Fung is good for those that have to worry about customs... as rc-expert... take a look at Hawks thread to see the issue he has with them..

[xodarap1]

Flying Hobby did have the best price for sure ( by about $40) and I have heard from others that they would swap out the parts you don't want for parts that you do want in their package deals if you ask them to. The reason I didn't go with FH for my purchases was because I sent two separate high end hurri package and parts requests to them for pricing before the Chinese new year and to this day I STILL have not had any response from them. I waited patiently for 2 weeks for a response, then decided to order from Heli Direct and Ready Heli. I had my hurri and all parts in less than 3 days from my date of order, including some additional free items which more than added up to $40. At the rate I was going with Flying Hobby at the time, I simply couldn't trust risking making a $2,600 payment online with people that couldn't respond promptly to my emails.. i was also concerned with customer support for the same reason. I had no idea how long it would take to finally get my heli if at all, so that was a big red flag to me. On the plus side, I have heard MANY good things about Flying Hobby though, so I was very surprised that my request/orders were overlooked like they were. Not trying to bad mouth FH or promote the other places, just sharing my experiences. Maybe I just fell through the cracks with FH somehow?..

[kkwait]

You said it yourself : "Chinese new year"...;)
There have been a lot of problems and delay (very long sometimes) with chinese web shops during this period...

I ordered parts for my EP100 from Flying Hobby and they got here in France in 3 days. Almost faster than from south to north of France !

[mysticmead]

well... I asked readyheli if they could match the prices that FH is offering for this http://flying-hobby.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3_30_36&products_id=2171

the best they could do is the basic kit with gy401 and kong batteries, DX7 and readyheli t-shirt... for $100 more.. and that kit has the 50a ESC and 800kv motor... while I would normally prefer to shop with a US company.. not because I have anything against any other country, but because money spent in country mostly goes back into the local economy...FH has the best prices.. period... and even though I'll be paying shipping charges, I'll still come out cheaper and with more heli for my money... I will order upgrades and parts from Readyheli, simply because they ship faster than anyone....but it looks like FH will get my initial purchase.. I know that readyheli reads these forums.. and Jennifer, thanks for the package deal offer you quoted me... I really appreciate it, but right now it looks like Fung has the best package deal and will allow me to swap to the z20a-980 at no charge.. and I bet that if I asked for the gy401 I'd still come out cheaper....

[kkwait]

No one can beat the chinese prices, even with taxes... that's the way it is...

I'd prefer to buy in France but the only H550 combo I found is twice the FH price !!
Plus, the Euro is high and chinese shops work with US dollars...

I bought my Dragonus in France though, because the french customer support is great, the price is not that high and spare parts are easy to find here.

It's just all about the money :(.

[xodarap1]

It's just all about the money :(.It's also about prompt email replies, good phone support, fast shipping and ultra speedy customer service. If you have all that in France, that may be worth the extra cost to you.. it sure is to me. Of course there is always the risk that your package could get lost in the mail if you don't shop near home where you can go knockin on their door if they don't deliver lol. ;)

[worldofmaya]

FlyingHobby has by far the best customer support in Asian market. I would only buy there... the deliver really fast. I also found out that email isn't the best way of communication with them. But they have a live chat on their website! If you take their time zone into account it's really the fastest way! Just have all your numbers and questions at hand, you'll get your answers really fast!
About the mail-problem at Chinese New Year... it's the only holiday they have!! They wrote nearly everywhere that they will have some days off because of this! I had an order right at that time! They really tried to ship before holiday and I was in contact with one of their support team until Chinese New Year... really nothing you would get in one of the other shops.
There are some parts for an Hurricane like their Delrin gears you wouldn't get here in Europe. Some other parts are extremely expensive. For example the CNC main rotor grip costs 59 Euro which is right now around 93 Dollar! Nearly every upgrade part is really expensive. I just bought the performance pack from readheli. I payed for the pack, 20T OWB and a CNC washout guide less than a CNC main rotor grip here! I bought my complete Hurricane here in Austria at an local shop. And I buy most of the spare parts here...
Another thing is the CF Hurricane... impossible to buy here because it's extremely expensive. Readyheli for example has a slow shipping for Europeans which is really great! Mine was here in a week (they wrote 3 to 4 weeks) and that's for 6$. The front and back hub costs 14$+6$ shipping... which is 12 Euro. At the local shop I would pay 10 Euro for only the front hub without shipping. I would not need shipping but most guys would use shipping which costs 5 to 10 Euro...
-klaus

[kkwait]

Alright...

Order made... Go hong kong post, go !! :)

Thanks everyone for the help...;)