Raptor 50 vs. MA XCell 60

[ClayK]

Ok guys, another dumb question.

I currently have an XCell 60 that's grounded. Long story short, my Rotopod fell apart and I split my main rotors. I'm currently trying to find a cheap 680mm replacement.

My concern is this, if my crash index is going to continue, perhaps I should consider a .50 or .30 until I get some skills under my belt.

Enter Raptor .50. I've tried a .30 on the sim and it seems really skittish and kind of small to see. 50 parts are cheaper than the 60 parts and not much more than 30 parts. Seems like an economical learning bird. Money is sort of an issue, but there are other reasons why I think a Raptor might be a good starter. I can bench the Xcell until I get more experienced (there are some mods I want to do on it anyway (tail servo, carbon servo tray, rewire, servo swaps, etc etc)). The XCell was bought used and I feel I cheated myself out of learning the engineering involved during build (I'm a hands on learner). The Raptor seems pretty rigid and part cost seems to be cheaper per crash than the XCell. Don't get me wrong, I love the XCell. The design is beautiful, complex but beautiful.

What say you single prop vertical gods?

[RSL_Mongoose]

Sell the 14MZ and the X-Cell and get yourself a 9C Super, 2 Raptor 50's and a couple cases of fuel.

[ClayK]

Sell the 14MZ and the X-Cell and get yourself a 9C Super, 2 Raptor 50's and a couple cases of fuel.


I had the 9C a couple years ago when I first tried to get in the hobby (moving and some other life changing issues forced me to get out of it then). I love the 14MZ. There really isn't a comparison in my mind between the two. Money isn't really the issue. It's more of a parts availability thing at this point. The closest shop that even carries 680 blades and parts for my 60 is about an hour and a half away and they want like $85-130 for blades, uck. Local hobby shops (read 10 minutes away) have 600mm blades in spades among other parts. So I'm stuck between having to mail order for parts for the 60 with a huge downtime, or purchase a 50 to learn on and save the 60 for when I'm a little less crash prone (granted, this first crash wasn't my fault, it was the rotopods fault).

[RSL_Mongoose]

You can buy enough parts for a Raptor 50 for four crashes for about the same amount of money as for one crash on the X-Cell, nice thing about the small helis is you can keep plenty of spares onhand without going broke. Plus theres the fact that with the small cheap ones your not as timid about trying new stuff. I have a '99SE that I hardly ever fly, most of my time goes on the Raptor, I seem to have more fun flying it.

[ClayK]

Just talked to Tom Fiddler and between him and you I think I've pretty much settled on getting a 50 to learn on. Parts are more available locally and the cost is signifcantly cheaper. Cost is a secondary factor to availability. Thanks guys :)