Very disappointed

[Jerrymac]

I have been flying Gaui helicopters for over 5 years. I have been waiting years for Gaui to introduce a '450 sized' helicopter, and, I guess they seem to have attempted it, although they made a really bad attempt.

Now, those that know me also know that I only fly FB with a belt driven tail, so, I wouldn't buy the X3 even if it was a decent helicopter. Seems that it has had lots of problems since it's release. I believe that Gaui has been looking into these issues and has been introducing some upgrades to address these problems.

Seems that there was a problem with the torque tube ends spinning in the tube, since the builder had to glue them in. ( Belt drive would have prevented this). Seems to also have been some problem with the builder having to glue the OW hub together, which has ended up causing a lot of problems and failures. Gaui seems to have addressed this problem also.

Not sure why a person could buy an all plastic Hurricane 425 kit ( 500 sized ) for $79 and have to pay $209 for an all plastic '450 sized' kit though. Especially when the X3 has less parts due to the FBL head, and a TT drive tail that most people don't even want.

They did however introduce a large amount of aluminum upgrades you can buy to try to make this helicopter flyable. I guess once you spend another $200 or so for upgrades, you will have a nice $400 "bare bones" '450 sized' helicopter kit.

Try again Gaui, I'm not buying it.

[barryorbik]

Jerrymac, It does seem that Gaui seem to be introducing lots of new models and not always with the problems sorted before launch. It has been the approach taken by many other RC helicopter makers but is pity Gaui seem to have adopted it. One major company seems to introduce most of its products with problems but they have the resources and policy of correcting problems quickly and for free but this would not work for Gaui in the UK, as back up over here is very poor with no fully committed importer. Pricing structure does seem strange too and would make this 450 a real high end product, so buyers would not expect any faults or any that did occur to be very minor.

Just my thoughts. Barry

[Jerrymac]

I think one of the biggest problems now is that some, not all, manufacturers are trying to hurry up and push out as many new models as possible to try to compete with other new models. In doing so, not enough pre-release testing is done, so problems get overlooked until the model gets to the customers, then all the issues start to show up.

Empire Hobby, the North American Gaui distributor is usually pretty good about getting any upgrade parts as quickly as possible. Problem is, even they have to wait until Gaui recognizes the problem, then produces and distributes the needed upgrade parts.

I have always been a big fan of Gaui's Hurricane series helicopters, but, not so much the newer 'X' series helicopters. In fact, I don't own any X series helicopters and probably never will, except for maybe the X5 Lite which has a flybar head and belt driven tail, although I am waiting to see if the price comes down to a more reasonable level. To me, $500 for a GF framed kit with garbage Scorpion motor and decent Hobbywing esc is way too much.........

[barryorbik]

Have to agree on the pricing Jerry but over here the newly released Trex 150 is getting some serious bad press too but because of its flimsy build. I too prefer the belt drive and fly-barred head and if that set up is good enough for the worlds top F3C pilots its certainly good enough for me!!

Now I wonder what Santa will bring me for Christmas???
Barry

[Jerrymac]

Well Barry, I don't own any Align helicopters so I don't really follow along with them too much. I did see that they released a new 150, but haven't paid much attention to it so don't know much about it.

I have been a big fan of Gaui helicopters for years but I feel like they are pricing themselves right out of the hobby. If you look at the X4 and X4II it seems like nobody is buying them due to the totally outrageous price.

I got an e-mail from ReadyHeli thanking me for my order for a new Nano CP recently, so, I think I know what my wife got me for Christmas. I have a folder with all of my hobby stuff on the computer desk, so I am guessing she must have used my log-in at ReadyHeli when she ordered it.

Jerry