Hughes500Pilot
Key Veteran
Location: Anaheim, CA
| Which OneForget the Nexus. It is cheap, and you get what you pay for.
As for the Hawk and the Raptor... And I am no trying to start a war here. This is just my personal opionion based on my own personal experience.
I have owned a Hawk II that I bought brand new. It went together well and it flew pretty good (not great, but not bad by any means). Then, due my own dumb thumbs, I crashed it. Here is where the real problem comes in with the Hawk...
I went to my local hobby shop and found only one of the needed parts in stock. The owner said it is very hard for him to get parts from Century (AKA Heli World). It was funny, but he had a ton of parts for the Hirobo Shuttle and the Thunder Tiger Raptor. I went to the other hobby shop in my area only to find they had zero parts for the Hawk. He too had a ton of Shuttle and Raptor parts in stock. I drove about 50 miles to another hobby shop that carries helis, only to find they did have Hawk parts, but none I needed.
Next I tried calling several different mail order hobby shops. Guess what I could not find any one that had all the parts in stock. Sure, I could by one from this shop, and one from the other shop and one or two from this other shop and then one from a different shop... But then I wind up paying like $6 extra for shipping from each place I order from.
Then I tried calling Heli World. Now since this is the retail part of Century, you would expect that they would have the parts. Guess what. The only had about half. The rest were back ordered. Since I did not have any other choice I back ordered the parts. After a month, the parts had not arrived yet. Another month went by, still no parts. Another month, guess what? No parts. It took me six months to get my heli back together. Talk about crazy.
I found out on the message boards that I was not the only person who was having a problem with parts. There were lots of people who could not fly due to lack of parts.
Once I got the Hawk back togeter I sold it. I thn bought a Raptor. The Raptor flew great with no problems. Sure I crashed (again, my own fault). But I could ALWAYS find parts in stock at my local hobby shop. Also, since lots of other guys were flying Raptors, I was able to learn tricks from them and compare set ups. No one else I have know has owned a Hawk.
Bottom line. Hawk is ok. But all things considered, the Raptor is much, much better. Especially since you can walk into just about any shop and find the parts you need. -Steve |
But everyone at our field has one, so I figured why not. I would suggest that you check with the pilots in your area, as well as parts availability locally. If you see 80% Raptors, then go Raptor. Same for the Hawk. If there are a lot of Hawk pilots arround your area, then Go with a Hawk if you really like the ship. More people flying your type of model will just make problem solving that much easier. But both are great ships IMPO. Hope that helps.
