First off thank you for reading. Aesthetics is a big part for me in some cases. The protos mini was not only the quality but the looks. It just has a look that is so cool to me. Plastic has been my down fall until the X3. I think Gaui got it right on this design in my opinion. THe main blade grips are plastic, but after a number of crashes they are original to the kit. Metal is a bling thing for me. the only real metal is the tail blade grips and the motor mount. For me the tail grips could be plastic and I wouldnt mind. I ended up with the metal tail blade grips just because.
In the end the buyer needs to live with the choices. Lots of give and take given the options we have. Some are cost driven, others are looks driven and as you stated metal driven. I myself look at support and availability and post crash cost. Looks also play in and as long as it is not ass ugly then chances are I will buy it. I wish everyone could afford $1000 radio and gyro combo, I know they cant. I just got lucky and the products fit my needs and wants.
I guess you could take from it is one of two things:
You could nickle and dime the hobby and get to a means to fly or you could piece a platform together once and save some money or not. The only thing I can say is that if your needs are met then so be it. None of us can afford a diablo speed or a TDR Speed but what we can afford puts a smile on our faces at the end of the day.
The advancements in plastic has lead to some pretty sturdy parts for sure, I suppose if a company has good quality control, and injection mold process, or whatever they use these days. One could have a good piece on their bird that lasts a long time, and serves them well. I personally don't have anything against plastic parts if they hold up well. That's impressive on those blade grips for sure! WOW!
On my ol 450SE that met its demise, it had a plastic tail case, and it cracked allowing the tail blades to rotate while I was under 3/4 collective pitch. So the heli flipped upside down unexpectently, (and mind you here I am putting the positive pitch on it the same time this tail flips it upside down) so it slams top first into the ground! Lol
This of course was I am sure some freak defect or something, because I had an Align 500 FB, that had a plastic case and plastic grips, and although I never crashed that one, the plastic pieces performed very nicely.
Myself being a fan of metal, and although I do appreciate the bling factor, even like a bit of bling just prefer metal parts, of course with my 3 Align heli's, they are all TT driven so it's metal cases only. The grips are black mostly and that happens to be one of my top 3 favorite colors, really if it was my choice all my heli's would be black with flames or something like that! Lol but practically it's not practical, because I'd have a tough time seeing em, so I try and keep em bright.
Yes, budget is a big decider, for sure I guess the asthetics of each our own minds eye comes into play somewhere in there too.
But as you said, it's all about enjoying what we have to fly that counts. That's the beauty of R/C aircraft for all of us that are in the hobby, as well the very nice people we find, and meet along our journey in it.
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I am pretty sure this new job is going to kill me. Literally and Figuratively.
How? Stress? Danger, or being bombarded with toxins?
