Fury 60 Expert
Deciding to buy an X-cell Fury had been on my mind for quite a while. But I could never make my mind up which to go for, the 60 Expert kit, or the 90 Extreme. I had flown Andy Best's Extreme a few times, and I absolutely adored it, but I eventually decided on the 60 Expert for a couple of reasons. It was cheaper, and I already had an engine and exhaust system, even if it was a bit old (it was the YS 61 ST1 and Zimmerman from my X-cell Pro) that I would be able to use rather than buying a whole new 91 engine and exhaust. But that all changed in the end anyway. On a weekend away in England in 2003 for the Abingdon Jet meet and the Charmouth Heli Fly-in, we did a stop off at Motors and Rotors, where I had bought my Fury 3 weeks earlier over the phone. Whilst perusing, I asked Dave Wiltshire about different 60 size engines, mainly the YS 61 ST2 and the OS70. As he had a deal on the YS ST2, I decided to buy one as the power difference between that and my old ST1 would be quite big. Whilst there I also got a few extra goodies...SAB main blades, a set of the black Carbon tail blades, a Hex-start adaptor...and an X-cell baseball cap. After the Charmouth trip, I purchased a Futaba GY401 gyro complete with 9253 digital servo, as it was on a special offer at Skyline models. This combo was tried in my Raptor 30V2 when it arrived to try it out and see how it went. What a difference over the CSM 200 and 3001 servo! It completely transformed the machine...can't wait to try it in an X-cell Fury!!
I started building a few days before the Sandown Weekend, and got the basics of the Chassis completed...Side frames, clutch unit, Main mast, Undercarriage etc. Then when I was at Sandown it seemed the perfect occasion to buy radio gear for it. Futaba 9202's for the 120 degree CCPM system, and a 9001 for the throttle. I also purchased the receiver, Ni-cad and Switch at the show, all from Al's Hobbies who appeared to have very good prices at the show. The photo above shows the Swashplate, washout unit, main rotor hub and flybar assembly complete. It all adds up a very comprehensive, accurate, smooth running rotor head, only beaten by top of the range 'all-metal' rotor head assemblies. The build on the whole was excellent. The parts were all of the highest quality I have ever seen in a model helicopter and the instructions explained every minor part in detail, much better than, for example, the fairly poor Raptor 30 manual which is supposed to be aimed at beginners.
Once the build was completed, a good friend of mine did the paint job on the Canopy, and sparked off a bit of interest outside of Guernsey too, so much so that my friend was asked to do another one the same as they liked it so much. The finishing touch came when the stickers were put on it, and it was all polished up to a brilliant shine. The first few flights were just hovered to run in the new YS, which even when very rich gave the impression that it was going to have lots of power. After 4 or 5 tanks (at 16 ounces a time!) the canopy was put on the helicopter and some gentle circuits carried out, with the odd loop thrown in for good measure. After 12 or so tanks, the engine set up on the triple-needle carb was just about there, so the pitch and throttle curves were tweaked until it felt right. then the Idle up 1 and 2 throttle curves were set and tried out.
WOW!! This helicopter really can fly, and to be honest really puts my Raptor 60 in the shade as a 3D machine. Continuous tumbles, flips, rolls, multiple rotation stall turns...Fantastic. The model also has a very good turn of speed, much quicker in a straight line than the Raptor 60, even though they both have the same 9.3:1:4.5 gear ratio. The YS 61 is a very powerful, yet very smooth motor, which really does have to be punished before it starts loading up. And as for the Gyro...I thought I had the gain pretty well up on the heading hold, as to me it didn't seem to wander during vigorous pitch changes. It was only when Dave Wiltshire himself had a go, that it really came alive. After a few small changes to the pitch curves and increasing the gyro gain by another 4 or 5%, it really did seem perfect. After all, it's set up had been tweaked to the optimum by someone who really can fly a helicopter.
During the height of the summer I really did fly the Fury a lot, along side my Capiche 50, really getting used to it and putting it through some stuff much more vigorous than either of my Raptors. But the Fury copes with it in places where maybe the Raptors would struggle. Probably one manoeuvre where the performance of the Fury really shows over the Raptor is the Wall of Death, where a very high speed circuit with the model seemingly on the edge of the rotor disc can be maintained without even a hint of loading up. Pitch-pumping is also very effective, due to the fairly stiff but smooth rotor-head. Auto-rotations are a doddle, with full control right down to the landing, and the rotors seem to keep an endless momentum.
The 'endless-auto' feature is very good, as I once found out while in a very bad spot...hovering inverted at about 2 feet above the runway!! What would you do in that situation? Panic? Probably, but I had to try something, I wasn't going to land inverted!! I increased negative pitch slightly, and pushed the cyclic to the side to roll the helicopter over, backing the pitch to around neutral during the middle of the roll, then gently bring collective in to slow the descent once upright again. A perfect touchdown, and a few shouts of "jammy bas***d etc. That goes to show for how good the mechanics are. I don't think any standard kit Raptor would get out of that, but my Standard X-cell Fury 60 Expert did. After I had calmed down a bit, I fired it up to try a hover and check the engine, but it wouldn't run above quarter throttle. The plug was changed and the mixture richened slightly, but with no effect. So the mixture was put back where it was, and the next day I took the engine out and cleaned out the carb. The fuel system on the YS is very different to your average 2 stroke. There is no pressure feed from the exhaust to the tank. The only fuel lines are Clunk-to-carb, and one running from the back-plate to the top of the tank, where crankcase pressure is pumped into the tank, displacing fuel with air, pushing fuel to the carb. Due to this, the carb is much more complicated than a standard 2-stroke carb, and the tiniest bit of dirt can stop the engine from running. After this bit of servicing, it ran fine again, maybe even better than before.
If you have a 'cheap' helicopter, and want something a bit more upmarket, then the Fury 60 is definitely one of the best options this side of a 90 sized machine. I'm really pleased with mine, and I hope to have many more enjoyable flights with it.
The full range of X-cell helicopter kits and YS engines are available in the UK from Motors and Rotors
22/11/2005. Update. Way back in the summer, unfortunately the Fury suffered a servo failure on a 3D take-off and the result looked a bit like this:
It was quite spectacular really. It lifted off, went backwards, then forwards, then backwards again, hitting the ground on the tail, completely vertical, and bounced like a pogo stick. Luckily the damage was not too bad, with the tail end, main gear and head taking most of the impact. Even the Canopy survived, without even a scratch on it! So 6 weeks and £450 later (£200 ish for parts and blades, and £250 for some nice new digital servos and PCM receiver) it was ready to go again. It would have cost more, but I had some parts left over from the old Pro 1 I crashed a few years back (the whole tail gear-box being the most important). And here it is.
I had it back together just in time to take on the Sark trip. It had only had 2 half-tanks through it before hand to iron out a few set-up issues, and for the first two tanks in Sark I took it fairly easy again, to make sure it was ok. Then after lunch and a couple of beers it was time to take it for a blast. It felt really good, and was very locked in thanks to the new higher-spec servos I had installed. They are the new Futaba 9255's, 0.16s for 60 degress, 9kg torque, and metal gears!! Very nice!! Still running SAB 685mm main blades and 105mm V-blades on the tail. This combo really does suit the machine, although I wouldn't mind trying some 690mm's on the head at some point, either MAH, V-blade, or, when they are released, Radix. I'm currently running a pair of Radix 710's on my Extreme, and they really are super blades. CY has done his homework!!
I am also now running both my Fury's on 30% Coolpower, and the power difference compared to 15% is incredible. They also now leave a mega smoke-trail behind them, which on a clear day looks excellent.