ORIGINAL: woodie
yes, cycle life on A123s is longer, however, the energy density is still pretty poor compared to lipos. You need to run a 12S A123 setup to get close to a 10s setup with lipos. Overall weight of a competitive A123 pack is quite a bit more than equivalent lipo.
But you can fast charge A123s and pretty much abuse them discharging and they keep on ticking......
Woodie
A 12s2p A123 pack would weigh 1lb more than an equivalent lipo pack. Is that quite a bit more for the size A/C they would go in? The cost on ebay is $144. It would take you about three years to wear them out if you averaged 1 flt/day.
The cost of 2ea 5cell 5000ma lipo packs is $380 listed on ALLeRC for less than 1 year if you baby the packs and average 1 flt/day.