Dave Wilshere

The nose cone is like the Plus, a sheath and single screw in from the nose.
I should be able to post more pictures later this week, Colin Straus has flown it a couple of times and it's coming to me for further tweaking and grass field proving. Colin was very happy with the handling.

Dave

Dave Wilshere

I had my first few flights today, more info tomorrow-but Ripmax have another winner!

Dr Honda

My Feedback: (4)

Do we have a target price yet? Or at least a "Good Guess?"

Birdman6310

Here is my opinion on price. Given that the normal xcalibur is about £500 - £545 without retracts and given that a set of electric retracts with wire legs for this size of model is about £35. I would hope the price should be on the order of:

Model etc £300.00
Retracts 35.00

So to get them selling It would need to be around about £350 in my opinion. Much more and for me they would be priced too high. Lets hope so hey

Dave Wilshere

Mmmm I could bite quite badly, but let's just say there is more to developing a product like this latest Xcalibur and unless you have been through that, talk is just cheap. When Ripmax have all the coatings a price will be released. It's such a balance between releasing info and keeping it all secret until everything is known...maybe next time the secret will be kept longer then we won't get too many questions!
Since this is an exact replica of the std Xaclibur in materials, and the material is the cheapest commodity, time to assemble the kit to an airframe pretty much the same, numbers sold less than the middle-most popular size-I'd say it should be ( in a business world ) only a bit cheaper!
the P-20 many will chose it's more than a P-100, so...
Anyway it will be what it is, I have several people who still want one and understand the costs.
Retracts...Eflite Habu 32 sets are £74.99, so Hobbykillers pricing does not fit this theme.
its a great little airframe and I'm looking forward to more testing soon.
When I have unpacked from the weekend, I'll post a full report on what I found flying it and post some more pictures.

Birdman6310

I think it is important that suppliers understand what customers feel. That is/should be one of the advantages of these forumns

Dave Wilshere

I think its important suppliers sell a product and make money, so they can invest this in new products...!?
You can't just decide what a thing costs to develop, manufacture and ship. I know there a huge number of people in this "hobby" business, who run their businesses as a 'hobby' You can see who they are as they are disappearing. Anyway away from what ifs. The model...

Dave Wilshere

So I flew the Mini Xcalibur at the weekend, Colin Straus has a couple flights last weekend and was very positive about its qualities, but had not set up the flap system properly.
First flight allowed me to decide on movements to suit general flying and found that the CROW Colin had also set was excessive with a massive lift reduction!
This was reduced to 4mm and other movements refined, expo increased on the ailerons (they are sharper around the center than the larger two Xcalibur's
There is still more tweaking to be done, but handling is great, stall benign, you can stab at the elevator and it just pitches and settles-nothing nasty at all. It feels light in the air and handles like a larger airframe.
Power from the JW Sprite turbine allows unlimited vertical climbs! most flying around was done at half throttle. We will try and get some video with this set up and then I intend to swap the turbine to a P-20 so we can see the lower end of the power too.

cmp3cantrj

True - you need to cover your costs and make a surplus - however you also need to compete with other suppliers out there. It worries me that you aren't able to estimate the costings at this stage - because you really should have done that before you even started - otherwise you risk having a product that you can't sell at a profit.

Now the Sebart Mini- Avanti is a similar sized aircraft, similar build and flying qualities, from a manufacturer with a good reputation and arguably better looking. Like the mini-X it is a scaled down version of an established aircraft with an excellent reputation. It is currently on offer for £399 so I think you will need to price the Mini-X a bit lower than that - otherwise you may not sell enough to cover the fixed costs.

Dave Wilshere

Ripmax have a projected price...like I said it would have been better to not release any info yet.

Birdman6310

So like I said £350 or more like a RRP of £379.99 with some discounting to £ 349.99. If Ripmax want to keep more of the money sell it without retracts and let us buy our own set of electric as there are loads to choose from. From HK to Eflite

Birdman6310

But you did lol

Dave Wilshere

why_fly_high

My Feedback: (19)

No good deed goes unpunished.

r 3

I hope the mini Xcalibur will be easier to get hold of inthe UK than the mini Avanti

cmp3cantrj

Or more to the point, many will already have a set of Eflite retracts doing nothing (I have two). Similarly with fuel tanks - why bundle a custom tank in this size model - just size it so a standard Dubro 32 will fit. Many customers will have one lying around.

Jgwright

+1

cmp3cantrj

You can order it from here http://www.probuild-uk.co.uk/sebart-...381761312.html
but it is still pre-order at present.

Birdman6310

Looking at the advert on that site it is rather difficult to understand what it is you get for your £399. Either way the mini x will need to be less that £399 to compete with the mini avanti

Birdman6310

I think the custom tank is ok because the Dubro 32 is a bit long

cmp3cantrj

But if you had designed it around the tank it wouldn't be a problem to make it fit - it's less than 8".

Even if you chose to supply the tank it would still have been cheaper.

cmp3cantrj

You get retracts - but not the edf set up (the version with fan etc is £700). The turbine install kit is £59 (includes a very nice pipe, tank and some bit of ply that fit it all together).
You seem to be able to order it direct from Italy - if you go on the Sebart shop site then the options become clearer.

Birdman6310

I think you also get the sequencer pre installed. With shipping to the UK it looks to be about £399

Jgwright

Have you actually ordered one? Are there any in the Uk at the moment? I had hoped to get one some time ago but so far none have appeared. It really does not matter how cheap it is, if it cannot be delivered. Anyway I thought this thread was about the mini Excalibur.

John

Dave Wilshere

Hurrah, someone remembered!

Q: Anyway I thought this thread was about the mini Excalibur.

John