The FX helicopters have been a solid second tier brand, but hadn't caught on significantly, until now. Their new range of flybarless fixed pitch helicopters include six axis electronic stabilisation, giving the apparent advantages of the flybar (stab ilisation), but without the drawbacks (weight, handling defects, extra mechanical parts to damage). Getting into the air with the FX071C, you immediate find a stable hover, but push the cyclic stick and you discover a hugely responsive helicopter that can be thrown around aggressively. Leave your V912's in the cupboard, the FX71 provides a whole new level of performance!
There are a lot of details to like about this model. The low head keeps the blades close to the C of G, servo response is strong and instant, the standard of engineering is much better than the V912's as evidenced by improved details on the head and much better quality ball linkages. Although using brushed motors, the main motor spools up beautifully with a soft start feature, and power to weight is good.
There is room for improvement. Recent experiments by the team on rcgroups.com (there is a dedicated FX071C thread there) have shown the handling is improved if the PCB mounting is more secure, while in strong wind the nose tends to lift up, but you can get around that by adding extra weight in the canopy nose.
Overall FX071C is excellent value for money and I'd highly recommend it. While the handling is responsive, the 6 axis stabilisation is extremely forgiving so this is the helicopter which has my all time lowest number of crashes, despite a decent amount of airtime. Buy one, you'll love it!