Monday February 02, 2004

The New Fly Racing Controller

45 OHM #79721

I have to admit that this new controller by Fly certainly came as a surprise to me. This is mostly due to the fact that I feel that we already have quality controllers to choose from but in the interest of other enthusiasts we decided to take a closer look.

First and foremost I can tell you that it seems Fly has done a good job of building a sturdy and comfortable to operate controller. We allowed our customers to use this model for a few days and it took a pretty good beating and so far has held up very well. Besides myself, most people who have used it say they really liked how it felt in their hands and that control seemed very good.

This model comes with an adjustment wheel that allows you to change the spring tension of the trigger. The amount of adjustment it makes isn't that much to me, but other users have stated they felt a larger difference. The rubber coated trigger is comfortable enough and overall I have to give Fly high marks in the design category.

We tested it on a variety of different models and as expected the 45 ohm resistor was a decent balance. Some might prefer the 25 ohm version if they are racing with heavy magnet models but 45 ohms is a good middle ground in my opinion. After many hours of testing this controller functioned as intended and would be a decent upgrade possibility.

What bothered me the most about this controller was the fact that it doesn't come pre-wired for any power bases on the market. I say this only because Fly utilizes the Scalextric Sport track system in their Racing Trucks line of sets and to create a controller that isn't plug and play with their own system doesn't make much sense to me. Hopefully Fly recognizes this and offers these controllers pre-wired in the near future.

The hook-up utilizes 3 male banana plugs which also means for many club and home tracks you will need to add alligator clips to the ends of them for hook-up. This is easy enough however as these ends will snap right into a clip and you don't really need to solder them in place. I have soldered ours as we don't plan to use it anywhere but on our home track.

Another issue here is price. At the suggested price of $44.95 I cannot justify recommending it over the standard Professor Motor line of controllers. Given the fact that the Professor Motor controllers are electronic and are considered the best controller available on the market today by many enthusiasts, the additional $3.00 is money well spent. As far as resistor controllers go, Parma already provides us with excellent controllers with the Economy version at a price of $20 to $25.00. Scalextric USA even carries the Parma line that comes pre-wired for the Sport System (works with Ninco too) at that price.

This controller is a good quality product in its own right and has potential, but with the other choices we have available to us makes it hard for me to recommend it.

- Harry

Thanks go to Scalextric-USA for providing us with this model.